NIRVANA SLASH ARCHIVE

"It's really shocking and there's so many horrible aspects of what happened and what people have done to each other [in Bosnia-Herzegovina]. I think that's an aspect of it that a lot of people have ignored, like, rape wasn't even considered a war crime, like even in Nuremberg, nobody was tried for rape. You know, and I was hearing stories in refugee camps about how women rape victims were just kind of lumped in with everybody else and they weren't really having any special needs and I think that's just an indicator of people's perspective towards women.

"The band has an organization. It's kind of my pet thing, it's called the Balkan Women's Aid Fund and what we do is solicit foundations for grants and ask people for individual donations, too, and we did some work with the Italian Red Cross and we got some money to the Autonomous Women's House working out of Zagreb. And all of these organizations that we work with they have, like, a feminist perspective and we think that's important because you get those kind of values across, you change people's values overall."

-Krist, March 1994, MTV News

KEEP IT CLEAN
by Dave Grohl

Keep it clean
My momma said, keep it clean
Keep it clean
My momma said, keep it clean

Driving all night
Got a hankering for something
Think I'm in the mood
For some hot man muffins

Mmm, sounds so fine, yes indeed

Keep it clean
My daddy said, keep it clean
Keep it clean
My daddy said, keep it clean

Ain't looking for a fight
Ain't looking for trouble
Howdy Mr. Right
Have you met Mr. Bubble?

Hey, put 'er there, ain't she sweet

Rubbin' and a-lovin' and a-scrubbin' and a-truckin'
Maybe if we're lucky just a little bear hugging
Know what I mean?
Keep it clean!

[Spoken]
Ladies and gentlemen
God bless America
Land of the free
Home of the brave
It takes all kinds
I don't care if you're black or white or purple or green
Whether you're Pennsylvanian or Transylvanian
Lady Gaga or Lady Antebellum
It takes all kinds
Men loving women and
Women loving men and
Men loving men and
Women loving women
You know we all like to watch that
But what I'd like to say
God bless America, y'all

Rubbin' and a-lovin' and a-scrubbing and a-truckin'
Maybe if we're lucky just a little bear hugging
Know what I mean?
Keep it clean!

"Kurt was a pro-feminist person. And he was anti-homophobic. He actually said if you're homophobic or don't respect women, and so forth, so forth, don't come to our gigs, don't buy our records. Saying something like that has a really big impact. And that's one of the legacies, I think, that he's left."

-Ana da Silva of the Raincoats (one of Kurt's favourite bands)
When Nirvana Came to Britain (BBC documentary 2021)

Interviewer: So, how did you guys meet? Come together?

Krist: Well, Kurt and I originally lived in this small community in Washington, and we just kind of found each other, because, uh...

Kurt: There's not too many people in that small community that like punk rock.

Krist: Yeah, yeah.

Kurt: It isn't too hard.

Krist: Yeah, yeah, it's like, you meet somebody and: "Oh, this is just another one of those fuckin' geeks." [makes chronic geek face] Then we fell in love. Yeah. It's been great. We're married.

Kurt: [sarcastic] Then we fell in love with each other's father's. [shakes head]

Krist: Yeah, it's like, father and son--fathers' and sons' relationships are really heavy. We like, swap fathers and stuff.

Kurt: We were part of the man-love-boy association.

Krist: We met through our fathers. Our fathers were kind of notorious in our town.

Kurt: [grins]

-18 Apr 1990

Interviewer: So, I'm assuming they just approached you and asked you to contribute a song* and you said yeah...

Krist: Here's a song from the AIDies. You wrote that song in the AIDies, Kurt. What period were you in?

Kurt: [pauses, joke hits him] Shut up.

Dave: Third period after lunch...

All three: [snickering]

Interviewer: I'm supposed to ask some general AIDS questions. Do you think contributing to something like this, that music can be used as a way to educate people about AIDS?

Krist: You know, as long as it raises money for treatment and hospices and things, that's what really turned me on, that it helped people who were suffering. As far as information, I get so much information, to speak for myself, I don't even know what the heck's going on.

Kurt: The record isn't going to give you any information. The money will.

Krist: Yeah. There's so many theories out there, is HIV even--

Dave: --having anything to do with AIDS?

Krist: --does it lead to AIDS? It's really hard. So, I guess the best thing you can do is help the people who are suffering from it.

Interviewer: Krist, I guess in some recent interviews you've tried to steer away from political subjects, so as not to be pigeonholed as the political one.

Krist: Heavy-handed. Yeah, there's no reason to dwell on it, because I'm just a bass player in a rock'n'roll band. Just go on and on and on about things. And you can talk all you want, but the main thing is that you should be doing things, and that's not just for me, that's for everybody, you know? Why talk about things in the media and then just go home and drink beer...

Kurt: Yeah, it's much more effective to do a benefit for Bosnian rape victims and come up with--[turns to Krist] How much money did we make for that, you know?--

Krist: Fifty-five grand.

Kurt: Yeah, I mean, that makes way more of an impact than talking about it.

Krist: And we got this organization called Balkan Women's Aid Fund--and [to interviewer] maybe you can flash the address and you can send donations to them--and we're working with women's groups in Croatia and Austria and Hungary and Serbia, and in Bosnia-Herzegovina, so we don't have any nationalist ties whatsoever. A lot of these women are just caught in the middle of it all, women and children, and so I'm just pluggin' away at that, still. I haven't given up and I just take advantage of the media and just mention the address, and if people want information they can write and I'll send them information back. But to just harp away on things, over and over again, people lose interest, you know.

We could be like We Are The World, on stage celebrating famine in Africa. You know [sings] "We are the world!" and there's kids, while they're doing that, totally starving to death. It's gross.

Interviewer: You went over to Bosnia...

Krist: I went to Croatia, I didn't go to Bosnia, no way. I wouldn't do that for Bob Guccione, Jr! [founder of Spin magazine, who assigned Krist to report on the Bosnian war for Spin]

All three: [laugh]

-24 Sept 1993

[interview cuts in]

Kurt: It could have been painful. Well, it kinda was. [reaches up to touch the bump on Krist's head]

Interviewer: What happened to your forehead?

Krist: Well, I did my bass toss routine and my eye-hand coordination was a little out of sync.

Kurt: You need to really brush up on your choreography.

Krist: Yeah, that's right. I've gotta practice more. And I got beaned on the noggin.

Kurt: I didn't realize that happened to you, or I wouldn't have prodded you in the butt like that. [smirk]

Krist: When did you prod me in the butt?

Kurt: When you fell over backwards after we were done playing the song and I was prodding you in the butt and I was gonna jump on you and attack you, but I didn't realize you were in pain at that time.

Krist: I just wanted to get off stage, man. I was kinda embarrassed.


-10 Sept 1992, interview prior to No On 9 benefit

Dave: [holds up a small glass bottle full of white liquid]

Camera man: What is that?

Dave: It's jissom.

Krist: It's jissom.

Dave: It's cum.

Buzz Osborne: I'm serious. Everyone's really hard up and it's a long drive--

Krist: We've all been masturbating...

[A bit later]

Krist: Homo-sex rules. You're not a man till you've sucked a cock. You're not. Only a man knows what another man likes.

-21 Sept. 1991, Montreal, backstage amateur footage

Interviewer: First of all, love the suit. [referring to Kurt's canary yellow dress]

Kurt: It's Headbangers' Ball, so I thought I'd wear a gown. He [Krist] wouldn't wear his tux. He didn't give me a corsage, either.

Int: You hurt his feelings.

Krist: At least I asked you out, you know.

(MTV, 25 Oct 1991)

"I met these fellow teenagers, they were in this band called the Melvins. Buzz Osborne was the guru. And he turned me on to American hardcore music, which is like the second generation of punk in the United States. This really independent music - it wasn't on major labels. And there was this whole scene that was independent, it wasn't part of the corporate structure, it wasn't part of the state structure, it wasn't part of the mainstream entertainment complex. And it was vital; there was a lot of great music, and there was this community of young people. And we'd go to punk rock shows and there would be like, fanzines - this was before the internet. [...]

I got into the music scene and the culture of it, then I met this other kid in Aberdeen. His name was Kurt Cobain. And we shared this interest with this music and I was playing guitar and he played guitar, and, 'Well, let's start a band!' and we found a drummer. And then I started playing bass. Kurt was very artistic - he was always painting, sculpting, writing, music, always doing something. And so we started our band and that creativity came out and we had our own identity.

Dave Grohl was in 1990, we went through a few drummers. Kurt and I drove to Los Angeles from Tacoma, WA, which is like a 14 hour drive. We slept in our van in a parking lot on I-5 somewhere. We came here [L.A.] and we talked to some music industry people to get a major label deal. [...] And then we took our leisurely drive back north, 'Let's stop in San Fransisco and see Buzz and Dale from the Melvins.' And Buzz is like, 'Hey, Scream is playing!' 'Oh, we love Scream!' [...] They had this drummer who was really good and played this really big drumset, and I met him briefly and we talked to Buzz, like, 'Wow, what a cool drummer.'

And then Kurt and I drove up 101, we went up north. I think we found a cat. We stopped somewhere on the Oregon coast and this cat came up. We found this cat. Gave it a home. And then we get a call from Buzz, he says 'Hey, man, Scream went down to L.A. after San Francisco and their bass player split. And they're just broke at the singer's sister's house.' [...] And Dave was stuck in L.A. and he got enough money to get a plane ticket and his drumset and he came up and started playing with us, and we were hooked. It gelled right away."

-Krist on how Nirvana formed, Young Turks Interview 2014

Interviewer: "Do you still have dreams about Kurt?"

Krist: "I do. And it's beautiful! It's just loving. You know when you lose somebody and you see them in a dream and you just feel all this love? It's nice."

(7 Oct 2015 FOX Business Network Interview)