Puddle Of Mudd covered Nirvana's "About A Girl" during a session at Sirus XM in January 2020 and they never quite lived it down. The cover was mostly made fun of online thanks to vocalist Wes Scantlin's mostly-yelled vocal performance and strained facial expressions.
Now in an interview with Songfacts, Scantlin owns the cover and says it "looked and sounded like total shit." And props to Scantlin for outright admitting that – better to have a laugh and move on than to keep defending an obviously off-day that has fed the trolls for years.
"Oh, yeah," said Scantlin. "You know what? I was acclimating and it was a tiring day, and I had already performed five or six songs at one time, and by the time I got to that one — which I shouldn't even have done because I cannot nail that song — I was a little tired. It looked and sounded like total shit. But live to fight another day, dude."
The "About A Girl" cover is still available, but is unlisted on the Sirius XM YouTube channel. The video has racked up over 1.7 million hits in the past almost three years. Scantlin also reveals in the same interview that Puddle Of Mudd is wrapping up their first record since 2019.
"The album is basically done. It's getting mixed and mastered, and sprinkling the 'Disney magical fairy awesome stuff' on top of it is John Kurzweg, who did Come Clean [in 2001] and Life On Display [in 2003]. He's making it happen, man. It's incredible. It's wonderful to listen to. I pat myself on the back and give credit and love to each and every person that collaborated with me on this next record."
