Nirvana
0Loading crowd target
0Loading crowd target
7correct to beat the crowd
100 free Nirvana trivia questions with answers — music quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
44 free Nirvana trivia questions with answers. Nirvana existed for seven years, released three studio albums and changed what rock radio sounded like. Along the way they recorded a debut for six hundred dollars, knocked Michael Jackson off number one, took their biggest song's title from a friend's graffiti about deodorant, and turned an MTV Unplugged taping into something Kurt Cobain asked to look 'like a funeral'. This quiz covers the whole run: the Aberdeen origins and the Melvins connection, the early band names, Sub Pop and Bleach, Butch Vig and Nevermind's baby cover, the Teen Spirit video, the Killing Joke riff row, Reading 1992, In Utero with Steve Albini, the Unplugged set-list, the last song they recorded, Weird Al's parody, and what Grohl and Novoselic did next, up to the 2014 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction. Cobain's death is noted only in passing. Easy questions for anyone who owns Nevermind, hard ones for people who know who Aaron Burckhard was. Every answer was checked against a documented source and the citation sits under each explanation.
30 of 100 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In which Washington town was Nirvana formed in 1987?
Aberdeen
Cobain and Novoselic met at Aberdeen High School and hung around the Melvins' practice space; the town's welcome sign now reads 'Come As You Are'.
Q 02Which of these was NOT one of the band's early names before they settled on Nirvana?
Mudhoney
Bliss was another; Cobain said he wanted a name 'kind of beautiful or nice and pretty instead of a mean, raunchy punk name'. Mudhoney was a real Seattle contemporary.
Q 03The demo tape Cobain gave Novoselic that eventually got the band started was from which earlier project?
Fecal Matter
Novoselic took three years to listen to it before suggesting they form a group.
Q 04Nirvana's first single, released on Sub Pop in November 1988, was a cover of which Shocking Blue song?
Love Buzz
The band went on to become the first act to sign an extended contract with the Seattle label.
Q 05According to the album sleeve, how much did it cost to record Nirvana's 1989 debut Bleach?
About $600
Producer Jack Endino billed 30 hours at $606.17; the money came from Jason Everman, who was credited as guitarist despite not playing on it.
Q 06Cobain said he wrote 'About a Girl', from Bleach, after spending three hours listening to which album?
Meet the Beatles!
He called John Lennon his idol in his journals; his aunts had given him Beatles records as a child.
Q 07Which Melvins member introduced Cobain and Novoselic to drummer Dave Grohl in September 1990?
Buzz Osborne
Grohl's Washington, D.C. band Scream had just broken up; Novoselic said 'We knew in two minutes that he was the right drummer.'
Q 08Who was Nirvana's drummer on Bleach, before Dave Grohl joined?
Chad Channing
Channing left in 1990 as bootlegs of the Butch Vig demos circulated; Grohl thanked him and the other early drummers at the Hall of Fame induction.
Q 09Whose repeated recommendations led Nirvana to sign with DGC Records in 1990?
Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth
The band also took advice from Susan Silver, manager of Soundgarden and Alice in Chains, whom Novoselic thanked at the Hall of Fame.
Q 10Who produced Nevermind?
Butch Vig
It was recorded at Sound City in Van Nuys for about $65,000; Slayer mixer Andy Wallace was brought in for the final, polished mix the band later grumbled about.
Q 11What was Nevermind's tentative title while the band was still on Sub Pop?
Sheep
Cobain wrote a fake ad in his journal: 'Because you want to not; because everyone else is.' The final title echoes the Sex Pistols' Never Mind the Bollocks.
Q 12The Nevermind cover shows a baby swimming toward what?
A dollar bill on a fishhook
The baby was four-month-old Spencer Elden, photographed by Kirk Weddle after underwater-birth footage was judged too graphic.
Q 13Whose album did Nevermind knock off the top of the Billboard 200 in January 1992?
