Original subtitles

* MTV ♪

Look at the carnage!

We made it fucking happen!

Jane's fucking Addiction!

Look at the carnage.

And not one kid was fucking hurt.

Everybody's having a good time.

It should be an event to be remembered.

You can come and learn also while you're at the concert

about different activ... act...

Act.

Is it a bunch of bands,

or does it have more meaning to you than that?

It's a bunch of bands bringing people together.

The first Lollapalooza

could be looked at as the beginning

of something very powerful.

♪ Head like a hole, black as your soul ♪

♪ I'd rather die than give you control ♪

♪ Head like a hole, black as your soul ♪

♪ I'd rather die than give you control ♪

Lollapalooza was the beginning of things

that were on the edges becoming acceptable.

I think it's... it's a pleasure

to feel freakish.

The first year, Jane's was big,

but in an underground way.

Perry! Perry, we love you.

Like, we had all been underground bands,

but that was changing.

There was no underground anymore.

♪ You're going to get what you deserve ♪

♪ Head like a hole, black as your soul ♪

ICE-T: Lollapalooza was an adventure,

and took our band to another level.

♪ Bow down before the one you serve ♪

Lollapalooza '91

I think was a pivotal reason

that we turned into what we turned into.

And it felt like kind of a promise

of what the future could bring.

So, tell me a little bit about Lollapalooza Two.

- Lollapalooza '92. - '92, excuse me.

Where do we start?

I can't guarantee it's gonna be any better.

But I know that probably it'll be bigger.

It'll be different.

Lollapalooza '92--

in the press campaign for the second Lollapalooza,

we did a whole lot of, "If you missed the first one,

"you've now got a second chance.

Don't blow it this time. Come on out."

Last year, Lollapalooza was one of the hottest tours

of the summer.

And with most of the 36 dates already sold out,

it looks like Lollapalooza Two is gonna be even bigger.

It's more hyped up this year.

There's a lot more coverage this year,

you know, more people know about it.

One of the really important things

about Lollapalooza was that it moved.

We're gonna keep the ticket price cheap,

and we're gonna go to where these kids are.

I think Lollapalooza is great.

I mean, they should have had this a long time ago,

and I hope it keeps on going.

I hope I can be, you know, 50 years old

and still going to Lollapaloozas.

It was one day of getting your teenage mind blown.

You know, the world's a lot bigger

than you think it is here in St. Paul.

We actually had to message,

"Look, you're gonna have to take the day off."

Our principal kicked us out for going to this.

- Our principal kicked us out. - Oh!

- Our principal kicked us out. - We have no school

for the rest of the year.

All right, so we're talking 1992.

The prerequisite was young breaking groups.

And there is Lush going in their tour bus.

Colors and psychedelic-type things, you know.

It'll be good, you'll like it. Come.

I was looking for artists that were alternative.

What?!

Alternative to what?

Alternative to the status quo, to classic rock.

We'll take that as a positive.

By the time we got to Lolla,

we had made our "Blood Sugar Sex Magik" record.

First time we had big hits,

we're, you know, playing arenas.

♪ What I got, you gotta get it, put it in you ♪

And I had been absolutely fucking miserable.

I'd gotten divorced, I was stressed,

I couldn't sleep.

I was, like, didn't know how to take care of myself.

I had kind of gotten to a point

where I was emotionally much more stable

by the time Lollapalooza had come around.

It was like, I'm okay. I can enjoy this.

Like, it's okay for me to have fun.

♪ Low brow but I rock a little know how ♪

♪ No time for the piggies or the hoosegow ♪

"Blood Sugar Sex Magik," that record-- voom-- you know?

They became superstars,

and Lolla was the beneficiary of it.

Lolla got a lot of those.

I remember sitting in the conference room,

Perry's across from me, and I said,

"We're gonna put this band on named Pearl Jam."

And you know, it was one of those things,

I was not leaving that room until Pearl Jam was on the bill.

♪ Even flow ♪

♪ Thoughts arrive like butterflies ♪

Don Muller had signed Pearl Jam

and put them on Lollapalooza before their record came out.

And they got paid, I think $8,500, okay?

