Guitar Hero CEO On His Game’s Cobaintroversy: “The Check Has Been Cashed”

noah | September 17, 2009 3:00 pm
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Someone at the Web site associated with the hyperbolic British music tabloid NME decided to ask Dan Rosensweig, CEO of the Guitar Hero franchise, about his take on the whole uproar over the late Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain’s avatar being used in the game, and singing songs like Bon Jovi’s “You Give Love A Bad Name” to boot. After finding out that Cobain could be used to sing songs that weren’t by Nirvana, Courtney Love freaked out on Twitter and threatened lawsuits; shortly after that, surviving members Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic asked the game to lock down Cobain’s karaoke ability. But Rosensweig says that it’s all legit!

“I do know that there’s absolutely a contract and we know that the cheque has been cashed,” he told NME.COM. “I can only deal with the facts. It’s very clear what the terms are.” He went on to claim that the real dispute should be between Love, who controls Cobain’s estate, and the two former Nirvana members. “We care about the artists more than anyone else and we would like to make artists happy in every circumstance,” he said. “I’m disappointed in this case that there seems to be confusion between the band and the estate. “It’s really not Guitar Hero’s confusion. We went and spoke directly to the estate and made it crystal clear, got the rights, paid for the rights, and really we’ve done what we’ve always done. The fact that the rest of the band and the estate did not communicate – I’m not aware of those facts [about their communication]. “I can’t speak for everybody being happy, [but] it gets done with complete consent from artists. These are the artists who fans love. We hope over time that the estate will appreciate that.”

Expect 4,387 Tweets from Courtney Love about this soon. Meanwhile, Jon Bon Jovi has joined the side of the Generation X warriors, saying that he wasn’t so into having Cobain sing his songs because it seemed “a little forced.” Well, at least they didn’t try to give Kurt a big-haired, toothy-grinned makeover, right? Guitar Hero CEO on Nirvana dispute: ‘Kurt Cobain’s estate cashed the cheque’ [NME] Earlier: Dave Grohl And Krist Novoselic Would Like Activision To Lock Kurt Cobain’s “Guitar Hero” Avatar Down, Please