Weezer frontman Rivers Cuomo is probably one of the most talented musicians in all of rock.
Few have had a long-lasting career like Cuomo, and one that has touched multiple genres of music. Listen to any Weezer record and it’s like hearing a prism of influences including Slayer, KISS, The Feelies and all kinds of other acts.
His chameleon-like ability to adapt to different genres makes it not a huge surprise that Cuomo’s work actually wound up in a pretty prominent nu-metal song, Cold’s “Stupid Girl.”
According to MTV, Cold songwriter Scooter Ward was riffing around and landed on a riff that didn’t sound too far away from a Weezer song. Not wanting to try and rip the band off, Ward actually reached out to Cuomo and asked if he’d be down to help out writing the song. Cuomo agreed, and the two collaborated, Cuomo writing the lyrics to the chorus as well as parts of the main song’s riffs.
Hearing the song now, it’s easy to hear the similarities with what Weezer typically puts out. The opening riff has a kind of Green Album anthemic quality to it, as the band charges the song open. From there, the band goes into a pretty by-the-numbers nu-metal verse before hitting the song’s main chorus.
The lyrics totally sound like something that you’d find off Pinkerton, with Cuomo’s typical wistfulness about lost loves. Above all else, it’s catchy as hell, something Weezer is insanely doing on their own material.
The outreach worked out in spades for Cold, as “Stupid Girl” hit heavy rotation on MTV2 at the time, and managed to chart at number 87 on the Billboard Hot 100, as well as 6 and 4 on the Alternative Airplay and Mainstream Rock charts respectively.
It’s a pretty rad song, and it makes us wish Cuomo would write a full-on metal album sometime. Until that happens, check the song out below.
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