Nirvana
Nirvana, made up of Kurt Cobain, Krist Novoselic and Dave Grohl, was an American rock band and one of the most influential bands of the 90s. Lead singer Kurt Cobain died on the 5th of April 1994 and was not found dead until three days later by his electrician. Like Muse, Nirvana was a band which comprised of three people who had known each other since their teens.
Muse members have stated Nirvana as well with american underground grunge scene as a root influence to their music, Muse earliest song's demos have elements that are aswell heard on Nirvana's music.
A video of Muse Performing an early(1997) version of the song "showbiz" can be heard here:[1]
On July of 1999 Matthew Bellamy & Christopher Wolstenholme mentioned Nirvana as one of their all time favorite bands. [2]
Nevermind is one of Christopher Wolstenholme's favourite albums[1], while Dominic Howard prefers "In Utero". Howard has said that Nirvana "influenced practically everyone at some point".[2]
On their earliest days, Muse covered Nirvana's song tourette's on a local battle of the bands.
A video of Muse doing riffs from Nirvana's songs School & Endless Nameless live can be seen here [3]
Both living former members of Nirvana, Krist Novoselic and Dave Grohl, have met Muse. Novoselic appeared on the back-stage guest-list for a 2004 Muse show[3] and Grohl, as the Foo Fighters frontman, has played on a number of festivals with Muse. It is known that Grohl is quite a fan of Muse, especially for their live shows.