Do you remember the dumb Guitar Hero 5 trailer that I posted last month? Yea, I’m talking about the one where you can see a robotified Kurt Cobain belting out his hit number Smells Like Teen Spirit in quite a mechanical way. Well, it was just the tip of the iceberg, because Kurt’s avatar in Guitar Hero 5 is “unlockable” which allows players to associate it with any kind of song.
As expected, Courtney Love has already declared a war by threatening to sue Activision. However, this time Courtney is not alone in her battle to preserve Kurt’s legacy. She has attracted support from an unexpected quarter – the Foo Fighters.
The Foo Fighters have urged Activision to re-lock Kurt???s avatar in their just released statement,
This is a statement regarding Nirvana, Guitar Hero and the likeness of the late Kurt Cobain.
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.
Krist Novoselic and Dave Grohl
I guess I was dead right when I declared that Activision/Guitar Hero is destroying some great music just to boost its sales.
Foo Fighters via Allie Is Wired
