David Bowie on Nirvana’s Haunting Cover of “The Man Who Sold the World”

“I was simply blown away when I found that Kurt Cobain liked my work… It was a good, straightforward rendition and sounded somehow very honest. It would have been nice to have worked with him — but just talking with him would have been real cool.”
— David Bowie

When Nirvana stripped everything down for their MTV Unplugged in New York performance in 1993, no one expected “The Man Who Sold the World” — a deep cut from Bowie’s 1970 album — to become one of the night’s most unforgettable moments.

But when Kurt Cobain leaned into the mic and let that chilling first line echo into the quiet, the world held its breath.

 It wasn’t just a cover.
It was a resurrection.

Bowie’s original had always carried a ghostly, unsettling edge — but Kurt, with his worn flannel, fragile voice, and aching sincerity, gave the song a whole new soul. It was eerie, intimate, and devastatingly real.

For many young fans watching that night, it was their first encounter with Bowie’s genius — filtered through Cobain’s lens of grief, isolation, and beauty.

The connection between them feels almost mythic now: two artists from different generations, both fearless in their vulnerability, both haunted by inner worlds too vast for most to understand.

Bowie’s admiration for Nirvana’s rendition — and for Kurt himself — adds a bittersweet layer to the performance. It was a moment of unspoken kinship, never realized, yet deeply felt.

 A tribute across time.
 A passing of the torch in a song that refused to die.

And now, as we revisit that haunting performance, it reminds us of what both men gave us:
Not just music,
but truth,
wrapped in distortion and silence.