Nirvana members to play with McCartney

Guest star: Paul McCartney

The surviving members of Nirvana will perform a new song with Paul McCartney at tonight’s 12-12-12 charity concert in aid of Superstorm Sandy victims.

But the ex-Beatle didn’t realise what was happening when he became part of the grunge icons’ first reunion since the death of Kurt Cobain in 1994.

The show, also starring the Rolling Stones, Bruce Springsteen and Jon Bon Jovi, takes place at Madison Square Garden in New York.

And McCartney reveals he wasn’t aware of the significance when he went into a studio with Grohl, Novoselic and touring member Pat Smear.

He tells the Sun: “I didn’t really know who they were. They were saying how good it is to be back together. I said, ‘You guys haven’t played together for all that time?’

“Somebody whispered to me, ‘That’s Nirvana. You’re Kurt.’ I couldn’t believe it.”

The unheard track came about after drummer Grohl – who will appear on the next Queens Of The Stone Age album – invited McCartney to join a jam and the 70-year-old suggested they “just make something up.”

Sandy, which started as a hurricane, blew across the US at the end of October, killing more than 250 people and causing over $70bn in damage.

Grohl and Novoselic collaborated on Foo Fighters track I Should Have Known in 2011, and gathered again with Nevermind producer Butch Vig earlier this year.