Courtney Love spoke for the first time about Nevermind , the classic Nirvana that celebrated its 30th anniversary this week, and weighed in on how the album's early success may have influenced Kurt Cobain three years later.
In an interview with the Los Angeles Times , Love confirmed that she argued with Cobain, Krist Novoselic , and Dave Grohl against choosing "Smells Like a Teen Spirit" as the album's first single. In her view, "In Bloom" would have been a better choice – precisely because it wouldn't have achieved the same level of success.
“I did it. Life would have become simpler and better if I had been heard. 'In Bloom' had no tricks. Although the drums are fantastic on 'Teen Spirit,' there was a bit of the K Records [Washington independent label] trickery. (…) I'm not really a fan of the idea that everything 'could have' been so different, but 'In Bloom' could have changed things. It could have survived if someone else, someone like Eddie Vedder , with a good structure, had [achieved success] first,” she stated.
Interestingly, 1991 also marked enormous success for Pearl Jam with Ten , the band's debut album, released a few months before Nevermind . In the following years, however, the group began to purposefully avoid feeding their own fame with various artistic decisions, from more experimental albums and more expensive album covers to boycotting music videos —decisions that made all the difference for the band's continued existence.
READ ALSO: Dave Grohl admits he's still processing Kurt Cobain's death: "I have dreams where we're in Nirvana"
