Nirvana Biography
Nirvana Biography
In Aberdeen Washington, about 150 miles from Seattle, Kurt Cobain and Krist Novoselic met. They were both tired of the metal music that was ruling the charts, and their love for groups like Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin got them to be close friends. Kurt and Krist dropped out of high school just weeks before graduating. Kurt began playing drums for various bands such as Fecal Matter. After the addition of a drummer by the name of Chad Channing, and Kurt had moved from the drums to vocals and guitar, Nirvana was born.
They came out to the Seattle club scene and slowly began to reveal their mixed style of indie rock and what was to become known as grunge. Habitual instrument trashing accompanied their shows and they began to develop a following.
In 1988, while working with Sub Pop records, Nirvana released the EP "Love Buzz". It wasn't until the release of Bleach, their debut in 1989, that they had made their mark. The album sold 35,000 copies. After this, Chad and Jason left. Kurt went back to playing guitar while he sang, and Dave Grohl filled the empty seat of Chad. The final piece fell into place when Nirvana decided on their new record label: DGC, a smaller branch of Geffen.
With their new label, Nirvana released their second album, Nevermind, in 1991. It topped all kinds of records and quickly grabbed the high spots on the Billboard charts from none other than Michael Jackson. Nevermind featured a song similar to Boston's "More Than a Feeling". The song, "Smells Like Teen Spirit", became known as an anthem for teenagers and is considered one of the best singles and music videos ever. At this time, alternative music was in and metal was out. Overnight, bands like Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, ad Alice in Chains thundered the charts, and the 80s "Glam Gods", Poison, Warrant, and Motley Crue were hardly heard of.
Nevermind went triple platitum, but something was wrong. The exact people that Kurt despised and sang against in the song "In Bloom" were now buying Nirvana albums. This deeply bothered Kurt and he became frustrated as his message had been completely misunderstood. To add to his psychological problems, physical problems were also beginning to complicate his life. He suffered from extreme insomnia, depression, and constant horrible stomach problems. To relieve the pain, he sank deeper into substance abuse.
Kurt Cobain married Courtney Love, the leader of the band Hole, in February of 1992. They were both drug addicts, but as soon as Courtney discovered that she was pregnant, she stopped using. When the public heard the news of Love's pregnancy, rumors flew about whether she had used heroin during her pregnancy. Despite what supermarket tabloids told people, Frances Bean Cobain was born a healthy baby girl on August 18, 1992. After she was born, US magazine continued the story on Courtney's drug use and this forced Child Welfare to take Frances from her parents. The while thing was sorted out soon enough when Kurt went into rehab.
Nirvana played at the MTV Music Awards, won practically every award, and were beated down with controversey for their song "Rape Me".
In 1993, Kurt went back to using heroin and Courtney called the police one time when Kurt threatened to commit suicide.
"In Utero", released in 1993, was a #1 hit in the United States and the United Kingdom. Nirvana performed on the TV show "MTV Unplugged" with one of Kurt's favorite bands, the Meat Puppets. During the small concert, Nirvana played a few of their own hit singles, and covers of songs from a few other bands, including the Meat Puppets, the Vaselines, and David Bowie.
After the end of their tour in 1994, the band had all but broken up. Cobain's mental health deteriorated and he made several more threats to commit suicide. [In many interviews taken with Kurt Cobain at this time, he said he was the happiest he had ever been. He then said that his stomach problems were slowly going away and he was staying away from drugs.] In April 1994, Kurt persuaded a friend, Dylan Carlson, to buy a shotgun because he was banned from buying any weapons after his suicide attempts.
Suffering from drug addiction and manic depression, Kurt had become even more suicidal, Though his management and label were able to hide most of his problems from the public until April 8, 1994. Early that morning, a man from the electic company came by the Cobain's cottage home [He was there to see about installinga security system.] and saw someone lying on the floor through the window. He said he saw what he thought to be a mannequin in the middle of the floor until he took a closer look and realized that it was a person. The man called the police who broke down the door and found Kurt dead of a gunshot would, and a note, addressed to Boddah [Kurt's imaginary friend from childhood], Courtney, and Frances Bean, written in red ink, on a nearby counter.
Suspicions arose that perhaps Kurt hadn't killed himself. Many believe that he was murdered and it was made to look like a suicide. A few days after Kurt's body was found, Hole released an album entitled "Live Through This". Courtney was automatically accused of killing her husband. Kurt's death is still being called a suicide, although most of his fans continue to believe otherwise.
Following Kurt's death, Dave Grohl formed the Foo Fighters, who released their debut album in the summer of 1995, and Krist Novoselic formed the trio Sweet 75, who released their debut in the spring of 1997. Although the remaining Nirvana members have moved on and created new bands, Nirvana's popuarity and success has continued to exceed anything that wither of their new bands have released, and Nirvana has kept it's name as one of the greatest bands of all time.
If you would like to read more about the Kurt Cobain suicide/murder controversey, please visit the 2 following websites:
Cobain Murder Investigation This page was created by Tom Grant, the private investigator that Courtney Love hired to find Kurt while he was missing. Tom Grant believes that Kurt's death was not the result of a suicide and that there was other foul play involved.