Melvins‘ old touring van, dubbed “The Beast,” will be on display at a pair of Seattle record stores for Record Store Day on Saturday (April 12th) before being parted out for auction.
Parts of the van are set to be included in the forthcoming “Music Icons” auction by Julien’s Auctions, which will be providing the fully intact vehicle for rare public appearances at Easy Street Records (from 7-10 a.m.) and Silver Platters (2-4 p.m.) for Record Store Day.
The 1972 Dodge Sportsman Royal Van, also known as “The Melvan,” is adorned with graffiti and artwork, most notably a mural of KISS drawn by Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain — purportedly with Sharpie markers he shoplifted, per the van’s previous owner Ben Berg via a feature on the van by Rolling Stone in 2012.
“I think Kurt’s name is carved somewhere in the van, as well,” Berg said. “I don’t know the exact location. I know that Krist Novoselic’s name is carved in there. Dale Crover’s name from the Melvins is carved in there.”
Berg asserts that Cobain also drove the van when helping out the Melvins with local shows and that the mileage odometer reading is “off the charts.”
“When the Melvins had it, they actually used it on their first US tour,” Berg said. “They went all the way over to the East Coast in it. Buzz [Osborne] told me one time that somewhere on that tour; they woke up to [Matt] Lukin trying to put out a fire in the engine. It hasn’t been started for years.”
After Record Store Day, portions the van — including the part with Cobain’s mural — will be cut off and sold at auction on May 30th and 31st at the Hard Rock Cafe in New York City as part of Julien’s “Music Icons” auction.
“Seattle is the birthplace of so many defining moments in rock history,” said Julien’s president/CEO Darren Julien via a press release. “We’re thrilled to partner with Record Store Day and these beloved local record stores to give fans a front-row seat to this one-of-a-kind piece of music memorabilia before it goes to auction.”
Meanwhile, Melvins are currently on the road for their co-headlining tour with Napalm Death, and are still traveling in a van, as frontman Buzz Osborne mentioned in Consequence‘s recent “Two for the Road” feature (watch below). The trek runs through late May, and you can get tickets here.
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