Kurt Cobain's music group. Kurt Cobain - biography, photos, songs, personal life, albums, height, weight

Greetings to guests and regular readers of the site website. This short biography is dedicated to the songwriter, musical performer, and “voice of Generation X.” Kurt Donald Cobain born February 20, 1967 in Aberdeen, Washington.

This was the first child of a housewife and an auto mechanic; only three years later the boy had a younger sister.

Cobain's family consisted of creative people - his grandmother was a professional artist, one uncle performed in a musical group, another was a tenor, and his aunt played the guitar. Already at the age of two, Kurt Cobain performed the works of the Beatles, and at the age of 4 he wrote his own song about a trip to the park.

At the age of 7, the boy was given a drum to develop his talents. At the same age, Kurt's parents divorced, which negatively affected the child's mental state.

At first he lived with his mother, but not finding mutual understanding with her 22-year-old partner, he moved in with his father.

Cobain also did not get along with his stepmother, so he began to be raised first by his grandfather and grandmother on his father’s side, and then by his mother’s relatives. Fourteen-year-old Kurt gives up playing the drums and learns guitar.

Then he had a dream of creating a punk band. After finishing school, the young man does not agree to go to art college, his mother gives him an ultimatum - go to work or leave home. Cobain shows his rebellion and leads a nomadic lifestyle, once even spending 8 days in prison for drinking alcohol and trespassing on someone else's territory.

At the age of 18, Kurt Cobain created the group "Fecal Matter". It only existed for one year, without even releasing a disc. With the hope of realizing his musical abilities, Cobain distributes a demo recording of his first band; one of his friends, Krist Novoselic, listens to it.

Together they form a new project consisting of three participants. After many name changes they settled on "Nirvana". In 1988 Their first release comes out, and next year the musicians release an entire album, "Bleach".

After 2 years, the second solo album is released - "Nevermind", one of the compositions of which becomes an MTV hit.

After this album, Kurt Cobain is called the voice of a generation. The soloist is oppressed by such wide popularity, because he himself considered his work for the more elite.

Therefore, Cobain makes his next works deliberately heavier and darker. However, they also deserve recognition and high positions in music ratings.

05.04.1994

Kurt Cobain
Kurt Donald Cobain

American Singer

Rock musician

guitar player

Kurt Cobain was born on February 20, 1967 in Aberdeen, Washington, USA. He is best known as the lead singer of the band Nirvana. The melodic rock songs performed by Kurt as part of the Nirvana group combined punk and pop styles.

The group managed to sell millions of albums in the early 1990s. Their song “Smells Like Teen Spirit” became a real anthem in 1991, staying at the top of the charts for a long time. The song also helped improve grunge rock's position relative to the pop music of Michael Jackson. We can say that after this Seattle, located near the city of Aberdeen, was put on the musical map of America.

Then such albums as “Bleach”, “Nevermind”, “In Utero” were released. For a while, Nirvana was the hottest band in the world. However, fame caused Kurt inconvenience and was his tempter.

In 1992, Kurt married actress Courtney Love. In 1992, their daughter Frances Bean was born. Soon a drug problem arose in Cobain's life.

Kurt Cobain died on April 5, 1994; according to one version, he committed suicide by shooting himself in the mouth; there is a version of intentional murder. After cremation, some of Cobain's ashes were scattered over the Wishka River in his hometown of Aberdeen, and Courtney kept some for herself. An unofficial place of tribute to the singer is a memorial bench in Viretta Park, located near Cobain's last home in Seattle. The greenhouse above the garage where Kurt's body was found was demolished in 1997 and the house itself was sold.

Some fans of the singer continue to believe that he was killed. However, a suicide note was found near Kurt's body. The homicide investigator determined that the singer shot himself. There are still fans who continue to claim that Cobain's death was faked.

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Kurt Donald Cobain. Born February 20, 1967 - died April 5, 1994. Songwriter, musician and artist, best known as the vocalist and guitarist of the North American rock band Nirvana.

Kurt Donald Cobain was born on February 20, 1967 at Grays Harbor Hospital in Aberdeen, Washington, the son of housewife Wendy Elizabeth (maiden name Fradenburg) and auto mechanic Donald Leland Cobain. Cobain's ancestry included Irish, English, Scottish and German roots. Cobain's Irish ancestors migrated in 1875 from Northern Ireland's County Tyrone to Cornwall, Ontario, Canada, and then to Washington DC. Cobain has a younger sister, Kimberly, who was born on April 24, 1970.

