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Kurt Cobain

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Performers and composers

            Kurt Cobain
   Cobain (center) with Nirvana
   Cobain (centre) with Nirvana
      Background information
   Birth name    Kurt Donald Cobain
   Also known as Kurdt Kobain
                 Kurdt Cobain
   Born          February 20, 1967
                 Aberdeen, Washington
   Died          c. April 5, 1994
                 Seattle, Washington
   Genre(s)      Alternative rock
                 Grunge
   Instrument(s) Vocals, Guitar
   Label(s)      Sub Pop
                 DGC Records
   Associated
   acts          Nirvana

   Kurt Donald Cobain ( February 20, 1967 – c. April 5, 1994) was the lead
   singer, songwriter and guitarist of the Seattle-based rock band
   Nirvana. He served not only as the band's frontman and principal
   songwriter, but also as its "leader and spiritual centre." With the
   band's success, Cobain became a major national and international
   celebrity, an uncomfortable position for a man who once said, "Famous
   is the last thing I wanted to be."

   Cobain and Nirvana helped reshape popular music in the 1990s. In 1991,
   the arrival of Nirvana's hit single " Smells Like Teen Spirit" marked
   the beginning of a dramatic shift of popular rock music away from the
   dominant genres of the 1980s ( glam metal, arena rock, and dance-pop)
   and toward the ascendance of grunge and alternative rock. The music
   media eventually awarded the song "anthem-of-a-generation" status, and,
   with it, Cobain ascended as the reluctant "spokesman" for Generation X.
   Other hit songs written by Cobain include " Come as You Are", "
   Lithium", " In Bloom", " Heart-Shaped Box", " All Apologies", and "
   About a Girl".

   During the last years of his life, Cobain battled drug addiction and
   the media pressures surrounding him and his wife Courtney Love. On
   April 8, 1994, Cobain's body was found in his home. His death was
   officially ruled a suicide by self-inflicted gunshot wound. Since then,
   the circumstances surrounding his death have fueled much analysis and
   debate.

Biography

Early life

   Cobain was born to Donald and Wendy Cobain on February 20, 1967 in the
   Grays Harbour Community Hospital in Aberdeen, Washington and spent his
   first six months living in Hoquiam, Washington before the family moved
   to Aberdeen. His mother was a waitress and homemaker and his father
   worked as a mechanic at Derrell Thompson's Chevron Station. Cobain
   enrolled at Robert Gray Elementary School in 1972. By most accounts,
   his early life was happy and he lived as a part of the typical American
   family, which grew to include sister Kimberly in April of 1970.

   He began developing an interest in music early in his life. According
   to his Aunt Mari, "He was singing from the time he was two. He would
   sing Beatles songs like 'Hey Jude.' He had a lot of charisma from a
   very young age."

   At the age of seven, Cobain was prescribed Ritalin for
   attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Cobain's widow
   Courtney Love blamed Ritalin for Cobain's addiction to heroin: "When
   you're a kid and you get this drug that makes you feel that [euphoric]
   feeling, where else are you going to turn when you're an adult?"

   Cobain's life changed dramatically at the age of seven when his parents
   divorced in 1975, an event which he later cited as having a profound
   impact on his life. His mother noted that his personality changed
   dramatically, with Cobain becoming more withdrawn. In a 1993 interview,
   Cobain said, "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." After a year spent
   living with his mother following the divorce, Cobain moved to
   Montesano, Washington to live with his father and transferred to Beacon
   Elementary School, but after a few years his youthful rebellion became
   too overwhelming and he found himself being shuffled between friends
   and family.

   As a child, Cobain idolized stuntman Evel Knievel. In third grade,
   Cobain dived from the deck of the family's house onto a bed of pillows
   and blankets below. Cobain told journalist Michael Azerrad that he also
   once attached a set of firecrackers to a piece of metal, placed it on
   his chest, and lit them.

   At school, Cobain took little interest in sports. At his father's
   insistence, Cobain joined the junior high wrestling team. While he was
   good at it, he despised it. Later, his father signed him up for a local
   baseball league, where Cobain would intentionally strike out to avoid
   having to play. Instead, Cobain focused on his art courses. He often
   drew during classes, including objects associated with fetuses and the
   human anatomy.

