09/11/2026
On the 35th anniversary of "Smells Like Teen Spirit," here's a note from our co-founder, Author Jeff Burlingame.
Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" turns 35 today. Below is something I wrote a while back about the impact that song--and the band's subsequent success--had on me.
"Smells Like Teen Spirit" Changed My Life
By Jeff Burlingame
Typically, I’m not a fan of those who proclaim a certain song or band—or anything, for that matter—changed their lives. Everything changes your life because change is what life is.
Chose to enroll in college instead of taking a job at the local burger bar? You changed your life. Did nothing?
You changed your life, too.
For a few moments today, I’m hitting the pause button on literal. It’s a difficult one for me to push. Sure, there are ways I could, literally, describe the impact “Smells Like Teen Spirit” had on my life. I could say I’ve gained countless hours of enjoyment cranking the five-minute masterpiece and the rest of the tunes that follow on Nirvana’s slightly overproduced, yet still-brilliant, album, "Nevermind."
I could describe the exhilaration I felt the moment I realized the author of that song was a childhood friend or the breakdown I had less than three years later when that friend killed himself.
I could talk about how that song’s success allowed me to start a nonprofit in an attempt to help kids in Kurt's and Krist Novoselic's hometown, and I could talk about the poor high school student or even-poorer homeless person, both of whom teared up when I opened the doors to a sold-out tribute rock concert organized by my group, gave them a nod and a smile, and let them walk through without any money being exchanged.
Then I could talk about how I published my first book, again thanks indirectly to “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” and the favorable reviews and sales that catapulted me into a career field I had longed to join since I was a young child stealing Stephen King novels from a trailer park Laundromat.
I could talk about how that career field helped take my family and me to the heights of Celebrity Hollywood to walk a red carpet with mortals elevated to the status of “star” by those who are by all means their equals and in many, many ways their superiors.
I could talk about every positive and negative career-related incident that’s happened to me in at least the past 35 years. Or I could annoy my often-hypocritical self and say “Smells Like Teen Spirit” changed my life. Because it did and still does.
And so does everything.
