Dinosaur Jr’s J Mascis: ‘I was a guest at my wife’s first wedding’

J Mascis was introduced to his wife through her boyfriend at the time – and even attended their wedding as a guest, the Dinosaur Jr legend has revealed.

The renowned guitarist and frontman for the influential rock band met his future partner, the German-born Luisa, at Electric Lady studios in New York City during the Nineties.

He was there to play radio sessions with the bands Fire Hose and Gumball when Luisa’s boyfriend at the time told him Luisa was meeting him there: “He was talking her up,” Mascis, 60, recalled. Clearly, a little too much.

In his appearance on the Good Vibrations podcast, Mascis confirmed that he was smitten with her from the start but “knew she was taken”. In fact, he even attended her wedding as a guest.

“I wasn’t pining,” he explained. “I didn’t because I knew she was taken, so I never thought about it much.”

He and Luisa became friends, though, and eventually began dating after she divorced from her first husband. They married in 2004 and live in Mascis’s hometown of Amherst, Massachusetts, with their son Rory, while also spending time in Luisa’s native Berlin.

Elsewhere on the podcast, Mascis opened up about getting into the straight edge movement while also sharing a stage with the notorious punk rocker GG Allin, whose live performances frequently involved self-mutilation and acts of violence.

“It was a bad idea,” Mascis said of that collaboration. “It seemed like it’d be a punk thing to do, but then the reality of it is like, oh, no…”

Mascis’s signature guitar pedal, the “Big Muff”, was also stolen that night, creating “a mess” when his band then had to play a gig at the famous club CBGBs the following week.

He dived into his love of film and TV, revealing the shows he’s been watching lately, as well as exploring the themes in his favourite film, the 1971 classic Harold and Maude.

Mascis also reflected on his early years living in New York as he tried to get his band off the ground: “It was fun,” he said, “but it was also really boring in a way, ‘cos all my friends in New York had to have three jobs to pay the rent, so if I was there they were all working, and I had nothing to do!”

Dinosaur Jr are releasing their new album, There Near, on 28 August. The full episode of Good Vibrations with J Mascis is out now on streaming platforms.