Richard Patrick of Filter Talks About ‘Hey Man, Nice Shot’ and Kurt Cobain

Filter is playing Streetfest 2012 Friday night and lead singer Richard Patrick stopped by the Morning Show Friday morning to chat with us. He was one of the best interviews we've ever had, talking about the controversy surrounding "Hey Man, Nice Shot" and whether it was written about Kurt Cobain. He also talked about his days in Nine Inch Nails and his struggles with drug and alcohol abuse and how he got sober.

'Hey Man, Nice Shot' & Kurt Cobain

I asked Richard about the controversy surrounding the song, "Hey Man, Nice Shot" and rumors that it was written about Kurt Cobain's suicide.

"The song was so controversial, and I was like, 'What did I do?' " Richard said. "That was the tragedy of the song coming out after he killed himself. The problem was the song was written in '91 - my label, Warner Bros. or someone put it out and said, 'It's a song about suicide,' so DJs in Seattle said, 'No this song is about Kurt Cobain' and they kept repeating it and repeating it over and over and when you repeat it, whether it's true or not, it becomes the truth."

Richard said, if anything, the song was inspired by Budd Dwyer, who shot himself on live TV during a press conference in 1987.

"I saw the raw footage of it. I'm from the suburbs, I don't remember seeing a lot of things like that growing up. When you're 22 and you see that, you're like, 'Wow.' There was no Internet to watch death on ... you can see anything on the Internet now. Back then, we were watching it out of fascination of like, 'Wow. We're all gonna die. There was a morbid curiosity. I was watching it and I was all, 'Hey man, nice shot,' " Richard said.

Richard said he talked about the song and the controversy with Dave Grohl.

"I said, 'From the bottom of my heart, it wasn't about Kurt Cobain.' Dave said he heard the song and thought it was great and then people called him and told him it was about Kurt and he was all, 'Dude,  you're making money off my dead friend, then I read your article in Rolling Stone, and I completely understand because people think I'M writing songs about Kurt and I"m not - I wrote all my first Foo Fighters record while Kurt was still alive.' "

Filter at Streetfest 2012

If you want to hear the band behind the controversy, head to Streetfest 2012 tonight, where Filter will be taking the stage at about 8:45. Richard said "We love El Paso, we played here last year, we're really looking forward to tonight and having a good time."

You can check the band out on Facebook and Twitter as well.

Get a sneak peek at what you'll here tonight below: