Though Nirvana effectively signaled the death knell for Bon Jovi’s halcyon days, singer Jon Bon Jovi has come out against the use of Kurt Cobain in Guitar Hero 5.
“I don’t know that I would have wanted it either,” Bon Jovi told the BBC.
“To hear someone else’s voice coming out of a cartoon version of me? I don’t know. It sounds a little forced.”
Guitar Hero 5 infamously features an unlockable Cobain simulacrum. His suicide in 1994 ensured that Activision’s use of his likeness would be seen as creepy at best. At worst, it makes the company seem as if it prides itself on being able to punch children in the eye.
Bon Jovi’s eloquent, almost diplomatic response follows recent accusations from Cobain’s widow, in which she claims to have been deceived by publisher.
Meanwhile, the two surviving members of Nirvana (Foo Fighters lead singer Dave Grohl and Washingston state politico Krist Novaselic) issued a statement of their own, saying they were “shocked and disappointed” and urged Activivion to remove the character’s unlockable status.
That, of course, will never happen. Activision is making handfuls of cash off of the rotted corpse of Cobain and short of a nocturnal visit from a trio of Dickensian ghosts, I don’t see the firm’s higher ups changing their mind.
