Ex-Nirvana members upset by Cobain's appearance in Guitar Hero 5
Kevin Spiess - Friday, September 11th, 2009 | 1:52AM (PT)
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Kurt would never sing a Garbage song in real life
Former Nirvana members David Grohl and Krist Novoselic are reportedly a bit upset with seeing an animated Kurt Cobain sing and dance in Guitar Hero 5. Former wife -- and notorious drug fiend -- Courtney Love is also not happy with Kurt's recent beyond-the-grave game appearance.
The two ex-band members and buddies of Kurt said, in a joint statement:
"While we were aware of Kurt's image being used with two Nirvana songs, we didn't know players have the ability to unlock the character. This feature allows the character to be used with any kind of song the player wants. We urge Activision to do the right thing in 're-locking' Kurt's character so that this won't continue in the future."
Elsewhere in the statement, they said that they were "dismayed and very disappointed" with the situation.
Courtney Love meanwhile, has a been all a flutter on her Twitter: "i told them their avatar was a joke" she blathered. "Activision has made thier press release, we shall make ours and we shall seek acyive damages against these fu*****"
Unfortunately for the grievances of Grohl, Novoselic and Love, it looks like they don't have much of a legal leg to stand on. They signed over contracts allowing Kurt Cobain's image to be used -- and it seems it is a pretty safe bet that Activision legal team is a thorough bunch, who'd leave no potentail clause un-claused.
Something certainly does seem a bit off though, with what's going on in the video below.
Not really, I mean what makes anyone else exempt? Should Johnny Cash be locked to his own songs as well if someone feels that him singing Elton John is too much?
They had a negotiation period to handle this, asking them to go back on the contract is a bit much. It's a game, it's not putting Kurt in a clown suit saying "Grunge sucks" or something else.
Meh I forgot that the music industry is "srs bizness" that revolves around the artists not the people that made the artists famous (the consumer).
Wow, that's kind of embarrassing, don't you think?
Yeah big time.
But come to think of it, judging from what I know of Cobain's personality (from interviews, etc) , I don't think he'd find it too embarrassing. I think if he watched the video above he'd find pretty funny. He wasn't one to get worked up about small stuff. I think this is more difficult for his friends and Miss Love (understandbly so. )
The thing is, Cobain would never have let them use his image (and probably not his songs) if he was still alive. That's my only problem, that this does go against what his choices would be.
Actually ya, that is a fair enough point: though I do think he'd find the video funny, I think you are correct to suggest he wouldn't be licensing out his image for that in the first place.
If he did, it would probably be his sensibilites as a musician would be hurt more than his ego -- i.e he'd probably be more upset to see himself playing songs by artists (the more commercial ones) that he didn't respect musically, then he would be upset by seeing himself play with dancing skelteons and what-not.
One of the reasons he killed himself is cause of all this attention he got. He was also anti-corporate establishments like Activision and therefore would never allow his image to be used in video games.
But then again, this is a guy who hated and loved attention at the same time so who knows.
Wow, I always hated Guitar Hero and Rock Band (because if you're going to invest that much time, you might as well learn the instrument), but I might just pick this up to see Kurt play Ex-Girlfriend and Du Hast
One of the reasons he killed himself is cause of all this attention he got. He was also anti-corporate establishments like Activision and therefore would never allow his image to be used in video games.
But then again, this is a guy who hated and loved attention at the same time so who knows.
He was a HUGE hypocrite about his beliefs.
True enough, if people sign to large labels touring and releasing multiple albums, shooting videos and doing more, they're living that spotlight.
Who really knows what he would do so many years after? I mean did any of us posting ever actually know the guy at all or are we all just going off of his persona portrayed in interviews and such after he was famous?
It's hard to gauge where things would go, if Nirvana would be a group today. You have people from the grunge and punk circuits that swallowed their pride and pimped themselves out over time just because they liked where it could take them.
If they never signed anything saying he would only do Nirvana songs then it's on them. There's nothing to re-lock because he was never supposed to be bound away to begin with. It's not like he's in a Hello Kitty shirt and leather chaps
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They had a negotiation period to handle this, asking them to go back on the contract is a bit much. It's a game, it's not putting Kurt in a clown suit saying "Grunge sucks" or something else.
Meh I forgot that the music industry is "srs bizness" that revolves around the artists not the people that made the artists famous (the consumer).
Reply 1. No, but he would sing a garbage song.
Reply 2. Of course not, he's dead.
But come to think of it, judging from what I know of Cobain's personality (from interviews, etc) , I don't think he'd find it too embarrassing. I think if he watched the video above he'd find pretty funny. He wasn't one to get worked up about small stuff. I think this is more difficult for his friends and Miss Love (understandbly so. )
If he did, it would probably be his sensibilites as a musician would be hurt more than his ego -- i.e he'd probably be more upset to see himself playing songs by artists (the more commercial ones) that he didn't respect musically, then he would be upset by seeing himself play with dancing skelteons and what-not.
But then again, this is a guy who hated and loved attention at the same time so who knows.
He was a HUGE hypocrite about his beliefs.
Who really knows what he would do so many years after? I mean did any of us posting ever actually know the guy at all or are we all just going off of his persona portrayed in interviews and such after he was famous?
It's hard to gauge where things would go, if Nirvana would be a group today. You have people from the grunge and punk circuits that swallowed their pride and pimped themselves out over time just because they liked where it could take them.
If they never signed anything saying he would only do Nirvana songs then it's on them. There's nothing to re-lock because he was never supposed to be bound away to begin with. It's not like he's in a Hello Kitty shirt and leather chaps