Shadowing Practice: Did Smoking Kill Rock and Roll? The Nirvana Smoking Controversy - Learn English Speaking with Video

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So the other night, the surviving members of Nirvana, Chris, Dave, and Pat,

received an award called the Vanguard Award at the Video Music Awards for their contribution to music video making

and their enduring legacy, which is enormous.

Nirvana is enormously popular still to this day.

But one of the only things that people were talking about the next day is

that Pat Smear lit up a cigarette on stage while they were accepting the award.

To someone that grew up in the 1960s, you don't even notice those things or it didn't even occur to me because it's something I grew up with.

In the 1960s, I looked it up, 42 % of adults smoked.

So four in 10 people, which is astounding because today it's 9 .9%.

That is a dramatic change.

That's in the U .S.

Smoking was so common.

Both of my parents smoked.

Pretty much every adult I knew smoked.

People smoked in cars.

They smoked in planes.

The first plane ride I ever took in 1967 going from Rochester to Detroit, there was a smoking section on the plane.

You never thought about it.

Fast forward to last year at the NAMM show.

Now there's like 150 ,000 people that come to the NAMM show

and i remember seeing someone smoke like one person

and walking by them and i was like whoa somebody's smoking now this is something

that was so ubiquitous growing up that it never even occurred to you

but it stuck in my mind and i get back home

and i remember driving to dylan to school the next day

and i was like hey dylan does anybody smoke at school

he was a senior in high school last year he's like

what do you mean does anyone smoke do the kids smoke

stand outside smoke he goes nobody smokes i mean not only does nobody smoke

but they all are on creatine and protein shakes

and all this kind of stuff

and they're all trying to you know be as fit as

possible he's nobody smokes why would people smoke i said they had smoking sections

when i was in in junior high

or in high school 16 year olds could smoke and they would they'd stand outside and they would smoke before school.

They'd smoke after school.

They'd smoke on lunch, break, whatever.

The teachers would also smoke.

As a matter of fact, when I taught college, this is back in 1987, before they started outlawing it in New York State or inside,

my old guitar teacher, Steve Brown, that I shared an office with, Steve smoked.

And he would routinely smoke in our office.

He had his ashtray on his desk and everything.

He would smoke and i never thought about it he would open the window

and stuff as a matter of fact going back to grad

school my guitar teacher mick goodrick smoked in every single lesson chain smoked

so at new england conservatory you'd go up to the second floor where the lesson rooms were

and they'd have big glass doors on them

and there was a massive window that sunlight would come in

and you'd go there and i'd look in to see

if mick was there and the smoke was so thick

when he was teaching a lesson you could not see who was playing guitar with him in there it was

so covered in smoke did i ever say anything about it

no i never thought about it i played in a band with three smokers everyone smoked at every club

that you went to when they were just hanging out every musician not me

but every musician i knew smoked if you go back and look at videos go back to nirvana on MTV Unplugged.

Go back in the 90s, in the 80s, in the 70s, in the 60s.

If you watch Get Back, all four of the Beatles smoked and they smoke all the time.

If you take a look at these pictures and videos, Aretha Franklin, Miles Davis smoking in the background while Coltrane's taking a solo on So What.

Jimi Hendrix having a smoke here.

Mick Jagger, Joni, they're doing it while they're playing, they're doing it while they're reading, when they're looking like badasses.

The Clash, David Bowie, Jim Croce smoked cigars, Neil Schoen smoked, Edward, Bono, everybody smokes.

Everybody smoked.

Glenn Frey, Don Henley, Madonna, Kirk, and James both smoked. Who knew?

Lane Staley, Josh Homme, Amy Winehouse, even Joe Dirt smoked.

Every huge artist smoked.

Many of them that I've interviewed i've asked them off camera how long did you smoke

and why did you smoke

and invariably they said they thought it helped their voice the ones

that were singers and i said in what way it made it raspier i thought

that it was uh helped my tone if you think of someone like frank sinatra

or nat king cole they smoked all the time

and you can actually hear it in the sound of their voice many smokers pay the price improving their voice

when they're younger but completely hurting their voice as they age.

It really destroyed their voices.

If you hear Frank Sinatra later in life, he didn't have the flexibility to do vibrato anymore

and just did not have that tone to his voice anymore because you lose your elasticity.

I was being interviewed by my heart surgeon up in Cleveland

and he told me that when he has a smoker that he's gonna do heart surgery on, that if they quit for 15 minutes, that your lungs begin to regenerate.