The record comes out months before the tour.

It's huge.

Joining the Chili Peppers

on this summer's second annual Lollapalooza tour

will be the Seattle bands Soundgarden and Pearl Jam.

Seattle had blown wide open.

Don wanted Pearl Jam and Soundgarden.

But I told Don, you can't put two bands from the same scene.

He's like, he told me to go fuck myself, and I'm wrong.

And Don was very right.

There's certain similarities, but really, I mean,

if you sat down someone who didn't know

and played them a Nirvana record,

a Mudhoney record, and a Soundgarden record,

and a Pearl Jam record, you know,

they would have no clue that they were all

from like the same city or the same scene.

I'm waiting for the show to start.

Basically here to see Pearl Jam.

What's your favorite group?

- Pearl Jam. - Pearl Jam?

- Yes! - Pearl Jam, boy,

they're number one on our requests so far.

I'm here to see Ice Cube! Yeah, baby!

Who are you here to see?

Ministry, Lush. Yeah, that's basically it.

You have the Lush color already.

Thanks.

Make some noise for Lush!

What did it feel like to be the first band to play,

you know, kick off the whole thing?

Terrible. Terrible!

Well, I think they chose us so that, you know,

everyone else could sort of, you know,

think, "Oh, that's how they do it."

That's how to do it.

Lollapalooza's there. Everybody is super excited.

But people were showing up much earlier

than any of us anticipated.

And tickets were manual. Scanning did not exist.

So, we were having a hard time physically getting people in.

The problem is, Pearl Jam were playing second,

and they were as hot as they could possibly be.

Hey, man, you got a joint?

How long y'all been waiting?

About two and a half. Two and a half hours.

- How long y'all been waiting? - Man...

- God. We left at 10:30. - At least three hours, man.

- What's your favorite band? - Pearl Jam or Soundgarden.

Cool. I hope you make it, man.

No shit, man. It starts at 2:00.

So, people are waiting in line,

and then they hear Pearl Jam on stage.

♪ Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey ♪

And they lose their minds and tear fences down.

Young people running from one end of the field

to the other, a swell of humans.

You have never seen security people so frightened.

You know, they were literally calculating out,

"Okay, I'm gonna lose my life,

"I'm being paid $7.99 an hour, or whatever else.

This is not worth it, I'm leaving."

They were manic shows.

The crowd was so in love with the band.

And Eddie Vedder you could tell was feeding off that energy,

because he'd already started doing things

where he was climbing up the structure.

I thought that band owned the stage.

They owned the sound.

And I really have become friends with them.

I have a great deal of respect, and love,

and admiration for them.

It was the hottest ticket, hands down,

in America, if not the world.

I wouldn't say that Lollapalooza broke them,

but Lollapalooza was broken by Pearl Jam.

Alternative, or whatever you wanna call it--

grunge, punk, you know.

It was just massive.

In '92, Generation X had really arrived,

and the energy of the crowd was insane.

You know, I think, to me, that kind of dancing and moshing

was cathartic.

One, two, three, go!

It seems dancing at concerts has changed.

You get a big crowd, then jump up

and let other people throw you around.

- You do it... - For the rush!

Ah, yes, for the rush.

1992 wasn't a bright time.

We just got through the '80s

where everybody went nuts, right?

No freaking jobs.

How many broken households were those kids coming from?

America was freaking bleak.

This home video of the police

beating up Rodney King was not enough

to convince the jury that the officers

were guilty of excessive use of force.

- Outside the courthouse,

angry demonstrators gathered to protest.

I see-- I'll tell you what, John,

I gotta see at least 40 fires going at this time.

Police across the nation are demanding

that Ice-T's song "Cop Killer" be pulled from store shelves.

The New York State Sheriff's Association

is the latest group to demand that Time Warner,

the company that is distributing the record, stop selling it.

ICE-T: They tried to blame me for the riot.

They lied, though. They say we made it

as a result of Rodney King.

But I'ma tell you, when I wrote the song,

Rodney King, it hadn't happened to Rodney King yet.

So, they found my record and they attacked,

and for a minute, all the news went to me,

and everybody forgot what was really going on in the streets.