   Cobain was friends with a gay student at his school, sometimes
   suffering bullying at the hands of homophobic students. That
   friendship, along with his small stature, led some to believe that he
   himself was gay. In a February 1992 interview with The Advocate, Cobain
   claimed that he used to spraypaint "God is Gay" on pickup trucks around
   Aberdeen. In the accompanying article, writer Kevin Allman noted that
   Cobain was arrested in 1985 for spray-painting "ORAL SEX RULES" on a
   bank. However, Aberdeen police records show that the phrase for which
   he was arrested was actually "Ain't got no how watchamacallit."

   In the Advocate interview, Cobain said that he thought he was gay while
   in high school. He later stated, "I'm definitely gay in spirit and I
   probably could be bisexual. But I'm married and I'm more attracted to
   Courtney than I ever have been toward a person, so there's no point in
   trying to sow my oats at this point. If I wouldn't have found Courtney,
   I probably would have carried on with a bisexual lifestyle". When
   Nirvana appeared on Saturday Night Live in January of 1992, Cobain and
   Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic jokingly "made out" during the cast and
   crew farewells as the credits rolled. (Cobain and Novoselic bobbed
   their heads back and forth wildly as if in rapture; Novoselic and Dave
   Grohl subsequently repeated the gesture.) The segment was cut from the
   show on further airings, replaced by the closing credits from the
   rehearsal taping (which lacked Cobain) and never aired again.

   As a teenager with a chaotic home life growing up in small town
   Washington, Cobain eventually found escape through the thriving Pacific
   Northwest punk scene, going to punk rock shows in Seattle. Cobain
   formed a lifelong friendship with fellow Montesano musicians The
   Melvins, whose music later heavily influenced Nirvana's sound. Cobain
   had a small "K" inside a shield tattooed on his forearm, the insignia
   of Olympia, Washington, label K Records.

   Cobain also experimented with drugs while in high school. He was a
   habitual marijuana smoker. By the mid-1980s, he claimed to have tried
   nearly every drug available, with the noted exception of PCP, which he
   avoided after hearing stories about people freaking out on the drug. In
   1986, Cobain became addicted to Percodan, an opioid painkiller, which
   he claimed he did not realize was addictive. His drug use foreshadowed
   the addictions of his later life.

   In his youth, Cobain spent much time reading in the local library,
   discovering such literary figures as S.E. Hinton and William S.
   Burroughs, whose cut-up technique Cobain occasionally utilized to write
   lyrics for some of Nirvana's songs. Cobain eventually had the
   opportunity to record with Burroughs a spoken word with guitar
   improvisation piece: the "Priest" they called him, whose words were
   originally one of Burroughs' short stories from The Exterminator. Other
   literary works which impacted Cobain's philosophy included the SCUM
   Manifesto by Valerie Solanas, The Dharma Bums by Jack Kerouac, and
   Perfume by Patrick Süskind, as well as works by Samuel Beckett, Charles
   Bukowski, Jon Savage and Camille Paglia.

   In the middle of his sophomore year he moved back to live with his
   mother in Aberdeen. He was enrolled at Weatherwax High School. Two
   weeks before his graduation, Cobain dropped out of high school after
   realizing that he did not have enough credits to graduate. His mother
   gave him an ultimatum: either get a job or leave. After a week or so,
   Cobain found his clothes and other belongings packed away in boxes.
   Forced out of his mother's home, Cobain often stayed at friends' houses
   and sneaked into his mother's basement every now and then. Cobain later
   claimed that when he could not find anywhere else to stay, he lived
   under a bridge over the Wishkah River (at Young Street), an experience
   that inspired the Nevermind track " Something In The Way". (In the June
   2005 issue of Guitar World, Novoselic claimed that Cobain never really
   lived there, saying, "He hung out there, but you couldn't live on those
   muddy banks, with the tides coming up and down. That was his own
   revisionism.") Occasionally he slept in the waiting room at Grays
   Harbour Community Hospital. Cobain worked various odd jobs in the
   Aberdeen community and earned enough to rent an apartment in June 1985.
   However he became homeless again after he was caught writing "Ain'T goT
   no how waTchamacalliT" on a wall on a local bank and was arrested for
   vandalism. He ended up moving into Lamont Schillinger's home. On May
   18, 1986, he was arrested for trespassing after he wandered onto the
   roof of an abandoned building. On September 1, 1986, Cobain moved into
   his first house that he lived in alone and paid his rent by working
   part-time as a school janitor. In 1987 he and Novoselic moved to
   Olympia and formed Nirvana.

   While in Olympia, Cobain found a live-in girlfriend in Tracy Marander,
   who would be the inspiration for " About a Girl" from Bleach. After
   breaking up in 1990, he entered a relationship with Bikini Kill drummer
   Tobi Vail, whom he had been seeing on the side. Despite Cobain's
   wishes, the relationship did not progress beyond casual sex.

