Given his erratic history of substance abuse and often subsequent arrests, Puddle Of Mudd vocalist/guitarist Wes Scantlin‘s career has been filled with numerous low points. But while those various incidents made headlines, his cringe-inducing 2020 in-studio cover of “About A Girl” by the legendary grunge band Nirvana saw him become the subject of a whole different type of viral fame.
Nirvana‘s impact felt paramount to the earlier works of Puddle Of Mudd, with Scantlin and co. managing to carve out a multi-platinum career thanks to their mining of the grunge genre. Thus, when he butchered the vocals for his band’s rendition of the aforementioned track for SiriusXM, the irony was especially bitter.
When the initial backlash began to flood in after Scantlin‘s rendition or the Nirvana staple made the rounds on social media, he initially attempted to defend it, offering:
“Rise above others who try and take you down… I’m at my BEST NOW… and that’s all that matters. I pray for all of you because we care. Toxic people are a waste of time. We walk away with nothing but a SMILE…”
Speaking recently about it with Songfacts, Scantlin has come to terms that it wasn’t his best work. He offered:
“Oh, yeah. You know what? I was acclimating and it was a tiring day, and I had already performed five or six songs at one time, and by the time I got to that one — which I shouldn’t even have done because I cannot nail that song — I was a little tired. It looked and sounded like total shit. But live to fight another day, dude.”
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