Even Vice President Dan Quayle

has jumped on the boycott bandwagon.

It is wrong for a powerful influential corporation

like Time Warner to make money off a record

that says it's okay to kill cops.

There's so many songs that people are singing

that aren't... you know,

autobiographical or real.

This is, you know, they're metaphors.

♪ Ground control to Major Tom ♪

Was David Bowie really in the motherfucking space?

Like, what the fuck's the matter with you?

Let's get loud and shout!

From Seattle, Washington, Soundgarden!

I went to the Lollapalooza that was Soundgarden

and Pearl Jam, which was fucking great.

And Soundgarden performed "Cop Killer."

You gotta realize your power.

If anybody tells you that you can't buy something

or you can't read something, you gotta fight it.

You gotta kick ass and make sure

that you fucking know what's known.

This is a song dedicated to that feeling.

This is called "Cop Killer" by a band called Body Count.

♪ Cop killer! ♪

ICE-T: I thought it was dope.

I think anybody who does that song got balls.

"Cop Killer," man, it's like hitting that electric fence.

Like, pow! Like, whoa!

We all knew the cops were beating up Black people.

This is not a new thing.

This is an ongoing struggle.

Get your legs back, spread 'em!

Go on, get on over there. Get up against the car.

Get your legs back there.

Go on, get on over there. Get on the ground.

- I'm gonna treat you like King. - What King?

Like Martin Luther King. Like Rodney King.

Like all the Kings from Africa.

At the time, I was a huge Ice Cube fan.

He had just put out his second solo record,

"Death Certificate."

I talked to Ice-T, and he was telling me

about Lollapalooza, and how it was good, boom-boom-boom.

Then I heard that they wanted to get me on there, you know,

and he was telling me, "Yo, you know,

"fans that's never seen you play before,

"they've been wanting to see you play.

May be scared to go to a rap concert."

And I said they treat you real cool.

You're gonna find out there's a lot of support

out there for you, you know,

and it's just another-- another place

to get the message across, and the kids need to hear it.

♪ Fresh out of school 'cause I was a high school grad ♪

♪ Gots to get a job 'cause I was a high school dad ♪

♪ Wish I got paid by rappin' to the nation ♪

♪ But that's not likely, so here's my application ♪

How political is Lollapalooza?

It's very political, but it's on the unity tip.

It's getting people exposed to, you know, what I'm like,

and it's exposing me to what other people are like.

And we got some fans from overseas there.

- This must be a trip for you. - Yeah, it's fun.

So, how many people you guys registered today?

Thousands. Millions.

- Billions. - It's incredible.

We're registering between 800 and 1,000 people a day,

which is unheard of.

It's like over 100 people an hour.

A survey of young Americans

recently conducted by MTV and Rock the Vote

predicts that a mix of cynicism and hope

will drive almost three-quarters

of those questioned to vote this election year.

Even though 75% of the 1,000 18 to 29-year-olds

in the survey view politicians as quote,

"undeserving of their trust and respect,"

an equal number plan to vote.

Choose or lose. You gotta vote.

What do you guys think of Al Gore

being chosen by Clinton as his running mate?

I'm afraid of his wife and her witch hunters,

and headhunters, and things like that.

But I mean, I think Al Gore and Clinton

is definitely a better ticket than the antichrist

who is now running the country.

If there is a duty in life

assigned to each and every generation,

it is that they must turn over the world,

and nothing short.

Don't do anything Barbara Bush wouldn't do.

Lollapalooza was a circus,

it was a carnival.

It wasn't just a concert.

To use a phrase from the '60s, it was a happening.

One of the sights to see on Lollapalooza '92

is the Jim Rose Circus Sideshow.

Jim Rose, what's this all about?

Hi, Dave, it's a human demolition spectacular.

We're gonna be doing it on the Stage 2000.

It's a two-hour show, and it's about body altering,

changing your body.

This cat put on a modern twist

on a carnival sideshow,

where it wasn't the bearded lady,

but it's the guy who will hang,

you know, a 50-pound dumbbell from his balls.

Would you guys like to see that?

With a hook. Now, let those swing!

It was weird fucked up shit that they did.

