Nirvana and Van Halen

[Triple_J]

http://home.earthlink.net/~teenspirit34/article08.html

Pat: Can I tell you my Eddie Van Halen story? I actually met him. He was backstage at the final Nirvana concert at the Forum, which for me, was
like,"Oh my God, I'm playing on the SAME stage as [Queen's] Brian May!" I was dying. Anyway, Eddie Van Halen comes backstage drunk out of his fucking mind, and he started begging Kurt to let him play with us. It was so disgusting. He was like, "I'm all washed up; you are what's happening now." It was horrible! He was a horrible racist pig!

Jeff: I heard he was running Mennen Speed Stick deodorant all over his face. Is that true?

Pat: Yeah [laughs]. Kurt had this deodorant, and he sniffed it or something like that, and it got on his face. It looked like he had cocaine under his nose.

Jennifer: I heard he was asking Kurt to let him come on stage and play "Eruption," but Kurt said, "no," and Eddie said, "C'mon, let me play the Mexican's guitar," referring to you.

Pat: I told Krist [Novoselic], I thought we should let him play with us. But he said no because we'd never get him off the stage. When I walked up to Eddie, he was talking to Krist. I just saw the back of his head so I didn't know who he was. And Krist goes, "Oh Eddie, you haven't met Pat. He's our new guitar player." Eddie turns around and sees me, but he
doesn't say hello or anything. He just say's, "Oh no, not a dark one."
At first I thought he was kidding. But he kept asking me, "What are you? Are you like a Raji or something? Are you Mexican?" Then he kept saying
to Kurt," C'mon let me play the Mexican's guitar." I was horrified!

Jeff: Is he the El Duce of Metal?

Pat: [Laughs] Eddie Van Halen is the perfect example for me of not wanting to meet your heroes 'cause you'll be disappointed. I hear he's
sober now. I blame that incident totally on the alcohol. I've done a lot of bad things when I was drunk, too.

Jeff: I don't think you're coming from a judgmental place at all.

Pat: I was just shocked. I was thinking, "God, Eddie Van Halen hates me.

The difference between sobriety and intoxication was never more clearly illustrated than on December 30, when Nirvana played a show at the Great Western Forum near Los Angeles. Filmmaker Dave Markey was videotaping that night and observed a display of inebriation so extreme, he turned his camera off in pity. And it wasn't Kurt who was a mess - it was Eddie Van Halen. The famed guitar player was backstage on his knees drunk, begging Krist to let him jam. Kurt arrived only to see his one-time hero collapsing toward him with his lips puckered, like a toasted Dean Martin in a bad Rat-Pack skit. "No, you can't play with us", Kurt flatly announced. "we don't have any extra guitars."

Van Halen didn't grasp this obvious lie and pointed to Pat Smear(nirvanas then rhythm guitarist), shouting, "Well, then let me play
the Mexican's guitar. What is he, is he mexican? is he black?" Kurt couldn't believe his ears. "Eddie went into this racist, homophobic
banter, typical redneck," observed Dave Markey. "It was surreal." Kurt was furious, but finally came up with a worthy verbal response:
"Actually you can jam" he promised. "You can go onstage after our encore. Just go up there and solo by yourself!" Kurt stormed off

[Badabing]

God, I have heard so many stories and versions of this, its ridiculous.. When I first heard this story years back, it was simply that a wasted EVH wanted to jam, the rest of the guys in Nirvana where cool with it, but Kurt was apprehensive and ended up saying no.. Mostly due to the fact Eddie supposedly made a racist remark about Pat Smear.

Now they got Eddie "begging" to play, and on his knees no less?? I dont know what to think. I mean, EVH is a jam hound who loves to jam live with different musicians.. And if Eddie was truly on his knees, its cuz he was sauced outta his mind and on God knows what else.. I think someone here even mentioned Dave Grohl saying he never even recalled this happening?

I think the most interesting statement there is actually where it says "Kurt's one time hero".. So I am guessing there was a time growing up that Kurt really liked VH and looked up to Eddie?
Very interesting..

I know for a fact Kurt's first rock concert was when he was 16 years old he went to go see Sammy Hagar! And according to all the kids in his high school, Kurt showed up to school the next day proudly wearing his Sammy concert t-shirt and beaming!! Sure, later when he got into punk and craved indie cred he wouldnt admit to it, but that is 100% FACT..

[Brett]

Interesting how Eddie is a racist when he openly talks about how he dealt with being an outsider when he came to this country, and how the kids at school teased him because he didn't speak English. Somehow I doubt he is a racist redneck?! Begging to jam with Nirvana? Puhlease.

[seenbad]

I NEVER would have imagined hearing or seeing eddie and racist redneck in the same sentance. lmao!

What a crock of shite. I think that dude painted a pretty fabricated picture. Geez.

[Badabing]

Yea, I would love to find out exactly who this Dave Markey character is? I think he also refered to Axl Rose with those same terms after the incident when AXL threatened to kick Kurt's ass.
They call Axl a homophobe, redneck and all that..
Apparently Axl was walking by Kurt and Courtney backstage at the MTV awards show in 1992 when they both jokingly called out to Axl asking him to be the godfather to their newborn daughter.. Axl didnt find it funny and told Kurt "Hey man, shut your bitch up"! He then told Kurt to "shut up or ima take you down to the pavement".. That is too funny..

