Former Fear Factory vocalist Burton C. Bell has revealed that his face appears on the sleeve of an early Nirvana single.
Every music fan knows that discovering a cool band before they go global secures you certain bragging rights, and in a post on Instagram, Bell reveals that he was an 'early adopter' when it comes to Nirvana, and has a photograph to prove it, a photo that ended up on the sleeve of the Kurt Cobain's band's final Sub Pop single, Sliver.
Detailing how this came to pass, Bell writes, "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 kurt cobain."
Cool story bro. No, genuinely, cool story.
Bell, incidentally, was also in the audience at the shoot for Nirvana's iconic Smells Like Teen Spirit video, a story he's promising to share at a later date.
