So it has emerged today that the advert advertised on Craigslist has indeed turned out to be untrue. As reported yesterday some items that we were led to believe were the former Nirvana man’s personal effects were seemingly put up for sale in America.
The advert, which was put up by someone whose identity was unknown (making the likely hood of the advert being genuine somewhat suspect) claimed that he had shared a house with Kurt before he became famous. He claimed to have a box of old stuff belonging to Kurt which included a pair of ski’s an old computer game and an old telephone all of which were for sale and also added that he had more items that would be put up for sale at a later date. .
Now it has prevailed that it was all an elaborate stunt by an artist named Derek Erdman, who is a Sub Pop Records receptionist.
He is known to be a prankster in the past having pulled off pranks including a spoof video created in response to a Nirvana fan that wrote to the record label asking Kurt Cobain and the band to record a video message for the university football team in Virginia.
Speaking to Revolt, Erdman has revealed that he has a habit of pulling pranks, he was asked how often he pulls pranks like this to which he replied:
“Pretty often, I reckon. Last month I found a bunch of “SALE 1/2 OFF” stickers at a second hand store and stuck them all over things at a local Safeway. Nobody wrote about that, as far as I can tell”.
Asked when he got the idea for the prank he replied:
“Friday morning, right after I got to work. I was supposed to be working on something else that I haven’t been able to get into, so I created a diversion. Then I ignored it and went back to work. A few hours later I did an interview with CBC radio about it. Later that night I met a TV news crew (with cameras!) at the aforementioned Safeway for an interview, but they called my bluff and asked for ID. I told them that I was a one time bass player for 90s band Gruntruck. They didn’t buy it, and they were visibly not happy about me wasting their time, I was wearing a flannel shirt though”.
He admits that the photos that were published in the advert were just some photo’s he found off the net and used them for the advert. You have to hand it to him, it was a well pulled off prank.
So there ya go folks, as we said yesterday we would keep you updated as to weather the story was genuine or not and as it has turns out it was a joke. It just goes to show, don’t believe everything you read on the interweb (but that rule doesn’t apply to Nova.ie, we always tell the truth).
The full interview with Erdman on Revolt can be seen here.
