Nirvana changed the rock music scene with the release of Smells Like Teen Spirit almost 35 years ago.
It is a song that helped bring grunge into the mainstream with its unforgettable chorus and rebellious nature making the band a household name.
But for front man Kurt Cobain, the 1991 track’s enormous success eventually became frustrating.
Back in a 1994 interview with Rolling Stone, the singer opened up about his complicated feelings toward the track. “Everyone has focused on that song so much,” Cobain told the outlet. “There are so many other songs that I’ve written that are as good, if not better, than that song.”
While Smells Like Teen Spirit had already become Nirvana’s biggest hit, Cobain told Rolling Stone he preferred Drain You, from the album Nevermind.
“I love the lyrics, and I never get tired of playing it,” he admitted, adding that “maybe if it was as big as Teen Spirit, I wouldn’t like it as much.”
In fact, he noted that he could “barely… get through” playing Smells Like Teen Spirit live. “I literally want to throw my guitar down and walk away. I can’t pretend to have a good time playing it,” he confessed.
Additionally, he called the track “a clichéd riff,” noting that they intended it to be an ironic play on other alt-rock bands at the time.
“I was trying to write the ultimate pop song. I was basically trying to rip off the Pixies. I have to admit it,” Cobain told the outlet, revealing that he was a big fan of the band and felt an instant connection to its music.
“When I heard the Pixies for the first time, I connected with that band so heavily I should have been in that band — or at least in a Pixies cover band,” he shared. “We used their sense of dynamics, being soft and quiet and then loud and hard.”
Over time, Kurt Cobain struggled to enjoy the hit, despite it helping make Nirvana one of the biggest bands of the early 1990s. The more attention it received, the more he felt it overshadowed the rest of the band’s music.
“I’m just tired of being embarrassed by it. I’m beyond that,” Cobain had told Rolling Stone, just months before he died by suicide in April 1994, at the age of 27.
