Warning- this is gonna be long.
I wasn’t planning on making this an all- filmed by me weekend, but apparently that’s what we are going to do. A nice gentleman named Zaved Khan reached out to me about the Nirvana Cattle Club video I filmed in 1990. He was looking to get permission to use a clip for his instagram post, but was having difficulty contacting people to get the OK for the multicam version (eternal thanks to Jim McLain for editing Jerry Perry and my angles together). I told him he could use my raw stage shot angle… then I remembered that I had this version that was cleaned up by Lance Bangs to be included in the “With the Lights Out” box set that I never posted.. then I remembered that I never told the story of getting screwed on that deal. So, sit down kids, grandpa has a story.

I about 2002 or 2003, I was contacted by Universal Music Group about using some of the Cattle Club footage in the “with the lights out” box set that was released in 2004. I worked closely with Michael Meisel, who was a totally cool guy and a pleasure to work with. I fedex’d the tape to Lance Bangs (Jackass series, tons of his own stuff, married to Corin Tucker, etc) and he did a nice job of bouncing it to digibeta and cleaning up/color correcting. Jim McLain’s version looks brighter, as software advanced over time.. but this one looks pretty good, albeit dark. I like the color balance on it.

So, I am all excited to get my footage on the box set AND get paid. In 2004, UMG randomly contacts me again and asks for contact info to the guy who filmed them a few days later in Long Beach. I work with my good friend Jim Utz to get his contact info and I relay that to UMG. Then there is no communication- complete silence. The release date is drawing near and I was getting concerned. I call UMG asking for Michael and am routed to the A&R guy. I don’t know his name, but he was a total d*ck to me. He tells me that my footage was cut from the box set (for the Long Beach footage I helped them acquire!), that I was not getting paid, and there was nothing I could do. So, I furiously call Michael and he calls me back in 1 minute- he is super pissed off too because nobody told me what happened.

Michael tells me that they found a version of Sappy (the song they wanted) that had better lighting with the Long Beach show, so they went with that. The A&R guy was supposed to call me and tell me…he didn’t. He was also supposed to tell me that I was still getting paid, and that as a consolation, they made my name an easter egg on the DVD…he didn’t. So, if you have the DVD from the Nirvana “With the Lights Out” box set, you can select my name in the ending credits and it will take you to some secret footage of Nirvana.

So, that’s the story of how I became an easter egg.

Recorded by: Shayne Stacy
Equipment used: Aiwa CV-80 w/ Sony ECM-909 mic velcro’d to the top.
Enhanced (lighting and color correction, denoise) by Lance Bangs