Kurt Cobain Threatened to Fire Chad Channing… over Bobcat Goldthwait?
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The post Kurt Cobain Threatened to Fire Chad Channing… over Bobcat Goldthwait? appeared first on Consequence.
Bobcat Goldthwait has lived a lot of life, as Consequence recently learned during an interview for our Crate Digging series, and he’s had a lot of long-running connections with unexpected figures. This includes the band Nirvana, as Kurt Cobain was a big fan of the comedian’s oddball comedy.
Goldthwait talked a bit about his relationship with Cobain in his 2021 documentary Joy Ride, which showcases the bond between the comedian and long-time frenemy Dana Gould, with archival footage from both of their lives interwoven with scenes of stand-up. “I opened for Nirvana, which is always weird for people to hear,” he says on stage in the film. “Kurt was a fan of my stand-up and people were like ‘What?’ It’s like finding out that Jimi Hendrix really loved Buddy Hackett.”
The documentary then segues to a clip from an April 1990 video interview with Cobain and other Nirvana band members, including original drummer Chad Channing. Speaking with Consequence Goldthwait describes the excerpt like so: “There’s a clip where Kurt was saying nice things about me. And then [Channing] chimes in — he says ‘I think he’s a nice guy, but I don’t think he’s funny.’ And then Kurt looks at him, like, ‘Really? Well, not cool man.'”
That’s where the clip ends in the documentary, but that wasn’t the end of the conversation in real life, as Goldthwait explains: “In the real clip, there’s a beat and Kurt goes, ‘You’re the next to go.'” You can actually see the full interview (including Cobain’s cutting aside) on YouTube, which plays out just like Goldthwait describes — with Channing awkwardly going along with Cobain’s not-quite-a-joke.
Channing left Nirvana in May 1990, just weeks after this original interview was shot. Goldthwait’s explanation for ending the footage where he did is an exceptionally empathetic one: “I didn’t put that in the movie because I felt that [Channing] probably already felt like he was the Pete Best of Nirvana. I didn’t wanna dog pile.”
Later on, Goldthwait would go on to have a much closer relationship with the new drummer for the band, some kid named Dave Grohl. “I shot this commercial with them for In Utero, and when I met Dave for the first time, he goes, ‘I’m the drummer. Yeah, I know I’m taller.'”
He and Grohl hit it off, Goldthwait says, “and when I was opening for them, sometimes when it was a call-in radio interview, I would do the interview for Dave. Because people didn’t know who he was.”
Goldthwait wouldn’t do “a Dave voice” for those interviews, he says, because the interviewers “didn’t know me if I wasn’t doing my voice. So I wasn’t doing an impression of him, but I had become friends enough that at that point I could just talk about, you know, D.C. [where Grohl got his start as a musician] and my band The Scream and stuff like that.”
Goldthwait first met Nirvana in Ann Arbor, Mich., he says, well before the band had taken off. “My friend Ray Klein, who had booked me at the theater, said, ‘There’s this band and they wanna meet you.’ So I went to to do a college radio show and kind of took over — Kurt was supposed to be interviewing me, and he had questions written out on a lunch bag,” he says.
Continues Goldthwait, “We kind of got along. It kind of just devolved to us bashing The Grateful Dead. And then afterwards I bought ’em lunch.”
Goldthwait didn’t specify what year this occurred, but it was likely around or after 1989, because during this first meeting, Cobain gave him a copy of Bleach (released in 1989) on CD. [UPDATE: After publication, Goldthwait confirmed that the Ann Arbor interview took place in October 1989.] “I was driving away from the gig with my friend Tony, and I put it on and I was like, ‘These guys are good. You know, rock really sucks because you’ll never hear from them again, there’s so many bands, you know?’ And then I was opening for them, getting hit with Bibles and M80s.”
If you’re wondering what it’s like to be a comedian opening for Nirvana, there’s a whole track on Goldthwait’s latest album about his experiences during their 1993 tour. “Sometimes it works great and sometimes it’s a nightmare,” he adds, when Consequence asks. “About every third show I’d actually connect and have a what would be considered a good set. But at that point in my career, I just thought it was funny to incite and annoy people… I was a little self destructive then. But sometimes it would click.”
Bobcat Goldthwait’s Soldier for Christ is available now on vinyl, digital, CD and as a limited-edition ’80s Party Pack which includes a CD + CD player and more.
Kurt Cobain Threatened to Fire Chad Channing… over Bobcat Goldthwait?
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