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Nirvana manager Danny Goldberg remembers Kurt Cobain as "very ambitious...determined." © Andy King/Sygma/Corbis

"Nevermind surprised everybody. It certainly surprised me," says Danny Goldberg. Now the head of Gold Village Entertainment, Goldberg, who got his start in the business as Led Zeppelin's publicist, managed Nirvana in the '90s at his former company, Gold Mountain. "I knew it was a great record - we all did - but a life-changing, cultural phenomenon? Nobody expected that."

Released 20 years ago, on 24 September 1991, Nevermind came out of nowhere and hit music fans with a force they hadn't experienced since The Beatles turned the world on its ear in 1964.

And just as the Fab Four opened the floodgates for fellow British bands such as The Rolling Stones, The Animals, The Kinks and The Yardbirds, among others, the success of the Fab Three - singer-songwriter and guitarist Kurt Cobain, bassist Krist Novoselic and drummer Dave Grohl - signaled the start of the grunge revolution, turning audiences onto groups like Soundgarden, Pearl Jam and Alice In Chains.

Packed with raging-guitar, hook-filled classics (Smells Like Teen Spirit, Come As You Are, In Bloom, Lithium), Nevermind put a decisive end to hair metal, toppled Michael Jackson from the number spot on Billboard and made alternative rock the mainstream. Selling over 30 million copies worldwide, it is widely regarded as one of the most significant albums in music history.

Next week, to commemorate the 20th anniversary of Nevermind, Geffen Records will release an expanded reissue of the album in Deluxe and Super Deluxe packages.

On the heels of this release, MusicRadar sat down with Danny Goldberg to talk about Nevermind, along with his thoughts and reflections about working with Kurt Cobain and Nirvana.

Twenty years. Can you believe it?

"No, not really. The passage of 20 years touches everybody when they suddenly stop in their tracks and realize that they're 20 years older. When it comes to thinking about Nevermind and the fact that it came out two decades ago, it is rather hard to believe. Quite simply, it doesn't feel like a 20-year-old record in any way."

When did you start working with Nirvana?

"Probably about a year before Nevermind was released. I had hired a manager named John Silva who knew more about the indie rock scene than I did. Up till then, my roster was people like Bonnie Raitt, the Allman Brothers and Rickie Lee Jones. I wanted to expand into other areas of music.

"Together, John and I signed Sonic Youth, who were very good at picking opening bands. Kim [Gordon] and Thurston [Moore], in particular, had impeccable taste. They chose Nirvana to open for them on a European tour, and I recall John coming back and saying that we should manage Nirvana. Then Thurston called me and told me how great they were. I really trusted Sonic Youth. We met with Nirvana, and they trusted us because they trusted Sonic Youth. [laughs] It was a very quick marriage."

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