Lifting objects with his penis was the most incredible thing

- I've ever seen in my life. - That was amazing.

Ow!

I remember seeing the Jim Rose Circus Sideshow

with Chris Cornell, and we all thought,

this is the most disgusting thing.

The Duke of Puke. Let's go.

You're gonna want to see this.

He had a guy who took a tube

and snaked it down his nose.

And we would put in beer, ketchup, Maalox,

and I'd pump it into the stomach.

Now...

What goes down must come up.

And then I'd pull it back up.

And the show's just starting.

Ladies and gentlemen, it's time now for bile beer.

Is there anybody who would like to have

a drink of beer with the freaks?

I'll give 'em one free beer. Who are they?

Who would possibly do that?

You'd have to be completely fucking out of your mind

- to do that. - It's Eddie!

It's Eddie from Pearl Jam.

Down the hatch with the freaks.

Eddie drank that shit, Chris Cornell drank that shit.

I don't know who else did it, but after I was done,

I was like, why the fuck did I do that?

You drank bile?

I drank the fucking bile, dude.

That's entertainment.

Okay, let me be serious for a minute.

We're gonna have a second stage this year,

which I'm real into.

Ted's not, but I am. No, we both are.

One stage would give us enough time

for five to seven groups at the most, right?

If you put another stage in,

and they could be even the younger ones,

ones coming up that weren't quite ready for 20,000 people,

that would be cool.

There have been a few moments in my rock career

where I've really been happy.

And one of them was when Perry Farrell called me up

and asked the new band I was in, Rage Against the Machine,

to play the side stage at Lollapalooza.

Just to be on that site and to-- for the first time ever,

to be out of a little grimy club,

I just felt sort of honored to be there.

There was a lot of small bands played that tour.

Stone Temple Pilots.

Cypress Hill. And Tool.

So, why did you guys come to Lollapalooza this year?

- I love Perry Farrell. - We love Perry!

In '92, I started Porno for Pyros.

That year, Porno for Pyros played their first ever show

on the side stage.

And what it did was show that really interesting stuff

was gonna happen on the side stage,

and you don't wanna miss it.

"120 Minutes" presents the Alternative Year in Rock.

You see it on TV, you read it in magazines,

you hear it from your grandmother.

1992 was a big year for alternative music.

Lollapalooza has gone for being a fringe thing

to actually promoting what is now

really the popular music of the time.

Nirvana, Red Hot Chili Peppers,

Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Alice in Chains, Sonic Youth,

Nine Inch Nails, Ministry, REM.

Now, it wasn't just an artist with ideas

curating a live playlist for an emerging fanbase

around the nation.

It was a bunch of big corporate record companies

trying to jam their bands onto the bill

to try to break them.

Record labels started calling us.

Presidents started calling us saying, "Put my band on."

And we're like, "No."

And they're like, "What do you mean?

Do you know who I am?"

And I'm like, "Yeah, I know who you are."

We weren't gonna be told what to do by anybody.

Let's see here.

What do we have on '93?

I see Primus, Alice in Chains, Dinosaur Jr.,

Fishbone, Arrested, 242, Babes in Toyland.

Tool must have opened. Oh, and Rage.

♪ Hey, yo, it's just another bomb... ♪

In '93, there's no Jane's Addiction,

there's no Perry fronting Porno as the first thing,

there's no sort of ringing endorsement necessarily.

He's more removed, even though he's not.

He's not playing.

So, Lolla has to stand on its own two feet.

♪ It goes a-one, two, three ♪

♪ And it's just another bombtrack ♪

♪ And suckers be thinking that they can fade this ♪

♪ But I'm gonna drop it at a higher level... ♪

I went and checked out Rage Against the Machine.

I knew they were gonna be just unbelievable.

The sheer, like, balls-out

was technically brilliant.

So, '93, Rage Against the Machine

was playing like at 1:30 in the afternoon.

People sitting down with their beers and their hot dogs.

♪ Burn, burn, yes, you're gonna burn ♪

And on comes Rage Against the Machine

with huge riffs and screeching solos,

and you know, Zack pontificating

about the evils of imperialism.

