Kurt Cobain

Kurt Cobain

Kurt Donald Cobain 

Born in February 20, 1967 in Aberdeen, Washington.

Was an American singer, songwriter, and musician.

Formed the band Nirvana with Krist Novoselic and Aaron Burckhard in 1987.

Established it as part of the Seattle music scene which later became known as grunge.

Nirvana's debut album Bleach was released in 1989.

1991 Nirvana found success with "Smells Like Teen Spirit" from their second album Nevermind.

Cobain hailed as the spokesman of a Generation X.

Cobain, was uncomfortable with the label, believing his message and artistic vision had been misinterpreted by the public.

His personal problems were often subject to media attention.

He struggled with heroin addiction, chronic health problems and depression.

He also had difficulty coping with his fame and public image.

He had professional and personal pressures surrounding himself and his wife, musician Courtney Love.

Cobain was found dead at his home in Seattle on April 8, 1994.

His death was ruled a suicide by a self-inflicted shotgun wound to the head.

His death at age 27, and the circumstances have become a topic of public fascination and debate.

Nirvana, with Cobain as a songwriter, has sold over 25 million albums in the U.S., and over 75 million worldwide. 

Cobain was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2014 along with his band and band mates Dave Grohl and Novoselic

They were inducted by a close friend of Cobain, the front man of American alternative rock band R.E.M., Michael Stipe.

Early Life

The son of waitress Wendy Elizabeth and  automotive mechanic Donald Leland Cobain.

His younger sister, Kimberly, was born on April 24, 1970.

Kurt was described as being a happy and excitable child.

He was caring and loving.

He would draw his favorite characters from films and cartoons, such as the Creature from the Black Lagoon and Donald Duck, in his bedroom.

According to his aunt Mari, he began singing at the age of two.

He started playing the piano and singing, writing a song at the age of four. 

He listened to artists like the Ramones and Electric Light Orchestra.

When he was nine years old, his parents divorced.

He later said that the divorce had a profound effect on his life.

Cobain became defiant and withdrawn.

"I remember feeling ashamed, for some reason. I was ashamed of my parents. I couldn't face some of my friends at school anymore, because I desperately wanted to have the classic, you know, typical family. Mother, father. I wanted that security, so I resented my parents for quite a few years because of that." Kurt said from a 1993 interview.

After meeting Jenny Westeby, Kurt Cobain's father remarried to Kurt's dismay.

Cobain liked Westeby at first, but after she gave birth to a boy, he began resenting her.

Cobain's mother began dating a man who was abusive.

Cobain witnessed the domestic violence against his mom when her boyfriend sent her to the hospital with a broken arm.

His mom wouldn't press charges and stayed commited to the relationship.

Cobain began bullying another boy at school.

These behaviors eventually caused his father to take him to a therapist that concluded that he would benefit from a single family environment.

Cobain's mother granted full custody to his father on June 28, 1979.

His first drug experience was with marijuana in 1980, at age 13.

On Cobain's 14th birthday, his uncle bought him a guitar.

Despite Kurt being right handed, he played the guitar left handed.

Soon, Kurt's dad couldn't handle him anymore.

Kurt's dad  placed his son in the care of family and friends.

He became a devout Christian and regularly attended church services, while living with the born-again Christian family of his friend Jesse Reed.

Later, engaging in what was described as "anti-God" rants, he renounced Christianity.

The song "Lithium" is about his experience while living with the Reed family.

Religion remained an important part of his personal life and beliefs.

Even thought he was uninterested in sports, his father signed him up for jr. high wrestling.

He was a skilled wrestler.

Despised the experience because of the ridicule he endured from his teammates and coach.

He allowed himself to be pinned in an attempt to sadden his father.

Later, his father enlisted him in a Little League Baseball team.

Cobain would intentionally strike out to avoid playing.

When he befriended a homosexual student at school, he suffered bullying from heterosexual students who concluded that he was gay.

In an interview Kurt stated ""I started being really proud of the fact that I was gay even though I wasn't".

In a 1993 interview with The Advocate, Cobain claimed that he was "gay in spirit" and "probably could be bisexual".

He also stated that he used to spray paint "God Is Gay" on pickup trucks.

Police records show that Cobain was arrested for spray painting the phrase "ain't got no how watchamacallit" on other vehicles.

In one of his journals it reads  "I am not gay, although I wish I were, just to piss off homophobes".

Cobain often drew during school classes.

Cobain drew Michael Jackson for a caracture assginment.

He was told by the teacher that the image was inappropriate for a school hallway.

He then drew then-President Ronald Reagan that was seen as "unflattering.

The first concert he attended was the Melvins.

Cobain eventually found escape through the thriving Pacific Northwest punk scene, going to punk rock shows in Seattle.

Cobain began living with his mother during his second year of high school.

