Dave Grohl ed his fellow surviving Nirvana onstage for the all-star Saturday Night Live 50 concert Friday at New York’s Radio City Music Hall. The timing could be better—the 56-year-old musician is still navigating the rocky PR waters of his recent cheating scandal, which resulted in the Foo Fighters dropping out of Hellfest this summer. Regardless, Nirvana fans were thrilled by the SNL50 performance that saw Post Malone sing lead vocals. Grohl broke his own rule about who could fill the late Kurt Cobain's shoes, but in this instance, it paid off.
Introduced by Adam Sandler as "Post-Nirvana," the reunion featured Grohl, Malone, bassist Krist Novoselic, and guitarist Pat Smear (who is also in Foo Fighters with Grohl) playing the hit "Smells Like Teen Spirit." This highly anticipated reunion was the second in recent weeks, with the surviving Nirvana having played together two weeks previously as unannounced guests at the FireAid benefit concert in Inglewood, California. The main difference at SNL50 was the inclusion of a male singer—fitting because of Post Malone's own history with Nirvana covers, but contrary to Grohl's previous statements.
Dave Grohl Said He Only Wanted Female Singers To Play With Nirvana
Previous Nirvana Reunions Have Been Fronted By St. Vincent, Kim Gordon, Joan Jett, and Violet Grohl
When Nirvana reunited for FireAid, the band was ed by St. Vincent, Kim Gordon (from Sonic Youth), Joan Jett, and Violet Grohl. The reunion came as a total surprise; Nirvana wasn't included on the official lineup, and this was the first time the surviving had reunited since their 2014 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony. Back then, St. Vincent, Gordon, and Jett provided vocals, leading to the unofficial moniker "Hervana." The 2014 one-off reunion was the first time Grohl, Novosselic, and Smear had performed Nirvana's best songs live since Cobain's death in 1994.
Kurt Cobain died by suicide on April 5, 1994. Nirvana had already canceled shows due to Cobain's health problems, and following his death, disbanded altogether.
Following the 2014 performance, Grohl told Rolling Stone the band made the conscious choice to choose women to front the band: "If we can fill the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame performance with these incredible women singing Nirvana songs, then we’ll have achieved our own revolution." The result was a new direction for Nirvana post-Cobain. "It added substance and depth, so it didn’t turn into a eulogy. It was more about the future." Hervana would reunite again a decade later for FireAid, this time with the addition of Grohl's daughter, Violet.
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Hearing Post Malone sing "Smells Like Teen Spirit" at the SNL 50 concert was deeply satisfying. His gravelly twang perfectly captured the angst-ridden feel of the song. Overall, it was a worthy tribute to the late Cobain. Malone is a long-time fan of Nirvana, even performing an entire livestream set of just Nirvana songs during the Covid lockdown in 2020 (the set is getting released on vinyl in April as a Record Day exclusive). His love for the band and deep iration for Cobain are obvious—and Grohl, Novoselic and Smear seem in their element playing these old songs. The video of the performance (shared on X below) shows a group totally in sync, and one can sense the joy the Nirvana feel playing together again.
Fans took to the social media platform X (formerly Twitter) to express their enthusiasm for the performance, with @scotttannen writing "Post Malone fronting Nirvana wasn’t something I realized how badly I needed to see" (via X). I can't help but agree. It's unclear if this another one-off collaboration or the start of something new. It was more than a decade between the first Hervana performance and the surprise FireAid set, but the fact that Grohl, Novoselic and Smear have reunited again so soon after the last show is interesting. Could there be more of this in the future? A full-on Nirvana tour seems unlikely at this point, but stranger things have happened.