Kurt Cobain

Kurt Donald Cobain (February 20, 1967 – ca. April 5, 1994) was the lead singer and guitarist of the American rock band, Nirvana. He served not only as the band's frontman, but as its "leader and spiritual center" {{ref|spiritualcenter}}. With the band's success, Cobain became a major national and international celebrity, an uncomfortable position for someone who claimed to be "ill at ease with fame and ill-equipped to handle the responsibility that accompanies success" {{ref|fame}}.

Early life

Kurt was born to Don and Wendy Cobain in the Grays Harbor Community Hospital in Aberdeen, Washington, and spent his early years living in Hoquiam, Washington. By most accounts, his early life was happy, and he lived as a part of the typical American family. His interest in music came early on, possibly a result of his family's general interest in music.

Related Topics:
Grays Harbor Community Hospital - Aberdeen, Washington - Hoquiam, Washington

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Around the age of seven, he began to idolize stuntman Evel Knievel. Hoping to someday become a stuntman himself, a young Cobain could often be seen diving from the rooftop of his house onto a bed of pillows and blankets below. During this time, he was prescribed Ritalin for hyperactivity; years later, his wife Courtney Love blamed Ritalin for his addiction to heroin.

Related Topics:
Evel Knievel - Ritalin - Courtney Love - Heroin

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Cobain's life was turned upside down at the age of eight with the divorce of his parents, 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 His mother noted that his personality changed dramatically, with Cobain becoming more withdrawn. After a year spent living with his mother following the divorce, Cobain moved to Montesano, Washington to live with his father, but after a few years his rebellious tendencies became too overwhelming, and Cobain found himself being shuffled between friends and family.

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At school, Cobain took little interest in sports or most academics, focusing only on his art courses. He was an outspoken supporter of gay students at his school, sometimes suffering physically at the hands of homophobic students for his beliefs, and for his small size, which led some to believe that he himself was gay. Although he once claimed in an interview with The Advocate that he was arrested for spray-painting a pro-gay slogan on a bank, Aberdeen police records show that the phrase he was arrested for in 1986 was actually "Ain't got no how watchamacallit." {{ref|graffiti}}

Related Topics:
Art - Gay - Homophobic - The Advocate - 1986

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In a February 1992 interview with The Advocate, Cobain admitted that he thought he was gay while in high school and stated, "I could be bisexual. If I wouldn't have found Courtney, I probably would have carried on with a bisexual lifestyle." In his journals, he wrote that he was heterosexual, but wished he was gay just "to piss off homophobes" {{ref|gay}}. When Nirvana appeared on Saturday Night Live in January of 1992, Cobain and Novoselic jokingly "kissed" 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 Grohl subsequently repeated the gesture.) The segment was cut from the show on further airings, replaced by the closing credits from the rehearsal taping, and never aired again.

Related Topics:
1992 - Journals - Saturday Night Live - Kiss - Grohl

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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, largely chosen for the coincidental ellipsis of his name.

Related Topics:
Washington - Pacific Northwest - Punk rock - The Melvins - Tattoo - Olympia, Washington - K Records

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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 utilised 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 called 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.

Related Topics:
Literary - S.E. Hinton - William S. Burroughs - Cut-up technique - Philosophy - SCUM Manifesto - Valerie Solanas - The Dharma Bums - Jack Kerouac - Perfume - Patrick Süskind - Samuel Beckett - Charles Bukowski - Jon Savage - Camille Paglia

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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 snuck 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 Magazine, bandmate Krist Novoselic claimed that Kurt 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.")

Related Topics:
Wishkah River - Something In The Way - Guitar World Magazine - Krist Novoselic

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