Nirvana Accept MTV's Video Vanguard Award Without Performing

Nirvana accepted MTV's Video Vanguard Award on Sunday without performing a single note. Public Enemy's Chuck D presented the honor to the surviving members of the band — Dave Grohl, Krist Novoselic, and Pat Smear — at the VMAs. Only Novoselic spoke.

"I don't think there's ever been a band exactly like Nirvana," Chuck D said in his speech.

Novoselic used his moment at the podium to credit the band's late frontman. "This award brings back so many memories of making those videos," he said. "The ideas for those videos all grew out of the vision of one of the greatest artists of all time, Kurt Cobain. Kurt was one of one … Nirvana continues to resonate so deeply because people are still hungry for authenticity. Or something real, something uncompromising. something that tells you it's OK to come as you are. Kurt would have loved that legacy."

MTV timed the announcement deliberately. The network revealed the band would receive the award on the 34th anniversary of Nirvana's performance of Nevermind's "Lithium" at the 1992 VMAs — the same night Kurt Cobain teased the opening chords of the then-unreleased In Utero song "Rape Me," apparently to irritate network censors. The Video Vanguard Award recognizes artists' legacies as music video innovators.

Nirvana's video catalog is small but decisive. The band filmed seven music videos, including memorable clips for "Smells Like Teen Spirit," "Come as You Are," "In Bloom," and "Heart-Shaped Box," before Cobain's death in 1994. Videos for "You Know You're Right" and "Dumb" followed in 2002 and 2023 respectively. The band also filmed a legendary episode of MTV Unplugged.

Sunday's refusal to perform fits the pattern. The surviving members have played together only a handful of times since 1994, and for two decades they avoided Nirvana songs entirely.

The first reunion came on Aug. 29, 1997, when the Foo Fighters played Bumbershoot in Seattle and Krist Novoselic joined the group — which already included Nirvana guitarist Pat Smear — for Prince's "Purple Rain" and Led Zeppelin's "Communication Breakdown." Thirteen years passed before the next one. On Dec. 21, 2010, Grohl, Novoselic, and Smear played "Marigold," the B side to "Heart Shaped Box," at a secret Foo Fighters club show in Los Angeles.

In 2012, the trio recorded a new song, "Cut Me Some Slack," with Paul McCartney — a project they jokingly dubbed "Sirvana" — for the soundtrack to the documentary Sound City. They performed it live at the 12-12-12 benefit and on Saturday Night Live.

They did not perform any Cobain-penned Nirvana songs until April 10, 2014, when the band entered the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. "We didn't even start talking about playing until about eight weeks ago," Grohl told Rolling Stone the day after the ceremony. "It just seemed practically impossible. It was hard to imagine jumping onstage and playing those songs. It takes a little bit of musical preparation, and a lot of emotional preparation."

The choice of singers for that night reshaped the performance. The band first approached a group of what Grohl called "A-list male rock stars," but all of them turned the offer down. Once Joan Jett agreed to sing "Smells Like Teen Spirit," the band decided to invite only women for the remaining songs. Kim Gordon, St. Vincent, and Lorde all signed on.

"Kim Gordon, from Sonic Youth, was this beacon of light in the predominantly macho, male underground punk rock scene," Grohl said at the time. "St. Vincent is a wicked musician that's pushing boundaries now. And Lorde has an incredible future ahead of her as a writer, performer, and vocalist."

That night, the band performed with additional singers at a private club show. They reprised the format in 2018 at Cal Jam, this time with Jett and Deer Tick's John J. McCauley.

Whether the Vanguard Award prompts another reunion remains unspoken. Novoselic's words on Sunday made clear where the band places its legacy: with Cobain, and with an audience still hungry, as he put it, for "something real."