Lil Nas X Says He Had Never Heard ‘Nevermind’ Before Interpolating Nirvana On ‘Panini’

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Lil Nas X has finally followed up “Old Town Road” with a fresh new single, “Panini.” Oddly enough, Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain is listed among the song’s writers, and that’s because the track interpolates the band’s classic “In Bloom.” Lil Nas X spoke with Apple Music’s Zane Lowe about the track, and said that he hadn’t actually listened to Nevermind before creating “Panini.”

Lil Nas X told Lowe about the Nirvana credit, “A lot of songs will even come to me like I’m sleeping or something. Like a melody and I’m like, wow, that’s fly. But the craziest things about ‘Panini,’ is it introduced me to Nirvana’s album Nevermind. It’s like I always seen the cover but I never actually listened to it. And people was like, ‘Wow, he sampled Nirvana.’ I was like, no. It’s like I didn’t realize I was using almost the exact same melody. I’ve been listening to it a lot lately, actually.”

He also thanked Kurt Cobain’s daughter Frances Bean Cobain, tweeting, “panini interpolates parts of nirvana’s ‘in bloom’. special thank you to frances bean cobain for this!!”

He also told Lowe about his upcoming EP and his plans beyond that, saying, “With this I want you to make sure you’re listening to every single thing. You can’t just listen and be on your phone the whole time because you might miss something. But yeah, it’s going to be great. You’re going to love it and you’re going realize Lil Nas X isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. I’m going to still be doing little stuff, but the main tour is going to be around the beginning of next year. Like when the album’s out. It’s just whatever happens is going to happen, pretty much. I’m not putting a theme. I feel like that’s going to make me have a guideline of what I can talk about or do. You’re going to see. It’s all going to make sense.”

Listen to “Panini” above, and read our interview with Lil Nas X here.

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