Post Malone Sought Permission From Kurt Cobain’s Daughter Before Nirvana Fundraiser Stream
One of the first major livestream events at the beginning of the pandemic was Post Malone's full concert covering Nirvana material with the assistance of Blink-182's Travis Barker on drums. But that April 2020 show was not something just thrown together in a rush, and during a chat with the Howard Stern Show on SiriusXM, Posty revealed that there was one essential thing that had to happen before they proceeded.
When asked by Stern about reaching out to Kurt Cobain's family prior to the livestream with the request, Malone revealed that it was Frances Bean Cobain that gave him the blessing to play the special set.
"We went to Kurt's daughter," revealed the musician. "It's important to me because I loved Kurt so much, and he's been such an inspiration to me, musically. I could never want to offend anybody by trying to show support, so I just wanted to make sure that everything was ok. And it was ok, and we raised money for a good cause, and we got to play some of the most fucking epic songs ever."
Within the Stern interview (viewed below), Post Malone also discusses his face tattoos, one of which is "Stay Away" that is in honor of Kurt Cobain.
In total, the set included 15 Nirvana songs and the show raised over $500,000 for the United Nations Foundation's COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund.
Not only did the performance raise funds and draw a lot of eyes, it also garnered some love from members of the Nirvana family. Bassist Krist Novoselic shared his love, stating, So proud of Post Malone and crew," and later adding, "I don't think these fellows could play any better. They are on fire!!!!"
Love posted on Instagram at the time stating, "Thank you mighty kc for writing these songs with your elegant and monkeyed hands that the kids still want to sing and play and hear and use to fight and hunt and cure and heal and eradicate this fucking covid19 virus. I approve the usage. Good luck mr malone."
And Dave Grohl commented after the event, "First of all, watching Travis play the drums to those Nirvana songs, I was honored. I thought that was super cool. They were killing it. So I watched a bunch of it. I was, like, 'That was really cool.' Even the die-hard Nirvana people that I know were, like, 'Dude, he's kind of killing it right now.'"
Following the Nirvana-themed livestream, Malone and Barker then spent some additional time co-writing music.
Though Post Malone is mostly known these days for his pop bangers, he does have a rock/metal background and has used his public platform to bring attention to rock and metal.
In 2018, Post Malone turned up with Aerosmith onstage at the MTV VMAs and a year later he performed with Red Hot Chili Peppers at the Grammys.
Later in 2019, he snagged Ozzy Osbourne for a guest spot on the song "Take What You Want." That collaboration led to an onstage appearance by Osbourne with Post Malone at the 2019 American Music Awards. Posty would later return the favor, turning up on Ozzy's song "It's a Raid" from Osbourne's Ordinary Man album. And in 2020, Post Malone grabbed Motley Crue drummer Tommy Lee for a single that also shared the drummer's name. Then, to ring in the New Year on New Year's Eve leading into 2021, Post Malone led an all star covers jam session with Andrew Watt, Slash, Chris Chaney and Chad Smith. And there are other instances of Post Malone showing his hard rock and metal love as well.