And people were just-- their ears were pinned back,

and we were done by, like, 2:15.

♪ Burn! ♪

A Rage Against the Machine show is issue-oriented.

Every time a band steps up on a stage,

it's-- you know, it's a platform to say something.

I don't think that we should be fooled now,

just because Clinton's in office,

that he isn't serving many of the same interests

that Reagan and Bush served, and it's our responsibility

to organize and to stay on top

and keep pressuring and keep confronting.

You voted. Now, you're invited.

Live from Washington D.C.,

MTV's "Rock N' Roll Inaugural Ball."

Ladies and gentlemen, the Vice President

of the United States and Mrs. Gore.

You have Tipper Gore

and her organization PMRC

trying to tamp down free thought.

All we're interested in is a way to make a quick decision

in a record store of stuff that's positive,

terrific, and great, over some content

that's extremely explicit and violent,

and refers to drugs.

It had gotten to the point where I think every one of us

were like, "Why is this happening?"

The subculture is being celebrated in the mainstream.

You could buy Alternative Press Magazine

at the supermarket.

We rocked the vote, all right.

The initial Rock the Vote campaign

that was started at Lollapalooza,

of course he benefitted.

Thank you very much for helping change

the course of your country.

And Rage decided, "Well, we have to do something."

We had the idea to do a protest.

Layne Staley had never seen Rage play.

Alice in Chains was headlining, so he was later in the day.

So, he came that day.

So, he's standing on the side of the stage like,

"Man, I heard your band's great. I can't wait to see you guys."

I'm like, "Layne, you're going to see us.

You're going to see us very soon."

No one else knows, no one in the crew,

Layne Staley-- nobody knows.

It's time to go. We take off our clothes.

♪ No more lies, unh! ♪

Tom Morello's mother was my high school history teacher.

She's a really avid First Amendment supporter,

and you know, Tom inherited, you know, those leanings.

She's actually the radical in the family, to be honest.

I just remember thinking, how long is he gonna do this?

And I couldn't believe it, and I thought,

wow, that's really, really brave and committed.

But then part of me was like, you know, there's other ways

to do it.

Well, I wasn't there, but I sure saw the pictures.

That was before manscaping.

How cool, though?

Take your cock out, man, that's fucking-- that's heavy.

It's "120 Minutes," I'm Lewis Largent,

and right now I'm in an Alice in Chains sandwich.

I'm gonna give you the mic, and you introduce yourself.

Jerry Cantrell, codpiece extraordinaire.

♪ Yeah ♪

♪ What's my drug of choice ♪

The line-ups of Lolla

have been very dude-heavy for years.

That kind of booking really shuns women in bands,

and there have always been women in bands.

Okay, backstage again at Lollapalooza '93,

and we are here with Babes in Toyland,

the lone babes on the Lollapalooza bill.

Do you think there's any truth in the criticism...

- Lone babes? - Yeah.

Everybody's babes in the universe.

On the first day of this tour,

this elderly man in a blue satin vest

with a swirly psychedelic pattern

comes up to us and says, "I love your band."

♪ You got this thing that really makes me hot ♪

And he started, like, singing "Bruise Violet,"

one of our songs, and like, playing air guitar.

And I was just like, oh my God.

You know, I recognized him as Timothy Leary.

Turn on, tune in, drop out.

So, he introduced us at the shows.

It's Lollapalooza '93.

And we've got one of the greatest bands

of the 21st century.

From Minneapolis, Babes in Toyland!

The one thing that was hard with Lollapalooza

was we had to spend a lot of money

because we were women, you know?

Basically to tour.

♪ Yeah... ♪

They had showers set up for like the roadies and stuff,

and the bands could use 'em.

Except like, for us, it was like,

"Oh, do you really wanna--

do you really wanna shower with the truckers?"

You know, so-- so we would get day rooms in the hotels,

which kinda cost us money.

So, I remember I came home from Lollapalooza

and had to borrow rent money from my mom.

You did? Well, you had a reason

- to do that, so... - I was pissed.

- Yeah. - Pissed off.

And drunk and on ecstasy at the same time.

Isn't it supposed to make you happy?

