60 Fun Facts About 90s Rock

Nirvana's Nevermind hit number one in January 1992 by knocking which album off the top?

Dangerous had topped the Billboard 200 since mid-December when Nevermind replaced it in the second week of January 1992; Geffen had hoped Nevermind might sell 250,000 copies, and it was certified Diamond by 1999.

Who produced Nirvana's Nevermind, giving it a far more polished, radio-friendly sound than Bleach?

Butch Vig had recorded Nirvana's 1990 Smart Studios demos, which won him the Nevermind job; he later played drums in Garbage.

The swimming baby on the Nevermind cover, who sued the band in 2021, is named what?

Spencer Elden, four months old and the son of photographer Kirk Weddle's friend, was paid $200 for the shoot; Cobain's proposed compromise for the nudity was a sticker, not a crop.

Nirvana left Sub Pop and released Nevermind on which Geffen imprint?

DGC, the Geffen imprint Sonic Youth had joined, signed Nirvana in 1991 for a $287,000 advance, with Kim Gordon among those steering them there; Nevermind followed in September 1991.

Which indie producer recorded Nirvana's In Utero in two weeks in February 1993?

Steve Albini recorded In Utero in about two weeks in February 1993 at Pachyderm Studio, taking a flat $100,000 fee and refusing royalty points on principle.

Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love were married in February 1992 in which location?

Waikiki Beach in Honolulu hosted the ceremony on 24 February 1992, days after Nirvana's Pacific Rim tour ended; their daughter Frances Bean was born that August.

Which fellow frontman was chosen as godfather to Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love's daughter?

Michael Stipe of R.E.M. is Frances Bean Cobain's godfather; he had planned to record with Cobain in 1994 and sent him a plane ticket, but Cobain never came.

Kurt Cobain wanted the MTV Unplugged set, with its lilies, black candles and chandelier, to look like what?

A funeral was what Cobain asked for, hence the stargazer lilies, black candles and crystal chandelier; the show was taped in a single take on 18 November 1993, less than five months before his death.

Members of which band joined Nirvana on stage for several songs at the MTV Unplugged taping in 1993?

Meat Puppets' Cris and Curt Kirkwood played on three of their own songs, Plateau, Oh Me and Lake of Fire; MTV had wanted bigger names such as Eddie Vedder or Tori Amos.

Pearl Jam recorded Ten under what earlier band name, borrowed from an NBA player?

The name was changed after Epic worried about rights once the player signed a Nike deal; the album title kept his jersey number.

Pearl Jam's Vs. set a first-week sales record in October 1993 with roughly how many copies?

950,000 is the rounded figure: Vs. sold 950,378 copies in its first week, a record at the time, outselling the rest of that week's Billboard top ten combined.

In 1994 Pearl Jam accused which company of monopolising concert tickets?

Ticketmaster was the target of Pearl Jam's 1994 complaint to the Justice Department over service fees; the band spent years playing makeshift outdoor venues to avoid its exclusive contracts.

Which 1994 Soundgarden album debuted at number one and produced two Grammy-winning singles?

Superunknown entered the Billboard 200 at number one in March 1994; Spoonman and Black Hole Sun won Grammys, and Soundgarden had been the first grunge band to sign with a major label, A&M, in 1988.

Which 1994 Alice in Chains release became the first EP ever to debut at number one on the Billboard 200?

Jar of Flies, written and recorded in about a week at London Bridge Studio in Seattle, entered the Billboard 200 at number one in February 1994 and went triple platinum.

Which album became the first from Seattle's grunge scene to be certified gold, in September 1991?

Facelift had sold under 40,000 copies in six months until MTV put Man in the Box into daytime rotation; the RIAA certified it gold in September 1991.

Stone Temple Pilots won the 1994 Grammy for Best Hard Rock Performance for which song from Core?

Plush won Best Hard Rock Performance at the March 1994 Grammys; Weiland and Dean DeLeo had also played it acoustically on Headbangers Ball, and Purple debuted at number one that June.

Under what band name did Stone Temple Pilots record a demo before a bluesman's claim?

Mighty Joe Young was the name on the band's 1990 demo, which included funk and even yodelling; a bluesman's claim to the name forced the switch to Stone Temple Pilots.

Which R.E.M. single from Out of Time was the band's highest-charting and best-selling hit?

Losing My Religion reached number four on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1991, R.E.M.'s highest placing, and helped Out of Time to seven Grammy nominations; the follow-up Automatic for the People topped the UK chart.

Which Mellon Collie single gave the Smashing Pumpkins their highest Billboard Hot 100 peak?

1979 peaked at number 12 on the Billboard Hot 100 in early 1996, the Smashing Pumpkins' best showing there, and was nominated for Record of the Year at the 1997 Grammys.

Radiohead recorded much of OK Computer at St Catherine's Court, a mansion owned by which actress?

Jane Seymour's Tudor manor near Bath, St Catherine's Court, hosted the sessions in 1996; the album won Best Alternative Music Album at the 1998 Grammys and joined the US National Recording Registry in 2014.

Under what name did Radiohead first play, referring to their usual school rehearsal day?

