MTV NEWS: So how was the first show? I thought it was really good. What was it like to start the tour today?
KRIST: Today, with all the lighters out there it felt like we were doing Aerosmith "Dream On" or something. I felt like Tom Hamilton, the bass player from Aerosmith.
MTV NEWS: Have you done stadiums before?
KRIST: We did a stadium. It was like 110,000 people in Sao Paulo, Brazil. And we had a mental breakdown on the stage and played "Seasons in the Sun" and "Her Name is Rio" and we played "She Dances in the Sand" by Duran Duran. Remember that time we did that thing?
DAVE: That was a mess.
KRIST: It was a lot of fun.
KURT: That was great.
MTV NEWS: Kurt, you sang "Seasons in the Sun?"
KURT: Did I sing? Yes, I did. I don't know the words. One of the only singles I can remember from my childhood that I used to cry to.
KRIST: What's the best lyric in there?
KURT: It's such an emotional song.
KRIST: There's like the best lyric...
KURT: (sings) Good-bye papa it's hard to die
KRIST: The stars on the beach were... I forget how it goes
KURT: (sings) The stars on the beach...no, the starfish on the beach where the star's out of reach.
KRIST: Wow.
DAVE: What do you mean?
PAT: The wow really made it...
KRIST: Don't you get it?
KURT: I don't know. I don't know... All I know I know is there's a better song on the B-side of that single. "Put the Bone In It."
DAVE: Put the bone in it... (laughs) It's about a guy's dog gets hit by a car and they ask him to put the bone in the grave with the dog.
MTV NEWS: You look up and see yourself on the big [video] screen. How is that?
DAVE: I felt like I was a f***in' hockey player on a big screen with a Budweiser sign above it. I don't know, it was funny.
KURT: What I was trying to do, and you guys didn't have enough ESP, I was trying to get up and stand up on top of the P.A. speakers under those columns I was trying to do a solo like an arena rock solo.
PAT: It was the Led Zeppelin solo.
KURT: Did you notice it?
MTV NEWS: Yeah. "Heartbreaker."
KRIST: I picked up on that!
KURT: What can you do when you're in that kind of situation? I thought I'd one last time test the audience to see if I could jump into it. And I failed. It's not working. And I stood there for a long time and I know they couldn't read my mind but I was trying to with my eyes tell them "Don't hurt me." Can't you tell? Haven't you read enough bitching from us for the past year? You know we're not rock stars, we're not trying to be. Although we did display enough rock star things today.
MTV NEWS: So Kurt, when you fell, you didn't really jump that hard, you just sort of like lay down into them... What happened to you?
KURT: They immediately just started grabbing for me, trying to rip my flesh off for souvenirs. Oh I have a piece of Kurt's forearm... frame it... I don't know.
MTV NEWS: Do you have an arrangement with your guys on the side of the stage, you know "Come lift me out of it?" It looked like you were sort of playing while they were pulling on you and you were holding onto the guitar.
KURT: I think it's a reaction of the people who work with us, to try to save me when I do stupid things like that. They're never prepared for it. Before the show I wasn't like you know I'm going to do that, you know. I was really for a long time contemplating whether I should do it or not. I just wanted to do it, 'cause it used to be so much fun in clubs... reminiscing about the old days. I used to be able to jump out in the audience and they would carry me all the way to the back I used to be able to roll around in the back. And it was really fun. It was like a celebration. Everybody was like jumping and throwing up in the air and everything. Like a beach ball in an arena rock concert. But these kids, some of 'em don't understand that, they're not used to that. All they know how to do is to tear people apart.
MTV NEWS: It seems like, from you to the audience is like fifteen feet.
KURT: Not quite that. Not that much
MTV NEWS: Does it feel distant?
KURT: It does feel fifteen feet but it's not fifteen feet it's about six feet.
