Guitar Hero Gets Teen Spirit

Guitar Hero 5 is getting Nirvana's Kurt Cobain, with the hit Smells Like Teen Spirit and a previously unreleased version of another song.

Any grunge fans among gamers will be overjoyed at the news that the upcoming Guitar Hero 5 will be featuring Kurt Cobain, the leader of Nirvana who killed himself at his Seattle home in 1994.

Nirvana, of course, made the great grunge breakthrough with the hit song Smells Like Teen Spirit, which will be in the game, played by an animated Cobain, who will be a playable character. But, just to hit the diehards where it hurts, there will also be a previously unreleased version of another band song, Lithium. It reportedly took three years of negotiation to gain permission to use the music.

Who else is in Guitar Hero 5? It’s quite a list, including the likes of Santana, Tom Petty, The Rolling Stones, Kings of Leon, Bob Dylan, The White Stripes, Vampire Weekend, and Johnny Cash. But Tim Riley, vice president of music affairs at Activision, is gushing most over the inclusion of Cobain, as he told the Seattle Times:

“Kurt Cobain is one of the most recognizable frontmen in rock ‘n’ roll history and it’s an honor to have two of Nirvana’s masterpieces included in Guitar Hero 5. This is the first time the original recording of ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ has ever been licensed in an entertainment property and we’re thrilled to offer Guitar Hero fans exclusive access to the unreleased live version of Lithium.”

The game appears next month.