Last Updated on March 25, 2023

Kurt Cobain Bio

Kurt Cobain was an American singer, songwriter, and musician, popular as the guitarist and lead singer of the rock band Nirvana. He was born on February 20, 1967, in Aberdeen, Washington, U.S. and has been described as a “Generation X icon”.\

Kurt Cobain, with a middle name Donald, 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. His parents were Wendy Elizabeth, a waitress, and Donald Leland Cobain, an automotive mechanic, while his younger sister, Kimberly, was born on April 24, 1970.

Although uninterested in sports, Kurt was enrolled in a junior high school wrestling team at the insistence of his father. He was a skilled wrestler but 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, where the former Nirvana lead singer would intentionally strike out to avoid playing.

Kurt Cobain befriended a gay student at school and suffered bullying from peers who concluded that he was gay. In an interview, he said that he liked being associated with a gay identity because he did not like people, and when they thought he was gay they left him alone. He stated, “I started being really proud of the fact that I was gay even though I wasn’t.” His friend tried to kiss him and Cobain backed away, explaining to his friend that he was not gay, but remained friends with him.

Two weeks prior to graduation, Kurt Cobain dropped out of Aberdeen High School, upon realizing that he did not have enough credits to graduate. His mother gave him a choice to either find employment or leave. After one week, Kurt found his clothes and other belongings packed away in boxes. Feeling banished from his own mother’s home, the former Nirvana lead singer stayed with friends, occasionally sneaking back into his mother’s basement.

He also claimed that, during periods of homelessness, he lived under a bridge over the Wishkah River, an experience that inspired the song “Something in the Way”. In late 1986, Cobain moved into an apartment, paying his rent by working at The Polynesian Resort, a Polynesian coastal resort approximately 20 miles north of Aberdeen.

Kurt Cobain Suicide

On April 8, 1994, Kurt Cobain was found dead at his home in Seattle, Washington. His death age was 27 years old. It was determined he had died by suicide three days earlier. The Seattle Police Department incident report states that the former Nirvana lead singer “was found with a shotgun across his body, had a visible head wound and there was a suicide note discovered nearby”.

Kurt Cobain Pictures

Kurt Cobain was discovered in the greenhouse above the garage at his Lake Washington Boulevard East house by VECA Electric employee Gary T. Smith, who arrived that morning to install security lighting. Gary Smith thought he was asleep until he saw blood oozing from his ear. He also found a suicide note with a pen stuck through it inside a flower pot.

A Remington Model gauge shotgun purchased for Kurt by his friend musician Dylan Carlson was found on the former Nirvana lead singer’s chest, with his left hand wrapped around the barrel. It had been legally purchased by Carlson at Stan Baker’s Gun Shop in Seattle, Washington. Kurt Cobain did not want the gun purchased in his name because he thought the police might seize it for his own protection. The police had taken away his guns twice in the previous 10 months. Puncture wounds on the inside of both the right and left elbows were noted by The King County Medical Examiner.

On April 14, 1994, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported that Kurt Cobain was “high on heroin when he pulled the trigger”. The paper reported that the toxicological tests determined that the level of morphine in his bloodstream was 1.52 milligrams per liter and that there was also evidence of valium in his blood.

The report contained a quote from Dr. Randall Baselt of the Chemical Toxicological Institute, stating that Kurt’s heroin level was at “a high concentration, by any account”. He also stated that the strength of that dose would depend on many factors, including how addicted Kurt Cobain was to the drug.

On March 3, 1994, the former Nirvana lead singer was in a coma in a hospital in Rome. His management agency, Gold Mountain Records, said that Cobain suffered from influenza and fatigue and had accidentally overdosed on painkillers. After his death, Kurt Cobain’s wife, Courtney Love, said that Cobain’s overdose in Rome had been a suicide attempt. Prior to his death, Kurt Cobain had checked out of a drug rehabilitation facility and had been reported as suicidal by his wife Courtney Love.

A public memorial service was held at Seattle Center on April 10, 1994, where a recording of Courtney Love reading Kurt Cobain’s suicide note was played. Near the end of the vigil, Courtney arrived and distributed some of his clothing to fans who remained. In the following days, the widow consoled and mourned with fans who came to her house.

Kurt Cobain’s body was cremated. His widowed wife divided his ashes; she kept some in a teddy bear and some in an urn. She took another portion of his ashes to the Namgyal Buddhist Monastery in Ithaca, New York. There, some of his remains were ceremonially blessed by Buddhist monks and mixed into clay, which was used to make memorial sculptures.

A final ceremony was arranged for Kurt by his mother on May 31, 1999, that was attended by both Courtney Love and Tracy Marander. A Buddhist monk chanted while Kurt’s daughter, Frances Bean Cobain, scattered his ashes into McLane Creek in Olympia, Washington, the city where he “had found his true artistic muse.”

Kurt Cobain Daughter

Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love met on January 12, 1990, in Portland’s Satyricon nightclub when they both still led ardent underground rock bands. Courtney made advances, but Kurt was evasive. Early in their interactions, the former Nirvana lead singer broke off dates and ignored Courtney Love’s advances because he was unsure if he wanted a relationship.

On February 24, 1992, a few days after the conclusion of Nirvana’s “Pacific Rim” tour, Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love were married on Waikiki Beach in Hawaii. Courtney was already pregnant, and the couple’s daughter Frances Bean Cobain was born on August 18, 1992. A sonogram of the couple’s as-yet-unborn baby was included in the artwork for Nirvana’s single, “Lithium”.

In a 1992 article in Vanity Fair, Courtney admitted to using heroin, not knowing that she was pregnant. Nevertheless, she later claimed to have ceased heroin use upon learning of her pregnancy. Frances Bean Cobain is now an American visual artist and model.

On September 2005, 13-year-old Frances gave her first interview, to Teen Vogue, in which she discussed her personal style and mentioned her parents. Another appeared in the January 2006 issue of i-D, in which she lamented tabloid portrayals of her mother. Besides, Frances gave an interview in 2010 about her art as “Fiddle Tim”.

Kurt Cobain with Daughter Frances

On August 18, 2010, Frances inherited 37% of Kurt Cobain’s estate. Documents showed that the model now controls the publicity rights to his name and image. In 2011, she bought her first home, a $1.8 million Spanish-style villa in West Hollywood, a few blocks from Sunset Strip.

Frances Cobain has said she is not a fan of Nirvana or other grunge bands, instead preferring their contemporaries Oasis, The Brian Jonestown Massacre, and Mercury Rev. Nevertheless, she has said she likes the songs “Territorial Pissings” and “Dumb”.

The model and musician, Isaiah Silva, married on June 29, 2014, though the wedding date was widely misreported as around September 2015. By March 23, 2016, Frances had filed for divorce. According to media reports, the couple has been divorced since November 30, 2017.

Kurt Cobain Quotes

» There are a lot of things I wish I would have done, instead of just sitting around and complaining about having a boring life.
» Wanting to be someone else is a waste of who you are.
» No one is afraid of heights, they’re afraid of falling down. No one is afraid of saying I love you, they’re afraid of the answer.

» If my eyes could show my soul, everyone would cry when they saw me smile.
» I use bits and pieces of others personalities to form my own.
» The duty of youth is to challenge corruption.
» We have no right to express an opinion until we know all of the answers.
» We’re so trendy we can’t even escape ourselves.

» Words suck. I mean, everything has been said. Words aren’t as important as the energy derived from music, especially live.
» To be positive at all times is to ignore all that is important, sacred and valuable. To be negative at all times is to be threatened by ridiculousness and instant discreditably.
» A friend is nothing but a known enemy.
» Thank you for the tragedy. I need it for my art.

Songs

The list consists of music sang by Kurt Cobain, his band as well as songs that he has written for other artists.

A
» About a Girl
» Aero Zeppelin
» All Apologies
» Aneurysm
» Anorexorcist

B
» Beans
» Been a Son
» Beeswax

» Big Cheese
» Big Long Now
» Blandest
» Breed

C
» Clean Up Before She Comes
» Closing Time
» Come as You Are
» Cudi Montage
» Curmudgeon

D
» Dive
» Do Re Mi
» Don’t Want It All
» Downer

» Drain You
» Dumb
E
» Endless, Nameless
» Even in His Youth

F
» Floyd the Barber
» Floyd the Barber
» Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge on Seattle
G
» Gallons of Rubbing Alcohol Flow Through the Strip

H
» Hairspray Queen
» Heart-Shaped Box
» Help Me, I’m Hungry
» Holy Grail

I
» I Hate Myself and Want to Die
» If You Must
» In Bloom

» In His Hands
» In His Room
L
» Lithium
» Lounge Act

M
» Mexican Seafood
» Milk It
» Moist Vagina
» Mr. Moustache
» Mrs. Butterworth
N
» Negative Creep

O
» Puss / Oh, The Guilt
» Old Age
» On a Plain
» Opinion
» The Other Improv

P
» Panini
» Pay to Play
» Pen Cap Chew
» Pennyroyal Tea
» Polly

R
» Radio Friendly Unit Shifter
» Rape Me
» Raunchola

S
» Sappy
» Scentless Apprentice
» School
» Scoff

» Serve the Servants
» Sifting
» Sliver
» Smells Like Teen Spirit

» Something in the Way
» Spank Thru
» Stain
» Stay Away
» Swap Meet

T
» Talk to Me
» Territorial Pissings
» Token Eastern Song
» Tourette’s

V
» Vendetagainst
» Verse Chorus Verse
» Very Ape
Y
» You Know You’re Right

Birthday

Kurt Cobain died at the age of 27. He used to celebrate his birthday every 20th of February. Considering that he was born in the year 1967, the former Nirvana lead singer would have been 52 years old as of 2019.