'80s Metal Stars Talk NIRVANA's 'Nevermind'

August 2, 2011

Nikki Sixx (MTLEY CRE),Phil Collen (DEF LEPPARD),Sebastian Bach (SKID ROW),Sammy Hagar (VAN HALEN) and Tracii Guns (L.A. GUNS) spoke to SPIN.com about NIRVANA's classic 1991 album "Nevermind", which will be reissued on September 27 in both standard and deluxe editions to commemorate its 20th anniversary.

"Nevermind" is often credited for eliminating "hair metal" and introducing the world to the heavy rock sounds emanating from the Pacific Northwest that came to be known as grunge.

Nikki Sixx (MTLEY CRE): "I announced the album before its release on [MTV's] 'Headbangers Ball'. I said, 'Here is an important rock album.' I never understood bands saying NIRVANA had anything to do with derailing their career. Maybe those bands just didn't have the goods. You can't pee like a puppy if you wanna run with the big dogs."

Phil Collen (DEF LEPPARD): "At the 1992 MTV Video Music Awards, we were the sacrificial lamb it was NIRVANA, PEARL JAM, CHILI PEPPERS, and DEF LEPPARD. People were quite hostile towards us, which I thought was a joke a new kind of music comes out that's about you not wanting to be like anyone else and then you're narrow-minded? Unfortunately, we got lumped in with these awful hair bands, which we didn't really think we were part of any- way. So when NIRVANA came on, it was like, 'Yeah, it's gonna fuck us a bit,' but it was also great music.

Tracii Guns (L.A. GUNS): "Pop metal at the time was getting so shallow and watered down. NIRVANA just reminded people how ballsy rock is supposed to be. I got a copy of 'Nevermind' from a friend a few months before it came out it didn't immediately grab me, but after about a week, I was completely sucked in. [U.K.'s] Kerrang! [magazine] ran a photo of me wearing a NIRVANA T-shirt onstage with a caption saying something like 'Uh oh, is this the new trend?' I really don't care what my hair-metal peers thought or think."

Comments Disclaimer And Information

BLABBERMOUTH.NET uses the Facebook Comments plugin to let people comment on content on the site using their Facebook account. The comments reside on Facebook servers and are not stored on BLABBERMOUTH.NET. To comment on a BLABBERMOUTH.NET story or review, you must be logged in to an active personal account on Facebook. Once you're logged in, you will be able to comment. User comments or postings do not reflect the viewpoint of BLABBERMOUTH.NET and BLABBERMOUTH.NET does not endorse, or guarantee the accuracy of, any user comment. To report spam or any abusive, obscene, defamatory, racist, homophobic or threatening comments, or anything that may violate any applicable laws, use the "Report to Facebook" and "Mark as spam" links that appear next to the comments themselves. To do so, click the downward arrow on the top-right corner of the Facebook comment (the arrow is invisible until you roll over it) and select the appropriate action. You can also send an e-mail to blabbermouthinbox(@)gmail.com with pertinent details. BLABBERMOUTH.NET reserves the right to "hide" comments that may be considered offensive, illegal or inappropriate and to "ban" users that violate the site's Terms Of Service. Hidden comments will still appear to the user and to the user's Facebook friends. If a new comment is published from a "banned" user or contains a blacklisted word, this comment will automatically have limited visibility (the "banned" user's comments will only be visible to the user and the user's Facebook friends).