Producer Butch Vig reflects on 35th anniversary of ‘Nevermind’: ‘It changed my life’

Here Nevermind is now, three-and-a-half decades later.

Nirvana’s massive 1991 album will celebrate its 35th anniversary in September. The RIAA Diamond-certified Nevermind made worldwide stars out of the trio — made up of frontman Kurt Cobain, bassist Krist Novoselic and drummer Dave Grohl — while launching the generation-defining grunge scene of the ’90s.

Needless to say, Nevermind also had a huge impact on Butch Vig, who produced the album.

“It was a zeitgeist moment for me, making that album,” Vig tells ABC Audio. “It changed my life. Everyone, including the band and everyone close to the band, Nevermind changed their life, and I’m very thankful for that.”

Thirty-five years later, Vig doesn’t put on Nevermind and listen to it himself, though he doesn’t have to go far to hear its songs, which include the iconic anthem “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” “In Bloom,” “Come as You Are” and “Lithium,” out in public.

“It’s nice that [Nevermind is] out there in the world, that it’s omnipresent,” Vig says. “I go into a coffee shop and there’s a kid there with a Nevermind T-shirt on or a Nirvana T-shirt on.”

Nirvana followed Nevermind with 1993’s In Utero. They disbanded a year later following Cobain’s death by suicide in 1994. 

Today, the legacy of Nevermind continues to live on, even in new ways. The album track “Something in the Way,” for example, experienced a resurgence when it was used in the 2022 movie The Batman.

“It’s one of those albums that just has connected with so many people, and continues to do that,” Vig says. “There’s something in there, this incredible energy and power and mystery.”

“[There are] so many things going on in Kurt’s voice when he sings, and it still affects people,” he continues. “That’s a cool thing.” 

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