Nirvana

   Cobain received his first guitar from his uncle at age 14, who had
   bought it at bargain price from Rosevear's Music Centre in Aberdeen,
   choosing it over a bicycle. From there, he tried to form bands with
   friends, generally noodling on songs by AC/DC and Led Zeppelin. In high
   school, he often found himself without anyone to jam with, as none of
   his friends had any particular musical talent. Later in high school,
   Cobain met Novoselic, a fellow devotee of punk rock, who lived across
   from the Young Street bridge. Novoselic's mother owned a hair salon
   (Maria's Hair Design) and they would practice there in the above room
   on occasion. A few years later, Cobain tried to convince Novoselic to
   form a band with him by lending him a copy of a home demo recorded by
   Cobain's earlier band, Fecal Matter. After months of prodding,
   Novoselic finally agreed to join Cobain, forming the beginnings of
   Nirvana.

   For the first few years of their playing together, Novoselic and Cobain
   found themselves host 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, eventually leading the band to Dave
   Grohl. With Grohl, the band found their greatest success via their 1991
   major-label debut, Nevermind.

   Cobain struggled to reconcile the massive success of Nirvana with his
   underground roots. He also felt persecuted by the media, comparing
   himself to Frances Farmer, and harbored resentment for people who
   claimed to be fans of the band but who completely missed the point of
   the band's message. One incident particularly distressing to Cobain
   involved two men who raped a woman while singing the Nirvana song "
   Polly". Cobain condemned the episode in the liner notes of the US
   release of the album Incesticide: "Last year, a girl was raped by two
   wastes of sperm and eggs while they sang the lyrics to our song '
   Polly.' I have a hard time carrying on knowing there are plankton like
   that in our audience. Sorry to be so anally P.C. but that's the way I
   feel."

Marriage

   Courtney Love first saw Cobain perform in 1988. According to journalist
   Everett True, the pair were formally introduced at an L7 / Butthole
   Surfers concert in Los Angeles in May 1991. (Most biographies place the
   first meeting in Portland in 1989, but True insists the 1991 date is
   accurate, and points to a 1992 Cobain/Love interview with Sassy
   Magazine in which the pair noted that they met at an L7 / Butthole
   Surfers concert.) In the weeks that followed, after learning from Grohl
   that she and Cobain shared mutual crushes, Love began pursuing Cobain.
   After a few weeks of on-again, off-again courtship in the fall of 1991,
   the two found themselves together on a regular basis, often bonding
   through drug use.

   Around the time of Nirvana's 1992 performance on Saturday Night Live,
   Love discovered that she was pregnant with Cobain's child. A few days
   after the conclusion of Nirvana's Pacific Rim tour, on Monday, February
   24, 1992, Cobain married Love on Waikiki Beach, Hawaii. On August 18,
   the couple's daughter, Frances Bean Cobain, was born. The unusual
   middle name was given to her because Cobain thought she looked like a
   kidney bean on the first sonogram he saw of her. Her namesake is
   Frances McKee of The Vaselines, of whom Cobain was a big fan, and not
   Frances Farmer as is sometimes reported.

   In April 1992, the couple appeared together on the cover of the teen
   girl magazine Sassy. "In the last couple months I've gotten engaged and
   my attitude has changed drastically," Kurt told the reporter. "I can't
   believe how much happier I am. At times I even forget that I'm in a
   band, I'm so blinded by love. I know that sounds embarrassing, but it's
   true. I could give up the band right now. It doesn't matter, but I'm
   under contract."

   Love was somewhat unpopular with Nirvana fans; her harshest critics
   said she was merely using him as a vehicle to make herself famous.
   Critics who compared Cobain to John Lennon were also fond of comparing
   Love to Yoko Ono. Rumors persist that Cobain wrote most of the songs on
   the breakthrough album Live Through This of Love's band Hole, partially
   fueled by the 1996 appearance of a rough mix of "Asking for It" with
   Cobain singing backing vocals. However, there is no specific evidence
   to support the assertion.