On a Friday, the day the five rehearsed in Abingdon School's music room, was their name until they signed to EMI in late 1991 and became Radiohead after a Talking Heads song.

Weezer's 1994 Blue Album was produced by the frontman of which band?

The Cars' Ric Ocasek produced Weezer's 1994 debut at Electric Lady Studios in New York in 1993; its cover was inspired by a cheap Beach Boys cassette.

How many awards did Weezer's Buddy Holly video win at the 1995 MTV Video Music Awards?

Buddy Holly took 4 awards: Breakthrough Video, Best Alternative Video, Best Direction and Best Editing; Spike Jonze, who also shot the Undone clip, directed the Happy Days mash-up.

How many copies of Beck's Loser were pressed for its March 1993 12-inch release on Bong Load?

500 copies made up Bong Load's first 12-inch pressing in March 1993; after Geffen picked it up, the song reached number ten on the Hot 100 while Beck was living in a rat-infested shed.

Which single from Beck's Odelay won Best Male Rock Vocal Performance at the 1997 Grammys?

Where It's At, with its 'two turntables and a microphone' refrain, won Best Male Rock Vocal Performance in February 1997; Odelay sold two million copies and ended the one-hit-wonder talk after Mellow Gold.

Which guest played the one guitar part Dave Grohl didn't on the 1995 Foo Fighters debut?

Greg Dulli of the Afghan Whigs played guitar on X-Static; Grohl recorded the rest of the album mostly alone in six days at Robert Lang Studios in Seattle in October 1994.

The name Foo Fighters comes from a World War II term for what?

UFO sightings by Allied pilots were nicknamed foo fighters in the war; Grohl took the name hoping to stay anonymous with a limited-run release.

After signing a major-label deal for Dookie, Green Day was banned from which Berkeley punk club?

924 Gilman Street, the all-ages collective where Green Day had cut their teeth, barred major-label bands, so the Reprise deal shut them out; Maximumrocknroll piled on, and Dookie sold over ten million in the US anyway.

Green Day's Woodstock '94 set became infamous for what?

Opening with Welcome to Paradise after three days of rain provoked the crowd, and Armstrong taunted them back.

Which independent label released The Offspring's record-setting Smash (1994)?

Epitaph, owned by Bad Religion's Brett Gurewitz, put out Smash in April 1994, and its sales of over ten million worldwide set the record for an independently released album; the band jumped to Columbia in 1996.

Blink-182 formed in 1992 in which suburb of San Diego County?

Poway, a San Diego suburb, was where DeLonge and Hoppus first jammed in 1992 after DeLonge, expelled from Poway High for turning up drunk to a basketball game, had met drummer Scott Raynor at Rancho Bernardo High.

In the August 1995 'Battle of Britpop', Blur's Country House outsold which Oasis single?

Roll with It sold 216,000 copies to Country House's 274,000 in the chart week ending 19 August 1995, after Blur moved its release date to clash with Oasis.

Oasis's two Knebworth shows in August 1996 each drew an audience of roughly how many people?

125,000 people came on each of the two nights in August 1996, with some 2.5 million having applied for tickets; they were the largest outdoor concerts in UK history at the time.

A 1970s Canadian group owned the name, so Bush released Sixteen Stone in Canada as what?

BushX was the Canadian credit on Sixteen Stone because Domenic Troiano's 1970s band owned the name there; the album went six times platinum in the US, and Razorblade Suitcase hit number one in 1996.

Live's Throwing Copper reached number one on the Billboard 200 in which week of its chart run?

52nd week: Throwing Copper entered the chart in May 1994 and finally reached number one in May 1995; only Fleetwood Mac's 1975 album and Paula Abdul's Forever Your Girl had taken longer to climb to the top.

Metallica hired Bob Rock to produce the Black Album after admiring his work on which Mötley Crüe record?

Dr. Feelgood, Mötley Crüe's 1989 number one, convinced Metallica to hire Bob Rock; the Black Album sold 598,000 copies in its first week in August 1991 and became the best-selling album of the SoundScan era in the US.

Where was the self-immolating monk photo on Rage Against the Machine's 1992 debut cover taken?

Saigon was where AP's Malcolm Browne photographed Thích Quảng Đức's self-immolation at a busy intersection in June 1963; the album came out on Epic in November 1992.

Before Tool took off, singer Maynard James Keenan supported himself in Los Angeles doing what job?

Bandmates Paul D'Amour and Adam Jones had moved to LA hoping to work in film.

Nu metal pioneers Korn formed in 1993 in which California city?

Bakersfield natives Jonathan Davis, Munky, Head, Fieldy and David Silveria formed Korn in 1993; Follow the Leader in 1998 and Issues in 1999 both debuted at number one on the Billboard 200.

Which Nine Inch Nails album was recorded at 10050 Cielo Drive, where Sharon Tate was murdered?

The Downward Spiral was made at Reznor's Le Pig studio in the Cielo Drive house during 1993; he moved out after Sharon Tate's sister asked whether he was exploiting her death, and took the front door with him.

