Paul Weller has slammed Nirvana as ”f***ing rubbish”, saying he never liked shoegazing or grunge bands.
The outspoken ‘Changing Man’ rocker said he felt the Britpop period of music in Britain in the 90s – when he came back in vogue with his solo albums ‘Wild Wood’ and ‘Stanley Road’ – was much better than the movements which came immediately before it.
Blasting Nirvana – who came to a end in 1994 when frontman Kurt Cobain committed suicide- Paul, 51, said: “You’d had all that shoegazing b*****ks and then the whole Nirvana thing, which I thought was f***ing rubbish – it was just America catching up with punk rock 20 years too f***ing late for me, you know. So to hear some English guitar music again was really refreshing.”
Paul also said he felt he was involved with the Britpop scene – which included bands such as Oasis, Blur, The Charlatans and Suede – more than any other musicians in his career, which at that point spanned over twenty years with The Jam and The Style Council.
He added to NME magazine: “That was the first time ever that I’d felt any kinship with any musicians – even though they were all probably at least ten years younger than me.”
The 90s was also the period when Paul started using recreational drugs – but he stopped a few years later when he saw the affect they were having on his friends.
Although he wasn’t specific about which drugs he took, referring to them as “gear” he explained: “From ’93 or ’94 I had a f***ing whale of a time. There was so much gear flying about in the 90s. You maybe get a few good years out of it, but then it goes downhill. I could hear a lot of people’s careers in music going down the pan after a while as well.”