10 Music Bands Who Had An Extra Member You Never Knew About

3. Nirvana - Jason Everman (Guitar, 1989)

Nirvana were curiously a four-piece at one time. Jason Everman hooked up with the band in 1989 as their second guitarist, a credit which is listed on the band’s debut ‘Bleach’ even though Kurt Cobain would reveal in interviews Jason didn’t play a single note on the album. Look at the cover of Bleach though and you’ll see Everman playing with the band. He scored the credit as a thank you from Kurt as Everman, who’d saved $20,000 from working in Alaska, gave Nirvana the $606.17 it cost to record the album. When Bleach was remastered and re-released in 2009, Everman is no longer credited but is given a special thanks in the booklet accompanying it.

Jason toured with Nirvana in the summer of 1989. He was hired to magnify and deepen the band’s sound live so Kurt could concentrate on vocals. The band never meshed with Jason though, so he was let go shortly afterwards. Jason later said of his time with Nirvana: “I think the root of my unhappiness in playing with that band was the realisation that I’d never be more than a second guitar player.”

After his exit, another legendary grunge band called Jason and asked him if he wanted to join. Kim Thayil of Soundgarden wondered if he wanted to replace Hiro Yamamoto on bass for their ‘Louder Than Love’ tour. Whilst his tenure was again short-lived, Everman can claim he was in not one but two of the most important bands of all time.

Jason went on to an entirely different career trajectory, becoming part of the elite Special Forces, and later earning a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy at Columbia University.