10 Hard Rock Musicians Who Were Almost In 2 Legendary Bands

It's any artists dream to be successful at what they do. As far as rock music goes, the idea of being in a group that is actually recognized for their talent feels like something that only comes once in a lifetime. Or in these artists' case, maybe once every other week.

Though most of these artists are known for their main gigs in their own respective outfits, the door was also open to provide their signature sound to a totally different group. While not all of the initial ideas panned out, fans have always speculated what it would have been like if it were the other way around. From a technical perspective, all the pieces were there for these acts to continue on as they were with these legends in their ranks, but something ended up falling through either through business or some other X-factor.

It didn't really matter though, considering most of these musicians had a virtual gold mine of material to fall back on, becoming stars in their own right after showing their stuff in their own bands. Even though most of these artists have made more millions than they could ask for at this point, there's always that 'what if' scenario if they tried to go another direction.

It's hard not to see Nirvana as a pure extension of Kurt Cobain's artistic soul. While Krist Novoselic and Dave Grohl definitely brought their own unique touches into the mix, there is no Nirvana without Cobain, whose simplistic songwriting worked perfectly in bringing alt-rock to the masses. On the other hand, Kurt the rock star and Kurt the fan boy could have gone in very different directions back in Seattle.

Long before Nirvana was even a set idea, Cobain spent most of his days making art pieces and listening to the hard rock that he heard out of his favorite local acts. Though Cobain never seemed to be the really out-going type, he made sure that he showed up to audition for his favorite band The Melvins, who had just lost their rhythm guitarist a few months earlier.

While the idea of having one of the greatest songwriters of the generation in your band might have been nice in retrospect, it was clear that Buzz Osborne's form of artsy metal wasn't going to fit in nicely with Cobain's style of washy guitar strumming. Cobain didn't hold any grudge towards his heroes though, as he went on to executive produce one of their albums after Nirvana made their millions. It was clear that Cobain had the technical chops to pull off something like this, but if he continued being in his favorite band, the entire alternative scene would be worse off for it.