Aussie Music Entrepreneur Claims He Was Paid To Ensure Kurt Cobain Wouldn't OD

Australian music entrepreneur Steve "Pav" Pavlovic was a guest on the Fitzy & Wippa show on Nova this morning, where he revealed that he was paid to hang out with Kurt Cobain and ensure that he wouldn't overdose.

Fitzy opened the conversation with, "Let's start with Nirvana. You were ringing from a payphone in Bondi, Kurt Cobain's number."

"I did. The first one we did was a band called Mudhoney, and they were good mates with Nirvana, and they're like, you should bring our mates Nirvana to Australia," Pav confirmed. "I'm like, mate, I love that Bleach album, which was out at the time."

Wippa then asked about when Nirvana finally arrived and whether Pav spent much time socialising with the band, which he did. Kurt and Courtney stayed at a motel, while Pav, Krist Novoselic and Dave Grohl stayed in a little cabin. 

The conversation then turned to Pav's curated Unpopular museum exhibition. "So, with the exhibition and all the memorabilia in there, is there anything that you've kept just quietly at home? Or what I suppose I'm asking is, what is your most prized possession?" Wippa asked.

"Well, there are some sensitive photos that wouldn't be right [to share]. When you have a relationship with these artists, and you're there because they trust you, you're given a position of trust. And you know, you're allowed to document a lot of stuff. I think some of those people would be a little disappointed if some of those pictures found their way to the world wide web," Pav shared. He maintained a relationship with Nirvana after they left.

Pav was asked, "can you look after Kurt for a week and make sure he doesn't OD?" Fitzy inquired, questioning, "that was your job for a week?"

Pav responded, "It was Courtney and the people around them, and they were making the Heart Shaped Box video, and they played MTV awards, or they went to them," he began. 

"And they said Kurt's gonna be on his own here for a few days. Could you make sure he doesn't OD? And they're like, yeah, we'll pay you. I go, this is weird. So I called Kurt, 'Mate, they want to pay me to hang out with you.' And he's like, 'mate, take the frickin money. Let's hang out.' So we had the adjoining room, and I would drive them around, and my job was to make sure he didn't OD, but I never thought to ask anyone: What do I do if he does? No idea."

The Unpopular exhibition opened to the public on Thursday, 27 October. More info here. 

Listen to Pav's chat with Fitzy & Wippa here.