Post Malone has triumphed as a rapper, a rocker, a pop star, and a country artist. If there’s a solid core within this multiplicity, it’s that Malone is, in essence, a Kurt Cobain fanatic.
It’s literally written on his face: the Nirvana song title “Stay Away” is inked into his forehead. A portrait of Cobain occupies Post’s upper arm. “WHATEVER” is tattooed across his left palm, “NEVERMIND” across the right. If the world needs a celebration of the iconic grunge band, Malone’s the man to bring it.
Post Malone: A Tribute to Nirvana makes its debut on Record Store Day 2025. But the only thing new about the release is its yellow vinyl format. The album’s 14 songs are drawn from Malone’s COVID-19 lockdown performance in April, 2020. That show was a live-streamed fundraiser for COVID victims; the new album is likewise a benefit, with all proceeds going to the nonprofit organization MusiCares. (Specifically, the donation goes to the Addiction Recovery/Mental Health arm of MusiCares, which is in itself a nod to Cobain.)
Joining Malone for the all-Nirvana set were Brian Lee on bass, Nick Mac on rhythm guitar, and Travis Barker of blink-182 fame on drums. And what a set it was! With a righteous cause and a hard-hitting band, Malone seemed large and in charge. On top of his vocalist/guitarist frontman duties, he emceed the fund-raising operation; between songs Post gave shout-outs to the more generous donors, and kept one eye on the chat window for any big names signing in. (Both Courtney Love and Krist Novoselic entered the chat at different points.) Host Malone did it all, and he did it in a dress (yet another bow to his hero). All this without forgetting a single word or chord in the hour-long set.
For the album release, of course, we get only the songs themselves, not the party-down atmosphere, the banter, the beer breaks, the false starts. But that’s kinda the bad news: an electrifying show, a sense of something happening, doesn’t always get encoded into the record grooves. Songs can lose their juice when taken from their context. The livestream raised over $4 million in donations–a huge success–but A Tribute to Nirvana, the record, amounts to little more than a solid if somewhat perfunctory outing.
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