If there’s one thing that irks Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic more than Courtney Love’s disputed assertion that Grohl was somehow responsible for Kurt Cobain’s appearance in Guitar Hero 5, it’s the game’s feature allowing players to use a Kurt avatar to perform Bon Jovi songs (yes, they’ve seen the video, apparently). The surviving Nirvana members just released another statement.
“We want people to know that we are dismayed and very disappointed in the way a facsimile of Kurt is used in the Guitar Hero game. The name and likeness of Kurt Cobain are the sole property of his estate — we have no control whatsoever in that area.
While we were aware of Kurt’s image being used with two Nirvana songs, we didn’t know players have the ability to unlock the character. This feature allows the character to be used with any kind of song the player wants. We urge Activision to do the right thing in “re-locking†Kurt’s character so that this won’t continue in the future.
It’s hard to watch an image of Kurt pantomiming other artists’ music alongside cartoon characters. Kurt Cobain wrote songs that hold a lot of meaning to people all over the world. We feel he deserves better.
Krist Novoselic and Dave Grohl
Stay tuned for more official statements as they become available.