Why Jason Everman Was Kicked Out Of Nirvana And Soundgarden

There are quite a few musicians who were kicked out of groups just before they made it big, but few can boast (or gripe, or not care one bit — depending on how you look at it) about being kicked out of not one, but two bands that went on to worldwide stardom. Jason Everman is one. And, as a profile of the former grunge bassist in Avaunt Magazine states, he doesn't like to talk about it. When giving lectures or having beers with friends, he prefers to ambiguously state that his early adulthood was spent on tour as "a professional rock musician," instead of going into specifics.

You might be a little sensitive, as well, if you'd been fired from both Nirvana and Soundgarden before they went on to become global rock powerhouses. If, however, you ask Kurt or Chris (if you could), they might tell you that Everman was a bit too sensitive from the get-go. There was just something about the guy that didn't sit well with his bandmates on tour.

Despite being notoriously moody themselves (isn't that what 1990s grunge rock was all about?), his bandmates found Everman too much of a bummer. He cut himself off from the rest of the guys from Nirvana, and they kicked him out of the band at tour's end. So he hopped on over to Soundgarden, but was still too moody for a band whose biggest hit was titled "Black Hole Sun." So what does a bassist with an attitude that bad do after being kicked out of two bands that would end up selling, between the two of them, somewhere around 100 million albums?

According to The New York Times Magazine, he goes off to war. Everman joined the Army, became a member of the Special Forces, and was shipped off to fight the Taliban. Later, he told The Daily Beast that, even though he went to Nirvana's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction, he would have rather been in a quiet bar just having a beer. "I don't miss it," he says of the life that he left behind. As for that interview, he was still working as a military consultant, regularly going overseas for gigs. Although he was appreciative that Dave Grohl and Krist Novicelic (Nirvana's other two-thirds who kicked him out) invited him to the ceremony, it was obvious that Everman had moved on: "This isn't my universe anymore."