Kurt grew up in a musical family: his maternal uncle, Chuck Fradenburg, performed with a group called The Beachcombers, his aunt Mary Earle played guitar in various local bands, his great-uncle Delbert had a career as a tenor and appeared in the film King of Jazz. Jazz) 1930. He showed an interest in music quite early: according to his relatives, already at the age of two he was happily singing The Beatles songs. At age four, he wrote his first song about a trip to the local park. At the age of seven, he received a drum kit from Mary Earl as a gift. In addition to his ability for music, he also showed himself to be a talented little artist. His grandmother, a professional artist, encouraged him in this.

For some time the boy lived with his mother, but he did not have a good relationship with her new friend, 22-year-old Mike Medak, and he moved to his father in Montesano. Donald soon married Jenny Westby, who had two children, Mindy and James. In January 1979, Jenny gave birth to another child, Chad, Kurt's half-brother. But Kurt also didn’t get along with Jenny, and so he had to leave his father - the boy lived either with Leland and Iris, Donald’s parents, or with relatives on his mother’s side.

At the age of 14, Kurt gave up playing drums and began learning to play the guitar that Uncle Chuck gave him for his birthday. Warren Mason, a member of The Beachcombers, became his first teacher. Around the same time, Kurt became interested in punk after reading an article about the Sex Pistols in Creem magazine. It was almost impossible to buy their records in Aberdeen, so he had a rather vague idea of ​​what such music should sound like (by his own definition - “three chords and a lot of screaming”), but in his heart Kurt was already fired up with the idea of ​​​​creating a punk band. He soon met members of the Aberdeen band Melvins, who played music combining elements of punk and hard rock (later this style was called “grunge”). Chris Novoselic also came there, as a result of which they became friends.

In 1984, Wendy Cobain married Pat O'Connor, an alcoholic dock worker who once broke Wendy's arm. Kurt returned to his mother's house, but his relationship with his family was not going well. After graduating from school, I decided not to go to art college; His mother gave him a choice - either he goes to work or leaves home. He had to leave. Almost the entire subsequent time, Kurt lived with his friends, moving from house to house every day. Often he had to sleep in the courtyards of friends’ houses, and spent the rest of the time in the library, “waiting for the end of the day.” According to Kurt, he lived under the Wishka River bridge for some time, which inspired him to write the song “Something in the Way.” Later, he still had to get a job. On May 18, 1986, Kurt was arrested for trespassing and drinking alcohol and was jailed for 8 days.

In 1985, Kurt formed a group called Fecal Matter; it consisted of bass guitarist Dale Crover, drummer Greg Hokanson and Cobain himself - vocalist and guitarist. About a year later, Fecal Matter disbanded without releasing a single disc; after that, Kurt began distributing the demo tape Fecal Matter among his friends - he wanted to create a new group. One of the tapes went to Krist Novoselic, a friend of Kurt's. For a while he seemed to have forgotten about it, but a few months later he unexpectedly started a conversation with Cobain about how they should organize a rock band (he listened to the recording and liked the material). The newly formed team (which soon included a third member, drummer Chad Channing) changed several names: “Skid Row”, “Ted Ed Fred”, “Bliss”, “Pen Cap Chew” - but in the end “Nirvana” was chosen. "I was looking for a name that was pretty or nice," Cobain explained. In 1988, the group’s first single, “Love Buzz/Big Cheese,” was released, and the following year, Nirvana’s debut album, Bleach, went on sale.

In 1991, Nirvana's second album, Nevermind, was released, which became an unexpected breakthrough for the group into the mainstream. The single "Smells Like Teen Spirit", to everyone's surprise, became a hit on MTV (although "Lithium" was originally supposed to be the lead single from the record). Nirvana's sudden success on the international stage brought public attention to the Seattle grunge scene and spawned a wave of imitators. The media called Nirvana the “flagship of generation X,” and Cobain himself the “voice of the generation.” Cobain himself felt discomfort from the unexpected popularity: he saw himself primarily as a representative of the independent rock scene, and he was irritated by the fact that he had become an idol of the masses. He deliberately made the band's next album, In Utero, much heavier and darker in order to scare off the general listener and proclaim Nirvana's return to its “independent” roots (the album was produced by Steve Albini, leader of the noise rock band Big Black). However, the album, although not as successful as Nevermind, was still popular with listeners and reached high places in the charts.

