Meeting the real Kurt Cobain

As a kid I never really listened to Nirvana until I was 16 and it was years after the suicide of lead singer Kurt Cobain. I knew of them of course and I was a huge fan of the Weird Al Yankovic song ‘Smells like Nirvana’, but when it actually came to listening to their music I never did at first. 

Then Cobain committed suicide and threre was a ripple effect felt around the world. You see not long after his death there was a young teen boy (who was probably my age or a year or two older) who committed suicide by shooting him self in Edmonton. I don’t remember the details exactly but I do remember Nirvana being blamed. The kid left his CD player on repeat playing Nirvana when his body was discovered. They said he was imitating Cobain, they said Nirvanas depressing lyrics made him depressed, and no other children should listen to Cobain... and my parents bought into the anti-Nirvana propaganda. 

I’m sorry that those parents who lost their son to suicide but to blame Nirvana is ridiculous. It’s like when Fredrick Wortham blamed comic books for juvenile delinquency in the 1950’s...kids will be delinquent with or without comic books. Like wise kids have committed suicide long before Nirvana ever showed up on the Pop charts. But it’s always easier to blame someone else than it is to accept the fact your kid wasn’t perfect and had mental health issues. 

So it was a few years later when I was 16 when my cousin Tyler introduced me to Nirvana and 22 years later I am still a fan. In fact when I bought my vinyl record player last year the first record I bought was the best of Nirvana 

So I recently watched the documentary ‘Cobain Montage of Heck’. It was really well done and definitely delves into the minds eye of Kurt Cobain. Yes he was an addict but there was more to it than that. My dad always said to me “Never judge a person unless you’ve walked a mile in their shoes”. Cobain was a troubled person with real problems and like a lot of people turned to drugs as a form of self medicating. Sadly he couldn’t beat his demons but he did leave behind a legacy of great music that will be enjoyed for generations to come. He did for alternative music what Elvis Presley did for rock and roll. It’s hard to believe he was only 27 years old when he passed. I truly hope he found peace in death that he couldn’t find in life. 

If your a Nirvana fan you’ll like the documentary. 

See you next time