Charles Barkley recalled some great memories from his Saturday Night Live appearance with Nirvana in an interview with Dan Patrick.
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Pot culture saw a resurgence with the success of Nirvana as a commercial band in the early 90s. They ushered in the Grunge era that took hard rock away from a rut in creativity during the 80s.
They were a cultural influence across the world – and so were the greatest NBA players of the time. Rock music and NBA players don’t really have an intimate connection in pop culture.
But we still saw Charles Barkley collaborate with Nirvana when both were at the peak of their fame. This happened on a Saturday Night Live appearance, discussion about which is afoot on Reddit at the moment.
Charles Barkley describes how Nirvana gave him a ‘contact high’ on Saturday Night Live sets
Charles Barkley told a rather predictable, yet endearing anecdote about his experience on SNL with Nirvana in one of his many interviews with Dan Patrick:
“I’ve hosted Saturday Night Live three times. I did it once with Nirvana, with Alicia Keys, and I can’t remember the 3rd band, but I’ll tell you this funny story about Nirvana.”
“Have you ever been to Saturday Night Live? The dressing rooms are like less than 5, probably 3 feet apart. As far as you can open your arms, that’s how close the dressing rooms are.”
“And I didn’t know anything about Nirvana, but I had my friends coming in and out so I kept my dressing room open. Every time those guys from Nirvana open their locked door, I got like a contact high.”
“It was like one of those big mushroom clouds came. I was scared to go to the airport!”
Barkley later revealed that he didn’t think the band members of Nirvana recognized him. Patrick nodded in agreement, noting that neither Kurt Cobain nor Dave Grohl was known to be sports fans.