Pat Smear

Pat Smear, 2008

Pat Smear (born August 5, 1959 in Los Angeles ; actually Georg Ruthenberg ) is an American musician. He co-founded the Californian punk legend Germs , which broke up after the death of their front man Darby Crash in 1980. He also gained fame through his time with Nirvana and the Foo Fighters .

Life

The son of a German-Jewish immigrant and an African-American woman, he grew up in his native Los Angeles. At thirteen, Smear ran away from home and lived in a Christian commune. During his high school days he changed his name to Pat Smear , which is probably inspired by "pap Smear", an American synonym for the Pap test for the early detection of uterine cancer.

In 1976 Smear founded the punk band Germs with his friend Jan Paul Beahm ( Darby Crash ), in which Pat was a guitarist. In 1979 the Germs released their first album GI , which is considered a milestone in the history of punk rock. The band broke up the following year, however, as the singer Darby Crash died of a heroin overdose. For a short time, Smear then played with the Adolescents .

Smear then tried his luck as a solo artist and released two albums, Ruthensmear (1988) and So You Fell in Love with a Musician (1992). He also worked with Nina Hagen , among others .

In 1993 he received an offer from the Red Hot Chili Peppers to replace John Frusciante as guitarist, which he refused. In the same year, however, he accepted Kurt Cobain's offer to join Nirvana as the second guitarist. Smear's first joint show was on Saturday Night Live on September 25 of the same year. He accompanied the band on their tour for a total of six months and also took part in the band's unplugged concert .

After Cobain's death in 1995 he became a member of Dave Grohl's new band, the Foo Fighters, which he left in 1997. He then recorded the first album with his band Harlow. Since then he has mainly worked as a music producer . Since 2005 Smear is back on tour with his band Germs. In 2006 a film called WhatWe Do Is Secret was released , which tells the story of the band. In May 2006, to the surprise of fans, Smear returned to the Foo Fighters, whom he supported as another guitarist on the Foocoustic Tour '06.

As the Foo Fighters announced on their homepage in early February 2011, Pat Smear is again a permanent member of the band. The Foo Fighters released the album Wasting Light on April 8, 2011 , on which Pat Smear can be heard as an additional guitarist.

When in 2013 former Nirvana bandmate Dave Grohl started a project through the Sound City studios in Los Angeles, Smear also got involved. Together with other musicians, they recorded the song Cut Me Some Slack , for which they were awarded the best rock song at the 2014 Grammy Awards .

Web links

• The cover of "Ruthensmear"