In the age of streaming and the nose-dive of physical album sales, it’s not uncommon to hear of bands sound off of abysmal royalty checks. Considering Nirvana, were one of rock’s most successful acts, you’d expect royalties in the age of CD sales wouldn’t be too much of an issue.
Kurt’s friend, who goes by the Youtube username ‘The Observer’ (the mastermind behind the reveal of these demo tapes that feature early versions of Bleach tracks), has taken to his channel again to uncover more behind the mystery and narrative of Nirvana’s career.
The Observer detailed that Kurt received a radio play royalty check for ‘Blue’ and ‘About a Girl’ that totaled a tiny $18.
“Wow. You know, that’s awesome you got a royalty check.” I mean, it was just like, it wasn’t that much but still, I mean it was probably more than what Kurt had in his pocket. And, I mean, you know, at that point I was lucky if I had $5, $10 in my pocket, you know.”
He also went on to detail the humble story of how the two Seattle pals spent the check after they cashed it,”anyway, we got pizza, played some pool and yeah, yeah it was you know, it was a good, a good memory. You know, hanging out with Kurt was just like that. Pretty much. You just, I mean, just hanging out with a friend.”
You can watch the entire narrative unfold below:
