Everybody Loves Our Town_ An Oral History of Grunge - Mark Yarm [135]
ERIC JOHNSON Alice in Chains weren’t that decadent yet, but they were learning how to be. There was a lot of beer drunk and probably a lot of weed smoked, and a lot of laughing. It was still pretty pure.
DAVE KRUSEN We played a show in Seattle, and the cast from Singles came—Matt Dillon and Bridget Fonda, Kyra Sedgwick. I remember Jeff saying, “When we’re done playing, we’re gonna take pictures with Matt Dillon and some of the other people from the movie.”
KELLY CURTIS I knew Cameron Crowe’s roommate, this photographer Neal Preston. When Cameron was working on Fast Times at Ridgemont High, we’d go hang out on the set. And just knowing Nancy, I knew she and Cameron would be a perfect couple. I think Neal felt the same way. So we just brought them together, and it happened.
How’d I become the associate producer of Singles? I think Cameron was really feeling sorry for me, plus he was making a movie about the Seattle scene, so he gave us a bunch of money. He gave me a flat fee for Singles. We got 30 grand or 50 grand. That money helped get the demo made.
CAMERON CROWE I was trying out the camp counselor thing: “Let’s all go to the club and check out these bands.” … It was so packed and people were throwing beer bottles, and after a little bit, Kyra Sedgwick says, “I really get the wonderful scene going on here. I’m going to go home now.” Then the costume girl goes, “Great. This is great. Bye!” It ended up being Matt Dillon and Campbell Scott hanging until the very end, slam dancing.
DAVE KRUSEN I had a lot of friends there, and when we got done playing, I took off with them and was partying and kinda forgot about it. McCready did the same thing with some of his friends. And the next day, Jeff was like, “It’s too bad you guys took off, because you could’ve been in the band that we’re playing in the movie.”
We were like, “What?!”
“Hey, I told you to stick around.”
And we were like, “Awww.”
Jeff would do things like that—be real subtle about things that would turn out to be something huge. I think he’d downplay things so people wouldn’t get wigged out and nervous.
JOSH TAFT (video director) I shot the making-of-the-movie thing for Singles. The best moment was the day that Matt Dillon was trying on his Eddie Vedder wig. He was assuming the role of a hybrid Eddie Vedder/Chris Cornell. We all had to go and give our opinions on 120 wigs that they pulled. I remember Matt being very insecure. You know, Matt Dillon is Matt Dillon. He doesn’t wear a wig. If anything, the guy plays himself, so he seemed super-uneasy with it.
NILS BERNSTEIN In retrospect, it’s amazing that there’s a Matt Dillon movie about grunge, but at the time so many weird things would happen every day that it just seemed almost expected, you know?
STEVE MORIARTY (the Gits drummer; OK Hotel club booker) I remember seeing fake posters on the poles for a show that the band in the movie was supposed to be playing. They’d filmed them, then left the posters up. We were like, “Is that show really going on at the OK Hotel? I don’t remember booking that.” I was like, “Who the fuck are Citizen Dick?”
DANNY BRAMSON (Singles music supervisor) Jeff Ament was in the movie’s art department. He crafted the cover artwork and the logo for the now-legendary Citizen Dick album. I remember Cameron sitting around on set and writing these fictitious song titles that were almost hilariously sensitive: “Seasons,” “Nowhere but You,” “Flutter Girl.” Jeff included them on the cassette Matt Dillon’s character, Cliff Poncier, sold for loose change next to his guitar case.
At one point, Chris Cornell calls: “Danny, will you send me over the song titles from the Citizen Dick album?” And he goes, “It’s a secret. Don’t tell anyone.” When we wrapped the movie, he gave us a tape of songs he’d recorded with those titles. When we first looked at it, we went, “God, is this a joke?” But his delivery of those songs was