Melvins’ Buzz Osborne recently spoke about the band’s influence on grunge and nü-metal. He shared his candid thoughts in an interview published by Consequence.
During the conversation, Osborne revealed how he used to tease Faith No More’s Mike Patton over the nü-metal acts that cited their respective bands as influences. He also offered his broader take on the genre.
“I used to have a joke with [Mike] Patton, ’cause he’s called influential as well,” Osborne said. “And I would go, ‘I’ll take Nirvana and Soundgarden and you can have Limp Bizkit and Korn.’ He’s like, ‘F*ck you.’ [laughter]”
Osborne then shared his own perspective on the nü-metal movement as a whole.
“That was always funny,” he continued. “But I mean the whole nü-metal thing to me it all sounded like Helmet ultimately. It just all sounded like Helmet. That’s what I thought, anyway.”
When reflecting on being called an influence, Osborne was quick to distance himself from any responsibility for the genre’s direction.
“The first thing I always want to say when somebody says it is don’t blame me. [laughter] I didn’t make you make this music,” he said. “This is the seeds of what I’ve sown and it’s far worse than what I could have ever imagined. [laughter] But, you know, you can’t help that kind of stuff. It’s whatever. I mean, I’m glad. I guess you could call it, you know, happy accidents.”
He also clarified that influence is never something he consciously aims for when writing music.
“I’m certainly not thinking of that when I’m writing music; ‘This is going to be so influential’ — I don’t think about that at all,” Osborne added. “But I think about all the stuff that influenced me. Sure. I can name a thousand bands that I’ve taken something from or got inspired by.”
The comments were made during the Two for the Road interview featuring Osborne alongside Tomahawk’s Duane Denison. The two discussed their summer tour, influence, and more.
Osborne’s remarks are consistent with a long-held position he has maintained across multiple interviews. He draws a firm line between the legacy he claims and the one he actively deflects. His wit in redirecting the nü-metal conversation toward Patton is not a new instinct. It is a recurring rhetorical move rooted in a genuine distinction he sees between grunge’s architects and the genre’s more commercially driven descendants.
Osborne has previously made a similar joke at the expense of Helmet’s Page Hamilton, telling him, “I’ll be the Godfather of Soundgarden and Nirvana and you can be the Godfather of nu metal.” The quip reflects a consistent pattern in how Osborne navigates conversations about legacy. He aligns himself with the critically revered end of the alternative spectrum while humorously offloading the nü-metal inheritance onto others.
Osborne has also pushed back on the very language used to describe his impact on other artists. He has argued that the word “influence” is fundamentally misused. In his view, bands like Melvins may inspire others to pick up instruments, but do not necessarily shape the music those artists go on to make. Name-dropping a band as an influence often says more about an artist’s self-image than about any real musical debt.
Faith No More carries a well-established reputation as one of the primary architects of the rap-metal fusion that gave rise to nü-metal. The band’s early experiments blending hip-hop rhythms with heavy guitar work in the 1980s placed them ahead of the curve. That legacy has followed them ever since, whether they sought it or not. Patton himself has rarely embraced the nü-metal label with enthusiasm, making Osborne’s teasing all the more pointed.
Both Osborne and Patton built careers on artistic restlessness and genre defiance. Yet both find themselves tethered — however loosely — to a movement defined by the very commercial instincts they spent their careers resisting. Osborne’s laughter in recounting the joke suggests he has made peace with the contradiction. His preferred punchline, however, remains the same: take Nirvana and Soundgarden, and leave Limp Bizkit and Korn to someone else.
