Kurt Cobain

Kurt Donald Cobain (February 20, 1967 - April 5, 1994) was the lead singer and guitarist of the grunge band Nirvana, which also included bassist Krist Novoselic and drummer Dave Grohl.

Cobain was highly influential in popularizing what came to be termed grunge music - a style that evolved in part as a reaction against the perceived superficiality of 1980s stadium rock and over-the-top metal bands with preened images and elaborate stage shows. His best known song is "Smells Like Teen Spirit", which was often referred to by the media as an anthem for Generation X. Among other well known Cobain songs are "Lithium", "In Bloom", "Come As You Are", "Heart Shaped Box", "All Apologies", and the highly controversial "Rape Me".

Early Life

Cobain was born in Hoquiam, Washington, USA and spent his early years in Aberdeen, Washington, after his parents, Wendy and Donald, divorced. He moved to the Seattle area in 1985.

As a teenager with a chaotic home life growing up in small town Washington, Cobain took part in the thriving Pacific Northwest alternative culture, going to punk rock shows in Seattle and forming a lifelong friendship with fellow Aberdeen musicians The Melvins, whose music heavily influenced Nirvana's sound. He had a small "K" tattooed on his forearm, the insignia of Olympia, Washington, label K Records, largely chosen for the coincidental ellipsis of his name.

At school Cobain didn't take much interest in academics or sports, mostly focusing on his art courses. He was an outspoken supporter of homosexual students at his school, sometimes suffering physically at the hands of homophobes for his beliefs. (Although he once claimed in an interview with The Advocate that he was arrested for spray-painting a pro-gay slogan on a bank, Aberdeen police records show the phrase he was arrested for in 1985 was actually "Ain't got no how watchamacallit.")

It has been rumored that Cobain was gay or bisexual; however, Cobain himself said numerous times that he was heterosexual. In a February, 1992, interview with gay magazine The Advocate, Cobain admitted that he thought he was gay while in high school and stated, "I could be bisexual... If I wouldn't have found Courtney, I probably would have carried on with a bisexual lifestyle." In his journals he wrote that he was heterosexual, but wished he was gay just "to piss off homophobes."

Cobain spent a lot of time reading in the local library, discovering such literary figures as William S. Burroughs, whose cut-up technique Cobain later utilised to write lyrics for some of Nirvana's songs. Cobain also later recorded with Burroughs a spoken word/ guitar improvisation piece called The Priest They Called Him, whose words were originally one of Burroughs' short stories out of The Exterminator.

Nirvana

Before dropping out of high school Cobain met fellow punk rock devotee Krist Novoselic, with whom he would later form what would become Nirvana. After years of playing in the band Nirvana exploded into the mainstream, seemingly changing the music industry overnight.

Cobain struggled to reconcile the success of his band with his underground roots. He also felt persecuted by people, especially the media, comparing himself to Frances Farmer, and harbored no small amount of resentment for people who claimed to be fans of the band but believed in nothing that Nirvana stood for or what it came from.

Marriage

In a 1992 ceremony in Hawaii, Cobain married Courtney Love, lead singer of the band Hole. Later that year the two had a daughter, Frances Bean Cobain. The unusual middle name was given to her because Cobain thought she looked like a bean on the first sonogram he saw of her. Her namesake is Frances McKee of The Vaselines, of whom Cobain was a close friend.

Cobain was also a devoted champion of alternative rock acts. He would often make reference to his favourite bands in interviews, more often than not placing a greater importance on the bands that influenced him than on his own music. Making references to obscure performers like The Vaselines, Daniel Johnston, The Meat Puppets, Young Marble Giants and The Raincoats as well as sharing a split single with American rockers The Jesus Lizard, proved beneficial to both parties in that the bands found a larger audience and Cobain cemented his indie rock credibility. Both The Raincoats and The Vaselines records were reissued by Nirvana's record company Geffen Records and Curt and Kris Kirkwood from the Meat Puppets appeared with Nirvana on Nirvana's MTV Unplugged special, playing on three Meat Puppets covers. The set also featured cover versions of the aforementioned Vaselines as well as legendary bluesman Leadbelly.

Addiction and Death

Throughout most of his adolescent life, Cobain had battled depression and pain due to a chronic stomach condition. Because of stomach problems he blamed on the stresses of performing, he self-medicated by use of heroin. This use developed into an addiction, which he battled until his death in 1994, when he committed suicide on April 5, at the age of 27, using a shotgun he had purchased a week before from best friend Dylan Carlson, who was rumored to be the inspiration for the song "In Bloom". His body was discovered three days later in his home by an electrician who he had commissioned to install security lighting. Toxicology experts have stated that even though Cobain's tolerance level was extremely high, the amount of heroin injected into his body would have been enough to kill him (225 mg, three times the lethal dosage for an addict, 75 times the lethal dosage for a non-user). His death triggered several copycat suicides, and the unclear circumstances surrounding it inspired a multitude of conspiracy theories stemming from the investigations of detective Tom Grant.

Grant was hired by Courtney Love following Cobain's disappearance from a hospital in which he was recovering from an apparent suicide attempt, and is now certain Cobain was murdered by Love. Filmmaker Nick Broomfield made a documentary film on this theory entitled Kurt and Courtney.

In his suicide note, Cobain quoted a lyric from Neil Young's song "My My, Hey Hey": "It's better to burn out than to fade away." Cobain's use of the lyric had a profound impact on Young, who recorded portions of the Sleeps With Angels album in Cobain's memory. The conspiracy theories alledge that the suicide note was actually a letter he was writing about his intent to leave Nirvana, and the authenticity of the last four lines has been questioned by many handwriting experts.

Kurt Cobain was cremated; one third of his ashes were scattered in a Buddhist temple in New York, another third were scattered in the Wishkah River, Washington State, and the rest are in the possession of Courtney Love.

Many attribute some of Cobain’s extraordinary abilities (and his suicide) to his being affected by bipolar disorder, commonly known as manic depression. You can see with whom he shares this identification by clicking on the People with Bipolar Disorder category link at the foot of this page.

After Cobain's Death

Writer Charles R. Cross published a biography of Cobain titled Heavier Than Heaven in 2001. A year later, a collection of Cobain's journal excerpts was released. Years after his passing, the musician continues to intrigue and inspire fans, most recently with the release of a new track "You Know You're Right" in the fall of 2002, along with a greatest hits album, called simply, Nirvana. The release of both had been held up by legal wrangling between Love, who didn't want the album to be released, and the remaining members of the band.

See also

• List of celebrities with illicit drug history
• List of famous suicides
• List of heroin addicts
• List of notable drug-related deaths
• List of people believed to have been affected by bipolar disorder

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations by or about Kurt Cobain.

• Kurt Cobain Memorial (http://www.cobain.com) - A web site dedicated to the life of Kurt Cobain.
• Sleeps With Angels (http://www.thrasherswheat.org/jammin/nirvana.htm) - Neil Young's Tribute to Kurt Cobain.
• Kurt Cobain Murder Investigation (http://www.cobaincase.com/) - The site created by Private Investigator Tom Grant.
• Justice for Kurt Cobain (http://www.justiceforkurt.com/) - Another major site for murder theory advocates with official police documents, timeline of events and more.
• All Music Guide entry for Kurt Cobain (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&uid=UIDMISS70404011456051335&sql=Blhud6j6h71q0)
• Kurt Cobain (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001052/) at the Internet Movie Database

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