10 Dumbest Decisions Rock Bands Have Ever Made
2. Nirvana Abandoning the Road
Whenever a band reaches their fullest potential, you always want to shoot for the widest audience possible. I mean, unless you're Frank Zappa and are deliberately designed to make anti-commercial music, it's every band's dream to run towards their star power and soak it for all its worth. When you're not all that social a person to begin with though, things tend to get a bit complicated.
Going into the recording for Nevermind, no one in Nirvana had any awareness of how big it would be once MTV got their hands on it. Arriving at the end of 1991, Smells Like Teen Spirit became the song that would not die, catapulting all hair metal off the map and signaling the new arrival of grunge and alternative on the airwaves. Right when they were supposed to conquer though, Nirvana were...nowhere to be seen.
Taking to the road for a few shows after the album's release, things started to get a bit hectic when the venues couldn't physically hold the amount of people wanting to get in the door, which freaked out Kurt Cobain even more. Not wanting to live the excessive lifestyle, Cobain pulled the plug on touring before going home and conducting interviews instead, meaning Nevermind never had a proper tour behind it. Considering that the In Utero tour quickly snuffed out Cobain's spirit though, it may have been a good idea if Nirvana had never taken to the road at all.