In April 1994, the guitarist and vocalist of the legendary grunge rock band Nirvana passed away. Many years have passed since then, but posters with his image are still in demand, and his music is still popular among fans of rock culture. So what was the cause of Kurt Cobain's death?
Childhood
The future rock star was born on February 20, 1967 in Aberdeen (Washington State, USA). His mother, Wendy Elizabeth, was a housewife, and his father, Donald Leland Cobain, was an auto mechanic. In 1970, another child appeared in the family - daughter Kimberly.
The Cobains' ancestry indicates English, Irish, Scottish and German roots. At the end of the 19th century, the musician’s ancestors from Northern Ireland’s county of Tyrone moved to Canada (Cornwall, Ontario), and then to Washington.
The boy's musical abilities manifested themselves quite early: he wrote his first song at the age of four, describing a trip to the park in it. Interest in music was reinforced by the fact that many family members were musicians:
- An uncle, Chuck Fradenburg, performed with The Beachcombers;
- An aunt, Mary Earl, was a guitarist in local bands;
- My great-uncle was a singer (tenor) and even played in films (“The King of Jazz”, 1930).
At the age of seven, he began learning to play the drums, having received the instrument as a gift from his aunt, and at 14, he began to master the guitar, a gift from his uncle, under the guidance of Warren Mason (musician of The Beachcombers).
In addition to musical abilities, Kurt also demonstrated artistic abilities. His grandmother was an artist and strongly encouraged the development of skills in this direction.
The Cobain family broke up when Kurt was only nine. This event left a special imprint on the boy’s entire future life. In his own words, he was ashamed of his parents and the fact that he did not have a full-fledged family like before. At first he stayed with his mother, but when she remarried, the relationship with his stepfather did not work out and he had to move in with his father. Relations with my father's new family also did not work out. The difficult teenager had to lead a nomadic life, living either with his father’s parents or with relatives on his mother’s side.
Shot of the new wave
Kurt Cobain was born on February 20, 1967. It was a tumultuous time of rebirth for the entire music industry. Jazz had already passed its peak, although John Coltrane and Herbie Hancock remained popular. Elvis Presley had already played enough in films, but there was no talk of the King returning to the stage, and the public hastened to write him off as scrap. At the same time, The Beatles' star rose, and John Lennon declared that the Fab Four were more popular than Jesus himself. The Rolling Stones showed off their first records, but in pursuit of the Beatles they had already joined the pop mainstream.
On the other hand, young people opposed the commercialization of everything and, first of all, art, and also timidly snapped at the implanted consumer culture. The potential of rock 'n' roll seemed to have been exhausted. The music industry was unable to fill the void. A new wave was brewing.
In January 1967, the debut album of the aspiring group The Doors soared to the top of the charts. In this work, the energy of rock and roll was conveyed through endless jazz improvisation. The thick pressing sound, generously flavored with keyboard psychedelia, became the answer that the audience was waiting for. The charisma of group leader Jim Morrison and his dancing, reminiscent of either Indian dances or convulsions, turned live performances into a general intuitive madness.
The Doors band. Far right is Jim Morrison. Photo taken between 1965 and 1971Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org / Joel Brodsky
Critics were cautious in praising The Doors, but were afraid to predict the band's future. Listeners were immediately captivated by the new style. Against the backdrop of the Beatles and Stones becoming more and more sterile every day, Morrison and The Doors became prophets of fresh ideas and a new approach. For America, their music completely marked the emergence of psychedelic rock as such.
Literally a month later, the album Surrealistic Pillow, the second studio album from Jefferson Airplane, was released. This was the band's first work with vocalist Grace Slick . The release was preceded by the triumphant single Somebody to Love. Jefferson Airplane's new material clearly departed from the traditions of folk rock towards a new trend - psychedelic rock. This was followed by the release of The Velvet Underground, whose manager was already the famous artist Andy Warhol .
Career
As a teenager, Kurt Cobain became interested in rock culture, in particular punk and hard rock (“grunge”). At the age of 14, he became acquainted with the musicians of the local group Melvins, who played in this direction. In the same company he met future Nirvana bass player Krist Novoselic.
In 1984, Kurt returned to his mother’s house, but soon he had to leave there, because she did not want to hear about her son’s admission to art college and gave him an ultimatum: “either go work or get lost.” The young man wandered around the houses of friends for almost two years and even managed to live under a bridge.
He founded his first rock band, Fecal Matter, with bassist Dale Crover and drummer Greg Hokanson. The team did not exist for long and did not release a single disc, but the dream of a musical career was firmly entrenched in Kurt’s mind.
A few months after the first group broke up, Nirvana was founded. It included:
- Kurt Cobain (lead singer, guitarist, songwriter);
- Krist Novoselic (bass player);
- Chad Channing (drummer).
The name “Nirvana”, remembered by millions, was not invented right away. The new team had previously changed several names: “Skid Row”, “Ted Ed Fred”, “Bliss” and “Pen Cap Chew”. The first composition, “Love Buzz/Big Cheese,” was released in 1988, and a year later the first album, “Bleach,” was released.
The second album, “Nevermind,” unexpectedly for the musicians brought them to the pinnacle of fame, making Kurt Cobain an idol of the masses. Such sudden popularity not only did not please, but even irritated the lead singer, who considered his group to belong to the “independent rock scene”, playing music “not for everyone”.
In order to get rid of adoring fans, Kurt makes the second album “In Utero” even darker and harder to perceive, but such efforts have the opposite result - his music is again on the first lines.
The group did not interfere in politics and did not make any public statements, however, Cobain himself spoke out in defense of the rights of women, pro-choice and sexual minorities, which is why he sometimes received threats.
How did Kurt Cobain die?
Kurt had always been quite sickly. So, in childhood he was diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, which was corrected with medication. Much later, doctors diagnosed “Manic-depressive psychosis,” noting the hereditary nature of the disease.
At the age of thirteen, the boy began using drugs. First, marijuana and LSD, and from 1986, heroin, addiction to which became severe by 1991. When it turned out that Courtney Love was expecting a child, Kurt went to rehab with her, however, after the Australian tour he returned to heroin again.
The last years of the musician’s life were especially difficult: depression, severe addiction and overdoses, scandals with his wife and friends who tried to convince him to go to rehabilitation again.
On April 8, 1994, an electrician discovered the rock star's body on the floor of a greenhouse. The musician, who was fond of shooting and had several guns, shot himself in the head. The way Kurt Cobain died mirrors the death of his father's brother, who took his own life many years earlier.
Why Kurt Cobain fell into nirvana and committed suicide at the peak of success and fame
25 years ago, on April 5, 1994, 27-year-old musician, Nirvana leader Kurt Cobain committed suicide. A year before, he recorded the depressive and mournful song “I Hate Myself and Want to Die.” Cobain, according to information that surfaced after his death, was planning to disband the group. Cause? There were several of them. About fatigue from sudden fame and the need to live not only according to your schedule. In addition, the rapidly increasing amount in the account directly required that this money be invested somewhere. So that he finally buys a status car. Hired security guards. He moved to a good house and, in general, built a family nest. After all, in addition to world fame, he also found love. And in the literal sense - he married a girl, Courtney Love (half Jewish, who had already been married several years before, three years older, Love is her pseudonym). The wife turned out to be a girl with a difficult fate: she lived with her mother in a hippie commune, her parents divorced a long time ago, her father was deprived of parental rights for giving the girl a psychotropic drug. Having grown up, she worked in a strip club, at the time she met Cobain she sang and played in a band alternative (which means she couldn’t really sing or play) rock Hole (“Hole”). So, they got married - however, Cobain behaved, as usual, passively and was not very keen to part with his free life. And if anyone was active, it was pregnant Courtney. Soon they had a daughter. Which, two weeks later, will be taken away by the guardianship services: the day before, the alternative “bird” blurted out to the journalist how she and Kurt, while pregnant, consumed heroin. This, by the way, was the main reason for the subsequent tragedy - Kurt Cobain was an experienced heroin addict. Hiding behind the theory that the drug relieved his terrible stomach pains (the doctors were never able to figure out the reason), he injected heroin. And now together with my wife. And where there is heroin, there are withdrawal symptoms, overdoses, depression and much more. So Cobain was close to death several times, but he was found and saved in time. Family life no longer seemed so magical to him, and nursing a newborn was not what he dreamed of. After a series of scandals with fights, Courtney gathered everyone the musician could listen to so that they could persuade him to go to the clinic. He reluctantly agreed, but after his one-and-a-half-year-old daughter was brought to see him, he ran away that evening. A few days after this escape, a worker who came to install an alarm in the musician’s house discovered a corpse with traces of two injections on his arm and a hole in his head: first Cobain injected a heavy dose of the drug, and then, to be sure, he fired a gun. Read more in the latest issue of Arguments of the Week.
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Family
Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love met in 1990 in Portland, where their bands performed, and got married on February 24, 1992. The wedding ceremony took place on a Hawaiian beach. At that moment, the couple was expecting a child.
The only daughter of Nirvana lead singer, Frances Bean Cobain, was born on August 18, 1992. She was only two years old when Kurt Cobain died. At the moment, the girl, who inherited her artistic abilities from her father, is a famous artist.
The life story of the legendary musician was quite difficult, but his music, even after so many years, remains in demand, popular and loved by millions of people.
