The 44-year-old musician played in the band along with Kurt Cobain – who tragically committed suicide – before he went on to form the Foo Fighters and he admits he’s still very protective of their music along with Krist Novoselic who co-founded the legendary rock group.
He said: “There’s a reason why you don’t see Nirvana’s songs in chewing-gum commercials. Krist and I do our best to try to keep that sort of thing from happening.
“The band stood for something; we took pride in our integrity and in our band. We understood the world that we were living in, having gone from the van to becoming what people understand as Nirvana now. But we really tried our best to keep our cool.
“So Krist and I still do. There’s a reason why the Foo Fighters don’t blast out Nirvana songs every night: because we have a lot of respect for them.”
‘The Pretender’ singer – who has made a movie about Sound City, the famous LA studio where Nirvana recorded ‘Nevermind’ – admits he’s very reluctant to perform any of his former group’s material.
He said: “You know, that’s hallowed ground. We have to be careful. We have to tread lightly. We have talked about it before, but the opportunity hasn’t really come up, or it just hasn’t felt right.”
Tagged in Dave Grohl Kurt Cobain Nirvana