How Industrial Legend Wound Up on Artwork for a Nirvana Single

Former Fear Factory vocalist Burton C. Bell has not one, but two ties to Nirvana history. As some fans already know, Bell was one of the kids in the chaotic pep rally for the “Smells Like Teen Spirt” video. However, the industrial legend reveals a second tie to Nirvana that even precedes that breakout moment for the Kurt Cobain-led group. He’s on the artwork for the 7″ single of “Sliver” / “Dive.”

How Did Burton C. Bell End Up on a Nirvana Single Artwork?

Bell’s appearance in the “Smells Like Teen Spirit” video in 1991 was no coincidence. He already had been an actual fan of the band.

In an Instagram posting, Bell revealed that he’s also part of the sleeve artwork on the 7″ single artwork for the Nirvana songs “Sliver” and “Dive.” As displayed in the Instagram post, it’s a negative image of Nirvana performing at one of their shows, and it just so happens that Bell was in attendance and his “negative” image is visible within the artwork.

So how did Bell end up on that single artwork?

“I moved to LA in July, 1989. I started working at Tower Video on Sunset Blvd in September. I was 20 years of age,” Bell recalled.

“A coworker, Scott, and I became good friends as we talked about the new music that was being created during that time including all things SUBPOP, and I was loving it.
He eventually introduced me to Nirvana’s BLEACH album. That album immediately spoke to me,” he continued.

“February 15, 1990, 4 days before my 21st birthday, Nirvana was playing Raji’s ; a basement dive on Hollywood Blvd,” recalled the singer. “Scott and I got super high before we went inside. We missed the opening band, Distorted Pony, but after they were done, we made our way to the front of the small stage, that went up to my knees. There was no barricade, and there were maybe 100 people there. From what I remember it was a bad ass show.”

That was a nice enough memory for Bell, but much to his surprise, photos from that show ended up being used for the single artwork.

“SUBPOP released the 45 single Sliver, with the B-side Dive sometime after that,” recalled Bell. “I know this because when I was checking out the cover art of the single, the negative image photograph on the back was from that Raji’s show, and there I was standing right in front, stoned in amazement of #nirvana and #kurtcobain.”

Not only did Bell share the artwork from that single, in a second slide on Instagram he was able to zoom in on where he was within the audience that’s featured in the artwork.

That OTHER Burton C. Bell / Nirvana Tie

Back in 2012, Bell also recalled his “Smells Like Teen Spirit” video experience during a chat with MusicFrenzy.net.

Bell recalled, “I was a big Nirvana fan for a long time, and I saw them a bunch of times on the Bleach tour. After seeing them a few times, I’d run into them, a friend of mine actually played on the record, Nevermind — he played cello on ‘Something In The Way.’ So we had a copy of that record almost five months before it came out.”

He continued, “What happened was that, before the record came out, they had a show in L.A. at the Roxy, and after the show, they threw out flyers saying, ‘Hey, come to our video shoot.’ And so me and my roommate got the flyer with the directions on it and we went to the video shoot the next day.”

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Further adding to the lore of the iconic video, Bell recalls of the clip’s chaotic pep rally, “What happened in the video wasn’t even supposed to happen. The audience just went nuts.”