On September 9, 1992, the MTV Music Awards ceremony took place.
Why is this an event important enough to address? Stay with us and find out.
Let’s start with the fact that this was the Music Awards ceremony for one of the craziest years in Rock, as it sums up the year from June 16, 1991, to June 15, 1992. Just think how many masterpieces albums have come out in this time frame: Pearl Jam’s "Ten", Nirvana's "Nevermind", "Blood Sex Sugar Magik" by "Red Hot Chili Peppers", "The Black Album" by "Metallica", "Achtung Baby" by "U2", "Use Your Illusion I & II" by "Guns N 'Roses", should we continue ???
Let's keep in mind that the big winners of this evening were "Van Halen" who won three awards, including the most prestigious award of "song of the year" with "Right Now", which defeated the video clips for the songs "Smells Like Teen Spirit" and "Under the Bridge". "The Red Hot Chili Peppers" also stood out with 6 different nominations of which they won three awards.
But that's not what we came to tell you about this very sensational evening. The stars of this evening were Kurt Cobain and "Nirvana" on the one hand Vs. Axl Rose and "Guns" on the other. In between those two giants, there was Elton John who got into a silly conflict involuntarily and unknowingly and eventually paid the "price ".
So as with any good story, it all started with a quarrel that originated with a "Girl."
The singer, actress, and the walking provocation, who happens to be the wife of ... Courtney Love, walked behind the scenes of the music awards ceremony when she met Axl Rose and offers him to be the godfather of her newborn (just a few weeks old) - Frances Bean Cobain. The mad Axl Rose threatened Cobain that if he did not immediately silence his wife then... and within seconds a loud exchange of insults began between him and Cobain and between Courtney Love and Axl Rose's girlfriend at the time - Stephanie Seymour. The bassists from both sides of the barricade, Duff McKagan and Krist Novoselic, immediately joined the "celebration" and even exchanged blows between them, up until "Nirvana" had to take the stage.
"Nirvana" and "Guns" were the bands that were scheduled to perform on stage this evening. Kurt Cobain really wanted to play the song "Rape Me" but the MTV management was very unhappy with his choice. Even bassist Krist Novoselic did not understand why Kurt insisted on this song and thought the band should play a song from "Nevermind". Eventually, the band played "Lithium" but Kurt who did not remain obligated started the song with a few chords from "Rape Me" while also singing the pair of "Forbidden" words, which of course infuriated the network. See here the amazing performance at the end of which "Nirvana" just took the stage by storm, quite literally:
The quarrel continued even after "Nirvana"'s performance when drummer Dave Grohl also continued to tease Axl. At one point Kurt Cobain passed by the grand piano where he thought Axl was going to play the song "November Rain" and spat on it from the best fluids in his mouth and nose.
The one who paid the price was Elton John, as Kurt Cobain did not know that the piano on which he spat was the piano that Elton John was supposed to play on during the duet with "Guns", while Axl Rose played on another piano. See here:
Either way, it was one of MTV's best ceremonies, to sum up, one of the best years in music, with more shows by Bryan Adams, "Def Leppard", "Red Hot Chili Peppers", "Pearl Jam", Eric Clapton, "U2" that appeared via satellite broadcast and more ..