Everybody Loves Our Town: An Interview With Grunge Author Mark Yarm

By Eli Duncan-High

Mark Yarm photographed by Kenneth Bachor

During my brief hiatus from WGMU Radio, I took up reading into the alternative scene, more specifically grunge, which has played an important part in shaping my identity, from how I dress to growing my appreciation for the arts. When I discovered the book, Everybody Loves Our Town, A History Of Grunge, I knew I had to take this wild journey into one of music’s most influential scenes. Everybody Loves Our Town is written by Mark Yarm who has a strong portfolio in journalism; from working as a tech desk editor for BuzzFeed News to writing for major media outlets such as the New York Times, the Washington Post, and Rolling Stone. It’s no surprise that Everybody Loves Our Town was a Time magazine book of the year. The book is filled with laughs, love, community, addiction, loss, and perseverance that will keep you up past your bedtime. 

Everybody Loves Our Town is an emotional rollercoaster told by people directly involved with the grunge scene from its grassroots origins, heights, and decline. I had the privilege of interviewing Mark Yarm to learn more about the making of the book and his experience working with some of music’s most iconic and unsung heroes. I highly recommend the book to anyone wanting to learn more about grunge and the peak of alternative music.  

Eli: What was the goal of making this book? Was it to tell the stories of grunge’s biggest heroes and educate the reader about the finer details of the scene? Would you say you reached the goal you set out for this book? 

Mark: The goal of this book wasn’t to highlight only the big four of grunge which are Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, and Alice In Chains. I wanted to talk about the lesser-known bands, bands like Mudhoney, Tad, The Gits, and L7. Bands that many people might not have heard of. There are already so many Nirvana books on the shelves and I didn’t want it to be another Nirvana book, although I had to cover them, and I think I did it well. I just wanted it to be a really good overview of the Seattle grunge scene.  

I think I was pretty successful with the book and people who have read it seem to agree. As you mentioned it starts early on with the compilation album, Deep Six, which came out on C/Z Records in the mid-1980s and the bands featured were the U-Men, Malfunkshun, Skin Yard, Soundgarden, Melvins, and Green River and progressively goes deeper into the history of the scene. 

 Eli: Everybody Loves Our Town features some of the most exciting stories in music history to the point that they don’t sound real. Beginning with the U-Men’s moat of fire at the Bumbershoot Festival to Alice In Chains and Gruntruck’s wild ride across the world. What would you say is your favorite you-got-to-be-joking story from the book? 

Mark: The U-Men story that you mentioned, where they emulate a moat on fire is a favorite. Most oral histories begin like a Michael Bay film with a big burst of fire and a big explosion. There are a variety of stories in the book. If you want Kurt [Cobain] and Courtney [Love] stories they are there along with some of the more sorted aspects of the scene. Then there are stories about Tad and getting their album pulled from shelves because it used an unauthorized picture of a man fondling his wife or girlfriend. There are so many stories and I wanted to focus on the people’s narratives.  

There is a lot of sadness in between the book with Kurt and Layne Stayley’s passing towards the end and some that precede them like Andrew Wood, Stefanie Sargent, and Mia Zapata. There’s a lot of darkness but also a lot of funny stories like Kurt Cobain talking backstage at Saturday Night Live about how he wanted to start a petting zoo. Many stories are filled with joy interspersed throughout the book. 

Eli: This book is an emotional rollercoaster that covers very real human problems about mental health, addiction, and loss. How were you able to navigate through these subjects with your interviewees who were personally affected by these tragedies? 

Mark: It was hard, especially doing interviews late at night. I had some phone calls late at night about the darker side of the scene like the heroin epidemic that left me shaking and it was hard to sleep after hearing those stories. We were talking about very serious topics like the deaths of Andrew Wood, Stefanie Sargent, Layne Staley, and Kurt Cobain, as well as the drug and heroin use amongst a lot of these people. One of the people I talked to for the book was Mike Starr, the former bassist for Alice In Chains, who was a complicated person to talk to as he was going through his addiction struggles. 

I spoke to him I believe the day before he passed away and it was strange speaking to him one day and the next day you’re hearing that he passed away. I talked to Ricky Kulwicki of The Fluid who also passed away during the making of my book and I also spoke to Steve Albini who just recently passed away. It’s an eerie feeling that you spent time with these people and now they’re gone. I’m just glad that people were able to trust me with their stories while also sharing moments with people who are no longer with us.  

