Inside Sturgill Simpson’s Touching Nirvana Cover: Ram Report
“I wanted a song on the album to capture that awkward stage in every young boy’s life where they are searching for their place in the world. One night while discussing the album with my wife, she asked, ‘Well, what were you listening to when you were 13?'” says Sturgill Simpson of the decision to cover Nirvana’s “In Bloom” on his upcoming album A Sailor’s Guide to Earth.
Simpson’s version tones down the fury of Kurt Cobain’s original, reinventing the song as a poignant ballad. Yesterday, he released a stunning video for “In Bloom,” in which a young boy in a rowboat tries to evade a swirling monster.
“I remember in seventh or eighth grade, when that album dropped, it was like a bomb went off in my bedroom,” Simpson says of Nirvana’s Nevermind. “For me, that song has always summed up what it means to be a teenager, and I think it tells a young boy that he can be sensitive and compassionate — he doesn’t have to be tough or cold to be a man. So I wanted to make a very beautiful and pure homage to Kurt.”
Simpson’s A Sailor’s Guide to Earth will be released April 15th.