Ex-Fear Factory vocalist Burton C. Bell has shared the tale as to how he wound up appearing on the artwork for Nirvana‘s 1990 7″ release for “Sliver“/ “Dive“. Speaking via Instagram yesterday, July 11th, Bell explained how his chance appearance in a photo from that release from the then pre-fame grunge megastars came about. Here’s how he told it:
“I moved to LA in July, 1989. I started working at Tower Video on Sunset Blvd in September. I was 20 years of age.
A coworker, Scott, and I became good friends as we talked about the new music that was being created during that time including all things SUBPOP, and I was loving it.
He eventually introduced me to Nirvana’s BLEACH album. That album immediately spoke to me.February 15, 1990, 4 days before my 21st birthday, Nirvana was playing Raji’s ; a basement dive on Hollywood Blvd.
Scott and I got super high before we went inside. We missed the opening band, Distorted Pony, but after they were done, we made our way to the front of the small stage, that went up to my knees. There was no barricade, and there were maybe 100 people there. From what I remember it was a bad ass show.
SUBPOP released the 45 single Sliver, with the B-side Dive sometime after that. I know this because when I was checking out the cover art of the single, the negative image photograph on the back was from that Raji’s show, and there I was standing right in front, stoned in amazement of #nirvana and #kurtcobain”
Bell‘s early fandom of the band also led to him attending the video shoot for the Aberdeen, WA band’s breakout hit, “Smells Like Teen Spirit“.
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