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Krist Novoselic Bought a Nirvana Tabs Book to Learn Rock Hall Songs

Nirvana Rock Hall Induction Krist Novoselic Bass Tabs

Krist Novoselic bought a Nirvana bass-tabs book ahead of the band’s 2014 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction so that he could relearn his parts. The Washington resident talked to Rolling Stone for their piece about the big night on April 10, when Novoselic, Dave Grohl, and Pat Smear played the grunge gods’ classics fronted by Joan Jett, Kim Gordon, St. Vincent, and Lorde.

“I picked up a Nirvana tab book a week before to relearn my parts,” said Novoselic, “but we weren’t up to speed at first. But then it started to flow and it got better and better. Then it hit me and I got kind of somber. I was like, ‘Oh my God. I’m playing these songs again.'”

Grohl weighed in as well on the experience of returning to material they’d left behind two decades previous: “I haven’t played those drum parts since I was 25. I’m 45 now. We played for 10 fucking hours each day. After the first night of rehearsals, I limped home, had two glasses of wine, three Advil, took a hot shower and slept for 10 fucking hours. That’s a coma for me, because I never sleep.”

He also revealed that they’d originally reached out to some high-profile frontmen to participate, but “some of them were nervous. I think some of them were maybe apprehensive because of how heavy the whole thing is.” He said the idea to feature all women came from his unsuccessful attempt to wrangle PJ Harvey for the performance. 

“Kurt loved PJ Harvey,” Grohl said. “We had always imagined playing our song ‘Milk It’ from In Utero with her. It’s a twisted song, almost like something that could have been on her record Rid of Me, which was also produced by Steve Albini. It just seemed to pair up so well. Unfortunately, she couldn’t make it.” But as a result, “We thought, ‘Wait, it has to be all women. Don’t even ask anyone else.'”

Read the entire story over at Rolling Stone, and watch Nirvana play “Milk It” in 1993 below.

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