In a new interview with RRBG Podcast, Melvins guitarist Buzz Osborne talked about how his band made a big impact on rock music, even though they didn’t achieve the same success as newer bands. The rocker also revealed if he was ‘bitter’ or jealous of those bands.
“Because a lot of people will want to project onto me, and maybe Trevor as well, the fact that that didn’t happen to us must mean that we’re bitter and pissed off and jealous,” he explained. “And I’m none of those things. I’m bitter and pissed off, but it’s not because someone’s successful. [Laughs] Not at all.”
“I mean, I never fault anyone for making money or their success. Fine with me — good. Let’s see what you can do with that. Doesn’t bother me, I don’t feel at all threatened by that sort of thing,” Osborne added.
Melvins made a three-album deal with Atlantic Records back in 1993 after Nirvana’s ‘Nevermind’ became a success. The band released ‘Houdini,’ ‘Stoner Witch’ and ‘Stag’ under the record company.
Though two of these albums gained popularity worldwide, they started getting compared to Nirvana for their success and people claimed Kurt Cobain helped Melvins getting signed with Atlantic.
“I think they signed us because they thought it would attract other, cooler bands,” Osbourne denied the claims in another interview. “They did exactly what they said they were going to do. We didn’t get millions of dollars or anything like that, but we got really decent budgets to make albums, and we were very careful with our budgets and knew this was probably all the money we were ever going to get from these records.”
He added: “And I wasn’t wrong about that… We got a little bit of money, made our records, and then two of those albums, ‘Houdini’ and ‘Stoner Witch’, are probably two of our more popular albums.”
The rocker also admitted that he could have created a mainstream band but he had a certain audience and taste.
Melvins’ 27th studio album, ‘Tarantula Heart,’ is out now.