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...if not for fear of the government men would swallow each other alive. Rabi Hanina ben Dosa |
Pat Smear (born Georg Ruthenberg, August 5, 1959) is a rock musician who has been a guitarist in several well-known bands including The Germs and Nirvana. He is currently a guitarist for the Foo Fighters. He is also known for appearing regularly on the MTV fashion show House of Style with friend and supermodel Cindy Crawford.
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He was born and raised in West Los Angeles. He was born to an African-American/Native American mother and a German Jewish immigrant father. His parents forced him to take piano lessons at a young age, and a few years later, he began teaching himself to play guitar. He lists his influences as Joan Jett, Brian James, Brian May, and Steve Jones.
As a teenager in 1977, Smear met Darby Crash, and together they formed The Germs with bassist Lorna Doom and drummer Dottie Danger (the pseudonym of Belinda Carlisle, who went on to front The Go-Go's).
Carlisle was soon replaced by Don Bolles and, in 1979, the band released their first album, (GI). Produced by Joan Jett, the record is now defined as a milestone in the history of punk rock. The Germs endured for one more year before finally disbanding in 1980 after Crash committed suicide. After The Germs, Smear had a brief stint as a member of punk band The Adolescents.
Following the demise of the Germs, Smear played in 1981 with ex-Screamers keyboardist Paul Roessler and his sister Kira in a band called Twisted Roots. Although short-lived, the band was the toast of the Hollywood punk scene. Smear would go on to play with Nina Hagen and make two solo albums of his own, Ruthensmear and So You Fell in Love with a Musician.... While working on Breakin, Smear became friends with Courtney Love.
In 1993, he received a call from Nirvana's frontman Kurt Cobain, asking him to join his band. Smear at first thought that it was his friend, Carlos "Cake" Nunez, playing a joke on him; however, Courtney Love had told Smear a few days prior that Cobain was going to call him. Smear accepted immediately and played his first show with Nirvana on Saturday Night Live on September 25, 1993. He toured with Nirvana for about six months, and also appears on their albums MTV Unplugged in New York, From the Muddy Banks of the Wishkah, Nirvana (album), and With The Lights Out.
Smear's time with Nirvana, which brought him his first mass audience exposure, came to an end with Cobain's death in April 1994.
Following Cobain's death, Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl formed a band to support his self-titled album, the first effort from the band which would become known as Foo Fighters. Smear joined the group from its inception, but because the band's first album was a collection of demos recorded solely by Grohl, Smear did not appear on a Foo Fighters album until 1997's The Colour and the Shape. Later that year, Smear quit the band: he announced his departure during a live performance atop Radio City Music Hall (introducing his replacement Franz Stahl), right before that year's MTV Video Music Awards.
During his absence from Foo Fighters, Smear kept a fairly low profile, producing the band Harlow's debut album and making scattered television appearances.
He has been employed as a creative consultant in a motion picture about the Germs and Darby Crash, entitled What We Do Is Secret, after one of the band's best-known songs. The film was released at the Los Angeles Film Festival on June 23, 2007, and had a limited theatrical release in 2008. It is now available on DVD. In the film, he is depicted by actor Rick Gonzalez.
In 2005, he began performing reunion shows with The Germs, with actor Shane West (who portrays Darby Crash in the film) filling in as lead vocalist.
The previously unrecorded Germs song, "Golden Boys", which is on Smear's 1988 SST album Ruthensmear, originally appeared on the soundtrack of an early cut of the 2007 film Cthulhu, but the producers replaced it due to rights issues.
In May 2006, the Foo Fighters announced they would play limited acoustic dates across North America. It was announced Smear would be one of the touring musicians aiding the band during the shows. He also appeared with them on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno in September 2006 and on the same stage as Bob Dylan and The Eagles at Genentech's 30th Anniversary party. On October 21 and 22, 2006 he also joined the band for both days of the Bridge School Benefit Concert, hosted by Neil Young. In addition he is a featured musician on the Foo Fighters live album Skin and Bones. In August 2007, he appeared on stage with the Foo Fighters at the UK's V Festival, Meadowbank Stadium, Edinburgh and Marlay Park, Dublin, Ireland.
On Sunday, September 9, 2007, Smear joined the Foo Fighters for their MTV Music Video Awards party room show. Smear has been added to the band as a touring guitarist for their supporting tour of the album Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace. Smear also is credited with playing guitar on the song "Let It Die" off the same album. On Saturday, October 13, 2007, Smear joined the Foo Fighters for an appearance on Saturday Night Live and also joined the Foo Fighters on stage at the MTV Europe Music Awards, confirming his return to the band as a full member.