   At the same time, one Hole song was co-written by Cobain but entirely
   credited to Hole. The song "Old Age" appeared as a B-side on the 1993
   single for Beautiful Son, credited to Hole. Initially, there was no
   reason to believe it was anything other than a Hole-penned song.
   However, in 1998, a boombox recording of the song performed by Nirvana
   (with significantly different lyrics) was surfaced by Seattle newspaper
   The Stranger. In the article that accompanied the clip, Novoselic
   confirmed that the recording was made in 1991 and that "Old Age" was a
   Nirvana song, leading to more speculation about Cobain's involvement in
   Hole's catalog. Nirvana had even attempted to record "Old Age" during
   the sessions for Nevermind, but it was left incomplete as Cobain had
   yet to finish the lyrics and the band had run out of studio time. (The
   incomplete recording appeared on the 2004 compilation With the Lights
   Out, credited to Cobain.) As for Hole's version, guitarist Eric
   Erlandson noted that he believed Cobain wrote the music for the song,
   but that Love had written the lyrics for their version.

   In a 1992 article in Vanity Fair, Love admitted to using heroin while
   (unknowingly) pregnant, an admission that seriously damaged her public
   standing. Love, along with Cobain, claimed that Vanity Fair took her
   words out of context. While Cobain and Love's romance had always been
   something of a media attraction, the couple found themselves hounded by
   tabloid reporters after the article was published, many wanting to know
   if Frances was addicted to drugs at birth. As a result of the article,
   Los Angeles County Department of Children's Services took the Cobains
   to court, claiming that the couple's drug usage made them unfit
   parents. Two-week-old Frances Bean Cobain was ordered by the judge to
   be taken from their custody and placed with Courtney's sister Jamie for
   several weeks, after which the couple obtained custody, but had to
   submit to urine tests and a regular visit from a social worker. After
   months of legal wrangling, the couple were eventually granted full
   custody of their daughter.

Drug addiction

   Throughout most of his life, Cobain battled depression, chronic
   bronchitis, and intense physical pain due to an undiagnosed chronic
   stomach condition. This last condition wreaked an especially
   debilitating toll on his emotional welfare, and he spent years trying
   to find its source. However, none of the doctors he consulted was able
   to pinpoint the specific cause, guessing that it was either a result of
   Cobain's childhood scoliosis or related to the stresses of performing.
   Cobain self-medicated with heroin, although his condition was not the
   primary reason for his heroin use.

   Cobain had his first taste of the drug sometime in 1986, thanks to a
   local drug dealer who had been supplying him with Percodans. Cobain
   used the drug sporadically for years, but it eventually developed into
   a full-fledged addiction. Toward the end of 1991, his use began
   affecting the band's support of Nevermind, with Cobain passing out
   during photo shoots. One memorable example came the day of the band's
   1992 performance on Saturday Night Live, where Nirvana had a shoot with
   photographer Michael Levine. Having shot up beforehand, Cobain nodded
   off several times during the shoot. Regarding the shoot, Cobain related
   to biographer Michael Azerrad, "I mean, what are they supposed to do?
   They're not going to be able to tell me to stop. So I really didn't
   care. Obviously to them it was like practicing witchcraft or something.
   They didn't know anything about it so they thought that any second, I
   was going to die." Cobain also overdosed on the same night, after
   performing on Saturday Night Live

   Cobain's heroin addiction worsened as the years progressed. Cobain made
   his first attempt at rehab in early 1992, not long after he and Love
   discovered they were going to become parents. Immediately after leaving
   rehab, Nirvana embarked on their Australian tour, with Cobain appearing
   pale and gaunt while suffering through withdrawals. Not long after
   returning home, Cobain's addiction resurfaced.

   Prior to a performance at the New Music Seminar in New York City in
   July 1993, Cobain suffered a heroin overdose. Rather than calling for
   an ambulance, Love injected Cobain with illegally acquired Narcan to
   bring him out of his unconscious state. Cobain proceeded to perform
   with Nirvana on what later was recognized as one of their more
   memorable performances. The public was given no hint that anything out
   of the ordinary had taken place.

Cobain's final weeks

   Following a tour stop at Terminal Eins in Munich, Germany, on March 1,
   1994, Cobain was diagnosed with bronchitis and severe laryngitis. He
   flew to Rome the next day for medical treatment, and was joined there
   by his wife on March 3.

   The next morning, Love awoke to find that Cobain had overdosed on a
   combination of champagne and Rohypnol (Love had a prescription for
   Rohypnol filled after arriving in Rome). Cobain was immediately rushed
   to the hospital, and spent the rest of the day unconscious. After five
   days in the hospital, Cobain was released and returned to Seattle. Love
   later insisted publicly that the incident was Cobain's first suicide
   attempt.