 Eli: The characters in the book all share their own unique stories from the scene. When I read these stories I felt like I was in the moment with the narrator. Did you get a similar feeling when reading these stories? 

Mark: I don’t have a particularly great memory of things from my own life but some people could recall memories with such precision things that have happened 20-30 years prior but not always accurately as part book shows you these conflicting memories. However, certain people could take you back and give you a sense of what it was like being 19-20 years old touring in a band around the country and being on Sub Pop Records. 

Eli: It took you three years to complete the book and with all of the information needed to tell a complete story was there ever a time when you felt like giving up? 

Mark: Yes there was a time, perhaps mid-way through, when things weren’t working out very well, and I wasn’t hearing back from people which is the most frustrating part. I was ready to throw in the towel but I talked it over with my literary agent and took a little break for a few weeks and got back on it. Fortunately, I was able to finish it but oral histories are incredibly hard to do well because you’re so reliant on the voices of others especially mine where my voice, except for the introduction, is not in the book at all. It is all told from the people who were there. There’s a reason 12 years later I still haven’t written another book because it was so difficult (laughs). 

Eli: You give thanks to some of grunge’s biggest icons, such as Mark Arm and Buzz Osborne, and people in your personal life for their support in helping you finish the project. Could you go into further detail about the role they played in completing the book? 

Mark: My literary agent helped me a tremendous amount with moral support and all credit to my wife for being so patient even when she was out hiking the Appalachian Trail and having her adventure. There were also people like Jacob McMurray from the Museum of Pop Culture in Seattle, who have a great archive and were very helpful. The musicians were great and if they had a good experience with me they would pass my name on to other people and say “This guy is ok” and spread from there. Some of the bigger publicists would sometimes be helpful and other times not. I also want to thank my editor, Sean Desmond, who was great, supportive, and believed in the project throughout.  As lonely as writing a book can be you also meet a lot of people, especially with a book like this where you are telling people’s stories and I’m glad so many people trusted me to tell their story.  

Eli: Is there one person you wish you could have interviewed for the book that you didn’t get the chance to? 

Mark: The main ones were Pearl Jam who at the time were doing their Pearl Jam Twenty book. I was able to interview a few members of Pearl Jam which included all the drummers who were in the band which was quite a feat. In the book, there are archival interviews with Eddie Vedder but I would have loved to have interviewed him in person. Fortunately, I was able to interview over 250 people so I was pretty busy.  

Eli: Has the making of the book changed your life in any way? Have you established relationships from the makings of the book that you still hold today? Looking back now would you have approached the making of the book differently?  

 Mark: For a long time, it made me not want to do another book but it has certainly enriched my life in many ways. I’m still in touch with some of the people in the book and as the years go by I become a little bit more distant from grunge but I keep tabs on it. I’m more into the tech/culture sphere than I am in music, although I still sometimes write music for the New York Times, I generally write about other topics. Writing a book, especially one that is well-received, has opened some doors for me as a writer and editor and it’s a source of pride. People recognize me for the book and generally have good feelings for the book which has certainly helped me. 

Looking back at the making I would have liked to ask different questions, try different approaches with people, and add and subtract a few things. Nothing you write ever feels quite finished but once it’s printed up and down on the paperback you have to leave it at that and even though it was difficult to complete I’m glad I was able to finish it.  

Eli: What is grunge to you and do you think grunge is still alive? 

 Mark: I recently met someone at a party who wasn’t familiar with grunge and I told him to listen to Superfuzz Bigmuff by Mudhoney,  the dirty guitars and the humor in songs like Touch Me I’m Sick from that album pretty much encapsulate the sound of grunge. Grunge is very much still alive today, back when I lived through the grunge era it was played on the alternative radio and you would always hear Smells Like Teen Spirit on pop radio. Now you always hear grunge on classic rock radio and I hear Soundgarden, Nirvana, and Pearl Jam all the time on it.  

People your age and younger are still discovering this music and keeping it alive and a lot of these bands such as Pearl Jam, Alice In Chains, Mudhoney, and the Melvins are still touring while others from the scene went on to form other projects like Dave Grohl and Foo Fighters. As long as the music is still living on through people the music will stay alive.