He appeared with the band on Friday Night with Jonathan Ross on November 9. He played both Foo Fighters dates at the O2 Arena, London on November 17 and 18, 2007. On February 10, 2008, Smear also performed live with Foo Fighters at the 2008 Grammy Awards broadcast on CBS from a stage outside the Staples Center in Los Angeles. On January 23, 2008, on the first show for the Foo Fighters' "Echoes, Silence, Patience and Grace" tour in Dallas, he performed several songs with the band, and on February 20, 2008, he appeared on stage (with the whole touring band) when Foo Fighters played "The Pretender" on the Late Show with David Letterman.
On Monday, February 25, he performed for approximately half of the set list for the Foo Fighters at the Allstate Arena in Rosemont, Illinois (a Chicago suburb). On Monday, March 3, 2008, Smear joined the Foo Fighters for the acoustic portion of their show at Cox Arena in San Diego, California. Despite urging by Grohl, though, Smear did not play a guitar solo during band introductions. On Thursday, March 6, 2008, Smear joined the Foo Fighters for all portions (acoustic/plugged) of their show at the Forum in Inglewood, California. Urged by Grohl, Smear did play a guitar solo (eight notes) during band introductions. Since then, he has played a solo whenever asked to by Grohl.
He also played at the two concerts at Wembley Stadium on June 6–7, 2008. While Pat did participate in the concert, it was only for certain songs and the stage lights were not on him. This also occurred at several concerts with Pat playing basically in the dark. These concerts provide video for the Foo Fighters Live at Wembley Stadium DVD and Blu-ray, which also featured special appearances by Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones. On June 21, 2008, Smear performed live with Foo Fighters at the 2008 Hurricane Festival in Germany. He also appeared recently at the Foo Fighters' private gig for Bethesda's Fallout 3 game launch party in Los Angeles on Thursday, October 16, 2008 at the LA Center Studios complex.
Smear once again joined the Foo Fighters on their tour which kicked off in Seattle, Washington on July 9, 2008. At the Virgin Mobile Festival at Pimlico Race Track in Baltimore, Maryland on August 9, 2008, Smear performed with the Foo Fighters, even being introduced by Dave Grohl. Smear also performed with the Foo Fighters at the Harley-Davidson 105th Anniversary Celebration in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on August 29, 2008 and, more recently, at President Obama's 2009 White House Fourth of July celebration.
Smear appeared alongside Foo Fighters on the November 3, 2009 live broadcast of the Later... with Jools Holland music show on BBC Two in the UK.
During album sessions recorded for the Foo Fighters' 2011 release, Wasting Light, with producer Butch Vig, Smear has been fully integrated back into the band. As photographic evidence and video snippets posted on the Foo Fighters' Twitter page confirmed, he recorded and developed many guitar parts in the new songs. Album artwork from the album depicts Smear along with the band's other members. Smear appeared on the Daily Show to promote Wasting Light on April 11, 2011 on Comedy Central.
On 22 December 2010, the remaining members of Nirvana played together for the first time since the death of Kurt Cobain, at a last-minute Foo Fighters show at Paladino's in Tarzana, California. This concert was recorded for a documentary. While new material from the band's forthcoming album was aired, the biggest surprise was kept for the encore. Grohl made his way behind the drum kit, and he and Smear were joined onstage by Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic for a version of the 1993 Nirvana B-side "Marigold".
Smear almost exclusively uses Hagstrom guitars. Smear's most used guitar since 1997 is a custom made Black Hagstrom, which has no name or designation but it looks like the models F-20t and Hagstrom F-200p. He has been using them since his days with Germs and has been collecting them ever since. He has been noted as having one of the largest collections of Hagstrom guitars in the United States. When playing the song 'I Should Have Known' in live shows, he can be seen using a double necked guitar by Hagstrom with the top half being a bass for the bass-break. He lists Gibson guitars as his second favorite, notably the SG.
During his time in Nirvana, Smear sometimes used numerous Fender Stratocaster models that Kurt Cobain bought for him. In an interview with Smear, he stated he had 3 of each Strat and had to scratch them to tell the difference. These guitars were normally used on the songs "Scentless Apprentice", "Heart-Shaped Box", "On A Plain", and "All Apologies". Sometimes Smear used a blue Mosrite guitar that Cobain gave him as well.
For amplifiers, Smear uses Peavey 5150 and 6505 heads.
Smear is mentioned in the chorus of Sonic Youth's "Screaming Skull" on Experimental Jet Set, Trash and No Star.
Pat Smear
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