Everybody Loves Our Town_ An Oral History of Grunge - Mark Yarm [212]
And then that evening backstage, I walked into a dressing room, and we sat down and talked and Kurt gave me a hug and kiss and apologized, and I apologized for saying what I said. Nirvana went from one extreme to the other within a few hours. That evening they played one of the greatest shows I’ve ever seen.
COURTNEY LOVE I put Pat Smear into Nirvana because Kurt needed someone to make him happy, and no one in that band did. We thought of putting Dylan [Carlson] in, but it was just like, “You’ll be dead in a month,” which Kurt heartily agreed with. I’m like, “I know someone. He’s really fucking funny. I’m not gonna say he’s the greatest guitar player in the world, but my God, he will make you laugh.”
DAVE MARKEY Kurt was looking for a second guitarist. Pat was working at the SST Superstore on Sunset. The reason why there was an SST Superstore on Sunset in ’93 was because suddenly the label was selling millions of records. Directly related to Nirvana’s success. Pat, ironically enough, was working for minimum wage at the counter there. He’d recently turned down a position in the Red Hot Chili Peppers. He had a chance at being in a huge band, but because he wasn’t a fan, said no. I think that really impressed Kurt, and Kurt invited him to be in Nirvana.
CRAIG MONTGOMERY I didn’t do the last In Utero tour. I got fired after the second SNL. I think that SNL taping was the first time I saw Pat play with them. Pat had a lot of credibility because he had been in the Germs, and I think Kurt really just liked having a new personality around.
Technically, I thought the SNL show went fine, but then we get back to Seattle and there’s a meeting at the rehearsal space and Kurt asks me, “What happened at Saturday Night Live?” And I’m like, “What do you mean?” And he says, “People said it sounded bad on TV.” And I’m like, “It sounded fine in the control room.” Then after I saw a recording of the broadcast, I figured out what he was talking about. What sounded like crap was the way the band played. They had Pat Smear playing second guitar, and like what I was saying about Jason Everman before, what’s coming out of his amp is just noise. I don’t know what the guy was playing. And if you listen to that, Kurt’s guitar is on one side and that sounds like Nirvana, and Pat Smear is on the other side, and it sounds like a random jet taking off. (Laughs.) So maybe that’s what somebody thought sounded bad, I don’t know.
Then I get called into an office by Alex MacLeod, the tour manager, saying I’m not gonna mix the tour.
MARK ARM We did this leg on the first part of the In Utero tour. This is our first foray into the arena world, and we’re like, Okay, it’s our old buddies Nirvana, this will be great.
They’re having a dry tour because they’re trying to keep Kurt from drinking. But that’s not even his problem. He’s still doing pills, like massive amounts of pills, and he’s just out of his fuckin’ head. So they’re not letting Dave and Krist drink beer. We got beer in our room on our rider, so those guys would come into our room and drink beer. And in Chicago, we had a bunch of friends backstage, and the beer ran out really quickly. One of our friends goes into catering and grabs a case of beer and brings it back. Catering complains that a case of beer got stolen which sets off this fucking incredible kerfuffle, with their tour manager, Alex MacLeod, calling back to John Silva in L.A., back and forth about the beer, and they’re fuckin’ pissed off at us. They have to pay for this extra case of beer, which could be how much, 20