BETHLEHEM, Pa. — Buzz Osborne, guitarist for seminal grunge band Melvins, said it wasn't necessarily his band's intention to influence a whole generation of new bands.
Instead, Osborne said, it was simply his and his band's amalgamation of the then-popular punk rock with the music Osborne had loved growing up in "a very small, rural town in Washington state."
“I grew up in a vacuum," Osborne, also known as "King Buzzo," said in a call from his home in Los Angeles to promote Melvins' show at 8 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 2, in Musikfest Cafe at ArtsQuest Center at SteelStacks in Bethlehem.
Tickets for the show, at $38.98 for general admission standing and $52.48 for seated balcony, remain available at www.steelstacks.org and the box office at 101 Founders Way, Bethlehem.ArtsQuest
"So then, what ended up happening — I didn’t know it wasn’t cool to like [both] Van Halen and Black Flag.
"So I saw Van Halen and Black Flag both in the same week — early ‘80s, the ‘Women and Children First’ tour — it was amazing. Van Halen, I still say, especially in the early ‘80s, late ‘70s, early ‘80s, they were one of the best rock bands I ever saw.”
Melvins combined those sounds to lay the basis for grunge and sludge metal.
And iconic bands such as Soundgarden and Nirvana took inspiration from Melvins' music and turned it into the grunge movement that washed over the world of music.
Tickets for the show, at $38.98 for general admission standing and $52.48 for seated balcony, remain available at the venue website and the box office at 101 Founders Way, Bethlehem.
Discovering music 'all on my own'
Melvins, who formed in 1983 near the grunge epicenter of Seattle, Washington, frequently have been cited as influences by that genre's biggest bands, including Nirvana and Soundgarden.
More than 40 years later, the band has released 34 full-length albums and 20 EPs, as well as a trove of live and compilation discs, none of which have hit the Billboard charts.
But Melvins have maintained a loyal following.
Osborne in the call noted that he "grew up in a very small town [Montesano] in rural Washington State," and had "no older brothers and sisters who were going to turn me on to stuff."
Likewise, he said, “the people in my high school, I really disliked, and still dislike them. I wasn’t friends with anybody that was in my class.
"I had a girlfriend that was from out of town — other neighboring small towns. I never went out with a single girl in my class. I never went to the homecoming dance — none of that stuff. I hated all of that — hated my teachers.
"Not a happy time for me."
So, Osborne said, he "discovered pop, rock and that stuff all on my own."
"I liked all that stuff from the ‘70s," he said. There was nobody I knew that listened to [David] Bowie, that kind of thing — nobody.
“I would order records out of magazines like Cream, just on the way these bands looked, like The Clash."
He said he eventually met Melvins drummer Mike Dillard, who is the only other original member in the band, and bassist Matt Luken.
"The two Melvins guys were not in my class — they were younger than me," Osborne said. "So then I hung out with them at school and just basically couldn’t care less about my own class.
“And I turned them on to the music that they never would have heard in the first place."
'I still like that stuff'
Osborne said becoming the Melvins band that was so influential was a process in itself.
"We started as kind of a hardcore band and I realized pretty quickly I was wanting to do something a little different," he said.
"I liked all good bands when I was a kid; there are no skeletons in my closet. I still like that stuff.”Melvins guitarist Buzz Osborne
It wasn't a popular idea among punk rockers to like classic rock, Osborn said, "but even when I was at my most punk rock — which is probably still now — I still like Led Zeppelin and The Beatles and The Stones — I like all that stuff."
Osborne said that the bands that influenced him clearly had influences of their own.
Punk godfathers The Ramones, for instance, "were as close to the Bay City Rollers than anyone else — ‘S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y Night' [sounds like] ‘Blitzkrieg Bop,’" Osborne said.
"Sex Pistols and The Clash, they sound like heavy metal to me. The Sex Pistols, I think ‘Never Mind the Bollocks’ is one of the greatest records ever made — it just sounds like metal to me with a different kind of measure.’
“Montrose or Thin Lizzy didn’t sound a whole lot different to me.”
He said of his professed love for KISS, “I stand behind that, too. Those guys were a much more sophisticated band than people think. They wrote good songs. If they didn’t like good songs, I never would have been engaged in it — even at 12.
“And I think back about all the bands I liked when I was 12 — whether Aerosmith, KISS, Ted Nugent — all those people were good. The Stones. I liked all good bands when I was a kid; there are no skeletons in my closet. I still like that stuff.”
Making the 'greatest' lists
So, Osborne said, he found himself incorporating that music into the punk that was popular.
Melvins released its debut album, "Gluey Porch Treatments," in 1987, and it immediately was praised by critics and became one of the first examples of sludge metal and a blueprint for grunge.
But it had its biggest success with its third disc, "Bullhead," which Rolling Stone magazine in 2017 included on its 100 Greatest Metal Albums of All Time.
"We didn’t have any money. If I could re-record those, it’d be great. We’d do a much better job on them.”Melvins guitarist Buzz Osborne
These years later, Osborne said he notices the album's shortcomings.
“The ‘Bullhead’ record, we did that extremely quickly — like in a matter of days, a couple days," he said. "We didn’t have any money. If I could re-record those, it’d be great. We’d do a much better job on them.”
Similarly, he said follow-up albums such as 1994's "Stoner Witch" and 1996's "Stag" — both recorded after Melvins were signed to a major label, Atlanta — also were flawed.
That was in spite of — or perhaps because of — Melvins having more time and money to record them.
"We spent maybe 19 days on ‘Stoner Witch,’ a little less on ‘Stag,’" he said. "And that’s a long time for us.
"And we were with ‘producer’ type people. I think they’re a little over-produced. I think they’re worked a little too much. I mean, it is possible to beat the life out of stuff. And that’s what it kind of sounds like to me.”
'Without us, your hero doesn't exist'
Melvins have continued to release music — its latest album, "Thunderball," came out in April — and also continues to evolve.
“I’m always looking for new ways to do stuff," he said. "Now, what I’m not into is over-rehearsing stuff. Cause I think, once again, I think it is possible to totally destroy a song by pounding it into the ground before you record it.”
Osborne said he thinks the band, after 40 years, is the best it's ever been.
"I did what I felt was missing in music were right and would appeal to a lot of people. But our band is far weirder than those bands."Melvins guitarist Buzz Osborne
“I don’t really think about it that way too much," he said about the passage of time. "We’re still playing — I think we’re better than ever, personally.
"I’m much more relaxed than I would have been at the beginning. And I’m not worried about too much else.”
Regarding people who credit Melvins with starting grunge, he said, “That’s fine, it doesn’t bother me — they’re not wrong."
"The influence we had, and I had, the way I look at it, changed music on a global level," he said. "And there’s not a lot of people who can say that.
"I did what I felt was missing in music were right and would appeal to a lot of people. But our band is far weirder than those bands.
“What’s funny to me is the average Soundgarden or Nirvana fan, and they won’t be able to see or talk about our influence, which shows you what little understanding they have of those people.
"People like Nirvana and the Soundgarden guys are far more sophisticated musically than their fans give them credit for. Far more.
Those fans "don’t have an understanding of these people," Osborne said. "Like the average Nirvana fan, they have no idea — no clue what they were thinking about. No idea.
"They listen to our records and say, ‘I don’t understand how that is.’ And I’ve had that from music journalists forever, who cannot understand the appeal of what those people saw in what we were doing. Or they can’t believe it.
“Or they undermine it, and then they write backhanded, s—ty stuff about us because they don’t like it. They can’t believe it.
"Sorry — without us, your hero doesn’t exist.”