Even though Nirvana was an "apolitical" group and did not pay as much attention to social issues as many punk bands did, Cobain nevertheless used his fame to convey his ideas to the public. He was an active defender of the rights of women and sexual minorities and supported pro-choice (despite the fact that he personally admired motherhood and women-mothers), as a result of which he repeatedly received threats against him from militant pro-lifers. The liner notes for Incesticide included the following words: “If any of you hate homosexuals, people of color, or women for any reason, please do us a favor and go fuck yourself and leave us alone! Don't come to our concerts and don't buy our albums."

Family life:

Kurt Cobain and his future wife met in 1990 at a concert in a Portland club, where both were performing with their own bands. Courtney, who, according to her, saw Nirvana at a concert in 1989 and even then drew attention to Cobain, immediately showed interest in him, but Kurt was evasive. He later explained: “I wanted to be single for another year, but I realized that I was really crazy about Courtney, and it was difficult to stay away from her for so many months.” In 1991, having learned from Dave Grohl that Cobain had a keen interest in her, Courtney began to “stalk” him again. They began an affair. In 1992, Love discovered that she was expecting Cobain's child, and on February 24, 1992, their wedding ceremony took place on a Hawaiian beach in Waikiki. Courtney was wearing a dress that once belonged to actress Frances Farmer, whom both newlyweds admired, and Kurt was wearing pajamas - “because he was too lazy to put on a suit.”

Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love's daughter, Frances Bean Cobain, was born on August 18, 1992. She got her name from Frances McKee, the vocalist of Cobain's favorite Scottish twee pop group, The Vaselines. Shortly before the girl's birth, Courtney's infamous interview with Lynn Hirshberg from Vanity Fair took place: in it, Courtney said that she had been using heroin for some time during pregnancy, not yet knowing that she was having a child. Hirshberg, however, made it sound like Love continued to use drugs after she found out she was pregnant and expressed her "concern" about what was happening. Courtney said that the journalist had distorted her words, but she insisted that she had the recordings. The Cobains did not immediately realize that because of this article a huge stain was falling on their reputation. Soon after Frances was born, they had to deal with law enforcement agencies - the Los Angeles Department of Children's Services opened a case against them to deprive the spouses of parental rights, based precisely on this publication. The trial lasted several months, as a result, the Cobains were still allowed to raise their daughter on their own, but they were required to undergo regular drug tests. Kurt was deeply offended by what was happening, believing that a real war was going on against him and his wife, and compared himself with Frances Farmer, whom many considered a victim of a conspiracy (in 1942, the actress, who had visited the USSR several years earlier and was suspected of communist sympathies, was forcibly hospitalized with manic-depressive psychosis and subjected to a lobotomy). The following year's album, In Utero, featured a number of caustic references to the Hirshberg article scandal and the press witch hunt against Courtney Love.

On April 8, 1994, an electrician named Gary Smith arrived at the Cobains' home at 171 Lake Washington Blvd East in Seattle at 8:30 a.m. to install a security system. Smith called the house several times, but no one answered the door. Then he noticed a Volvo car parked in the garage next to the house, and decided that the owners of the house were probably in the garage or greenhouse, which was located directly above the garage. Smith checked the garage, then walked up the stairs to the greenhouse. Through the glass door of the greenhouse, Smith noticed the body and assumed that someone was sleeping, however, upon closer inspection, he saw blood near the left ear and a gun lying across the body. This is how Kurt Cobain was discovered. At 8:45 a.m., Gary Smith called the police and the local radio station. Kurt left a suicide note, written in red pen.

The protocol for the inspection of the scene of the incident was drawn up formally, without an in-depth analysis of the details. According to one version of the investigation, Cobain injected himself with a dose of heroin that was incompatible with life and shot himself in the head with a gun. Criminologists also concluded that Kurt died on April 5 and his dead body lay in the house for three days. There is also an assumption about the intentional murder of Kurt. Courtney Love was unofficially included in the list of suspects.

After cremation, some of Cobain's ashes were scattered over the River Wishka in his native Aberdeen, and some were kept by Courtney. An unofficial place of tribute to the singer is a memorial bench in Viretta Park, located near Cobain's last home in Seattle. The greenhouse above the garage where Kurt's body was found was demolished in 1997 and the house itself was sold.

Kurt Cobain holds the record for musicians who earned more after death than during their lifetime. As of 2011, the copyright holders of his work earned over $800 million.

