Kurt Cobain was born on the 20th of February 1967 in Aberdeen,
which is located about 120 kilometers Southwest of Seattle in the state
Washington. He grew up in a mid class society and was hyberactive as a
child, as a result he was prescribed a morphine based drug to help him
concentrate in school. The drug often kept him awake until 4 AM in the
morning so he was given sedatives to be able to get some sleep.
Kurt had a happy childhood, until he was seven years old when his parents
got divorced. It was an ordinary divorce, but Kurt got very upset about
it. He became shy and difficult to cope with. The years after the divorce
Kurt moved back and forth from his parents. In the end his parents did not
want anything to do with him so he had to move in at some relatives. This
period of his life also reflected in his lyrics, e.g. in Sliver.
Kurt did not like school, he felt lonely and lost. He liked to paint and
sing, but the other boys were into football and stuff like that. Most of
the girls liked Kurt and he spent much time with them. The boys wanted to
hang out with Kurt to come closer to the girls, but Kurt hated the guts of
those macho boys. Kurt felt more like a girl rather than a boy and has
later told: " I'm a heterosexual....big deal. But if I was a
homosexual, it wouldn't matter either."
Until Kurt was nine years oldhe only listened to The Beatles and The
Monkees, but in 1979 his father joined a record-club and he started to
music like Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, and Kiss. He also started to
listen to British alternative rock like Sex Pistols and The Clash.
20th of February 1981, on Kurt's 14th birthday, he bought his first
guitar. And in the years to follow he tried create his own music style and
started to hang out in the Seattle underground, where he was roadie for a
band called The Melvins. In May 1985, a few weeks before graduation, Kurt
dropped out of school and started to work. He had a few jobs but was never
a success, and he never held on to a job for that long.
Nirvana started their journey in 1986 through Kurt Cobain and Krist
Novaselic. Kurt played the guitar and sang while Krist played bass-guitar.
After a few attempts with some different drummers they were satisfied
until they were introduced to Dave Grohl by the vocalist of the Melvins,
which became the new drummer of Nirvana. They made their first demo in
1988 and it didn't take until their first single was released. Already the
next year, they released their first album,Bleach.
Go back to the band members page
Read the suicide note
