Lolla: The Story of Lollapalooza Reveals Why Kurt Cobain Pulled Nirvana’s Slot in 1994: It Was a ‘Sellout Moment’

In 1994, Nirvana was set to headline Lollapalooza in its third iteration. Then, in fear of “selling out”, Kurt Cobain withdrew.

IN Lolla: The Story of Lollapaloozapremiering Thursday at the Sundance Film Festival, viewers will get an in-depth look at the music and culture that launched the beloved music festival.

In the summer of ’91, what began as a farewell tour for Jane’s Addiction turned into a cultural movement that changed the landscape for future music festivals. Those first few years provided the stage for iconic acts such as Ice-T, Pearl Jam, Rage Against the Machine and Green Day.

The second episode of the three-part documentary, directed by Michael John Warren and produced by James Lee Hernandez and Brian Lazarte, reveals that Nirvana was scheduled to play alongside the Beastie Boys, Smashing Pumpkins and Patti Smith in the summer of ’94. .

“We were planning a festival and Nirvana were thinking about it, but they decided they couldn’t do it. Kurt couldn’t do it,” says Lollapalooza co-founder Don Muller.

Lollapalooza in July 1992 in Mountain View, California.

Tim Mosenfelder/Getty

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“Kurt was terrified of selling, and Lolla was a moment of release for them. He was very clear in that moment about how he looked in the audience and he saw all the people who beat him up at school – and me too, right?” John Rubeli, second stage booker for Lollapalooza from ’93-’95 adds.

He concludes: “Nirvana was everything to us. When you are with something that is once in a generation, once in a lifetime, it simply fulfills you in every way.”

In the same year, Cobain died of suicide at the age of 27 in his home in Seattle. Jane’s Addiction frontman Perry Farrell recalls the days leading up to his death in a documentary.

“I heard Kurt ran away from rehab and they were actually wondering if I knew where he was,” says Farrell, 64. “I didn’t know where he was, and then a few days later they told me he shot himself.”

Lollapalooza in June 1993 in New York.

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L7’s Donita Sparks adds, “When Kurt died… it was the end of an era.”

Warren, the director, was just 17 when he attended the inaugural Lollapalooza and remembers it as “an amazing day.”

“I’m only 17 years old. I haven’t seen the world. I haven’t gone to college. I’ve done almost nothing. That day felt dangerous,” he tells PEOPLE. “Henry Rollins opens the day. The Butthole Surfers shoot shotguns into the crowd. Nine Inch Nails is absolutely brutal and unlike anything I’ve seen. Living Color, I was a huge fan of Living Color and I got a high five from Corey Glover, the lead singer of that band and I we almost passed out.”

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“Ice-T was totally awesome. He did a split set,” Warren recalls. “I loved his rap music when I was a kid. So the first half of his set was rap, and then he did Body Count, and they did ‘Cop Killer.’ And I was like, s…, I can’t believe it that you can say it or do it on stage.”

Most importantly, this documentary should serve as a message to Generation Z, showing the similarities in what they live now — and what Generation X lived then.

Lollapalooza 2006.

KMazur/WireImage

“When I was 17 years old and growing up in suburban America in the early ’90s as a teenager, I felt like… We saw a lot of things going on in the world, and my generation was pretty angry to be honest about a lot of things that were were happening.”

“I think a lot of the same themes and a lot of the frustrations of Generation Z right now are not entirely different from what Generation X felt back in the day,” Warren says. “There are things to learn from what Generation X did and what Generation X failed to do. And now Generation Z is in the same position we were in then.”

A release date for the documentary has yet to be announced, though the first two episodes will premiere at the upcoming 2024 Sundance Film Festival, which will take place January 18-28 in Salt Lake City and Park City, Utah.

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Source: HIS Education