He dropped out upon realizing that he did not have enough credits to graduate. 

His mother told him that he needed to find employment or leave.

Cobain found his belongings boxed up after a week.

Cobain stayed with friends, occasionally sneaking back into his mother's basement.

He also he lived under a bridge.

An experience that inspired the song "Something in the Way".

Throughout most of his life, Cobain suffered from chronic bronchitis and intense physical pain due to an undiagnosed chronic stomach condition.

He regularly used the drug during adulthood.

When Kurt Cobain was 18,  he formed the band  called Fecal Matter, with Dale Crover of The Melvins, with Buzz Osbourne of The Melvins joining later.

Paying his rent by working at The Polynesian Resort, in late 1986 he moved into an apartment.

He was traveling frequently to Olympia, Washington, to go to rock concerts, where he formed a relationship with Tracy Marander.

She supported the couple by working in a cafeteria and stealing food.

Her insistence that he get a job caused arguments that influenced Cobain to write "About a Girl".

Marander is credited with having taken the cover photo for the album.

Cobain split from Maradner and began dating musician Toby Vail.

After intially meeting Toby, Cobain vomited out of anxiety.

This event inspired the lyric "love you so much it makes me sick".

Which he put in the song "Anyerisum"

In 1990, they collaborated on a musical project called Bathtub is Real, in which they both sang and played guitar and drums.

Cobain's relationship with Vail inspired the lyrics of many of the songs on Nevermind.

A member of Bikini Kill, Hanna spray-painted "Kurt Smells Like Teen Spirit" on Cobain's apartment wall.

Cobain, unaware of the deodorant's existence, interpreted the slogan as having a revolutionary meaning, and it inspired the title of the Nirvana song "Smells Like Teen Spirit.

While hanging out at the Melvins' practice space, he met Novoselic.

After months of asking, Novoselic finally agreed to join Cobain, forming the beginnings of Nirvana.

The band name "Nirvana" was taken from the Buddhist concept, which Cobain described as "freedom from pain, suffering and the external world".

Eventually, the band settled on Chad Channing as the drummer.

He was the drummer for the album "Bleach".

Cobain became dissatisfied with Channing's style, leading the band to find a new drummer.

They eventually settled on David Grohl.

Love and Cobain met on January 12, 1990, in Portland's Satyricon nightclub.

The band found their greatest success through their 1991 major-label debut, Nevermind.

A few days after the conclusion of Nirvana's "Pacific Rim" tour, Cobain and Love were married on Waikiki Beach in Hawaii on February 24, 1992.

A sonogram of the couple's as-yet-unborn baby was included in the artwork for Nirvana's single, "Lithium".

The couple's daughter Frances Bean Cobain was born August 18, 1992.

Kurt was publicly proud that Nirvana had played at a gay rights benefit, supporting No-on-Nine, in Oregon in 1992.

He was a vocal supporter of the pro-choice movement and Nirvana was involved in L7's Rock for Choice campaign.

He received death threats from a small number of anti-abortion activists for participating in the pro-choice campaign.

After attaining mainstream success, Cobain became a devoted champion of lesser known indie bands.

Cobain even invited his favorite musicians to perform with him.

Ex-Germs guitarist Pat Smear joined the band in 1993.

The Meat Puppets appeared onstage during Nirvana's 1993 MTV Unplugged appearance.

Nirvana's Unplugged set also included renditions of "The Man Who Sold the World", by British rock musician David Bowie.

Nirvana's acoustic Unplugged set, was released posthumously as an album in 1994.

Cobain and his  friend, R.E.M.'s lead singer Michael Stipe, were going to record a trial run album, a demo tape.

At the last minute Kurt called and said, 'I can't come'.

Stipe was chosen as the godfather of Cobain and Courtney Love's daughter, Frances Bean Cobain.

Cobain believed that music comes first and lyrics second.

Cobain would describe his lyrics himself as "a big pile of contradictions".

"They're split down the middle between very sincere opinions that I have and sarcastic opinions and feelings that I have and sarcastic and hopeful, humorous rebuttals toward cliché bohemian ideals that have been exhausted for years".

Cobain originally wanted Nevermind to be divided into two sides: a "Boy" side, for the songs written about the experiences of his early life and childhood, and a "Girl" side, for the songs written about his dysfunctional relationship with Vail.

On the album "In Utero" he dealt with his parents' divorce.

He delt with his newfound fame and the public image and perception of himself and Courtney Love on "Serve the Servants".

And he delt with his enamored relationship with Love conveyed through lyrical themes of pregnancy and the female anatomy on "Heart-Shaped Box".

He wrote "Rape Me" not only as an objective discussion of rape, but a metaphorical protest against his treatment by the media.

He wrote about fame, drug addiction and abortion on "Pennyroyal Tea".

Women's rights and the life of Seattle-born Farmer on "Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge on Seattle".

