Twisted Sister frontman Dee Snider has claimed that Nirvana ripped off a Boston track on their seminal hit ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’.
During an appearance on The Mistress Carrie podcast (via Ultimate Guitar), Snider opened up about how the rise of grunge music impacted 1980s metal bands.
“I believe it was a hand-delivered letter that I had to sign for, and it said, ‘We’re not doing what you do anymore, we’re not looking like you, we’re not sounding like you, we’re not performing like you, we’re not writing like you, it’s over,'” he said.
He continued: “And I turned around, and I saw my three children and my wife, and my bank account was running out quickly, and it was like, ‘What now?'”
“I never thought that that moment could happen, but that is one of those moments, it was crazy.”
“No one was more shocked I think by that reaction to their new music or whatever.”
“Nirvana, Alice in Chains, Soundgarden, Pearl Jam – they grew out of the hair metal era, and although they may have rejected certain aspects of it, they still, this was their inspiration.”
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“I was reading [Kurt] Cobain’s diary, and in it, he was just, he referenced the ‘Teen Spirit’ video as being a Twisted Sister video, you know, the high school, the whole nine yards.”
“And he said corporate rock sucks, he goes, ”Smells Like Teen Spirit’ is Boston’s ‘More Than a Feeling.” Think about it people, that is ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit.'”
For more on this topic, check out the Classic Rock and Metal Observers.
Check out Dee Snider discussing Nirvana on The Mistress Carrie podcast:
