Kurt Cobain is, of course, a rock legend; one of a handful of figures who can claim to have genuinely changed the course of music history. But one thing he is not generally celebrated for is his prowess as a guitarist.
However, no less a guitar luminary than Joe Satriani has heaped praise on Kurt’s playing, calling the late Nirvana leader a “great guitarist”.
In a new interview given to Classic Rock magazine, Satriani said: “I was very happy with those Nirvana records. He was a great guitar player. You go back and look at Nirvana clips, and you realise this guy is playing everything he’s supposed to play. He’s not looking at what he’s playing, so obviously he really knows the instrument. And he’s playing with one of the greatest drummers of all time [Dave Grohl], so that wouldn’t have worked if he was not a good guitarist.”
The emergence of Nirvana and the grunge era they ushered in rewrote the rules for the instrument. All of a sudden, intricate guitar solos were out (along with hair and spandex) and the emphasis shifted from technique to artistic expression. Satriani, though, reveals that he was largely oblivious to this at the time.
“I didn’t pay any attention to that, I guess,” he says. “The Extremist [his 1992 album] came out as my love letter to the classic rock era, so it was a throwback record anyway, but when I emerged from the studio I realised: ‘Oh, it’s all Nirvana and Soundgarden.’”
Satriani is currently promoting his G3 Reunion Live DVD, and it’s worth noting that he launched his first G3 tour way back in the middle of the grunge era, in 1996. Since then it’s been graced by a long list of the world’s greatest fret-manglers, from Robert Fripp to Yngwie Malmsteen to Steve Vai.
“You have two extremes,” says Satriani of the demands his guests have made over the years. “Like, Robert Fripp, who said: ‘No lights on me, I want to sit down and I want to be behind everybody.’ So it was sort of an ‘un-demand’, y’know? And of course Yngwie… I mean, if you invite him, you have to just say: ‘I know what I’m inviting.’ To Yngwie’s credit, he always plays so great and always puts on the Yngwie Malmsteen show.
“The only problem that I would have is that sometimes he wouldn’t pay attention to other things happening on stage when his bit was done, because he’s just not used to not being the focus of the show. I’d say: ‘When Steve [Vai] is soloing, don’t throw your guitar up in the air right next to him, because he’s got his eyes closed. I don’t want him to get hit in the head.’”
