Aaron Burckhard (born November 14, 1963) is an American musician who was the first drummer recruited for Kurt Cobain and

Krist Novoselic Krist Anthony Novoselic (; ; born May 16, 1965) is an American musician and activist. He was the bassist and co-founder of the rock band Nirvana. Novoselic and Kurt Cobain formed the band Nirvana in 1987 along with drummer Aaron Burckhard, wh ...

's rock group that soon came to be known as

Nirvana ( , , ; sa, निर्वाण} ''nirvāṇa'' ; Pali: ''nibbāna''; Prakrit: ''ṇivvāṇa''; literally, "blown out", as in an oil lampRichard Gombrich, ''Theravada Buddhism: A Social History from Ancient Benāres to Modern Colombo.' ...

. Burckhard performed as a part of this band until December 1987. Burckhard was no longer a part of Nirvana by the time it recorded its first demo at

Reciprocal Recordings Reciprocal Recording was the name of a recording studio in the Ballard neighborhood of Seattle, Washington, United States that was founded in 1984 and officially closed in July 1991. History Chris Hanzsek and Tina Casale opened Reciprocal Re ...

in Seattle on January 23, 1988 ( Dale Crover of Melvins served as his replacement).

With Nirvana

Burckhard's drumming can be heard on the first disc of Nirvana's ''

With the Lights Out ''With the Lights Out'' is a box set by the American rock band Nirvana released in November 2004. It contains three CDs and one DVD of previously rare or unreleased material, including B-sides, demos, and rehearsal and live recordings. The title ...

''. He played at the band's first live show, which was a 1987 house party in

Raymond, Washington Raymond is a city in Pacific County, Washington, United States. The population was 2,882 at the 2010 census. The 2020 census showed the population of 3,081, an increase of 6.4%. The town's economy has traditionally been based on logging and fish ...

. He also played drums for a radio broadcast on KAOS on May 6, 1987. Burckhard's dismissal purportedly came as a result of his volatile nature which propelled him into frequent physical confrontations with people. An additional complaint against Burckhard was that he did not take his membership with the band as seriously as Kurt Cobain wanted him to. Burckhard frequently skipped practice, which infuriated Cobain. The last straw occurred when Burckhard got Cobain's car impounded after getting arrested for DUI.

Post-Nirvana

Beginning in 2005, Burckhard has played with the band Attica.Burlingame, Jeff (2006) ''Kurt Cobain: Oh Well, Whatever, Nevermind'', Enslow Publishers, , p. 46 In 2011, Burckhard, Clint Mullins, and Mat Watson formed the band Screaming Sons of... In 2013, he joined a new band called Under Sin.

References

1963 births Living people Musicians from Oakland, California Grunge musicians Nirvana (band) members 20th-century American drummers American male drummers {{US-drummer-stub