Interview
The
interview you are about to read transpired late on the evening of
Thursday, July 22, 1993, arranged as part of Nirvana's U.K. press
campaign for the then soon-to-be released In Utero (DGC)
Death
According
to the police reports no legible fingerprints were found on the gun cartridge,
nor on the pen used to write the note. And mysteriously, there were no prints on
the shotgun itself, except where Cobain's hand gripped it in death."
Blog
I met Kurt in 1986 during a telephone call. I was introduced to him by
Andrew Wood. Kurt and I continued to talk on the telephone until the
week he died in 1994. I started a blog to journal my memories of our
shared conversations.
Nirvana
Kurt
Cobain and Krist Novoselic met in 1984. Both were fans of The Melvins, and often
frequented the band's practice space. After a couple of false starts at forming
their own band, the duo recruited drummer Aaron Burckhard, creating the first
incarnation of what would eventually become Nirvana. Cobain later described the
sound of the band when they first started as "a Gang of Four and Scratch Acid
ripoff." Within a few months, Burckhard was fired from the band. He was
temporarily replaced by Dale Crover of The Melvins, who played on the band's
first demos. Dave Foster then began a brief tenure as the band's drummer.
During its initial months, the band went through a series of names, including
Skid Row, Pen Cap Chew, and Ted Ed Fred. The band finally settled on Nirvana in
early 1988, playing their first show under the name that March. A couple of
months later, the band finally settled on a drummer, Chad Channing.
Nirvana's first official release was the single "Love Buzz/Big Cheese" in 1988.
In 1989, the band released its first album, Bleach, on Sub Pop Records. The
record had a limited first pressing of 1000 white vinyl records that were sold
at the Lamefest in Seattle on August 8, 1989. Bleach was highly influenced by
The Melvins, by the heavy dirge-rock of Mudhoney, and by the 70s rock of Black
Sabbath and Led Zeppelin. Novoselic noted in a 2001 interview with Rolling Stone
that the band had played a tape in their van while on tour that had an album by
The Smithereens on one side and an album by the black metal band Celtic Frost on
the other, and noted that the combination probably played an influence as well.
Bleach became a favorite of college radio stations nationally, but gave few
hints of where the band would find itself two years later.
Grunge (sometimes referred to as the Seattle Sound) is a subgenre of
alternative rock that emerged during the mid-1980s in the American state of
Washington, particularly in the Seattle area.
Controversy: Advocate
It's 4 o'clock on a cold Seattle afternoon, and Kurt Cobain, the
lyricist-guitarist-lead singer of Nirvana, is sitting in a downtown hotel
room, playing with his 5-month-old daughter, Frances, while his wife,
Courtney Love-lead singer of her own band, Hole-applies her makeup. At the
moment, the Cobains (including the baby) are on the cover of Spin
magazine-which has named Nirvana as Artist of the Year-and the band's new
album, Incesticide, is due out within the week. The Nirvana media machine
should be in high gear.
Murder or Suicide?
Kurt's grandfather Leland Cobain, 80, is plagued by the suspicion
that Kurt didn't kill himself. "I think he was murdered," he says. (In
fact, conspiracy theories have spread over the years, but the Seattle
police say the case is closed.)
"It was pretty sad,"
Leland Cobain
says. "I didn't believe it. I couldn't
believe it was suicide. Still don't."
