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

Kurt Cobain Kurt Donald Cobain (February 20, 1967 – April 5, 1994) was an American musician who served as the lead vocalist, guitarist and primary songwriter of the rock band Nirvana. Through his angst-fueled songwriting and anti-establishment persona ...

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 lamp Richard Gombrich, ''Theravada Buddhism: A Social History from Ancient Benāres to Modern Colomb ...

. 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 in Seattle on January 23, 1988 (

Dale Crover Dale Crover (born October 23, 1967) is an American rock musician. Crover is best known as the drummer for Melvins and has also been the drummer for Men of Porn, Shrinebuilder, Crystal Fairy and, for a brief time, Nirvana. He is also guitaris ...

Melvins Melvins (sometimes The Melvins) are an American rock band formed in 1983 in Montesano, Washington. Their early work was key to the development of both grunge and sludge metal. Initially, they performed as a trio but later also sometimes appe ...

served as his replacement).

With Nirvana

Burckhard's drumming can be heard on the first disc of Nirvana's '' With the Lights Out''. He played at the band's first live show, which was a 1987 house party in Raymond, Washington. 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

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