2014 Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame Ceremony: In a perfect world, people would definitely pay to see Nirvana performing with their front man Kurt Cobain in 2014. In this year's 2014 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the remaining members, Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic performed and rocked the stage together with various artists and played their hit Nirvana songs. It could not get any better than that!
According to Yahoo!, KISS was supposedly the band performing in this year's inauguration, but later announced in advance that they absolutely would not perform at this year's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony without their current lineup - and the Rock Hall big-wigs only wanted to see a reunion of the original members - KISS did not rock and roll for even part of the night at Thursday's Rock Hall event at Brooklyn's Barclays Center. Instead it was Nirvana who provided all of the drama, excitement, and unpredictability upon which rock 'n' roll was founded.
Even so, for the band members and their fans, the induction was bittersweet. Almost exactly 20 years has passed since Nirvana singer and guitarist Kurt Cobain left this world, and Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic and drummer Dave Grohl (now the frontman for the Foo Fighters) haven't played Cobain's songs together in all that time.
Cobain's widow Courtney Love also expressed her emotions during the ceremony. "We all start bands when we're kids, and this is my family I'm looking at right now, all of you - brother Michael [Stipe, of R.E.M.], brother Krist, grandma Wendy, Mr. Grohl," she said. Love then hugged and kissed both Novoselic and Grohl, even though the three have remained distant through the years. "I just wish that Kurt was here to feel this and be this," she continued. "Twenty years ago, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame maybe wasn't... But tonight he really would have appreciated it. And I just want to give this [award] to Francis, our daughter, who's not here because she's ill."
The band was introduced by Stipe, who delivered an powerful speech that addressed the influence and historical importance of the band as part of a counterculture that somehow became mainstream. "Nirvana tapped into a voice that was yearning to be heard," he said. "In the '80s and early '90s, the idea of a hopeful, democratic country had practically been dismantled by Iran Contra, by AIDS, by the Reagan, Bush Sr. administrations. With their music and their attitudes, Nirvana blasted through all that with crystalline, nuclear rage and fury. Nirvana were kicking against the system to show a sweet and beautiful, but fed-up fury coupled with howling vulnerability. They spoke truth, and a lot of people listened. They were singular and loud and melodic and deeply original. And that voice... That voice. Kurt, we miss you."
Up until Nirvana took the stage, the big question of the night was who was going to fill Cobain's shoes. Grohl hinted in an Instagram post a couple days earlier that Joan Jett would join Nirvana onstage, and indeed, she did, performing "Smells Like Teen Spirit" with unbridled fury, clad in a black leather jacket and sawing her guitar with as much anger as elation. But there were bigger surprises to come.
Other artists who performed Nirvana songs were Sonic Youth bassist and vocalist Kim Gordon as they sang "Aneurysm," Annie Clark, aka St. Vincent, performed "Lithium", and Royals singer Lorde sang "All Apologies"
