Kurt Donald Cobain life and biography

Kurt Donald Cobain ( February 20, 1967 – c. April 5, 1994) was an American singer-songwriter and musician, best known as the lead singer and guitarist of the rock band Nirvana.

Although he never intended to change the course of music history, Kurt Cobain became the ‘Father of Generation X’ when he released his first albums as Nirvana in the early 1990s. His song, Smells Like Teen Spirit, Come as you Are, and About a Girl solidified his worldwide ranking as one of the greatest songwriters and performers of all time.

Growing up in a small town in Washington, young Kurt didn’t have as many friends as he could play music with. As a youngster, Cobain’s father, who was a mechanic, wanted him to play sports. But, Cobain had other interests, such as art, listening to music from the Beatles, and playing his guitar. Cobain blamed some of his later drug-related troubles on the drug Ritalin, which his school prescribed when he was only seven years old.

After his parents’ divorce that same year, he began feeling confused and lost. He was upset at both of his parents and wanted them to stay together. Kurt stayed with his mother for a while and then decided to live with his father. As he grew up and started high school, Cobain became interested in the local punk banks in Washington. From that point on, he would spend his time going to concerts and attempting to form a small band with friends. During high school, he also admits that he smoked marijuana frequently and tried most other drugs. Cobain wasn’t allowed to graduate high school because he did not have enough credits due to his moving back and forth between his father’s and mother’s houses. Feeling helpless, he dropped out then his mother forced him to move out. He lived on the street and made ends meet when he found work as a janitor at the local school and found an apartment for rent.

After some rough times and various arrests in his hometown, he decided to move to Olympia, Washington where he and Novoselic formed their band Nirvana. As they played together, they were invited to play backup for several bands of the area. The two recorded a record with Sub Pop Records in 1989, but then moved with David Grohl and released their album Nevermind, which sent the band’s popularity soaring.

Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love met in the latter 1980s, but never consummated their passion for one another until 1991, when Kurt Cobain was gaining immense popularity. Love gave birth to Cobain’s child, named Frances Bean Cobain, in 1992.

While Kurt Cobain allegedly was suicidal, some evidence suggests that his death was a homicide. With the release of a documentary, some journalists showed proof of how Cobain could not have killed himself due to the shotgun blast and other evidence found in the room at the time of his death. The suicide note has been said by some experts to not match his writing. Other facts about the case are highlighted in what many believe is the most accurate biography of Kurt Cobain called Heavier than Heaven released in 2001.

Legacy


In the years following his death, Cobain has been remembered as one of the most iconic rock musicians in the history of alternative music. He was ranked by Rolling Stone as the 12th greatest guitarist and 45th greatest singer of all time, and by MTV as 7th 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 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 center in Aberdeen. As Cobain has no gravesite (he was cremated, with his ashes scattered into the Wishkah River in Washington), 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.

In mid-2006, Cobain took the place of Elvis Presley as the top-earning deceased celebrity, after the sale of the Nirvana song catalogue. Presley reclaimed the spot in 2007.

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." The city ultimately decided to sandblast the monument to say "F---",but fans immediately drew the letters back in. The monument and bridge have become popular places for fans to leave tributes.

Gus Van Sant based his 2005 movie Last Days on what might have happened in the final hours of Cobain's life. In January 2007, Courtney Love began to shop the biography Heavier Than Heaven to various movie studios in Hollywood to turn the book into an A-list feature film about Cobain and Nirvana. The video game Guitar Hero 5 features Cobain as a playable character. However, the inclusion of Cobain has met with controversy, with surviving bandmates Krist Novoselic and Dave Grohl and wife Courtney Love expressing dismay at the ability to use Cobain with any song.

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 notable for its involvement of the band members themselves, who gave interviews and personal information to Azerrad specifically for the book. In 2006, Azerrad's taped conversations with Cobain were transformed into a documentary about Cobain, titled Kurt Cobain About a Son. Though this film does not feature any music by Nirvana, it has songs by the artists that inspired Cobain.

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