   On March 18, Love phoned police to inform them that Cobain was suicidal
   and had locked himself in a room with a gun. Police arrived and
   confiscated several guns and a bottle of pills from Cobain, who
   insisted that he was not suicidal and had locked himself in the room to
   hide from Love. When questioned by police, Love admitted that Cobain
   had never mentioned that he was suicidal and that she had not seen him
   with a gun.

   On March 25, Love arranged an intervention concerning Cobain's drug
   use. The ten people involved included musician friends, record company
   executives, and one of Cobain's closest friends, Dylan Carlson. Former
   Nirvana manager Danny Goldberg described Cobain as being "extremely
   reluctant" and that he "denied that he was doing anything
   self-destructive." However, by the end of the day, Cobain had agreed to
   undergo a detox program.

   On March 30, Cobain arrived at the Exodus Recovery Centre in Los
   Angeles, California. On the afternoon of April 1, one of Frances Bean's
   nannies brought her to the facility for an hour-long visit with Cobain.
   That night, Cobain walked outside to have a cigarette, then climbed
   over a six-foot-high fence to leave the facility. He took a taxi to the
   airport and flew back to Seattle. The next morning, he stopped by his
   Seattle home and had a conversation with Michael "Cali" DeWitt, who
   lived at Cobain's house. Over the next several days, Cobain was spotted
   in various locations around Seattle, but most of his friends and family
   were unaware of his whereabouts.

   On April 3, Love contacted a private investigator, Tom Grant, and hired
   him to find Cobain. The next day, Love filed a missing person report
   under Cobain's mother's name without her permission. She added in the
   file that Cobain was suicidal and was in possession of a shotgun.

   On April 8, 1994, Cobain was discovered in the spare room above the
   garage (referred to as "the greenhouse") at his Lake Washington home by
   Veca Electric employee Gary Smith. Smith arrived at the house that
   morning to install security lighting and saw him lying inside. Apart
   from a minor amount of blood coming out of Cobain's ear, Smith reported
   seeing no visible signs of trauma, and initially believed that Cobain
   was asleep. Smith found what he thought might be a suicide note with a
   pen stuck through it beneath an overturned flowerpot. A shotgun,
   purchased for Cobain by Dylan Carlson, was found at Cobain's side. An
   autopsy report later concluded Cobain's death was a result of a
   "self-inflicted shotgun wound to the head." The report estimates Cobain
   to have died on April 5, 1994.

   In the alleged suicide note, ostensibly written to Cobain's imaginary
   childhood friend "Boddah," Cobain quoted a lyric from Neil Young's song
   " Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black)": "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 his 1994 album Sleeps with Angels in Cobain's
   memory. The note also invoked the name of Queen frontman Freddie
   Mercury, who Cobain felt could revel in the adoration of an audience in
   a way that Cobain himself could not.

   Cobain's body was cremated, with one third of his ashes scattered at
   the Namgyal Tibetan buddhist monastery in Ithaca, New York, another
   third in the Wishkah River, and the rest left in Love's possession.

Suicide dispute

   Kurt Cobain is legally recognized to have committed suicide. However,
   others contend that Cobain may have been murdered.

   The first to publicly object to the report of suicide was Seattle
   public access host Richard Lee. A week after Cobain's death, Lee aired
   the first episode of an ongoing documentary covering Cobain's death
   called Kurt Cobain Was Murdered. Making note of several discrepancies
   in the police reports, including several changes in the nature of the
   shotgun blast, Lee insisted that Cobain was murdered. Lee acquired a
   video that was shot on April 8 from the tree outside Cobain's garage
   and showed the scene around Cobain's body, and noted an absence of
   blood for what was reported as a point-blank shotgun blast to the head.
   Several pathology experts have noted that a shotgun blast inside the
   mouth often results in less blood, unlike a shotgun blast to the head.
   Lee's TV series continues to run, but often focuses on general issues
   regarding the Seattle Police Department.

   In addition, Tom Grant, the private investigator employed by Love after
   Cobain's disappearance from rehab, adamantly believes that Cobain's
   death was a homicide. Grant was still under Love's employ when Cobain's
   body was found. Grant cites a figure published in an April 14, 1994,
   article by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, purportedly from the
   official toxicology report, which claimed, "the level of heroin in
   Cobain's bloodstream was 1.52 milligrams per liter." Grant cites the
   figure as the key piece of evidence for murder. Grant argues that
   Cobain could not have injected himself with such a dose and still have
   been able to pull the trigger, an assertion supported by several
   notable experts on heroin addiction. Grant does not believe that Cobain
   was killed by the heroin dose, however. He suggests that the heroin was
   used to incapacitate Cobain before the final shotgun blast was
   administered by the perpetrator. As to his first claim, critics point
   to several different studies on heroin use that note the difficulty in
   pinpointing the level of heroin that an addict can tolerate. In a 2004
   story, Dateline NBC questioned five medical examiners about the figure
   from the toxicology report. Two of them noted the possibility that
   Cobain could have built up enough of a tolerance through repeated usage
   to have been able to pull the trigger himself, while the three others
   held that the information was inconclusive.

