When you’re in the public eye, you have no choice but to be raped over and over again - they’ll take every ounce of blood out of you until you’re exhausted. ... I’m looking forward to the future. It will only be another year and then everyone will forget about it. —Kurt Cobain on the overwhelming media attention after Nevermind, 1992
Kurt Donald Cobain (February 20, 1967 – April 5, 1994) was an American singer-songwriter and musician, best known as the guitarist, primary songwriter and frontman of the rock band Nirvana. Through his angst-fueled songwriting and anti-establishment persona, Cobain’s compositions widened the thematic conventions of mainstream rock music. He was often heralded as a spokesman of Generation X and is considered to be one of the most influential musicians in the history of alternative rock.
Born in Aberdeen, Washington, Cobain formed the band Nirvana with Krist Novoselic and Aaron Burckhard in 1987 and established it as part of the Seattle music scene which later became known as grunge.
After signing with major label DGC Records, Nirvana found global success with “Smells Like Teen Spirit” from their critically acclaimed second album Nevermind (1991). Although Cobain was hailed as the voice of his generation following Nirvana’s sudden success, he resented this, believing his message and artistic vision had been misinterpreted by the public. In addition to “Smells Like Teen Spirit”, Cobain wrote many notable songs for Nirvana, including “About a Girl”, “In Bloom”, “Come as You Are”, “Lithium”, “Polly”, “Something in the Way”, “All Apologies”, and “Heart-Shaped Box”.
During the last years of his life, Cobain struggled with heroin addiction and chronic health problems such as depression. He also struggled with the personal and professional pressures of fame, as well as his marriage to musician Courtney Love. In March 1994, Cobain overdosed on a combination of champagne and Rohypnol, and subsequently entered an intervention and underwent a detox program. On April 8, 1994, Cobain was found dead at his home in Seattle at the age of 27; police concluded he had died on April 5 from a self-inflicted shotgun wound to the head.
Cobain was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, along with Nirvana bandmates Krist Novoselic and Dave Grohl, in their first year of eligibility in 2014. Rolling Stone included Cobain in its lists of the 100 Greatest Songwriters of All Time, 100 Greatest Guitarists, and 100 Greatest Singers of All Time. He was ranked 7th by MTV in the “22 Greatest Voices in Music”. In 2006, he was placed 20th by Hit Parader on their list of the “100 Greatest Metal Singers of All Time”.
Band name
Religion appeared to remain a significant muse to Cobain during this time, as he often used Christian related imagery in his work, and developed a budding interest in Jainism and Buddhist philosophy. The band name “Nirvana” was taken from the Buddhist concept, which Cobain described as “freedom from pain, suffering and the external world,” a concept that he aligned with the punk rock ethos and ideology.
Cobain was disenchanted after early touring, due to the band’s inability to draw substantial crowds and the difficulty of sustaining themselves. During their first few years playing together, Novoselic and Cobain were hosts to a rotating list of drummers. Eventually, the band settled on Chad Channing, with whom Nirvana recorded the album Bleach, released on Sub Pop Records in 1989. Cobain, however, became dissatisfied with Channing’s style and subsequently fired him which made the band in need of a new drummer.
They eventually hired Dave Grohl who helped the band record their 1991 major-label debut, Nevermind. With Nevermind’s lead single, “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” Nirvana quickly entered the mainstream, popularizing a subgenre of alternative rock called “grunge”. Since their debut, Nirvana has sold over 25 million albums in the United States alone, and over 80 million worldwide.
The success of Nevermind provided numerous Seattle bands, such as Alice in Chains, Pearl Jam, and Soundgarden, access to wider audiences. As a result, alternative rock became a dominant genre on radio and music television in the U.S. during the first half of the 1990s.
Nirvana was considered the “flagship band of Generation X,” and Cobain found himself reluctantly anointed by the media as the generation’s “spokesman.”, though Cobain resented this, as he believed his message and artistic vision had been misinterpreted by the public.
Cobain struggled to reconcile the massive success of Nirvana with his underground roots and vision. He also felt persecuted by the media, comparing himself to Frances Farmer, whom he named a song after. He began to harbor resentment against people who claimed to be fans of the band, yet refused to acknowledge, or misinterpreted, the band’s social and political views.
A vocal opponent of sexism, racism and homophobia, he was publicly proud that Nirvana had played at a gay rights benefit, supporting No-on-Nine, in Oregon in 1992. The show was held in opposition to Ballot Measure Nine, a ballot measure, that if passed, would have directed schools to teach that homosexuality was “abnormal, wrong, unnatural and perverse”.
Cobain 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, with one activist threatening to shoot Cobain as soon as he stepped on a stage.
Legacy and influence
Cobain has been remembered as one of the most iconic rock musicians in the history of alternative music. His angst fueled songwriting and anti-establishment persona led him to be referenced as the spokesman of Generation X. In addition, Cobain’s songs widened the themes of mainstream rock music of the 1980s to discussion of personal reflection and social issues.
On April 10, 2014, Nirvana was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Grohl, Novoselic and Love accepted the accolade at the ceremony, where Cobain was also remembered. Cobain is one of the best-known members of the 27 Club, a list of musicians who died when they were 27 years old.
Billy Corgan of The Smashing Pumpkins referred to Cobain as “the Michael Jordan of our generation.” He also stated that Cobain opened the door for everyone in the 1990s alternative rock scene. Lars Ulrich of Metallica reflected on Cobain’s influence stating that “with Kurt Cobain you felt you were connecting to the real person, not to a perception of who he was — you were not connecting to an image or a manufactured cut-out. You felt that between you and him there was nothing — it was heart-to-heart. There are very few people who have that ability.”
Reflecting on Cobain’s death over 10 years later, MSNBC’s Eric Olsen wrote, in the intervening decade, Cobain, a small, frail but handsome man in life, has become an abstract Generation X icon, viewed by many as the “last real rock star” a messiah and martyr whose every utterance has been plundered and parsed.
In 2003, David Fricke of Rolling Stone ranked Cobain 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, and by MTV as seventh in the “22 Greatest Voices in Music”. In 2006, he was placed at number twenty by Hit Parader on their list of the “100 Greatest Metal Singers of All Time”.
In June 2020, the 1959 Martin D-18E acoustic-electric guitar used by Cobain for Nirvana’s MTV Unplugged performance sold at auction for $6,010,000. It was the most expensive guitar and the most expensive piece of band memorabilia ever sold.