Any frequent traveller will tell you that, when you’re out and about, sourcing recommendations from locals will almost always trump whatever you can find in the guidebooks. This can be true of where to eat, what to do and how to get about. Nirvana legend Kurt Cobain clearly knew this – because, in 1993, the alt-rock icon called then-Sepultura member Max Cavalera to ask where to score drugs in Brazil.
Cavalera co-founded Sepultura with his drummer brother Iggor in 1984, during their teenage years in Belo Horizonte. By the time the singer/guitarist had Cobain on the blower nine years later, his band were among the biggest in metal, touring globally and climbing album charts. Nirvana, meanwhile, were superstars, Nevermind having come out and dominated the mainstream two years prior.
Cavalera spoke about his unlikely call from Cobain during an appearance on The Bogcast a few years ago. The frontman – who now lives in Phoenix, Arizona – told the anecdote when asked about his coolest tour story.
“It’s actually not really a tour story,” he began. “I was here in Phoenix.
“It was during [the touring cycle for 1993 album] Chaos A.D.. My son, Zyon, was just born, Chaos A.D. had just come out and Nirvana went to play in Brazil, big festival.”
A friend of Cavalera’s was also at the festival, performing lower on the bill as the lead singer of a hardcore band. This friend called Cavalera and, shortly after, put Cobain on the phone.
“I was like, ‘Oh, shit! Kurt Cobain! Damn!’” Cavalera exclaimed to The Bogcast. “I started talking to Kurt Cobain. He mentioned his daughter [Frances Bean Cobain, born in 1992] and I said, ‘Yeah I have a son, Zyon, blah blah blah.’”
Then, out of nowhere: “Right in the middle of the conversation, [Cobain] was like, ‘Where can I get some fucking drugs man?!’”
Cobain was addicted to substances at the time, including heroin. Cavalera’s wife and manager, Gloria, wrote on her website that the drug the frontman asked her husband after was specifically heroin. The question left the Sepultura man stumped.
“I was like, ‘I don’t know, man! I’m in Arizona!’,” Cavalera reflected. “‘Tell you what: the guy that you’re hanging out with, he’s the one. Just talk to him about it!’ That was pretty funny.”
Cobain tragically took his own life in April 1994, aged 27. Cavalera continued to front Sepultura until 1996, when he left the lineup over disagreements with his bandmates over their management. Iggor stayed in Sepultura until 2006, and the drummer mended fences with his brother shortly after his departure.
Cavalera now plays in Soulfly, as well as in Cavalera Conspiracy with Iggor. The siblings recently re-recorded Sepultura’s 1987 album Schizophrenia together and are touring to promote the release. Sepultura, sustained by classic members Andreas Kisser and Paolo Jr, continue to perform but are currently in the middle of a farewell tour.