   Grant also believes that the apparent suicide note was actually a
   letter announcing his intent to leave Courtney Love, Seattle, and the
   music business. Grant believes that the few lines at the very bottom of
   the note, separate from the rest of it, are the only parts that sound
   like a suicide note. Grant and a number of handwriting experts point
   out that those lines are written in a style that varies from the rest
   of the letter. Grant also notes that the official report does not
   distinguish the questionable lines from the rest of the note, and
   simply concludes that Cobain wrote the note. However, when Dateline NBC
   sent a copy of the note to four different handwriting experts, one
   concluded that the entire note was in Cobain's hand, while the other
   three said the sample was inconclusive.

   In addition, Grant suggests that if the shotgun that Cobain used was
   positioned to match the findings of the autopsy report, his arm would
   have been too short for him to reach the trigger. Cobain would have had
   to fire the weapon with his toe, yet he was found with both shoes still
   in place.

   Critics dismiss Grant's assertions, claiming that many of them are
   unproven hypotheses based on unconfirmable information. Critics also
   see Grant as an opportunist, pointing out that he sells "kits" about
   the alleged conspiracy (called "Case Study Manuals") via his website.
   Grant counters that any profit made from the kits goes to offset some
   of the costs of his investigation. As Grant related, "I wrestled with
   that ... but if I go broke, I'll have to give up my pursuit and
   Courtney wins."

   Filmmaker Nick Broomfield decided to investigate the story for himself,
   and took a film crew to visit a number of people associated with Cobain
   and Love, including Love's father, Cobain's aunt, and one of the
   couple's former nannies. Broomfield also spoke to Mentors bandleader El
   Duce, who claimed that Love had offered him $50,000 to kill Cobain, and
   passed a polygraph administered by well-regarded polygraph expert Dr.
   Edward Gelb. Though El Duce noted that he knew who killed Kurt, he
   failed to mention a name. Broomfield inadvertently captured El Duce's
   last interview, as he died days later under mysterious circumstances,
   reportedly hit by a train while drunk. Broomfield titled the finished
   documentary Kurt & Courtney, and it was released in 1998. In the end,
   however, Broomfield felt he hadn't uncovered enough evidence to
   conclude the existence of a conspiracy. In a 1998 interview, Broomfield
   summed it up by saying, "I think that he committed suicide. I don't
   think that there's a smoking gun. And I think there's only one way you
   can explain a lot of things around his death. Not that he was murdered,
   but that there was just a lack of caring for him. I just think that
   Courtney had moved on, and he was expendable."

   Journalists Ian Halperin and Max Wallace took a similar path and
   attempted to investigate the conspiracy for themselves. Their initial
   work, the 1999 book Who Killed Kurt Cobain? drew a similar conclusion
   to Broomfield's film: while there wasn't enough evidence to prove a
   conspiracy, there was more than enough to demand that the case be
   reopened. A notable element of the book included their discussions with
   Grant, who had taped nearly every conversation that he had undertaken
   while he was in Love's employ. On their insistence, Grant played some
   of the tapes for the journalists to prove his claims. Over the next
   couple of years, Halperin and Wallace collaborated with Grant to write
   a second book, 2004's Love and Death: The Murder of Kurt Cobain, in
   which they claim to prove conclusively that Cobain was murdered.

   After Cobain's death, Love insisted that Cobain's overdose in Rome was
   a suicide attempt. However, several people have contested the
   assertion. Dr. Osvaldo Galletta, who treated Cobain, told Newsday,
   "After [Cobain] woke up, he told me it was an accident. He said he had
   been confused. He had taken pharmaceuticals and alcohol together. He
   said it was just a mistake." He further explained to Halperin and
   Wallace, "We can usually tell a suicide attempt. This didn't look like
   one to me." Galletta specifically denied Love's claim that 50 Rohypnol
   pills were removed from Cobain's stomach.

   Advocates of the official verdict of death (self-inflicted gunshot
   wound) cite Cobain's persistent drug addiction, clinical depression,
   and handwritten suicide note as conclusive proof. Members of Cobain's
   family have also noted patterns of depression in Kurt and instability
   before he achieved fame. Cobain himself mentioned that his stomach
   pains during Nirvana's 1991 European tour were so severe he became
   suicidal and that taking heroin was "my choice. I said, 'This is the
   only thing that's saving me from blowing my head off right now.'"
   Sources close to him have also cited reasons such as the realized
   "artificiality" of stardom, the burdens of fame, Courtney's dominating
   presence and feelings of isolation. The contention is that Kurt saw
   suicide as a way out.

   Many of Kurt's friends and associates, including Grohl and Novoselic,
   have remained silent on the matter. In August of 2005, however, Sonic
   Youth's Kim Gordon was asked about Kurt's death in an interview for
   UNCUT magazine. When asked what she thought to be Kurt's motive in
   committing suicide, Gordon replied, "I don't even know that he killed
   himself. There are people close to him who don't think that he did..."
   Asked if she thought someone else had killed him, Gordon answered, "I
   do, yes."

Books on Cobain

   Writer Charles R. Cross published a biography of Cobain titled Heavier
   Than Heaven in 2001. For the book, Cross attempted to contact as many
   of Cobain's friends and family as possible, and received a significant
   amount of input from Love. As such, the book is possibly the most
   detailed account of Cobain's life on record, and is arguably the
   "definitive" Cobain biography. However, neither Dave Grohl nor Cobain's
   mother contributed to the book.

   Additionally, many criticized Cross for including anything and
   everything related to Cobain, including details that were inaccurate.
   For example, Cross cited "On the Mountain" conclusively as the first
   working title for " You Know You're Right". In reality, "On the
   Mountain" was the result of an effort by fans in 1995 to decipher
   Grohl's introduction to the song on a 1993 live recording. When a
   clearer version of the recording surfaced some months later, it became
   clear that Grohl introduced the song as "All Apologies," since "You
   Know You're Right" was not on the written setlist that night. Cross was
   also heavily criticized for including an "artist's rendering" of
   Cobain's final days. Cross claimed in interviews that he felt he had
   learned enough about Cobain to reasonably guess his state of mind in
   the last week of his life. Many felt that the inclusion of fiction in
   what was supposed to be a non-fiction book was an insult to Cobain's
   memory.

   Cobain wrote in a journal often, leaving 22 notebooks filled with his
   writing when he died. In November 2002, a sampling of these writings
   was published as Journals. The book is 280 pages with a simple black
   cover; the pages are arranged somewhat chronologically (although Cobain
   generally did not date them). The journal pages are reproduced in
   colour, and there is a section added at the back that has explanations
   and transcripts of some of the less legible pages. The writings begin
   in the late 1980s, around the time the band started, and end in 1994. A
   paperback version of the book, released in 2003, included a handful of
   writings that were not offered in the initial release.

   In the journals, Cobain talked about the ups and downs of life on the
   road, made lists of what music he was enjoying, and often scribbled
   down lyric ideas for future reference. Upon its release, reviewers and
   fans were conflicted about the collection. Many were elated to be able
   to learn more about Cobain and read his inner thoughts in his own
   words, but were disturbed by what was viewed as an invasion of his
   privacy.

   Prior to Cobain's death, writer Michael Azerrad published Come as You
   Are: The Story of Nirvana, a book that chronicled Nirvana's career from
   its beginning, as well as the personal histories of the band members.
   The book explored Cobain's drug addiction, as well as the countless
   controversies surrounding the band. After Cobain's death, Azerrad
   re-published the book to include a final chapter discussing the last
   year of Cobain's life. The book is widely considered the definitive
   Nirvana biography, largely because of the involvement of the band
   members themselves. In 2006, Azerrad's taped conversations with Cobain
   were transformed into a documentary about Cobain, titled Kurt Cobain:
   About a Son.

Musical influences

   Cobain was a devoted champion of early alternative rock acts. He would
   often make reference to his favorite bands in interviews, often placing
   a greater importance on the bands that influenced him than on his own
   music. Interviews with Cobain were often littered with references to
   obscure performers like The Vaselines, The Melvins, Daniel Johnston,
   The Meat Puppets, Young Marble Giants, The Wipers, Flipper, and The
   Raincoats. Cobain was eventually able to convince record companies to
   reissue albums by The Raincoats ( Geffen) and The Vaselines ( Sub Pop).
   Cobain also noted the influence of The Pixies, and commented that "
   Smells Like Teen Spirit" bore some similarities to their sound. Cobain
   told Melody Maker in 1992 that hearing Surfer Rosa for the first time
   convinced him to abandon his more Black Flag-influenced songwriting in
   favour of the " Iggy Pop / Aerosmith" type songwriting that appeared on
   Nevermind.

   Cobain also made efforts to include his favorite performers in his
   musical endeavors. In 1993, when he decided that he wanted a second
   guitarist to help him on stage, he recruited Pat Smear of the legendary
   L.A. punk band The Germs. When rehearsals of three Meat Puppets covers
   for Nirvana's 1993 performance for MTV Unplugged went awry, Cobain
   placed a call to the two lead members of the band, Curt and Cris
   Kirkwood, who ended up joining the band on stage to perform the songs.

   Where Sonic Youth had served to help Nirvana gain wider success,
   Nirvana attempted to help other indie acts attain success. The band
   submitted the song "Oh, the Guilt" to a split single with Chicago's The
   Jesus Lizard, helping Nirvana's indie credibility while opening The
   Jesus Lizard to a wider audience.

   The Beatles were an early and important musical influence on Cobain.
   Cobain expressed a particular fondness for John Lennon, whom he called
   his "idol" in his journals, and even admitted that the song " About a
   Girl" was essentially his attempt at writing a Beatles song. He also
   found himself heavily influenced by punk rock, and often credited bands
   such as Black Flag and the Sex Pistols for his artistic style and
   attitude.

   Even with all of Cobain's indie influences, Nirvana's early style was
   influenced by the major rock bands of the 70s, including Led Zeppelin,
   Black Sabbath, KISS and Neil Young. In its early days, Nirvana made a
   habit of regularly playing cover songs by those bands, including Led
   Zeppelin's " Immigrant Song", " Dazed and Confused", " Heartbreaker",
   and a studio recording of KISS' "Do You Love Me?". He also talked about
   the influence of bands like The Knack, Boston, and The Bay City
   Rollers.

   There were also earlier influences: Nirvana's MTV Unplugged concert
   ended with a version of " Where Did You Sleep Last Night", a song
   popularized by blues artist Leadbelly, whom Cobain called one of his
   favorite performers. Critic Greil Marcus suggested that Cobain's "
   Polly" was a descendent of "Pretty Polly", a murder ballad that might
   have been a century old when Dock Boggs recorded it in 1927.

Legacy

   In 2005, a sign was put up in Aberdeen, Washington that read "Welcome
   to Aberdeen - Come As You Are" as a tribute to Cobain. The sign was
   paid for and created by the Kurt Cobain Memorial Committee, a
   non-profit organization created in May 2004 to honor Cobain. The
   Committee also planned to create a Kurt Cobain Memorial Park and a
   youth centre in Aberdeen.

   As Cobain has no gravesite, many Nirvana fans visit Viretta Park, near
   Cobain's former Lake Washington home, to pay tribute. On the
   anniversary of his death, fans gather in the park to celebrate his life
   and memory.

   The mythic nature of Cobain's life even captured the eyes of
   filmmakers. Gus Van Sant based his 2005 movie Last Days on what might
   have happened in the final hours of Cobain's life.

   Cobain's own words were used to narrate a documentary on his life,
   titled Kurt Cobain About a Son. Journalist Michael Azerrad interviewed
   the band extensively for his 1993 book Come as You Are: The Story of
   Nirvana, and recorded twenty-five hours of tape with Cobain. Filmmaker
   AJ Schnack collaborated with Azerrad to use the tapes to tell the
   story. The film will debut at the 2006 Toronto International Film
   Festival.

   Years after his death, Cobain continues to intrigue and inspire fans. A
   full eight years after his death, Nirvana's final studio recording,
   "You Know You're Right", became a hit, bringing a new generation of
   Nirvana fans. "Nevermind" remains a watershed in alternative music, and
   consistently ranks in "best album" lists throughout the world.

   In October 2006, Cobain's posthumous fame among mainstream media was
   revived when Forbes Magazine ranked him as the top dollar-earning dead
   celebrity, earning an estimated $50 million from October 2005 to
   October 2006. In the six years of the list's publication, Elvis Presley
   had topped the list every year, but The King fell short of Cobain's
   earnings by about $8 million. This was the first time that Cobain
   appeared on the list, and according to Forbes writer Lacey Rose, "his
   debut atop the list is largely due to his widow, Courtney Love, who
   sold a 25% stake in his song catalog to publishing company Primary Wave
   for a reported $50 million."

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