Courtney Love talks (and sings) “Smells Like Teen Spirit” on ’60 Songs That Explain the ’90s’

After a three month break, Rob Harvilla's amazing podcast 60 Songs That Explain the '90s is back, having already gone 30 songs past the show's title, with the first of what he says will be the final 30 songs, bringing the grand total to 120. A lot of fans, like myself, assumed the final song in the series would be "Smells Like Teen Spirit," but surprise, here it is now. Like the best episodes of this podcast, Rob brings so much of his personal connection to the song, his adolescence, and it's warm and funny and sad with the usual opening digressions that eventually lead to actually talking about Nirvana.

An even bigger surprise: Rob's guest on the episode is Courtney Love, who says she became a fan of the pod after being told to listen to the "Doll Parts" episode; after listening to a bunch of other episodes, she asked to be on this one. Most guest segments on the show run around 15-20 minutes, but Courtney is on for more than an hour. Rob barely gets in a "Thanks for being on the show" before Courtney starts, and it's all he can do to hang on, as she tells stories and basically monologues. It's funny, insightful and a wild ride. It should also come with annotations, she drops so many names and references. One of the highlights: Courtney sings the alternate, unused lyrics from "Smells Like Teen Spirit," including a few she only discovered a few days before recording. Another: she says Kurt forbade her from listening to Pearl Jam's "Jeremy" while she was pregnant with Frances Bean. Listen below.

Meanwhile, Rob also announced that the podcast is getting a companion book, Songs That Explain the '90s, which will be out November 7, 2023 via Twelve Books.