EVERYBODY LOVES OUR TOWN

The Melvins on the road, circa 1986. From left: Buzz Osborne, Dale Crover and Matt Lukin. Photo © Matt Lukin

In the lead-up to next week’s release of the trade paperback edition of Everybody Loves Our Town: An Oral History of Grunge (out March 13; order info here), I’ve been sharing some of the book’s better outtakes for my faithful blog readers. Today’s outtake—cut from the book for space purposes—involves bassist Matt Lukin’s acrimonious departure from the Melvins. The entirety of the first quote and part of the second appear in the book and set up what follows:

MATT LUKIN (Melvins/Mudhoney bassist) When [the Melvins] recorded Gluey Porch Treatments, we stayed at this house in San Francisco where Lori [Black] and her boyfriend Mark Deutrom lived. I think that’s when Lori and Buzz kind of hit it off.

Then she started to come visit Buzz, and then they started dating. Buzz had Dale tell me, “Buzz is moving out to San Francisco, quitting the band, going to live with Lori in San Francisco.” And I’m like, Okay, that sounds familiar, that’s exactly the same story he had me tell [drummer Mike] Dillard when we kicked him out.

I called Buzz and I go, “So you’re moving to San Francisco to be with Lori, huh? I think you’re moving to San Francisco, and Lori’s going to be your new bass player and Dale’s going to follow you.” A month later, they’re down in San Francisco playing shows, Dale’s living in the house with them—everything that I accused him of. Fucking spineless asshole.

BUZZ OSBORNE (Melvins singer/guitarist) I didn’t really want to go with Matt Lukin—it wouldn’t have worked. He didn’t want to leave. I think he stayed in Montesano for a really long time after he started playing with Mudhoney. I told him, “I’m moving to San Francisco. I’m either starting a new band or I’m starting this band up again.”

Lukin was okay with it, no problem, and then later he got all pissed off because we were “lying” about the whole thing. Which is fine. I wanted to get out of there, and I didn’t care what it cost me. There was nothing for me there. Nothing. We’d do a show with Soundgarden and Green River and advertise it for a month and have 50 people show up.

MATT LUKIN So I hated Buzz for a long time and would fuck with him any chance I had. Back in the day, when you’d get a stolen credit card number, you could call anybody for free from a pay phone. It would be two or three in the morning, and I’d be all drunk and I’d call Buzz: “Hey, motherfucker, you suck!”

A friend from Aberdeen had a girlfriend down in the Bay Area and was going to visit her, so I go, “Hey, I’ll go along,” thinking, I’m going to go down to San Francisco and find Buzz and let him know what I think. I ended up staying at the house of a mutual friend, Strephon Taylor, the singer from this band Sacrilege, and Buzz and Lori were coming over to hang out at the garage where the band was practicing. When he got there, I just bitched at him: “You kicked me out! You lied to me!”

BUZZ OSBORNE We knew he was coming. We got wind of it from people that we knew up in Washington. He confronted us, and we’re just like, “Yeah, whatever.” I mean, it was pathetic.

MATT LUKIN I started out being Mr. Tough Guy, but it turned into me being all wimpy and crying. I always cry. And I think Lori felt really bad, like she was the cause of all of this and that she didn’t want to be the one to steal my spot. I was like, “No, it’s not your fault.” Buzz was being the cunt. I liked Lori. She was awesome. Just a cool, fun chick who was into cartoons and The Munsters.

Previously:

• Everybody Loves Our Outtakes, taking one for the team edition: Ex-Pearl Jam drummer Dave Abbruzzese gets smacked in the face over “Jeremy”
• Everybody Loves Our Outtakes, horrifying kitchen accident edition: How Babes in Toyland’s Maureen Herman got her first bass
• Everybody Loves Our Outtakes, drunken horseplay edition: Tripping Kurt Cobain at Reading ‘92

In the lead-up to next week’s release of the trade paperback edition of Everybody Loves Our Town: An Oral History of Grunge (out March 13; order info here), I’ll be sharing some of the book’s better outtakes for my faithful blog readers. This first one, former Mudhoney manager Bob Whittaker’s tales of offstage hijinks at the grunge-heavy 1992 Reading Festival, was cut from the final manuscript for pacing purposes: 

BOB WHITTAKER (Mudhoney manager) At the hotel after the show, we were over-served in the hotel lobby and got rip-roaring. There was a rumor that Kurt had a doctor with him at Reading to help him with stomach problems or to deal with all the trappings of rock and roll, I don’t know. [Mudhoney’s Matt] Lukin kneeled down behind Cobain and I shoved him over, and we said, “Where’s your doctor now?” Also, “Where’s John Silva now?”—John Silva being his manager. Those are the two abusive things we shouted as he was falling over backwards.

At some point, I had exchanged clothes with a woman there, so I’m in tights and a ridiculous top or a one-piece, and she’s wearing my scrappy outfit. The next morning, I woke up in bed next to [Screaming Trees’ Mark] Lanegan. We both woke up at the same time. Lanegan’s reaction was something to the effect of, “Oh my God!”

Thankfully I still had the woman’s outfit on, as opposed to being stark naked next to Mark Lanegan. We were tired, so I’m sure it was platonic. I don’t think he molested me.

“Vedder had a stalker chick that would come by his house that was freaking him out. He would start to avoid his house after a while, so he would just come by my place. Vedder’d come over and we’d sit ‘round the kitchen and drink and stuff. He would talk about his stalker problem a little bit, but I would just blow it off. It was just drunken talk, throwing darts, having fun. There’d be other people there, sometimes four or five of us. Just me and Eddie and our wives and mutual friends like [then Mudhoney manager] Bob Whittaker. The Pearl Jam song ‘Lukin’ is about how my kitchen’s a sanctuary for him. Also, I was giving him shit about all their songs being too long. That inspired him to make ‘Lukin’ a one-minute song. I’ve always flipped him shit. Never let him be the rock star that he is.”

—former Mudhoney/Melvins bassist Matt Lukin (outtake from the forthcoming book Everybody Loves Our Town: An Oral History of Grunge)