Weird Al says Cobain was 'cool' with hit parody

Weird Al Yankovic has spoken about his conversation with Kurt Cobain after the prankster decided to record a parody of Nirvana hit Smells Like Teen Spirit.

In an video interview with Loudwire, Yankovic says he was nervous about asking the Nirvana frontman for permission, but that Cobain was “cool” with the idea.

He says: “I remember that phone conversation very well – I wish I had recorded it, it would have been a nice little piece of history.

“I was very nervous, and I didn’t know how he would take my requesting the parody. But he was extremely cool. I just told him, ‘hey, it’s Weird Al Yankovic and I would love to do a parody of Smells Like Teen Spirit.’

“His initial reaction was, ‘oh, is it going to be a song about food?‘, because a lot of my hits at that time were. I explained it’s about how nobody could understand his lyrics. There was probably half a beat on the phone and he said, ‘yeah, yeah – sounds like a funny idea.’”

The funnyman also says his hit, Smells Like Nirvana, brought him back into the spotlight after a slow couple of years.

He says: “When I came back with Nirvana, that brought me right back into heavy rotation on MTV and back into the top 20 in the Billboard charts and it did feel like a real return to form.”

Scott Munro
Louder e-commerce editor

Scott has spent more than 30 years in newspapers, magazines and online as an editor, production editor, sub-editor, designer, writer and reviewer. Scott joined our news desk in the summer of 2014 before moving to the e-commerce team in 2020. Scott maintains Louder’s buyer’s guides, scouts out the best deals for music fans and reviews headphones, speakers, books and more. He's written more than 11,000 articles across Louder, Classic Rock, Metal Hammer and Prog and has previous written for publications including IGN, the Sunday Mirror, Daily Record and The Herald, covering everything from daily news and weekly features, to video games, travel and whisky. Scott's favourite bands are Fields Of The Nephilim, The Cure, New Model Army, All About Eve, The Mission, Cocteau Twins, Drab Majesty, Marillion and Rush.