How Nirvana’s ‘MTV Unplugged’ Helped Fans Grieve Kurt Cobain

Nirvana’s MTV Unplugged in New York arrived in stores on Nov. 1, 1994, less than six months after the tragic death of frontman Kurt Cobain.

It was a moment which gave music fans a way to revisit a unique performance from a band that had weathered a turbulent series of events leading up to Cobain’s passing on April 5, 1994. The singer had been sick during their European tour, including reportedly having bronchitis. He overdosed in Rome just a couple days after the band’s set in Munich that would become their final concert. Barely a month later, he was gone.

READ MORE: The Day Kurt Cobain Died

Nirvana’s Unplugged appearance had been recorded on Nov. 18, 1993 and received its first broadcast that same year on Dec. 16. It left a vivid impression with journalist Will Hodge. “It came out on the Thursday night right before we went out for Christmas break when I was in seventh grade,” he recalls in a new conversation on the UCR Podcast you can listen to below. “The commercials had been out, so we knew it was coming, but I really only had, like, one day to talk about it with my friends the next day before we were out for two weeks.”

Watch Nirvana Perform ‘Come as You Are’ on ‘MTV Unplugged’

“I was one of those kids that recorded as many things as I could on VHS back in the day and so for two weeks, I pretty much just had this VHS of Nirvana’s Unplugged [in constant rotation] as well,” he remembers. As it happens, MTV gave fans a double dose of live Nirvana that month, broadcasting the Seattle group’s explosive performance at Pier 48 in their hometown. They anchored a powerful triple bill that also featured the Breeders and Cypress Hill. Recorded on Dec. 18, 1993, fans would get to see the electric side of Nirvana as a special New Year’s Eve program on the network.

Even for those who had seen the band play live on television plugged in prior to that, the New Year’s Eve broadcast, branded as Live and Loud, showed yet another side of the grunge titans. “These two Nirvana performances were so different and both so unique. Because even though I had seen them play live electrically a bunch, the Live and Loud show was different,” he says. “Because they had Lori [Goldston]’s cello playing and this is when they had two guitars — Pat [Smear] was playing electric as well, and so you had these two really cool things to play off each other.”

Watch Nirvana Perform ‘All Apologies’ on ‘Live and Loud’

“Plus the Nirvana Unplugged didn’t have that aura yet of being one of the ‘big final statements from Nirvana,'” Hodge adds “It just felt like two really cool performances. It’s a topic the journalist knows a thing or two about. He’s spent a good amount of time (some might say, a lifetime) thinking about — and interviewing people involved with the production of the series. So much so, that he launched a podcast in 2024 dedicated to the subject, called Unplugged Revisited. Still, the November performance by the band is a particular episode from the run that he holds near and dear as a fan. “It was just from another world,” he adds.

How Nirvana Was Evolving as a Live Band

With the benefit of time, and the numerous live releases that have come out since Cobain’s death, it’s interesting to realize how much the band was constantly evolving their live performance, even though it was a relatively short time period. Listening to Live at the Paramount, captured Oct. 31, 1991, Live at Reading, recorded on Aug. 30, 1992 and the two MTV performances from 1993, just as a few scattered examples, offer a clear view at how the group was honing their live set and getting more precise and polished. Even still, they maintained the ragged edges that had secured the attention and devotion of their fans.

Watch Nirvana Perform ‘Breed’ at the Reading Festival in 1992

Nirvana’s MTV Unplugged appearance, like the subsequent one that Alice in Chains recorded in 1996, was a bit of a tough watch at the time it was first broadcast in December of 1993. Both groups are at the very least, audibly, struggling. Though the performances are brilliant, it’s clear that both Cobain and AIC’s Layne Staley, were not in a good place. Yet, it’s the raw emotion and the related tension captured in each of those concerts that are just a part of why those particular episodes of Unplugged are very impactful.

Hodge, who also interviewed Alice in Chains bassist Mike Inez about the band’s Unplugged, can clearly see the connection between the two episodes. But he offers some helpful perspective regarding Nirvana’s performance. “When you see a little bit of even the dynamic between Dave [Grohl] and Kurt, you know, Kurt was very much feeling like the performance wasn’t going that great, not only afterward, but even kind of in the middle of it,” he explains. “And as you read more stories, you find out, yeah, they had a really tough two-day rehearsal leading up to that where most of the folks in the Nirvana camp were like, ‘Hey, maybe tomorrow’s not gonna go that great.'”

Nirvana’s ‘Unplugged’ Had Challenges, But They Worked Through the Obstacles

They felt pressure on numerous levels, internally, regarding the pending performance, from MTV — and as he points out, the ongoing pressures of being the biggest band in the world. Yet, thanks to jokes that they’d share, and a general looseness in the moment, they carried through and pulled off a show together that would feel special and those feelings, particularly with the fans, have only deepened with the passage of time. “Kurt ended up playing ‘Pennyroyal Tea’ completely by himself, even though, even up to that day, during rehearsal, they were trying different versions of it, with Pat on guitar and Pat singing and all that.”

Listen to Matt Wardlaw and Will Hodge Discuss Nirvana’s ‘MTV Unplugged’ on the ‘UCR Podcast’

“And yeah, you see Dave, on the day of the show, being like, ‘Yeah, yeah, do it by yourself.’ He’s keeping things cool. It’s the same thing with Krist [Novoselic]. He just has the most Invitational, chill demeanor, but also [he’s also a] phenomenally stable musician. The three of those guys together, and then especially for the Unplugged performance, adding in Pat and Lori for this greater instrumental, melodic rounding. it’s kind of cool to see how much more musical interactions they had, but just really how they remained comrades in the midst of this. I can’t imagine the level of fame and pressure they were feeling.”

Watch Nirvana Perform David Bowie’s ‘The Man Who Sold the World’ on ‘MTV Unplugged’

In the wake of Cobain’s death, the recording of Nirvana’s MTV Unplugged took on an even more emotional tone. But it also offered a certain comfort to fans who were grieving the unexpected loss. Now many years removed from those original moments, it remains a highlight, one which perhaps happened against many odds and captured a magic that will never be replicated.