During a recent appearance on Lars Ulrich’s “It’s Electric” show, Joan Jett talked about performing with Nirvana at their Rock Hall induction back in 2014.
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You can check out the conversation below (via Alternative Nation).
Lars Ulrich: Speaking of extra special, Rock & Roll Hall of Fame 2014. Nirvana’s being inducted and you sing with them one of the greatest anthems of the – speaking of anthems, that’s a-
Joan Jett: Yeah.
That’s a subtext of this whole episode. The greatest music anthem of the last 25 years. ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit.’
Yeah.
So the first time that the three members including Pat [Smear] who you obviously have a relationship with from back in the Germs days.
Yes.
And the first time they’re playing together since Kurt’s untimely death. You’re singing ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit.’ You’ve got to walk me through just how did that come about, what’s going through your mind as this is happening? I need to know more about this particular thing, it’s mind-blowing.
I’m trying to remember how they asked me. Because the actual thought of that was another petrifying thing, right?
I can only imagine.
Can you imagine? But how can you say no?
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Of course.
You can’t.
It’s like a dare, right?
It is a dare, it was a total dare. But you have to do it, you know. You have to … just hope the rock and roll gods are with you that night you know?
And they were.
And I was a big fan anyway so I knew the song pretty well. I had not learned it on guitar so that I had to do. And to sing it at the same time.
Was the first time you played it with the other three guys at the sound check that day or the day before? Did you rehearse somewhere the week before? I mean what are the specifics of this?
No, I believe we just did the sound check the day, whatever that was. The day before or I don’t know if it was-
What was the reaction from the other guys who had not played that song since what, ’94? So almost 25 years. What was the reaction?
They seemed to be pleased that we got through it you know? I don’t know. I was so into what I was doing.
Right. No, it just seems like-
Too nervous to look around.
As a fan of yours, as a fan of them, as a fan of music, I mean that just sounds like it’s one of those moments that you sit there and go like holy fuck this actually happened. I’m just trying to figure out what-
We were all grinning ear to ear. I remember looking at Pat, he had a big grin on his face. When I looked at Dave, all you could see was the hair, right?