In a recent interview with Mojo Magazine, Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl revealed the names Nirvana considered bringing on as second guitarist before settling on former Germs member Pat Smear.
Smear, an original member of Foo Fighters and guitarist for seminal hardcore punk band The Germs, was brought on to handle second guitar duties for Nirvana’s In Utero tour. Smear stayed with the band until Kurt Cobain‘s suicide in 1994. Speaking about the impact of bringing Smear into the band, Grohl said:
“What Pat added more than anything was an injection of life and happiness to those last months of Nirvana. We’d talked about getting a second guitar player: we talked about Steve Turner, we talked about Buzz Osbourne, but of course we didn’t want to break up Mudhoney or The Melvins.
“Having Pat changed things dramatically. Kurt and Courtney were on that side of town and Krist and I were on this side of town, and Pat definitely bridged us back together for awhile.”
Smear met Cobain while working at the Greg Ginn of Black Flag-owned SST Superstore. Smear then wowed the band during a rehearsal when he showed them how to play David Bowie‘s The Man Who Sold The World, which the rest of the band had been struggling with. “Pat said, ‘Actually, it goes like this.’ I thought: ‘There’s a musician in the band now!’ Having Pat changed things dramatically,” said Grohl.
The remaining Nirvana members recently teamed up with Paul McCartney to perform a song from Grohl’s Sound City film project.
(Via Loudwire)