On April 5, 2011, a monument to Kurt Cobain was unveiled in Aberdeen, Washington. The monument is an enlarged concrete copy of one of the musician’s guitars, above which a bronze ribbon with lines from the band’s song “On a Plain” flutters. The opening was attended by Nirvana's first drummer Aaron Burkhardt and Kurt's grandfather Leland Cobain, with whom Kurt had a very warm relationship.

A Kurt Cobain museum opened in Seattle, displaying his manuscripts, guitars, photographs, etc.

On July 27, 2011, in Aberdeen, Washington, the City Council wanted to name a bridge after Cobain, but Aberdeen officials decided against it due to his dislike of the city and its people.

In September 2013, the house where Kurt Cobain grew up was put up for sale. The property was previously valued at $67,000, but the musician’s mother, Wendy O’Connor, set the price for it at $500,000. The musician’s relatives say they are ready to consider proposals for partnership to make a museum in the house. According to them, the names of his favorite bands are still stenciled on the walls in Kurt's room. “We decided to sell the house to create Kurt’s legacy,” the musician’s sister Kim Cobain told the agency. - Of course, we have mixed feelings, because we all loved this house very much, many wonderful memories are associated with it. But our family left Washington State a long time ago, and we feel it’s time to leave home.” The house was built in 1923. The Cobains bought it in 1969, when Kurt was two years old. He lived in this house until his late teens: until the age of nine - with both parents, and after their divorce - with his mother.

Kurt Cobain is an American rock musician and singer, songwriter, artist, lead singer of the cult rock band Nirvana. During his lifetime, he became a symbol of his generation, and Nirvana’s style influenced many now famous musicians.

Childhood and family

Kurt Cobain (Kurt Donald Cobain) was born on February 20, 1967 in Aberdeen, Washington, into a poor family of auto mechanic Donald Leland and housewife Wendy Elizabeth. Kurt had Scottish, English, Irish, German and French roots. In 1970, the boy had a sister, Kim (Kimberly).

According to relatives, at the age of two, Kurt showed an aptitude for music - even then he was singing The Beatles songs with all his might. Cobain later discovered the music of rock legends - AC/DC, Aerosmith, Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Queen and Kiss.

He often went to rehearsals with his aunt and uncle, who performed in a country ensemble. At age seven, Aunt Marie Earl gave Kurt a Mickey Mouse drum kit.

When the boy was only 9 years old, his parents divorced. This had a very strong effect on him - he became gloomy and withdrawn, it seemed to him that the old world had collapsed before his eyes.

Cobain later admitted: “I was ashamed of my parents back then. Because of their divorce, I could not communicate normally with my classmates. I really wanted to have an ordinary complete family with a mother and father. I wanted that security and protection from them, and because I didn’t have that, I was angry at my parents for years.”

For some time, Kurt lived with his mother, but then moved in with his father. At this time, Kurt's uncle, whom the boy loved very much, committed suicide. Soon his father remarried, but Kurt was unable to get along with his stepmother and left his father. Then he began to live either with Donald’s parents or with relatives on his mother’s side.

At the age of 14, Kurt began learning to play the guitar. His first teacher was Warren Mason, a musician from the band The Beachcombers. Soon Kurt met members of the Aberdeen band Melvins. It was then that Cobain became interested in punk rock - his tastes were influenced by the famous British Sex Pistols, whose music he did not even hear at first, but only read about it in magazines. He was very interested in the description of the Sex Pistols' style as "little music and a lot of screaming", and he wanted to create something similar himself.

After graduating from school, Kurt wandered around a little, but then he finally got a job - for some time he worked as a cleaner in the hospital where he was born. On May 18, 1986, Kurt was arrested for trespassing and drinking alcohol. He served eight days in jail.

Birth of Nirvana

In 1985, Kurt Cobain formed the band Fecal Matter, which included bassist Dale Crover, drummer Greg Hokanson, and Kurt Cobain himself as vocalist and guitarist. A year later the team broke up. Kurt wanted to start a new band, so he started distributing the demo tape Fecal Matter. Guitarist Chris Novoselic, a friend of Kurt's, heard the recording.

The new team, which soon included a third member - drummer Aaron Burkhardt, changed several names, and as a result the choice was settled on Nirvana. In 1988, the group’s first single, “Love Buzz/Big Cheese,” was released, and in 1989, Nirvana’s first album, “Bleach,” went on sale.

In 1991, Nirvana's second album, Nevermind, appeared and literally hit the masses. This was not expected, and the musicians themselves did not really want it - the hype and admiration of the crowd were not part of the plans of the group defending its independent sound. The album sold 400,000 copies a week - such numbers were undreamed of by their colleagues, Sonic Youth, who collaborated with the same label. In 1992, "Nevermind" moved his album "Dangerous" onto the Billboard 200 chart. Michael Jackson.

Nirvana - "Smells Like Teen Spirit"

The main breakthrough of the album was the song “Smells Like Teen Spirit”, although initially the more melancholic, but no less explosive “Lithium” was planned to be released as the first single.

Cobain later admitted that he hated “Smells Like Teen Spirit” for the countless times he had to perform it in concert. Nevertheless, it was this song that literally became the anthem and protest of generation X, and the subsequent “Ys” and “Zs”. Kurt hated popularity even more - crowds of fans at concerts made him more and more uncomfortable, and the ridicule of connoisseurs of alternative music drove him crazy.

Nirvana - "Lithium"

In 1993, the group’s new album, “In Utero,” was released with the popular songs “Heart-Shaped Box,” “Rape Me,” and “All Apologies.” Despite the fact that Nirvana tried to make the sound heavier in this record, the disc sold well, and the memorable compositions were a success among listeners.

Nirvana was for the most part an apolitical group, but Kurt often used their status to draw attention to issues such as homophobia, sexism, and racism. At some concerts, he staged improvisational performances, shocking the audience.

Nirvana - "About A Girl"

Despite the fact that many consider Nirvana to be the progenitors of the grunge genre, this is not entirely true. Kurt Cobain's band brought this genre into the mainstream of rock music, but its founding fathers can be called Soundgarden, Melvins and The U-Men. “Grunge” in English means “dirt”, “neglect”, “tear”, this style is characterized by dirty guitar sound, sound distortion, “lazy” vocals using wheezing and screaming.

Personal life of Kurt Cobain

Kurt Cobain met Courtney Love around 1989 or 1990 at a concert in Portland, where she also performed with her band. In 1991, Courtney met Kurt again and they began an affair. In 1992, Kurt and Courtney got married on the Hawaiian island of Waikiki. At this time, Love was already pregnant, and on August 18, 1992, she gave birth to a girl Francis Bean Cobain.

Shortly before the birth of her daughter, Courtney mentioned in an interview that she used heroin during pregnancy, but when she learned about her situation, she quit using drugs. She had no idea how such a confession would turn out for her: after the birth of Frances, a case was brought against the Cobains to deprive them of their parental rights. The trial lasted several months, as a result, the Cobains won the case, but were required to undergo regular drug tests. Kurt was deeply hurt by such suspicions, because he was a loving husband and caring father.

Drug addict

Cobain had poor health since childhood. He suffered from chronic bronchitis and severe stomach pain, which doctors were never able to diagnose. From the age of 13, Cobain used marijuana, smoked, took drugs and hallucinogenic drugs such as LSD. He started using heroin in the hope of getting rid of stomach pains, but they only became more frequent, and the drug quickly became an addiction.

On March 4, 1994, in Rome, Cobain nearly died from an overdose of Rohypnol. He took about fifty tablets, which he then washed down with champagne. Courtney found him lying unconscious and called an ambulance. Then Kurt said that it was due to negligence, but many were sure that it was a suicide attempt.

On the 20th of March 1994, Cobain decided to undergo therapy at the Exodus rehabilitation center in California. On March 30, Kurt flew to Los Angeles to begin treatment. However, on April 1, he escaped from the hospital.

Death

On April 8, 1994, at 8:30 a.m., Kurt Cobain was found dead in his home at 171 Lake Washington Blvd East in Seattle. The musician shot himself in the head with a gun, and before that he left a suicide note. According to some assumptions, he took a large dose of heroin before committing suicide.

The Last 48 Hours of Kurt Cobain

There are still mysteries in his death - criminologists also confirmed that the body was found only 3 days later, and Cobain died on April 5. Soon there was even an assumption about Kurt’s murder, and Courtney Love herself was included in the list of suspects, but the official version says “suicide.”

After cremation, some of Cobain's ashes were scattered over the Wishka River in his native Aberdeen, and Courtney kept some for herself. An unofficial place of worship in the memory of the singer is considered to be a memorial bench in Viretta Park, which is located near Cobain’s last home in Seattle. The greenhouse above the garage where Kurt's body was found was demolished in 1997 and the house was sold.

"Last Days" (trailer)

In addition to numerous documentaries about the life and death of Kurt, Gus Van Sant dedicated the film “The Last Days” to him in 2005, in which he starred in the role of the legendary musician Michael Pitt.