One would think that Kurt Cobain wouldn't appreciate his widow selling the rights to turn him into a video game cartoon. If that wasn't bad enough, but what would Kurt think about seeing his cartoon self singing Bon Jovi's "You Give Love a Bad Name" and the Village People's "YMCA"? In September, MusicRadar reported: Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic are "dismayed and disappointed" in the Kurt Cobain avatar to be featured in the upcoming Guitar Hero 5 game, and today the two former Nirvana members issued a strongly worded statement regarding the situation.
The pair wrote, "We want people to know that we are dismayed and very disappointed in the way a facsimile of Kurt is used in the Guitar Hero game. The name and likeness of Kurt Cobain are the sole property of his estate - we have no control whatsoever in that area. While we were aware of Kurt's image being used with two Nirvana songs, we didn't know players have the ability to unlock the character. This feature allows the character to be used with any kind of song the player wants. We urge Activision to do the right thing in re-locking Kurt's character so that this won't continue in the future.
"It's hard to watch an image of Kurt pantomiming other artists' music alongside cartoon characters. Kurt Cobain wrote songs that hold a lot of meaning to people all over the world. We feel he deserves better." Wanna see Kurt sing Bon Jovi? Check it out here.
The BBC caught up with Jon Bon Jovi for his opinion about the controversy. Bon Jovi says he understands why Nirvana's former members protested over the use of Kurt Cobain's image in video game Guitar Hero 5. more
What about Courtney Love? A series of Twitter blasts, she blamed Dave Grohl for the Cobain avatar. Responding to an angry Tweet, she wrote, "you can assrape dave he was always a bad seed and is still riding the s*** while i take bullets if theres a hell hes going. im not."
In another Tweet, Love wrote, "activision know this aos very very bad press indeed wait til you see what MY lovely lawyer has cooked up, i never ever signed off on this."
To which 'Guitar Hero' CEO Dan Rosensweig told NME.COM that Courtney Love has "cashed the check" that coincides with a contract relating to her late husband, Nirvana's Kurt Cobain and his appearance the game.
Watch Kurt team up with Johnnie Cash to sing TMCA - here
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