Spinner

Paul Weller Calls Nirvana 'Rubbish'

Former Jam singer Paul Weller has slammed Nirvana and the grunge movement, labelling it "f------ rubbish" in an interview with the NME.

Weller, who received the 'Godlike Genius' award at Wednesday night's (Feb. 24) NME Awards, told the magazine, "You'd had all that shoegazing bollocks and then the whole Nirvana thing, which I thought was f---- rubbish -- it was just America catching up with punk rock 20 years too f------ late for me, you know. So to hear some English guitar music again was really refreshing."

Weller, dubbed 'The Modfather', added that the Britpop period of the mid '90s -- with bands like Oasis, Blur and Pulp at the forefront -- was better than the movements which preceded it. He also said that the Britpop scene was the first that he particularly identified with.

"That was the first time ever that I'd felt any kinship with any musicians -- even though they were all probably at least ten years younger than me. '93 or '94 I had a f------ whale of a time, " he said.

Nirvana's reign at rock's highest level began with the release of 'Nevermind' in 1992, which has since sold at least 10 million copies worldwide.

Weller released '22 Dreams' in 2008, which took top spot on the UK album chart, and is due to return with his tenth solo studio record, 'Wake Up The Nation,' later this year.

All the AOL Music info you want to know

Eddie Blazonczyk Dead: Grammy…

Spinner

AP CHICAGO (AP) - Grammy Award-winning polka great Eddie Blazonczyk, who…

CMT Awards 2012: Luke Bryan, Eric…

The Boot

Getty Images The 2012 CMT Music Awards just added even more heat to the…

Chris Brown Fans Send Death Threats to…

The Boombox

Kevin Winter, Getty Images Victoria's Secret model Chrissy Teigen found…

See all AOL Music »

Add a Comment

Sign in »
*0 / 3000 Character Maximum

11 Comments

Filter by:
Toni K. DiLorenzo


This is sad, when an musician's head get's so enlarged ,He loses respect for another musician,
like the music or not, it's about respect for the
" art" and the love of music.
So you may not like what I like, and I might not like what you do.But it's not about thatwhat are we in high school??? RESPECT THE ART! Music is what makes us.
Mr. Weller you need to get of you high horse and respect your own form of Art.

May 11 2010 at 11:34 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
mark

Wow...I like both The Jam and Nirvana. His comments make me like like him less, though. Both were important bands, but The Jam was only PART of a movement in the late 70s early 80s; Nirvana STARTED a movement in the early 90s. Weller is a marvellously talented artist, but his self-importance is souring me on his work...

April 15 2010 at 9:20 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
oh oh

This dude looks repressive and maybe he had something in his backpants of so it seems fro the picture...

Kurt was just a kid paying his music geting up and loose in t=his groove and we the people (some) enjoyed the tunes and the sounds,,,, dont thing theat the ramones or the pistols or any of the rockys had the bass sound of nirvan I thnk it was much more developed and this kind of music NEVER DIES its the granchild of rock and if you look at the junk they make these days,,,I still enjoy and alwasy will love Nirvana and audio salve and depechemode and the pet shop boys and abba etc etc etc...moron just because he cant pay they disbamnd or bring down noted artis,,,o yeah and we here in the usa made the beatles great and we didint trash them because the y have that schhol childrewn song mentallity of lovy lovy lovy all the time kinda vibes,,,music is all kinds of mood,,,,

if not for us the brits would be paying to hitlerll..so get a life and stop bringin us down or well drpo a bomb on your a...

April 15 2010 at 6:45 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Luke

What a ridiculous statement, first of all, I don't think he killed himself, secondly I am British and think Paul Weller is a fucking douche bag and is not a national treasure, and how can you say Nirvana would be shit? you don't know that, there is no way of knowing it, and I'm sorry but Paul Wellers solo stuff is awful

April 14 2010 at 5:26 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Luke

Paul Weller is pathetic compared to Kurt, Paul Weller really is stupid, all he ever did was bitch about Maggie Thatcher and think he was the dogs bollocks, Kurt appealed to kids who went through a tough time and wrote classic songs and classic albums, and every The Jam song sounds the same? Listen to In Utero and Mtv unplugged and tell me Nirvana are not diverse.

April 14 2010 at 12:35 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to Luke's comment
ladycplum

Weller is a National Treasure, and he's stayed that way by changing with the times and yet still being himself. Cobain and Co. may have rode the crest of grunge, but when Cobain decided his fans more worthy of his life than his daughter he signed its death notice as well. I doubt Nirvana would be doing shit today if they were still around. Weller's been on the music scene for over 40 years, still as strong as ever. Funny, the kids I grew up with who listened to grunge and talked about how much life sucked and wore their plaids and Docs were just a few weeks before that teasing up their hair and going to Poison and Winger concerts. Bandwagons indeed.

April 14 2010 at 4:42 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Luke

oh fuck off Weller, Nirvana did more then you ever will.

March 12 2010 at 5:38 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to Luke's comment
ladycplum

If Kurt Nobrains had half the talent of Paul Weller he'd still be only half-talented. Weller's been for a helluva lot longer than Cobain was even alive, his body of work is extraordinary in its diversity, unlike Nirvana, and unlike Mr. Nobrains, when Weller went through his periods of depression he threw himself into his writing rather than selfishly and with the utmost cowardice shove a shotgun in his mouth and leave a child behind.

April 13 2010 at 8:40 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Brandon

Are you kidding me? "Jump on a bandwagon??!!" Nirvana didn't ask for the level of fame they acheived, they were just making the music that they liked. If Nirvana "Jumped on a bandwagon" than so did everyone else whos ever picked up the guitar after the very first guy picked one up.

February 25 2010 at 6:51 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Judd

I agree 1000%..All Nirvana did was jump on a bandwagon that had left years ago and usher in all those pathetic 'anti-everything' losers..looking forward to the new Weller album!!!!

February 25 2010 at 5:28 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
A Douche Says...

A dead band is rubbish, way to be classy within the industry guy! (mate?)

February 25 2010 at 2:23 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply