HOLLYWOOD—Kurt Cobain was a talented singer, songwriter, and musician. Cobain formed the band Nirvana with Krist Novoselic and Aaron Burckhard back in 1987 and was a huge part of the Seattle music scene. Their first album Bleach was released on the independent record label Sub Pop in 1989. Everyone knows that being signed to an independent label will never get your air play. That’s just, how it is. So after signing with a major label DGC Records, Nirvana found success with “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” from their second album “Nevermind” released in 1991. For some reason, Cobain was uncomfortable with the label, which added to his personal problems.
During the last years of his life, Kurt struggled with heroin addiction, chronic health problems and depression. He also had difficulty coping with his fame and public image, and the professional and personal pressures surrounding himself and his wife, musician Courtney Love. So how did they meet? It seems that Love and Cobain met back in 1990, in Portland’s Satyricon nightclub, when they were both still ardent underground rock bands.
Courtney turned on the charm and made advances, but Cobain seemed evasive. He would break off dates and he ignored her advances. He seemed to be attracted to her, yet wanted his bachelor ways. As fate would have it, the duo were married on Waikiki Beach in Hawaii on February 24, 1992. Love wore a satin and lace dress once owned by Frances Farmer, and Cobain donned a Guatemalan purse and wore green pajamas, because he had been too lazy to put on a tuxedo. According to published reports, eight people were in attendance at the ceremony, including Grohl who introduced the couple.
Love gave birth to Francis Bean Cobain on August 18, 1992. A sonogram of the couple’s as-yet-unborn baby was included in the artwork for Nirvana’s single, “Lithium.” The media had a field day with their romance, they found themselves hounded by tabloid reporters after the 1992 article in Vanity Fair, which Love admitted to using heroin, not knowing that she was pregnant. She claimed that Vanity Fair misquoted her, the event created a media controversy for the couple. The Los Angeles County Department of Children’s Services took the Cobains to court, stating that the couple’s drug usage made them unfit parents. Love later claimed to have ceased heroin use upon learning of her pregnancy.
On April 8, 1994, Cobain was found dead at his home in Seattle. His death was ruled a suicide by a self-inflicted shotgun wound to the head. The circumstances of his death at age 27 have become a topic of public fascination and debate. Since their debut, Nirvana, with Cobain as a songwriter, has sold over 25 million albums in the U.S., and over 75 million worldwide. Cobain was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2014, along with Nirvana bandmates Dave Grohl and Novoselic, in their first year of eligibility.
Photos from the scene of Kurt Cobain’s suicide in 1994 will remain sealed a U.S. court has decided. A journalist who has spent 23 years investigating Cobain’s death tried to have them released to the public. In 2014, Richard Lee sued the city of Seattle to try and release the photos, which show Cobain’s body as it lay. Lee believes Kurt was killed as a result of a government conspiracy. He lost his action in 2015, but filed an appeal last year. In 2016, Kurt’s widow, Courtney Love-accused Lee of exploiting his death, by stalking the family.
According to TMZ, Kurt’s acoustic guitar, which he famously played on Nirvana’s MTV Unplugged is set to go to the ex-husband of his daughter Frances Bean Cobain. She has reportedly settled her divorce with Isaiah Silva, her husband of two years, and the instrument will go to him. Silva claimed the model gave him the guitar as a present, while she denied ever giving it to him. The guitar is worth millions of dollars. You would think that the judge would let the guitar stay in the family, instead of going to an estranged husband of two years. She in return, will retain their house in Los Angeles.
Rose’s Scoop: “American Idol’s” top 3 are Gabby Barrett, Caleb and Maddie Poppe. Let’s see who brings it! Congratulations to the three of them.
