Background
Rumors of a posthumous Nirvana box set, or anthology, first surfaced in the mid-1990s, not long after the death of the band's singer and guitarist Kurt Cobain in April 1994. It was eventually announced that a 45-track box set would be released in September 2001, to mark the 10th anniversary of the band's breakthrough album, Nevermind, but a legal battle between Cobain's widow, Courtney Love, and surviving Nirvana members Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic, precluded this from happening.
Much of the dispute centered on "You Know You're Right", a song recorded in January 1994 during the band's final studio session. Grohl and Novoselic had wanted it for the box set, but Love blocked the song's release, and sued them for control of Nirvana's legacy. Love's lawsuit asserted that "the parties have fundamentally different concepts of how to manage the musical and artistic legacy of Kurt Cobain", which resulted "in a stalemate of decision making." She believed that "You Know You're Right" would be "wasted" on a box set, and instead belonged on a single-disc compilation similar to the Beatles' 1.
In 2002, the legal battle was settled, and "You Know You're Right" appeared on the "best-of" compilation Nirvana. This paved the way for what became the With the Lights Out box set, which arrived in November 2004, over three years after its original release date but with more music than had originally been promised, including an acoustic demo of "You Know You're Right."
Read more about this topic: With The Lights Out
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