Watch Phoebe Bridgers Cover Nirvana’s ‘Lithium’ for BBC Radio 1

Phoebe Bridgers performed an intimate cover of Nirvana‘s 1991 classic “Lithium” for the BBC Radio 1 Live Lounge. The singer recorded her appearance on the show earlier this month, only hours before being hospitalized for appendicitis.

Appearing with a guitarist, Bridgers also showcased her own song “Bobby,” which comes off her new album Lost Weekend.

Earlier this month, Bridgers was forced to reschedule several U.K. shows after being diagnosed with appendicitis. “I got appendicitis for my birthday,” she wrote on Instagram. “Everything in the U.K. this week will have to move but I’ll make it up to you!”  

Although Bridgers hasn’t previously covered Nirvana, her band boygenius did recreate the rock band’s iconic Rolling Stone 1994 cover image in 2023. The group also joined forces with Dave Grohl for a live performance of “Satanist” at the Hollywood Bowl in 2024. Grohl was notably meant to play on the group’s album The Record, but he missed the session.

“There was this missed connection where Dave was actually going to come to the studio and play on [The Record],” Bridgers recounted. “Then he slept through it or whatever, and we didn’t end up meeting.”

Bridgers released her third studio album, Lost Weekend, on Aug. 14, her first solo project in six years since the 2020 release of Punisher. Rolling Stone writer Angie Martoccio gave Lost Weekend four-and-a-half stars, calling the album a “spectacular song cycle on love and loss.”

“Bridgers makes up for the last several years (you might call it lost time) by giving us her longest and most daring record yet,” she writes in her review. “A tour de force in the art of disappearing, falling in love, and feeling grief so deeply that waking up every day kind of sucks.” 

Later this fall, Bridgers will kick off her phone-free arena tour, the Lost Tour. The trek will begin Sept. 15 in Indianapolis at Gainbridge Fieldhouse and conclude Dec. 12 at Sweden’s Avicii Arena.