My friend Tom Morello, who I went to high school with,

and my friend Adam Jones from Tool,

who I went to high school with,

we all played Lollapalooza the same year, which was crazy.

It's just so crazy.

And were you kinda nervous going up on the big stage?

Yeah, yeah. There's far too many kids,

and they're very intimidating, and they didn't like us.

- They didn't like you? - No.

- I couldn't tell. - I don't buy that for...

They were fucking going like this, I couldn't tell.

- That's a good thing. - I think they were looking

- for something. - No, that's a good thing.

Adam Jones, the guitarist of Tool,

and Maureen Herman, the bass player

of Babes in Toyland, we were all in the same

kinda high school classes, close friends.

And we woke up one day, like on adjacent tour buses,

going like, "What hath God wrought?"

And here we were in '93 touring the nation together

on the most anticipated tour of the summer.

Two bands had graduated from the small stage,

being Rage Against the Machine and Tool,

to being now part headliners there.

It was a great nod

to the visionary side of Lollapalooza.

♪ It took so long to remember just what happened ♪

♪ I was so young and vestal then ♪

By the time '93 came around,

we're playing these gigantic venues.

A lot of the places that we're playing are fields.

What else can we do?

And it was decided, well, we'll have another stage.

A third stage. We'll do more music.

John put ads in fanzines,

"Do you wanna play on Lollapalooza?"

If you walked in his office, there were cassette tapes

at least two-feet deep,

and John would be sitting on the floor with a boombox

literally listening to all of them.

♪ Soon to fall ♪

I liked the band Sebadoh,

and the main person in that band

used to be in Dinosaur Jr.

I really liked the band Mercury Rev an awful lot.

They added this musicality and dimension

that wasn't featured on the main stage.

The other thing that was important that year

was to include local bands.

So, it wasn't just this elitist corporate festival coming in.

By now, Lollapalooza is a mainstream phenomenon,

and there's something that a lot of those Lollapalooza bands

have in common.

I call it punk rock guilt.

These were bands that had a point of view

that was dismissive of sort of the arena rock vibe.

And yet, they were selling enough records

to be playing arenas.

This caused a real, you know, in--

I know it was in Kurt Cobain and I know it was in Eddie Vedder.

I know it was in my band, I know it was in Nine Inch Nails,

I know it was in Tool. Not that long ago,

bands that you despised

were playing those arenas. Have you become them?

♪ I'm not like them, but I can pretend ♪

♪ The sun is gone, but I have... ♪

Nirvana, the Beastie Boys,

and the Pumpkins, we all had meetings.

We had George Clinton and Nick Cave,

and the Breeders, Stereolab, and Patti Smith,

and the Verve, and The Pharcyde.

And that year was gonna be epic.

So, we were planning the festival,

and Nirvana thought about it, but you know,

decided that they couldn't do it.

Kurt couldn't do it.

Kurt was terrified of selling out,

and Lolla was a sell-out moment I think for them.

You know, he very clearly at that point

was talking about how he looked in the audience

and he saw all the people that were beating him up in school.

And me too, right?

Like, Nirvana was, you know, everything to us.

When you're alongside something that once-in-a-generation,

once-in-a-lifetime, it just affects you in every way.

I had heard that Kurt escaped from a rehab,

and they actually wondered if I knew where he was.

So, I did not know where he was.

And then...

a few days later...

they told me that he had shot himself.

Kurt Cobain, the leader of one of rock's

most gifted and promising bands, Nirvana, is dead.

Police found what is said to be a suicide note at the scene,

but have not yet divulged its contents.

And we're really gonna miss him. He was a very sweet man.

Nirvana was a very, very bright and promising group,

and that promise has now been pretty much extinguished.

I just don't even want to accept it, 'cause...

then it just means you carry on,

and that just seems really strange.

And yet, if you don't, what does that mean, you know?

I think everyone felt in shock.

I think-- of course.

I mean, it was so tragic and horrible.

So, when Kurt died, it almost felt like kinda--

it was the end of an era.

There's a magical place with band after band

playing magical music while you get sun-tanned.

Lollapalooza!

Here comes the coolest apparition this summer.

