‘I Really Hate That Song’ – The ’90s Rock Band Actress Christina Ricci Says Was ‘Never Cool’

The third season of Showtime’s Yellowjackets kicked off earlier this month, and as usual, its soundtrack contains several instantly recognizable songs. During a couple of new interviews for the show, star Christina Ricci confessed that she thinks a band used during the prior season – American alternative/hard rockers Live – were “never cool” (and that she “really hates” what’s arguably their biggest song, “Lightning Crashes”).

What Ricci Said

In a video posted to U.K. outlet Absolute Radio’s TikTok on Feb. 14, Ricci (who plays the adult version of social outcast Misty Quigley) was asked: “Is there a particular song you’d like for a fan edit of you in season three?”

She replied, “As long as it’s not another Live song. I really hate that song,” referring to the use of “Lightning Crashes” during a particularly intense scene in the 2023 episode “Burial.” (It’s the seventh episode of Yellowjacket’s second season, and you can view the scene here.)

Ricci continued: “They had to lie to me halfway through filming that scene because I kept making fun of it, in the performance, and they were like, ‘Well, we’re not sure we’re gonna use this song, so please stop singing it in that voice.’ And they were lying to me, to get me to stop making fun of it.”

As Ricci answered, co-star Melanie Lynskey (who plays the adult version of Shauna Sadecki) commented: “Oh yeah, she doesn’t like Live.”

You can see that segment of their Absolute Radio interview below:

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On Feb. 18, InStyle’s YouTube channel posted a similar interview with Ricci and Lynskey answering fan mail. At one point, Ricci jokes (with a humorously mocking tone):

For fuck’s sake, some of these songs that we have to fucking listen to. I’m sorry, but Live was never cool, and when it came out in high school—when I was in high school, and that Live song—everyone was like, “Well, dorks all love Live.” And then we come to shoot that scene and everyone’s like, “I love this song. It’s so amazing.” I was like, “What are you talking about? Do I have amnesia?”

Afterward, Lynskey embarrassingly admitted, “I love that song,” to which Ricci laughed as she proclaimed: “No, you don’t.”

‘I kind of do, though,” Lynskey added, causing Ricci to feign crying/laughing.

You can watch that clip below:

More about “Lightning Crashes”

“Lightning Crashes” was the third single from Live’s second studio LP, 1994’s Throwing Copper (which also housed “I Alone” among other hit singles). According to frontman Ed Kowalczyk, the band dedicated it to Barbara Lewis, a friend of the band who was killed by a drunk driver when she was only 19 years old.

“It was something that we hoped would honor the memory of a girl we grew up with and help her family cope with the sorrow – which it seems to have accomplished – keeping with the theme of the song,” he told Spin in 1995 [via uDiscover Music].

In our 2023 poll asking readers to choose Live’s best album, Throwing Copper won by a landslide (getting nearly 62% of the votes). Beyond that, Throwing Copper earned praise from numerous publications upon release – it sold a lot as well – and in 2021, “Lightning Crashes” landed at No. 70 on Billboard’s list of the 100 “Greatest of All Time Mainstream Rock Songs.”

So, do you agree with Ricci about “Lightning Crashes” and/or Live in general? Or, like Lynskey, are you proud to admit that you’re fond of them? Let us know!