Mark Lanegan co-wrote Nirvana's "Something in the Way," according to ex-QotSA bassist

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Mark Lanegan was an anonymous co-writer on Nirvana's Nevermind track "Something in the Way."

That's according to ex-Queens of the Stone Age bassist Nick Oliveri, one of several artists who've shared their memories of the late Screaming Trees frontman for a new book called Lanegan.

"Mark said he wrote some lyrics on 'Something in the Way' with Kurt [Cobain] on Nevermind," Oliveri says in an excerpt from the book published by Consequence. "But Kurt had played on some of Mark's solo stuff, The Winding Sheet. So, instead of getting paid, they just did this thing where, 'Hey man, I added a lyric on your song and you added a lyric on my song. Let's just call it even. Whatever happens, happens.'"

"Little did Mark know, if he would have had publishing on 'Something in the Way' on Nevermind, he would have had a lot of money," Oliveri continues. "I remember him kicking himself in the butt a little bit about that -- 'If I had that 'Something in the Way' publishing..."

Lanegan the book is out now, arriving a year after Lanegan passed away in February 2022. Among its other revelations is that Courtney Love had offered Cobain's posthumous song "You Know You're Right" to Screaming Trees before it was released as a Nirvana single in 2002.

"We never recorded it," says Screaming Trees guitarist Gary Lee Conner. "But we learned it without Mark, and Mark came down to sing it...and he couldn't. He changed his mind. And that was the end of it."

Wednesday, February 22, 2023 at 1:20PM by Josh Johnson Permalink