Nirvana bandmembers object to Cobain fronting Bon Jovi

Jake Widman
Saturday, 12 September 2009 04:47

Your IT - Entertainment

The ability for players of Guitar Hero 5 to play as Kurt Cobain, even when performing songs by bands other than Nirvana, has led to a flurry of charges and countercharges among Cobain's ex-wife, his ex-bandmates, and the GH5 publishers.

Last month, Guitar Hero publisher Activision confirmed that GH5 sould include two Nirvana tracks, and that players could use a Kurt Cobain avatar.

Now that the game has been released, however, it turns out that Cobain is an unlockable character that can be used in performances other than the two Nirvana songs.

A YouTube video of "Cobain" performing Bon Jovi's "You Give Love a Bad Name" has attracted more than 275,000 views -- and the attention of Cobain's ex-wife, Courtney Love, and his old bandmates, Dave Grohl and Kris Novoselic.

Love has fired off a series of profane tweets blaming Grohl and Novoselic and threatening to sue Activision.

The Nirvana alumni, for their part, have issued a statement saying that "we want people to know that we are dismayed and very disappointed in the way a facsimile of Kurt is used in the Guitar Hero game." They also absolve themselves of responsibility, saying that "the name and likeness of Kurt Cobain are the sole property of his estate -- we have no control whatsoever in that area."



An August article in Rolling Stone said that Love, Grohl, and Novoselic all had to sign off one the licensing of the Nirvana songs, but doesn't clarify who had responsibility for the Cobain Avatar.

The article does quote Activision vice president Tim Riley as saying, "Courtney supplied us with photos and videos and knew exactly what she wanted Kurt to look like." But Love maintains that she never signed off on the avatar.

Grohl and Novoselic's statement reads, "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." The two go on to "urge Activision to do the right thing in 're-locking' Kurt’s character."