Smashing Pumpkins, Beastie Boys, The Breeders,

George Clinton, L7,

plus mucho more.

Between bands, look into the future

down the Lollapalooza super highway,

the online cyberlink that lets you talk

long-distance via computer.

Lollapalooza '94, a hypnotic way

to spend a hot spell.

This MTV Lollapalooza Tour...

When Kurt passed, I think everyone decided

we have to continue celebrating

what it is to be the Kurts of the world.

Because everybody has to be their own person, you know?

I mean, you can't always depend on other people

to let yourself go the right path.

And what happened that summer is everyone came together.

♪ We were rich once before your head exploded ♪

♪ Imagine doing just what the Big Bang did ♪

♪ The whole world knew it was loaded ♪

♪ Wave bye-bye 'cause it ain't ever coming down now ♪

Somebody said, you know,

the big whiny college rock comment,

"There's nothing alternative about Lollapalooza anymore."

To me, alternative-- I would think it would just mean

an alternative frame of mind.

People that are into, like, peace, and science,

and music, and art.

Hey, even Parrotheads love this, man.

We're all into this kind of music.

It's a good thing, you got all these people

from different-- I mean, different types of people

listen to this music, it's just a great thing.

It's a great-- I mean, I can't beat this.

I got people here with me that have never seen this kind--

listened to this kind of music before, you know,

I'm breaking 'em into it, stuff, making 'em listen to XRT, Q101.

The irony of alternative is, once you identify it,

market to it, label it, you can't inhabit it

as alternative anymore, 'cause it's not.

And so, I think in many ways,

what we tried to do on the main stage,

and what we tried to do on the second stage

is make sure that we were pushing the envelope creatively.

My man, would you like to dance?

Future husband material, ladies and gentlemen.

- Future husband material. - Pass him up here.

- Bring him up here. - Wrap him in swaddling cloth

and take him backstage.

See, now you all could have come backstage

if you had "L7" shaved into your head.

L7 was from the L.A. underground art punk scene,

and we had such high hopes for Lollapalooza in '94.

But we were tapping our feet going, okay...

when are we getting the call?

So, we send a fax to this meeting

that says, "Dear Lollapalooza,

who does L7 have to blow to serve Coors at Lollapalooza?"

And it was signed,

"L, always the bridesmaids, never the brides, 7."

- Yippee! - Here, kitty, kitty, kitty,

- kitty, kitty, kitty, kitty... - Boom-boom.

So, we got the offer, but we had to push the issue,

and we had to fight for it.

'Cause that's how much we wanted to be on Lollapalooza.

And more importantly, that's how much

we felt we deserved to be on Lollapalooza.

But we've-- we've had to kick down doors a lot in our career.

♪ Down in North Hollywood ♪

♪ There's a guy with long hair... ♪

I don't think that women were represented

nearly enough at Lollapalooza.

But when they were represented,

they were there because they rock.

First year of Lolla, you have Siouxsie.

Second year, only women on the bill are Lush.

And then, year three, you have Babes in Toyland.

And there was women in Arrested Development too.

♪ Turn the tables with our unity ♪

♪ They're neither moral nor majority... ♪

You know, but you look at that now and just go,

seems like women were an afterthought.

Which is really wild, because it was women.

It was women who really helped break alternative music.

You know, people say, "Oh, it's noise."

- Like, you know, it's... - Yeah.

I mean, we didn't set out to be noisy or industrial, or...

We were heavily influenced by the early Beastie Boys.

- Yeah. - Early hardcore.

♪ Ahh, ahh... ♪

Entertainment Weekly came out to do a shoot

at one of the shows, and then the issue comes out,

and I think they probably thought

when they were choosing pictures

that it was one of me rocking out.

But it was actually me, like, pulling up my bra strap.

And I'm like...

And I'm sure nobody noticed, but I'm like,

of course, I get on the cover with my tongue sticking out

pulling up my bra strap.

Who did you come to see today?

Oh, I came to see A Tribe Called Quest

and Smashing Pumpkins.

- And the Beastie Boys. - And the Beastie Boys.

- L7. - L7 and Flaming Lips.

- Yeah. - George Clinton!

