Nothing divides music lovers more than bringing beloved artists back to the stage long after they’ve left us in the form of a hologram.
While they’re not super common, they’re not unheard of either.
The first was in 2012, when rapper Tupac Shakur made an appearance at Coachella.
Snoop Dogg and a hologram of the late Tupac Shakur perform during day 3 of Coachella in 2012.
Two years later, Michael Jackson’s hologram performed at the 2014 Billboard Music Awards before Roy Orbison’s hologram toured in 2018.
As a hologram, Roy Orbison performs backed by a live orchestra during the ‘In Dreams: Roy Orbison’ tour in 2018.
More recently, ABBA’s Voyage “reunion” launched in 2022.
So, could Nirvana fans ever see Kurt Cobain brought back to life for a run of shows? According to Krist Novoselic, it’s not an impossibility.
“You never know!” the bassist admitted with a laugh when asked during an interview with MOJO.
“I’ll say ‘no way’, then it’s like, ‘How much?? When do we start?!’”
The topic came up during a conversation about In Utero turning 30. The anniversary box set, which drops October 27, includes two previously unreleased live recordings of complete concerts from Los Angeles Great Western Forum (December 30, 1993) and Seattle Center Arena (January 7, 1994), plus six bonus live tracks from tour.
“The shows rock,” Novoselic proclaimed.
“They need to be heard,” he continued.
“Now with the AI, you can take a stereo mix and then break it down into a multitrack. So you can get really good mixes. They sound raw. And you get Kurt up there who’s just carrying the show. Amazing.”
Last week, Novoselic predicted what he thought the future of Nirvana would’ve been if Cobain hadn’t died.
“I don’t know. We recorded our last song together ‘You Know You’re Right’, and that was Nirvana,” he said.
“It had our whole thing as a jam then a crescendo that builds to come back down with a big chorus. It’s a really hard one to answer. Dave [Grohl] went on to do Foo Fighters, he’s successful and carrying the torch. I’ve got another band called Third Secret with Matt [Cameron] and Kim [Thayil] from Soundgarden – we’re kind of like the grunge ABBA.”
“If only Kurt would have hung in there, then we would have known,” Novoselic lamented.
“Just to have him in the world would make a huge difference, and that’s all that really matters. I miss the guy, so I can only dream.”
