Kurt Cobain was the last great rock star. An icon to millions, his musical influence as the mastermind behind Nirvana still resonates today, ten years after his suicide.

He never sold out. He was a defiant, dignified but bleak figure who wrote some of rock's most enduring masterpieces which smell as fresh now as they did in the early Nineties.

When the 27-year-old heroin addict placed a shotgun to his head and pulled the trigger at his seattle home on April 5, 1994, one of America's greatest talents was snuffed out.

It was the day I was meant to see the band live at London's Brixton Academy. I'm not sure why but I skipped the refund despite being skint at the time and kept the ticket. There's one on eBay at the moment for $1000.

To be honest you never quite had the feeling he'd be strutting his stuff Jagger-style at 60 but his death was one of rock's most devastating moments nonetheless.

Cobain was a desolate anti-hero who snarled for a disenchanted generation. Hunched uncomfortably over his left-handed guitar with dishevelled hair, his voice and lyrics embodied angst, pain, anger, depression and the despair of drug addiction.

It was music parents hated and rejected - the true spirit of rock 'n' roll, something amiss today in an era when many fathers and sons seem to share tastes and go to the same gigs.

Cobain was rather unfairly christened the godfather of that horrible word grunge but this does him a disservice. He was more than that - a truly gifted songwriter whose legacy must not be underestimated.

If you think I'm exaggerating, then I defy you to listen to Smells Like Teen Spirit (named after a deoderant, incase you didn't know, and with one of the most memorable intros of all time), Come As You Are (with the line "and I swear that I don't have a gun"), Lithium and Heart Shaped Box and fail to recognise his genius.

These songs captured a moment in time and they exploded on to a musical wasteland, changing its landscape forever.

If you dont believe me, then look at the fashion movement the band inspired, not to mention other groups.

Even Paul McCartney tried to hitch on to the bandwagon and said if he could have been in any other group but The Beatles it would have been Nirvana.

Look how many magazine covers Kurt's face has graced over thast few weeks. If you're over 40 then you'll probably disagree but the name Cobain slips in easily alongside Lennon, Presley, Gaye and Marley.

He, along with drummer Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic, opened doors of alternative music and thrust it into the mainstream.

Do you really think The White Stripes, Radiohead and Coldplay would exist if there hadn't been a Nirvana? Not to mention Grohl's Foo Fighters and the nu-metal movement, of course. Just as punk had sparked a popular culture revolution 14 years earlier, so Nirvan'a raw punk-metal rage wiped out the bland pop and heavy metal cheese which dominated the American and British Charts.

Nevermind was arguably the album that defined the Nineties. Even its sleeve - an underwater baby being lured by a dollar bill - said classic.

It knocked Michael Jackson off the No1 spot in America and was a shot in the arm, for want of a better phrase, for a new generation and went on to sell 12 million copies.

Cabain's songs still sound bitter, aggressive and relevant. Never will I forget first hearing Smells Like Teen Spirit - and then playing it another 20 times in a row. It is one of those "f*** me" records, a wake-up call that reminds you how great music can be.

The band's MTV Unplugged gig in New York was a seminal moment, too, and one of the most poignant and accomplised live performances you'll ever see or hear.

That is why Cobain's memory has lived on for so long. Sure, premature death is a great career move and he even quoted Neil Young's Lyric "It is better to burn out than to fade away" in his suicide note. But alive or dead, his songs would have stood the test of time, no question.

He broke out of smalltown America but was never comfortable with fame and fortune. Growing up in the Pacific North west backwater logging town of Aberdeen, he was prescribed Ritalin aged five and his parents split three years later. Two of his uncles commited suicide.

He scrawled "I Hate Mom. I Hate Dad. Dad Hates Mom, it simply makes you want to be sad" on his bedroom wall. His mother thretened his stepfather with a gun and then threw the family's weapons into a river. A teenage Cobain fished them out and sold them to buy his first amplifier. You could say his future was mapped out.

But conspiracy theories still rage about his death.

Some claim modern day Yoko Ono and former groupie and heroin addict Courtney Love - mother of their daughter Frances Bean - had her husband killed because he was about to divorce her.

No fingerprints were found on the gun. The apparent suicide note appeared to feature several paragraphs of someone else's handwriting.

It's easy to be melodramatic when writing about the dead and assessing their influence but Kurt Cobain was a rock martyr who really did revolutionise music. He retained his integrity and never gave in to commercialism.

Success came on his own terms but he was haunted by his upbringing and turned to herion to ease the pain of an undiagnosed stomach complaint which tormented him for years.

If you dont own a Nirvana record then you could do worse than pop out and invest in a copy of Nevermind today. It might change your life a bit.

You'll realise Kurt Cobain does live on through his music - music than Anne Robinson once described as "horrible". And that's good enough for me.

back to top