Immerse yourself in the world of Kurt Cobain with quotes from the grunge legend, shedding light on his life, thoughts, and music.
Late Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain has been called many things: pivotal, King of Grunge and spokesman for a generation. However, he was also a husband, a dad, a friend, a supporter of the LGBT+ community and a fierce advocate for women (he even wore dresses at shows). But perhaps his singular achievement, along with his band, is changing the music world forever with their album Nevermind.
Released in September 1991, Nevermind combined a basement sound with the slick production only a major label could provide. The first track, “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” became the “anthem of apathetic kids” and “the perfect encapsulation of Generation X angst and ennui” within a few months. The song hit #1 on the Billboard Alternative Songs Chart, #6 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and was Rolling Stone’s #2 song of the year. “It was a zeitgeist moment, you know? It turned people’s heads,” said Butch Vig, who produced the song. “Those records don’t come along very often.”
And it didn’t stop there. Songs like “Come as You Are,” “Lithium,” and “In Bloom” created seismic waves that made the grunge band from Seattle bonafide rock stars. Nevermind hit the top of the Billboard 200 chart in January 1992, replacing the likes of Garth Brooks and Michael Jackson. Even today, the album is still selling: In April 2021, it hit 10 years on the Billboard albums chart, a feat few albums have accomplished. And in June 2021, “Smells Like Teen Spirit” became only the second song from the 1990s to hit a billion streams on Spotify.
After Nevermind, Nirvana released a third and final studio album, In Utero, as well as several live albums, extended plays and compilations. Sadly, Kurt Cobain had a history of mental health issues that were worsened by years of drug and alcohol abuse. He committed suicide by a self-inflicted gunshot wound at the age of 27 in 1994, leaving behind a simple handwritten note that mentioned Neil Young’s quote that it’s “better to burn out than to fade away.”
Cobain was survived by his “goddess of a wife who sweats ambition and empathy,” Courtney Love, and “a daughter who reminds me too much of what I used to be, full of love and joy,” Frances Bean. In 2019, Frances co-curated the “Kurt was here” collection for suicide prevention nonprofit organization The Jed Foundation.
