Nirvana‘s former manager has spoken of how well aware Kurt Cobain was of Dave Grohl‘s vocal talents, suggesting that there may have even been “a touch of envy” between the two.
Danny Goldberg, who has also worked with the likes of Led Zeppelin and Bonnie Raitt, managed the Seattle band between 1990 and 1994. This week, he released Serving The Servant: Remembering Kurt Cobain – a book featuring his memories of the frontman, interviews with Courtney Love, Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic and other members of Cobain’s family and friends, as well as files that were previously unavailable to the public.
Now, Goldberg has spoken of Cobain’s thoughts about drummer Grohl’s ability as a singer, long before he formed Foo Fighters.
“Kurt just said to me, ‘I don’t think you realise how good a singer Dave is, but I hear him singing harmonies every night.’ It was like he was really doing it so I would know this because there was this very fraternal side of him and a sweet side of him, but also it had a touch of envy in it. I mean he was competitive,” Goldberg told The Washington Post.
Tomorrow (April 5) marks the 25th anniversary of Cobain’s death, when he took his own life. Through his book, Goldberg says he hopes to highlight different sides of his personality.
“You’re never going to not know that he killed himself,” Goldberg continued. “But I just hope to shine a light on some parts of him that were a bit underexposed, and that’s what I hope the book does. If people could see his smile in their mind the way I could see it in my mind.”
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Last year, Grohl spoke of the emotional impact of his time at the end of Nirvana.
“After that first [Foo Fighters] record we thought, ‘Ok, well, let’s make one more”, and some of us were backpacking through Europe and we spent our life doing it but you gotta do it at least once, so we thought, ‘Ok, let’s do it again. This time, we’ll get an established producer and we’ll really work on it because the first one was just me, five days in the studio,” he said.
“So the ball kinda just kept rolling and it was a nice way to feel like life had direction and that there were things to look forward to, because I didn’t want to get stuck in that place where I was when Nirvana ended.”
Grohl added: “I never, ever thought we would be in the place that we are in now. I mean, anyone that would imagined that happening is just fucking insane. If someone were to tell me we would be where we are now I would tell them they are wrong, that there’s no way that’s possible”
Meanwhile, next week will see the release of Nirvana’s ‘Live At The Paramount’ on vinyl for the first time.