So, everybody I've talked to today

is really excited about having you on this tour.

I'm glad, 'cause we was worried. We was worried, you know.

George, you don't know, you have so many admirers

- on this tour. - Well, you know,

we usually have three or four hours and stuff.

You know, we had to cut it down to 45.

And we tried to conform, even though people

don't believe we'd do that.

Describe George Clinton, 'cause George Clinton's a trip.

Yeah, he was, like, really wild.

There was this guy in diapers, and then he was like...

- Wedding dress. - Yeah, and then he would--

then he changed into a wedding dress,

and then he had on these, like, little fur things,

and then his underpants, so he's bending over like that.

♪ That's it, goddamn, the old-school way to jam ♪

There I was, 1994, partying with some of the crew

of George Clinton's band.

That's why I don't remember that much about it.

♪ All sons of bitches, all sons of bitches ♪

Welcome to dollop of losers. How was your first couple shows?

- Um... - It rocked, man.

- They did the wave. - That was right.

- They did the wave. - They did that rock wave thing.

It was cool, I guess.

Thank you very much. Thank you.

I very seldom hear Perry say no,

except when he said no to Green Day.

Mo Ostin was still the president at Warner Brothers,

and he had this new group that he had discovered.

♪ I sit around and watch the tube ♪

♪ But nothing's on ♪

Then he took me into his office to ask,

"Would you put 'em on Lollapalooza?"

I told him no at first because I didn't want him

to think he could just come to me

and put people on there.

It doesn't work that way.

But I was like, "Dude, why?"

I was like, "Listen, they inhabit the gumption,

"attitude, and posturing.

It reminds me a lot of you back in the day."

So, Perry's compromise was, "I'm gonna book the Boredoms."

So, they'll do half and Green Day

will do the other half.

♪ You're the cloud hanging out over my head ♪

In '92, '93, '94, there was a band

that was on the rise that actually would steal the show.

So, in '92, it was Pearl Jam, '93, it was Rage,

and in '94, it was Green Day.

So, there's this band on the rise

that was playing earlier in the day

that was almost as popular as the headliner.

Hi, this is Billy from the Smashing Pumpkins.

I'm here with my longtime bandmate,

Mr. James "Eye-ha."

Wait, that's "Ee-ha."

Let's take this opportunity to demystify the woman in rock.

Seeing as people always ask us this stupid question,

let's ask each other the stupid question.

I was just gonna ask you not to ask me any stupid questions.

For me, that year was the peak of Lollapalooza.

There were some of the most

magical performances that summer.

I got to see the Beastie Boys every single night.

♪ I can't stand it, I know you planned it ♪

♪ I'm gonna set it straight, this Watergate ♪

♪ I can't stand rocking when I'm in here ♪

♪ Your crystal ball ain't so crystal clear, so... ♪

I mean, say what you will

about the Beastie Boys and the Smashing Pumpkins

becoming mainstream.

Both those acts earned their place

because the audience that was there revered them both.

And I can honestly say that the Beasties

have a lot of influence on a lot of the bands

that are on the bill this year,

so maybe you wanna talk about that.

Um... well...

Well, okay, I'm...

Turned out to be an unbelievable year.

Set attendance records, Green Day was breaking.

That was probably the end of phase one that year.

♪ 'Cause you can't, you won't, and you don't stop ♪

♪ 'Cause you can't, you won't, and you don't stop ♪

By that point, Lollapalooza was bigger

than we could have imagined.

♪ And I got mad hits like I was Rod Carew, yeah ♪

♪ 'Cause you can't, you won't, and you don't stop... ♪

It was going so well, and you know,

when the car is rolling and it's going real, real fast,

it gets harder and harder to jump out.

♪ Rock the sure shot... ♪

I remember the press in '94 slagging us,

saying Lollapalooza has lost it.

Lollapalooza was never designed to be a festival

of platinum-selling acts.

So, I think we hit a little bit of a bump in the road then.

When I found out that Metallica

was going to be on Lollapalooza,

my first thought was,

what the fuck do they have to do with Lollapalooza?

Oh my God.

Here come the bad boys of hard rock.

Ooh!

♪ Obey your master ♪