A parent not approving of the music his child listens to? Yeah, it’s not just a myth.
On Wednesday’s TODAY with Hoda & Jenna, Jenna Bush Hager told guest co-host Carson Daly about the time her father, former President George W. Bush, broke her Nirvana CD because he took issue with the lyrics.
Jenna relayed her story after Carson admitted his son likes rap music, but noted “it’s tough with the bad words.”
“My dad was always so good about letting us listen to the music we wanted to,” Jenna said before explaining that one of the first CDs she purchased, with her own money, was by the Kurt Cobain-fronted Nirvana.
While she couldn’t recall which CD it was, Jenna told Carson there was one track on it that really caught her dad’s ear.
“There was a really bad song on it, which I’ll tell you during commercial, but my dad heard it,” she said. “And my dad heard me playing it on my little Discman or whatever CD player.”
“Future leader of the free world listening to you listen to that. That’s terrifying,” an incredulous Carson said.
“Yes, he was terrified,” Jenna admitted.
“What’d he do?” Carson asked.
“He broke the CD over his leg,” Jenna said.
“Wow, really?” Carson said.
“He never was mad like that," Jenna continued. “But this particular song really encourages, you know, I mean to hear your little daughter listen to it, you know what I’m thinking of.”
Carson had a good idea what the song in question was. “I think any hardcore Nirvana fan could probably guess what the song is,” he said. “It’s two words, right?”
“Yes, you’ve got it,” Jenna said.
While President Bush may have had his limits pushed with that Nirvana CD, he was generally more tolerant of Jenna’s musical tastes.
“Other than that, when we would drive, he would let me in our little minivan, put on, like the Green Day ‘Dookie’ CD and he would listen to it.”