And that just blew my mind.

He's like, if I'm gonna operate on someone a month out, I tell them to stop smoking.

And they're like, why should I stop smoking?

I'm having the surgery in a month.

He said, because your lungs will be dramatically better just in that short amount of time.

If you watch TV shows like Johnny Carson, you can see his guests smoking.

Dick Cavett, same thing.

People smoked on talk shows all the time.

It's really hard to fathom that people smoked so much and it was so prevalent.

But the amazing thing is how few people smoke nowadays.

It was really blowing my mind at NAMM.

I saw one person smoke a cigarette and it just was like, wow.

He happens to be a musician that I've actually interviewed on my channel

and he's 75 years old and he was smoking a cigarette and he looks like he's in pretty good shape.

But smoking here in the United States is something that has actually changed for the better.

You know, I've always thought that there might be a correlation between people quitting smoking,

musicians, and the decline of rock music because they seem to somehow go together.

I'm not making a judgment either way on it, but I think it's fascinating.

Love to know your thoughts.

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This video has 98 sentences and 1160 words to shadow. The speech runs for 6:31. The speaker talks at a natural 178 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. Only 81% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is demanding.

Key vocabulary in this video

15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
musician noun	/mjuˈzɪʃən/	A composer, conductor, or performer of music; specifically, a person who sings and/or plays a musical instrument as a hobby, occupation, or profession.
guitar noun	/ɡɪˈtɑɹ/	A stringed musical instrument, of European origin, usually with a fretted fingerboard and six strings, played with the fingers or a plectrum (guitar pick).
lesson noun	/ˈlɛs.ən/	A section of learning or teaching into which a wider learning content is divided.
cigarette noun	/ˈsɪɡəɹɛt/	A small cigar consisting of tobacco or another substance, wrapped up in a thin roll with paper, intended for smoking.
tone noun	/ˈtəʊn/	A specific pitch.
occur verb	/əˈkɜː/	To happen or take place.
lung noun	/ˈlʌŋ/	A biological organ of vertebrates that controls breathing and oxygenates the blood.
thick adjective	/θɪk/	Relatively great in extent from one surface to the opposite in its smallest solid dimension.
desk noun	/dɛsk/	A table, frame, or case, in past centuries usually with a sloping top but now usually with a flat top, for the use of writers and readers. It often has a…
dramatic adjective	/dɹəˈmætɪk/	Of or relating to the drama.
decline verb	/dɪˈklaɪn/	To move downwards, to fall, to drop.
legacy noun	/ˈlɛɡəsi/	Money or property bequeathed to someone in a will.
contribution noun	/ˌkɑntɹɪˈbjuʃən/	Something given or offered that adds to a larger whole.
shake verb	/ˈʃeɪk/	To cause (something) to move rapidly in opposite directions alternatingly.
judgment noun	/ˈd͡ʒʌd͡ʒ.mənt/	The act of judging.

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Word	Meaning
get back verb	Return to where one came from.
go back to verb	To stem from; to originate in.
go back verb	To return to a place or state after having been there at a previous time.
go together verb	To be in a relationship.
grow up verb	To mature and become an adult.

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 27 contractions and reduced forms, such as they're, I've, they'd. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

The “th” sounds: thick /θɪk/, fathom /ˈfæðəm/
The “sh” and “zh” sounds: musician /mjuˈzɪʃən/, contribution /ˌkɑntɹɪˈbjuʃən/, shake /ˈʃeɪk/, correlation /ˌkɔɹ.əˈleɪ.ʃən/, ashtray /ˈæʃ.tɹeɪ/
Long words — get the stress right: contribution /ˌkɑntɹɪˈbjuʃən/, flexibility /ˌflɛksɪˈbɪlɪti/, correlation /ˌkɔɹ.əˈleɪ.ʃən/, conservatory /kənˈsɝ.vəˌt(ɔ.)ɹi/, elasticity /ɪ.læsˈtɪs.ɪ.ti/

How to practise with this video

Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like musician, guitar, lesson.

Grammar in this video

The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:

Structure	In the video
Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now	I've interviewed · I've actually interviewed · has actually changed
Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing	legacy, which is · people, which is

What is the Shadowing Technique?

Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.

Shadowing technique: read the full step-by-step guide →

Shadowing Practice: Did Smoking Kill Rock and Roll? The Nirvana Smoking Controversy - Learn English Speaking with Video

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