What Really Happened: Nirvana/Guns N' Roses Clash At The 1992 VMAs

[Drew]

What Really Happened: Nirvana/Guns N' Roses Clash At The 1992 VMAs



Posted Fri Nov 21, 2008 8:57pm PST by Blender Magazine in The Blender Burner

So you live in Seattle, you used to play bass in a world-changing rock band, but these days you've got some time on your hands. What to do? Well, if you're Krist Novoselic of Nirvana, or Duff McKagan formerly of Guns N' Roses/currently of Velvet Revolver, the answer is clear: You blog for the Seattle Weekly. This week, Novoselic celebrated his first year of blogging by recapping the epic tale of the Nirvana/Guns N' Roses clash at the 1992 Video Music Awards.

You may remember the story: Axl Rose gets teased by Courtney Love backstage, and in response Axl steps to Courtney's husband, Kurt Cobain, to tell him to keep his lady in line. Words are exchanged! Axl challenges Kurt to get in the ring! And like every other similar challenge, it never happens.

Here's what does: Nirvana go onstage and play "Lithium," and the whole thing explodes into anarchy. Stage divers? Check! Novoselic tossing his bass 20 feet into air, failing to catch it and getting conked on the head? Check! Cobain and drummer Dave Grohl attacking their instruments? Check! It's an awesome example of what never happens on MTV anymore--but happens at M.I.A. shows all the time.

In his blog post, Novoselic talks about meeting McKagan backstage in '92, long before they were friends and blog-leagues ("I think Duff was also under the influence. He must have heard something from Rose and had a terse word for me..."), and he reveals which '70s rock god was in the green room waiting with some chilled medicine for his injury.

Source:
http://new.music.yahoo.com/blogs/blenderburner/643/what-really-happened-nirvanaguns-n-roses-clash-at-the-1992-vmas/

[AliveOrJustBreathing]

Kurt is in politics I believe. You look at him and see this balding, bearded man, who looks like a former US president....not the bassist for the most important Grunge band of musical history....Alice in Chains were not Grunge, they were metal

[GNRreunioneventually]

that article didnt' really explain ALL of what happened, it just kinda went over what we already knew



Alice in Chains ARE Metal

[MR.BROWNSTONE]

that article didnt' really explain ALL of what happened, it just kinda went over what we already knew

I know.  It's still nice to see Guns N' Roses in the news more.

[AxlReznor]

If you read Krist Novoselic's actual blog for the Seattle Tribune, you will see he speaks a lot more.  He seemed a lot more critical of Kurt than anyone for fighting with MTV over what song they were going to play.  That, combined with warm beer, and the argument with Duff put him in a bad mood, which resulted in his bass hitting him in the face.  Oh, and when Kurt and Courtney told him about what had happened with Axl, he didn't seem too pissed off... he thought that Axl over-reacted, but it didn't seem like he had any particular problem with him himself.

What he was basically saying is that the whole event was blown completely out of proportion, and it was at the end of the day a misunderstanding which all managed to work itself out, and it wasn't the big Guns N' Roses vs. Nirvana bitchfest that the press made it out to be.

[Lord Kayoss]

I always wondered why Axl got so pissed when Courtney asked him if he wanted to be the godfather of their child.

Always figured there was more to it.