This Was The Least Popular Member Of Nirvana

Nirvana was a huge hit within the grunge subculture scene. Let's be real, they were a huge hit on the charts in general, and their fanbase spans several generations. Kurt Cobain is an iconic name within the rock industry, and he's arguably one of the most famous grunge musicians in existence. After his death, drummer Dave Grohl went on to rise above his fellow bandmate's fame when he built his own vocal career as the frontman for Foo Fighters. Both bands and both of these once-members of Nirvana are explicitly famous. But how many of you know who Krist Novoselic is? We're guessing it isn't many.

Novoselic was just as much of a presence on stage as the other two members of the band but received little in the way of fame. Sure, his name is on the back cover of the albums just like the others, but very people could pick his face out of a lineup. He was the band's bassist, after all, jamming out the signature low-end riffs that permeate Nirvana's "Come as You Are" and "Dive." You'd think he would be a bit more famous than he was, but the guy has never really been that popular.

Unlike the famous Dave Grohl who joined Nirvana in 1990 after they'd already released their debut album, Krist Novoselic had been there from the beginning. Novoselic and Kurt Cobain had been friends since attending high school together in Aberdeen, Washington. Cobain had been working on his own music before Nirvana formed, and he gave Novoselic a copy of his first band's demo, according to NME.

Novoselic already knew that Cobain was talented, but the demo was the push he needed. "I noticed what a good artist he was. He was working at the time as a janitor but he'd always have to do some kind of art – usually defacing something. He never had, like, idle hands. It just came out of him; he had to express himself," Novoselic says in the Kurt Cobain documentary Cobain: Montage of Heck. The music was proof to Novoselic that Cobain's artistic talents branched out of graffiti and into the realm of music, and Novoselic was completely on board. From there, the two would go on to create the Nirvana we know and love today.

Krist Novoselic, along with Pat Smear, threatened to break up the band ten days before Kurt Cobain's death. This might sound menacing or implicating, but the musicians did so for a very good reason. Kurt Cobain was more than a bandmate, he was their friend, and he was spiraling out of control. His mental health was declining. On March 18, according to Rolling Stone, Cobain had locked himself in a room and was threatening to kill himself with a .30 caliber revolver until the police showed up and took away his guns and drugs.

Cobain's friends and family were desperate to get the Nirvana frontman some help. They started searching for intervention counselors and, finally, on March 25, 10 of Cobain's loved ones, including Novoselic, gathered with him to have "the talk." As part of the intervention, Novoselic and Smear told Cobain that they'd break up the band if the guy didn't get checked into rehab. So, yeah, Novoselic was willing to break up the band, but only to save his friend's life. Unfortunately, the talk didn't put Cobain in the headspace he needed to be in to survive, and he took his own life on April 5, 1994.

Oddly enough, Krist Novoselic's name has recently appeared in the media but for his political stance instead of his music. In June 2020, Donald Trump gave his "Law and Order" speech following the breakout of protests and property damage as parts of the United States responded to the killing of George Floyd and police brutality in general. Novoselic hit Twitter praising the presidential speech. Well, right before deactivating his Twitter account due to fan backlash, according to LoudWire.

"Tired of being known for years as "the other guy" from Nirvana, Krist Novoselic has rebranded as "the sh**ty guy" from Nirvana," @AndrewJoePotter tweets.

"Once Kurt Cobain went through Krist Novoselic's record collection and smashed up all the ones he thought were crap. I always thought this was a dick move but maybe Kurt was just ahead of his time," tweets @fastercamels.

The DJ and screenwriter Kat Corbett also jumped on the tweet train, saying, "Smells Like Shut The F*** Up Krist Novoselic."

Though the jokes might seem like they're pushing a lot of negativity, you have to remember that Nirvana is big within the grunge subculture — a subculture that focuses on breaking societal norms and throwing materialism out the window, according to Study's anthropology section. It's only natural that fans would find words in support of the opposite to be a little irksome.