The Unexpected Jobs That Your Favorite Musicians Had Before They Became Famous

Sara Horton | February 2, 2018 10:25 am

Cleaning Up With Nirvana

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In the documentary Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck, Nirvana bandmate Krist Novoselic recalled meeting Kurt. “I noticed what a good artist he was. He was working at the time as a janitor, but he’d always have to do some kind of art — usually defacing something. He never had, like, idle hands. It just came out of him. He had to express himself.” One popular story circulating the internet is that Kurt once defaced the walls of the school he was paid to maintain, then returned the following morning to clean the mess up. The band’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” video makes a reference to Kurt’s time as a janitor.