In an interview with Spin, the Dinosaur Jr. frontman reveals some interesting hypotheticals.

Joseph “J” Mascis Jr., the guitarist of alternative pioneers Dinosaur Jr., has been the subject of such rumors for years, but finally clears up what happened and what could have been.

“Nirvana was playing Maxwell’s and after the show I was talking to Kurt and Thurston Moore,” Mascis says of a 1989 gig. “Kurt said, ‘you should join my band.’ I think he was sick of the guy Jason [Everman] who was in the band at the time, and thought I should play guitar. I didn’t think much about it. Later, there was also talk of playing drums on a single [1990’s ‘Sliver’] they were doing, but it ended up being [Mudhoney drummer] Dan Peters.”

In addition, Built to Spill frontman Doug Martsch began recording 1997’s Perfect From Now On, the singer-songwriter almost enlisted Mascis to play drums on the record, but had some (understandable) reservations.

“When we signed to Warner Brothers, I didn’t have a band,” Martsch says. “One idea I had was to play all the instruments myself and just get a drummer. I ended up doing that and scrapping it, but another idea was to have J play drums on the record. He was willing to do it, but then I kinda decided it wouldn’t be a good idea.”

“I felt like I needed to work with someone who I could really work with a little more, you know? I didn’t know how we could work together, I had no idea and I didn’t want to get started on something like that. I didn’t want to be telling J Mascis what to play on drums. I wanted to find someone I felt comfortable really expressing myself with. But there was a moment where he was almost the drummer on that record,” said Martsch.

Last month, Dinosaur Jr. released their tenth studio album, I Bet On Sky. The band teamed up with Funny or Die for the ‘Watch the Corners’ video; watch it below.