Michael Jackson's Dangerous
Q 21The December 1992 release Incesticide was what kind of album?
A compilation of rarities
A joint DGC/Sub Pop release meant to undercut bootlegs, it went gold despite the label barely promoting it.
Q 22Who recorded In Utero, chosen for his 'natural' style without studio trickery?
Steve Albini
The former Big Black frontman did it in two weeks at Pachyderm Studio in Minnesota for a flat $100,000, refusing royalties as 'an insult to the artist'.
Q 23What was Cobain's first choice of title for In Utero, a phrase from his 1992 journals?
I Hate Myself and I Want to Die
DGC had hoped to sell 250,000 copies; by Christmas 1991 it was selling 400,000 a week and it has passed 30 million worldwide.
Q 14The title 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' came from graffiti by Kathleen Hanna of which band?
Bikini Kill
She meant the deodorant brand Teen Spirit; Cobain took it as a revolutionary slogan.
Q 15Cobain called 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' an 'ultimate pop song' attempt inspired by which band's loud-quiet dynamics?
The Pixies
After hearing the Pixies' Surfer Rosa he said it had the sound he had wanted for Bleach but had been too intimidated to try.
Q 16The 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' video is set at what kind of event?
A high school pep rally
It was Samuel Bayer's first video; he reckoned he got the job because his reel looked so cheap the band assumed the result would be 'punk'.
Q 17What was the peak position of 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' on the Billboard Hot 100?
Number 6
It reached that spot the same week Nevermind hit number one on the album chart, and it topped the singles charts in Belgium, France, New Zealand and Spain.
Q 18The riff of 'Come as You Are' drew lawsuit rumours over its resemblance to 'Eighties' by which band?
Killing Joke
The similarity made Cobain hesitate over releasing it as a single; the suit never materialised and Dave Grohl later drummed on a Killing Joke album.
Q 19Weird Al Yankovic got Cobain's permission for 'Smells Like Nirvana' by phoning him where?
On the set of Saturday Night Live
Nirvana played SNL on January 11, 1992; Yankovic reached them through his UHF co-star Victoria Jackson, a cast member.
Q 20Nirvana headlined the closing night of which English festival in 1992?
Reading
Rumours said the band was splitting over Cobain's health; the show was released on CD and DVD as Live at Reading in 2009.
The phrase came from his 1992 journals; Verse Chorus Verse was the second choice before the band settled on the Latin title.
Q 24Which R.E.M. producer remixed 'Heart-Shaped Box' and 'All Apologies' after Nirvana found Albini's mixes lacking?
Scott Litt
The band thought the bass was too low; press stories that DGC considered the album 'unreleasable' were untrue.
Q 25Which former Germs guitarist joined Nirvana as second guitarist for the In Utero tour?
Pat Smear
He later joined Grohl in Foo Fighters and has performed with the surviving members at every reunion since.
Q 26The 'Heart-Shaped Box' video, which won two MTV awards in 1994, was directed by which Dutch photographer?
Anton Corbijn
The single was not released in the US to protect album sales, but still hit number one on the Modern Rock chart.
Q 27Asked by producer Alex Coletti if his Unplugged stage should resemble a burial service, what did Kurt Cobain reply?
Exactly. Like a funeral.
The taping took place at Sony Music Studios in Manhattan on November 18, 1993.
Q 28Nirvana's Unplugged closer 'Where Did You Sleep Last Night' was modelled on whose 1944 recording?
Lead Belly
Cobain called him his favourite performer; the whole 14-song set was filmed in a single take and Cobain refused an encore.
Q 29Which David Bowie song did Nirvana cover on MTV Unplugged?
The Man Who Sold the World
Grohl and Novoselic reunited to play it at Clive Davis's pre-Grammy party in 2016.
Q 30Which band's Kirkwood brothers joined Nirvana on stage at the Unplugged taping?
Meat Puppets
The network had wanted 'the right names' like Eddie Vedder or Tori Amos; cellist Lori Goldston also played.