After reading a newspaper story of an incident in 1987, where a 14-year-old girl was kidnapped after attending a punk rock show then raped and tortured with a blowtorch, Cobain was affected enough to write the song "Polly" from Nevermind.

Bob Dylan cited "Polly" as the best of Nirvana's songs, and said of Cobain, "the kid has heart".

Cobain to write the song "Scentless Apprentice" from In Utero after the Patrick Süskind's novel Perfume: The Story of a Murderer.

Many of Cobain's paintings, collages, and sculptures appeared in the artwork of Nirvana's albums, such as the covers of Incesticide and In Utero.

Cobain contributed backing guitar for a spoken word recording of beat poet William S. Burroughs' entitled "The "Priest" They Called Him"

According to The Telegraph, Cobain had depression.

His cousin brought attention to the family history of suicide, mental illness and alcoholism, noting two of her uncles who had committed suicide with guns.

He used heroin sporadically for several years, but, by the end of 1990, his use developed into a full-fledged addiction.

He was trying to treat his stomach conditon by self medicating.

"It started with three days in a row of doing heroin and I don't have a stomach pain. That was such a relief".

In 1993, Kurt overdosed on heroin and still performed later that night as if nothing had happened.

On March 1, 1994, Cobain was diagnosed with bronchitis and severe laryngitis, following a tour stop at Terminal Eins in Munich, Germany.

He flew to Rome the next day for medical treatment.

He was joined there by his wife, Courtney Love, on March 3, 1994.

The next morning, Love awoke to find that Cobain had overdosed on a combination of champagne and Rohypnol.

Cobain was immediately rushed to hospital, and spent the rest of the day unconscious.

After five days in the hospital, Cobain was released and returned to Seattle.

Love phoned the Seattle police informing them that Cobain was suicidal and had locked himself in a room with a gun, on March 18, 1994.

He was not suicidal and had locked himself in the room to hide from Love.

Love arranged an intervention regarding Cobain's drug use on March 25, 1994.

By the end of the day, Cobain had agreed to undergo a detox program.

Cobain arrived at the Exodus Recovery Center in Los Angeles on March 30, 1994.

The staff were unaware of Cobain's history of depression and prior attempts at suicide.

There was no indication to them that Cobain was in any negative or suicidal state of mind.

He spent the day talking to counselors about his drug abuse and personal problems, happily playing with his daughter Frances. These interactions were the last time Cobain saw his daughter.

The following night, Cobain walked outside to have a cigarette, and climbed over a six-foot-high fence to leave the facility.

He took a taxi to Los Angeles Airport and flew back to Seattle.

Most of his close friends and family were unaware of his whereabouts.

 On April 2 and 3, Cobain was spotted in numerous locations around Seattle.  

Love contacted private investigator Tom Grant, on April 3.

On April 7, amid rumors of Nirvana breaking up, the band pulled out of the 1994 Lollapalooza music festival.

Cobain's body was discovered  on April 8, at his Lake Washington Boulevard home by electrician Gary Smith.

Apart from a minor amount of blood coming out of Cobain's ear, the electrician reported seeing no visible signs of trauma.

A note was found, addressed to Cobain's childhood imaginary friend Boddah.

A high concentration of heroin and traces of diazepam were also found in his body.

The coroner's report estimated Cobain to have died on April 5, 1994.

A public vigil was held for Cobain on April 10, 1994, at a park at Seattle Center drawing approximately seven thousand mourners.

Grohl said that the news of Cobain's death was:

... probably the worst thing that has happened to me in my life. I remember the day after that I woke up and I was heartbroken that he was gone. I just felt like, "Okay, so I get to wake up today and have another day and he doesn't."

A final ceremony was arranged for Cobain, by his mother, on May 31, 1999, and was attended by both Love and Tracy Marander. As a Buddhist monk chanted, daughter Frances Bean scattered Cobain's ashes into McLane Creek in Olympia, the city where he "had found his true artistic muse"

In 2003, David Fricke of Rolling Stone ranked him the 12th greatest guitarist of all time.

He was later ranked the 73rd greatest guitarist and 45th greatest singer of all time by the same magazine.

MTV rateed him as seventh in the "22 Greatest Voices in Music".

The Kurt Cobain Memorial Committee, a non-profit organization was created in May 2004 to honor Cobain.

A sign was put up in Aberdeen, Washington, that read "Welcome to Aberdeen – Come As You Are" as a tribute to Cobain, in 2005.

He was placed at number twenty by Hit Parader on their list of the "100 Greatest Metal Singers of All Time" in 2006.

Controversy erupted in July 2009 when a monument to Cobain in Aberdeen along the Wishkah River included the quote "... Drugs are bad for you. They will fuck you up". 

Billy Corgan of The Smashing Pumpkins referred to Cobain as "the Michael Jordan of our generation".