Everett True “Nirvana – The Biography” Review

Everett True’s detailed recollection, Nirvana – The Biography, offers itself as a personal account elaborating on his long term relationship with the band, recalling interviews and editorials he produced throughout. True, the journalist who essentially broke grunge overseas through his accounts of the Seattle scene in Melody Maker, does little to cover up the close relationships that he had with Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love, often offering insight, occasionally suggesting a role of influence in the lives of his one time friends. And for good reason as True was indeed there; he was there when Nirvana was an Olympia band, not a Seattle band, he was there when Nirvana’s popularity was escalating out of control, and he was there as both the band and Cobain’s life came to a tragic end.

Eric Grandy reports for The Stranger, “Nirvana has less to do with the lives of Kurt Cobain, Krist Novoselic, or Dave Grohl—though the relevant biographical details are all here—and more to do with the making of Nirvana the phenomenon. True lovingly unearths the groundwork laid by the Melvins, the influence of K Records and the riot grrrl movement, the entrepreneurial zeal of Jonathan Poneman and Bruce Pavitt, the studio work behind their albums, the photography that defined their aesthetic, and especially the rock journalism that fed their early hype.” And without a doubt the description fits. While generally focused on the front man, Nirvana goes into great detail recalling the accounts and tribulations of those who were, much like True, auxiliary members to the story. Because after all Kurt Cobain, Krist Novoselic and Dave Grohl were and are mere mortals, people who offered and received influence from their friends, peers and culture. True’s accounts, insights, and memories serve this sentiment wholly, even if they are at times indulgent, “Had I somehow contributed to Kurt’s death? Maybe the only reason we hung out together was because his glory reflected upon me and gave me that illusion of glamour I’d been searching for all my life.”

The New York Times‘ Benjamin Kunkel suggests, “Yet for something billed as the band’s definitive biography, Nirvana is an oddly marginal and sketchy production. The joyous, pounding attack of Grohl’s drumming and Novoselic’s slinky, insinuating bass lines were as important to Nirvana’s sound as what the band’s first producer accurately called Cobain’s ‘cool scream.’ However, neither Grohl nor Novoselic consented to be interviewed, and True has fallen out with his old friend Courtney Love, the actor, musician and celebrity provocateur Cobain married in 1992. Nirvana consists largely of long, apparently unedited chunks of interviews with bit players in the band’s story, and True hardly attempts to adjudicate among competing points of view, to assign relative importance to different events or even to determine whether Nirvana really merits the special treatment of a 600-and-some-page biography.” True’s own admission that he was essentially drunk the entire time he knew the band, his close personal relationship with Love and his ongoing struggle between friend and “the enemy” may lead a slanted opinion, but no more slanted than any other writers’ recollection of events. Despite his close connection with the story’s main characters Nirvana is far from a puff piece as it paints Cobain as a troubled drug addict who was afraid to admit the underlying falseness of his punk rock image (sound man Craig Montgomery recalls the band’s listening habits, “You wouldn’t believe how much we listened to ABBA. It’s good travelling music, and somehow when you’re driving around Europe, the vibe is right. We listened to some Seventies rock, maybe Queen or Badfinger. I don’t think there was a lot of super-abrasive punk rock-y stuff.”

Nirvana – The Biography is the definitive word on the band, only from the perspective of Everett True. There is distinction between Everett True the reporter and Everett True the confidant.  As a result there are things that True neglects to disclose and there are occasional holes where greater detail could have been beneficial to the story. One of the most important statements comes late in the book, as True and Kill Rock Stars founder Slim Moon were discussing the group’s legacy. True notes “People say that Nirvana changed everything, buy precisely what did Nirvana change? They made it easier for Smashing Pumpkins, Bush, Pearl Jam, Silverchair and a bunch of crap bands to sell a load of records. They Made Courtney Love rich.” Moon replies, “That’s how it always is, look at all the emo bands that we can blame Rites of Spring for, and all the straight edge bands that we could blame Minor Threat for, or all the hideous, jangly indie rock bands we can blame Pavement for.” And that’s just it – Nirvana was a great band, one of the best of its generation, but it was just a band. Ultimately True depicts Nirvana as just that, a group of people who started out with the intentions of making the best music they could, only to end up terminal due to the success that they were pushed towards.  And due to his experiences this story is told as only Everett True could tell it.

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