Warning! This post contains sensitive topics including drug use and is not recommended for sensitive audiences including young children.

Kurt Cobain was the lead singer of the popular rock band Nirvana. He was born February 20, 1967 in Aberdeen, Washington. He grew up in a small logging town and had a pretty rocky family life. His parents separated after years of bickering when he was 9. He lived with his father after his parents split but would visit his mother and his sister on the weekends. Kurt was not fond in the slightest of his step mother Jenny or her two children after his father remarried. During this time of resentment, his uncle, who he had grown close to, gifted him his first guitar. He had already expressed an interest in music and the arts at a young age, but this instrument would spark his musical creativity and ingenious, and also provide a deeply needed source of happiness. During this time, however, he began to experiment with drugs, widening the rift between him and his father.

He left his father's home in 1982 and would find himself living with many different relatives over the next many months. He eventually moved in with his mother and started attending high school in Aberdeen, where he would prove his merits with his artistic ability.

His taste in punk rock would lead him to meeting a local punk band called the Melvins. He would befriend a member of the group named Buzz Osbourne, who would then introduce him to other punk bands, including big names like the Sex Pistols. During his high school life, however, he turned to drinking, a habit his own mother indulged in excessively. During this time, his relationship with his mother would diminish along with that of his step-father. He moved out of his mother's home and lived with friends or would sleep in public places like hospital waiting rooms. He began his criminal record in 1985 when he was caught spray painting graffiti on a building with is friends.

He started his first band in 1985, aptly named "Fecal Matter" with which he recorded a few songs. However he never played any gigs or live shows and the band never took off. 

His criminal record would extend in 1986 when he was discovered by police stumbling through an abandoned building, clearly intoxicated, which he would spend multiple days in jail for.

He then started playing music with new band members, including local drummer Aaron Burckhard and bassist Krist Novoselic, who he knew from Krist's younger brother and a shared interest in the Melvins. Around this time, he met his first real girlfriend Tracy Marander who he would find himself living with in Olympia.

His musical group would become known as Nirvana, with a change in drummer (now Chad Channing). In 1988 they released their first single "Love Buzz" which was released through the "Sub Pop Records" record label. Their debut album "Bleach" was released in 1989 which included Kurt's first real example of quality song writing "About a girl". 

In 1990, Nirvana toured with Sonic Youth, one of Kurt's musical idols. During this tour, they had a friend: Dale Crover on drums since Chad had been booted from the band. After this tour, however, they found their permanent drummer Dave Grohl who would become a well-known and adored member of the band, and eventually a talented song writer in his own right.

In 1991, they signed with Greffen Records and released their second album Nevermind which would push them to the top of the charts. It was in this time that Kurt began to feel the real effects of stardom, sparking a spike in his heroin usage which he had been indulging in since the early 90's, claiming that it was mainly to relieve a chronic stomach pain that had been evidently plaguing him for years.

He was reintroduced to fellow rocker Courtney Love before the release of Nevermind and their relationship began to sprout into what could only be called a dangerous mess. He married Courtney in 1992 and had a daughter named Frances Bean Cobain in august of 1992. However, both parents frequently indulged in heroin and Courtney even admitted to usage during her pregnancy which sparked a vicious legal for custody of their daughter that they eventually won. However the romance was short lived, as Kurt was arrested for assault in 1993 after a physical altercation between him and Courtney over his possession of guns, which were confiscated by the authorities. 

Nirvana's third album "In Utero" was released in 1993 and quickly rose to the top of the album charts. This album contained a song "heart shaped box" that is seemingly about his rocky relationship with Courtney Love.

He grew distant from the band and on break during tour Cobain attempted to overdose on drugs to end his life. He was found by Courtney and rushed to the hospital in coma which he survived.

After returning home to the U.S., Kurt holed himself away in his home, indulging in drugs by himself. He checked into a chemical dependency clinic in Los Angeles in an attempt to go clean, inspired by Courtney trying to go clean herself. However, he checked out after only a few days.

On April 5, 1994, Kurt sadly took his own life after shooting himself through the mouth with a shotgun in the guest house behind his home in Seattle. A suicide note was found along with cigarettes, his wallet, and heroin paraphernalia at the scene. The note addressed his wife, daughter, and his fans. 

At merely 27 years old, Kurt's untimely death was truly tragic and marked a horrific end to a legendary legacy that has left its mark on rock as a genre and music as a whole. He will be missed and his music is still extremely popular to this day for a very good reason. He was a talented musician, songwriter, and his tragic life was something many people were able to relate to.

 

All mentions of music, albums, and any other properties are owned by their respective companies and I have no ownership of. This article is meant only to summarize the life of Kurt Cobain and to inform readers.

Sources:

 http://www.biography.com/peopl...

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm000...