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}}.

Marriage

Kurt Cobain first encountered Courtney Love at a concert in 1989. More than a year later, after learning from Dave Grohl that she and Kurt shared mutual crushes, Courtney began pursuing Cobain. After a few weeks of on-again, off-again courtship, the two found themselves together on a regular basis, often bonding through drug use.

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Around the time of Nirvana's 1992 performance on Saturday Night Live, Love discovered that she was pregnant with Cobain's child (Frances Bean Cobain). A few days after the conclusion of Nirvana's Australian tour, on Monday, February 24, 1992, Cobain married Love on Waikiki Beach, Hawaii. On August 18, the couple's daughter, Frances Bean Cobain, was born. The unusual middle name was given to her because Cobain thought she looked like a bean on the first sonogram he saw of her. Her namesake is Frances McKee of The Vaselines, of whom Cobain was a big fan.

Related Topics:
Saturday Night Live - Australia - February 24 - 1992 - Waikiki Beach - Hawaii - August 18 - Frances Bean Cobain - Bean - Sonogram - The Vaselines

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Love was somewhat unpopular with Nirvana fans. Her harshest critics cited Cobain's total devotion to her, combined with what they saw as her domineering personality and inferior musical talent, as evidence that she was merely using him as a vehicle to make herself famous. Critics who compared Cobain to John Lennon were also fond of comparing Love to Yoko Ono. Rumors persist to this day that Cobain wrote most of the songs on Hole's breakthrough album Live Through This. However, except for a rough mix of "Asking for It" that contains Cobain singing backing vocals, there is no evidence to prove the assertion. It is worth noting that, until Nirvana's stratospheric success with Nevermind, both bands had virtually the same commercial stature. In fact, Hole was the more popular band on the club circuit in the months prior to Neverminds release.

Related Topics:
John Lennon - Yoko Ono - Live Through This

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In a 1992 article in Vanity Fair, Love admitted to using heroin while (unknowingly) pregnant, an admission that seriously damaged her public standing. While Cobain and Love's romance had been something of a media attraction before the article was published, they found themselves constantly hounded by tabloid reporters, many wanting to know if Frances was addicted to drugs at birth. The notoriety of the article even resulted in Child Welfare Services launching an investigation into the couple's fitness as parents. The investigation was eventually dismissed, but not without a significant amount of legal wrangling. Love, along with Cobain, claimed that Vanity Fair took her words out of context.

Related Topics:
Vanity Fair - Heroin - Pregnant - Tabloid - Child Welfare Services

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