Axl may have his issue, and even wrote a song where he made slurs against immigrants and homosexuals.. But then again, he did perform November Rain at that very same award show in 92' with Elton John! Axl is also a huge Queen fan and performed Bohemian Rhapsody at the Tribute to Freddy Mercury Concert, again with Elton John.. Plus EVH hired Gary Cherone and we all know the rumours about his sexuality.. I dont think either of these dudes are racist and they certainly arent rednecks.. EVH musta just been wasted and Axl just has his issues..

[notimethistime]

Gee, who hasn't said stupid shit while under the influence? People say stupid shit when they're sober, too, and while I'm at it:

With regard to the "Nirvana killed rock music"-debate; Nevermind did change things in many ways, for better or for worse. Personally, I think it's a good rock album with great pop melodies, and in retrospect not worth all the hype and hoopla it was greeted with in 91-92. Still, it did change my perception about song writing; that you don't necessarily have to have Eddie Van Halen's chops to be able to write a rock song.

In a wider sense Nevermind changed things, not because of the music, but because it was successful. The album's success caused record labels to flock to Seattle to look for the next big thing and/or sign bands that superficially resembled Nirvana, i.e. had the right clothes, loud guitars, backed with little or no talent etc. You'd have to be pretty fucking stupid to blame Nirvana or its members, especially ones that are dead (!), for the shift of interest in record executives minds because they're the ones who destroyed your beloved 80's bands, not Kurt Cobain.

[Aborted Festus]

Originally posted by Triple_J:
http://home.earthlink.net/~teenspirit34/article08.html

Kurt arrived only to see his one-time hero collapsing toward him with his lips puckered, like a toasted Dean Martin in a bad Rat-Pack skit.

Ha!
Oh shit that was a funny quote.

[sampson simpson]

Funny how Nirvana has released new material more recently then VH.

[Roy Munson]

This is interesting. I actually think that this might be the most accurate account of what really happened that night. I can see Ed doing most of what is decribed if he was so drunk he could barely stand.

What is really sad is that Pat Smear has said many times in interviews that he idolizes Eddie and that Eddie is his favorite guitarist. It sounds like Pat isn't holding a grudge which is cool. My cousin met Pat a couple of times and said that Pat was one of the nicest people he'd ever met.

I really hope,if this story is true, that Ed and Pat will cross path's again and Ed will apologize.

[mistere]

You can't blame Nirvana for rock's currently
sorry state any more than you can blame VH
for late 80s cheese and excess. It's simply
the nature of the beast for lesser talents
to mimic greatness, or goodness in
Nirvana's case.

[Roy Munson]

Originally posted by mistere:
You can't blame Nirvana for rock's currently
sorry state any more than you can blame VH
for late 80s cheese and excess. It's simply
the nature of the beast for lesser talents
to mimic greatness, or goodness in
Nirvana's case.

Exactly. I love bands like Ratt, Dokken, etc. But, it got to be a joke with all the posing and make-up and shit. I was glad when Nirvana, Soundgarden, and Alice in Chains broke. It was refreshing to say the least.

[Brett]

Of all the Seattle bands, Nirvana was by far the worst.

Late 80's metal became pretty shitty, however I wouldn't blame bands like Dokken or Ratt, those acts had been around since the early 80's and at least had some talent. No one is gonna argue Warren DiMartini and George Lynch aren't great players. Useless bands like Trixter, Poison, Slaughter and crap like that is what helped bring metal down in the early 90's.

With that said, Nirvana may have been creative themselves, but the mindless drivel that was bred from them is just as bad as the bad 80's hair metal that arose from Van Halen. I do think Nirvana is given far too much credit, as is Kurt Cobain for re-creating rock. I also don't understand why we have to say nice things about the guy just because he's dead. He wasn't exactly the Mother Theresa of rock music.

[ED-A-HOLIC]

I don't believe this story, maybe Yes Eddie was drunk and asked to play, but to beg, this is ridiculous, and a rasist, I don't believe it either.

[atomicpunk5150]

F**K NIRVANA!!! The only reason that anyone still cares about them is because Coabain offed himself. The guy had zero talent! I voiced this opinion awhile back when FORD was still around. Nobody cares about Pearl Jam anymore because grunge is dead. People like to make artists that die young into some kind of gods. I don't buy it. All three (or four if you count Pat Smear) members wish they had any of the talent that Edward Van Halen has. Edward is a living legend, Cobain is a dead coward who was to afraid to deal with his demons, so he took the easy way out! As far as the remaining members of Nirvana are concerned they are in a word..disposable. In a hundred years people wont be talking about Kurt Cobain and his contributions (or lack there-of) to music, they will however still be talking aboiut Edward Van Halen, the world's greatest living guitarist.

[SMiLEwBRiAN]

You'll be lucky if anybody is talking about Nirvana OR Van Halen in a hundred years. The only group I see being talked about in a hundred years might be the Beatles. But that's another thread.

BRiAN