Red Hot Chili Peppers recorded Blood Sugar Sex Magik in a mansion once allegedly home to whom?

Harry Houdini was rumoured to have lived in the Laurel Canyon mansion Rick Rubin chose for the 1991 sessions; drummer Chad Smith refused to sleep there, convinced it was haunted.

With Jagged Little Pill, Alanis Morissette became the youngest artist ever to win which Grammy at the time?

Album of the Year went to Jagged Little Pill at the February 1996 Grammys when Morissette was 21, a record until Taylor Swift won it at 20 in 2010; the album has sold over 33 million copies worldwide.

Hole's Live Through This came out on 12 April 1994, how long after Kurt Cobain died?

One week: Cobain died on 5 April 1994 and his body was found on the 8th, four days before the release; the album, recorded in Marietta, Georgia, in October 1993, went platinum within a year.

Steve Marker discovered Shirley Manson after seeing an Angelfish video on which MTV show?

120 Minutes was showing Angelfish's Suffocate Me video when Marker spotted Manson; she moved from Edinburgh to Madison, Wisconsin, to make Garbage's 1995 debut.

Tragic Kingdom was the last No Doubt album to feature which founding member, who left in 1994?

Eric Stefani, Gwen's brother and the band's chief songwriter, quit over losing creative control and went to work as an animator on The Simpsons; Tragic Kingdom went Diamond in both the US and Canada.

PJ Harvey recorded Rid of Me (1993) at Pachyderm Studio, later used for In Utero, in which US state?

Minnesota's Pachyderm Studio, in Cannon Falls south of Minneapolis, hosted the Rid of Me sessions in December 1992, and Nirvana recorded In Utero there in February 1993.

Before her solo career, Sheryl Crow toured from 1987 to 1989 as a backing vocalist for which superstar?

Michael Jackson's Bad world tour carried Crow as a backing singer from 1987 to 1989; Tuesday Night Music Club later won her three Grammys, including Best New Artist, at the 1995 ceremony.

Lollapalooza began in 1991 as a farewell tour for which band?

Jane's Addiction's singer Perry Farrell conceived the 1991 tour as the band's farewell, inspired by Britain's Reading Festival; it toured North America every summer until 1997.

Woodstock '94 was held on Winston Farm near which New York town?

Saugerties, in Ulster County, hosted the festival on Winston Farm over 12 to 14 August 1994, a rainy weekend that ended in mud; the crowd swelled past 350,000 after fences came down.

Woodstock '99 was staged at the former Griffiss Air Force Base in which New York city?

Rome, in Oneida County, had lost Griffiss Air Force Base to closure in 1995; the festival ran on the old runways from 23 to 25 July 1999 and ended in fires and looting.

The Woodstock '99 bonfires grew from vigil candles honouring victims of which tragedy?

Columbine's victims were to be honoured with candles handed out by an anti-gun-violence group during the Chili Peppers' closing set; instead the candles lit plywood and trash, and fires spread across the grounds.

Metallica sued Napster in April 2000 after a demo of which song leaked before release?

I Disappear, recorded for the Mission: Impossible 2 soundtrack, turned up on radio before release, which tipped the band off that its whole catalogue was on Napster; the suit was filed on 13 April 2000.

U2 began recording Achtung Baby in October 1990 at Hansa Studios in which city?

They arrived on the last flight into East Berlin on the eve of German reunification, and found the city gloomy.

U2's Zoo TV stage used a lighting rig partly built from which East German car?

Trabant cars, the East German two-stroke runabouts, were hung over the stage as lighting rigs; Bono played characters including The Fly, Mirror Ball Man and MacPhisto across the 157-show tour.

Scott Stapp wrote that Creed first performed in a Tallahassee bar under what name?

Naked Toddler was the name Stapp recalls in his memoir Sinner's Creed for the band's first Tallahassee gig; My Own Prison began as a self-release that sold 6,000 copies around Florida, and Human Clay went Diamond.

Which absent artist did the unknown Counting Crows fill in for at the 1993 Rock Hall ceremony?

Van Morrison skipped his own induction in January 1993, so the little-known Counting Crows played his Caravan after Robbie Robertson's introduction; August and Everything After arrived that September.

Sublime's mascot Lou Dog was what breed?

Dalmatian Lou Dog was adopted by Bradley Nowell from a shelter in 1990 and named after Nowell's grandfather Louie; he wandered the stage at the band's shows.

Sublime's self-titled 1996 album was released roughly how long after Bradley Nowell's death?

Two months separated Nowell's death on 25 May 1996 and the album's release on 30 July; What I Got then became their first single to top the Modern Rock chart.

Dave Matthews was working as a bartender in which Virginia city when he formed his band in 1991?

Charlottesville's Miller's bar employed Matthews, and a lawyer friend, Ross Hoffman, talked him into recording a demo and approaching drummer Carter Beauford.

Rob Thomas won three Grammys, including Record of the Year, for singing on which Santana single?

Smooth, co-written by Thomas and Itaal Shur, topped the Hot 100 for 12 weeks in 1999; he was only meant to write it until Carlos Santana heard the demo vocal.