8 Great Grunge Rocker Movie Cameos

October 13, 2011

By Mark Yarm

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Images: Magnolia Pictures/Getty Images

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MARK YARM is a former senior editor at Blender magazine. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife, Bonnie, and is in no way related to Mudhoney frontman Mark Arm. He recently published the book Everybody Loves Our Town: An Oral History of Grunge. Find out more about Mark on Tumblr, Facebook, and on Twitter @markyarm. Want to win a signed copy of Mark’s book? Learn more here.

Director Cameron Crowe’s latest film, the documentary “Pearl Jam Twenty,” devotes a full two hours to the history of the titular grunge band. It’s rare that grunge musicians get so much screen time – Hole’s Courtney Love, who starred in “The People vs. Larry Flynt” and “Man on the Moon,” is the rare exception – but a number of them have had bit parts, sometimes in the most unexpected of films. Here are eight noteworthy movie cameos by grunge rockers.

Pearl Jam in “Singles” (1992)
Two decades before “Pearl Jam Twenty,” Crowe cast PJ’s Eddie Vedder, Jeff Ament, and Stone Gossard as members of the Matt Dillon-fronted band Citizen Dick in the cameo-heavy Seattle flick “Singles.”

Nirvana’s Krist Novoselic in “World’s Greatest Dad” (2009)
Comedian-turned-director Bobcat Goldthwait hired buddy Krist Novoselic, formerly of Nirvana, to comfort a grieving Robin Williams in this scene from “World’s Greatest Dad.”

Nirvana’s Dave Grohl in “Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny” (2006)
Former Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl, a.k.a. the Nicest Guy in Rock, plays against type as the devil in “Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny.”

(Warning: The below video clip contains explicit language. A lot of it.)

7 Year Bitch in “Mad Love” (1995)
Seattle’s 7 Year Bitch perform their song “The Itch” in a club scene from the 1995 Drew Barrymore/Chris O’Donnell romantic drama “Mad Love.”

Mudhoney in “Black Sheep” (1996)
Quintessential grunge band Mudhoney play a Rock the Vote concert forty-four minutes into the 1996 Chris Farley comedy “Black Sheep.” The clip’s not on YouTube at this time, but the song they play (“Poisoned Water Poisons the Mind”) is.

Alice in Chains’ Jerry Cantrell in “Jerry Maguire” (1996)
Crowe employed another Seattle scenester, Alice in Chains guitarist Jerry Cantrell, as a copy shop employee who offers words of encouragement to Tom Cruise in “Jerry Maguire.”

L7 in “Serial Mom” (1994)
Los Angeles’ L7 portray a band called Camel Lips in John Waters’ “Serial Mom.” This bawdy image explains the bands’ nom de film.

TAD’s Tad Doyle in “Singles” (1992)
And, finally, the best grunge cameo of all time: Former TAD frontman Tad Doyle’s four-second-long appearance in “Singles.” Fast-forward to :53 for the quick cameo.

Tags: Cameron Crowe, Dave Grohl, Drew Barrymore, Eddie Vedder, Everybody Loves Our Town, Jeff Ament, Jerry Cantrell, Krist Novoselic, Mark Yarm, Music, Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Singles, Stone Gossard, Tad Doyle