Kurt Cobain is one of the most prominent personalities of the American rock’n’roll culture, he “has been hailed as the first true rock’n’roll star of the nineties”[1]. His music band Nirvana created a new image of rock music and made the basis for a new music style that is still extremely popular.
Cobain was not only a talented singer and song-writer, but an extraordinary personality devoted to his work and very different from other stars that are willing to sacrifice anything to get success, money or honor.
The suicide he committed was a shock for his fans and rock music industry as a whole. There are many arguments around true reasons of his death: mental disorders, drug addiction or writer’s block. At any rate, he was tired of struggling with all these problems and, as one of his songs says, preferred “Rather Be Dead Than Be Cool”.
Since Kurt was a child, “he told everybody who would listen that he was going to be a “big rock star” one day”[2] and he became one. He was a very talented child and liked drawing, listening to the Beatles songs and playing baseball. He was a very active and sociable boy until his parent’s diverse.
It is quite possible that it was “a first drop” that contributed to his future mental disorders and suicide. In that time, he began taking drugs to overcome his loneliness. At the age of 14, he started playing the guitar and singing.
In 1987, he started his own band Nirvana that changed the face of rock music from heavy metal to grunge literally. In 1991, Nirvana released the shocking album “Nevermind,” “the first time a grunge band had received live national television exposure, “Nevermind” became the № 1 spot on the Billboard charts, becoming the best-selling album in the nation”[3] (2 Heaven). He was in the spotlight of media, he was called a hero and true rock star.
During that time, he increased taking drugs and… he started to make suicide attempts even though, he had fame and great love affair with Courtney Love, “most agree that his periodic heroin use became a full-fledged habit around the time Nevermind was released”[4]
In addition to psychological trauma of his child, writing block and anxiety about too much media attention contributed to his mental instability. His mental problem was serious. According to his biographer Christopher Sandford, “Cobain showed virtually no capacity for power. Easily, led, self-obsessed, over-indulged, he lacked anything resembling an ethical centre. He was incomplete. Cobain was also sick, bipolar disorder resulting in alternate bouts of depression and mania”[5].
It was caused by the feeling that he betrayed his faith as his roots were underground music scene, and after the success of “Nevermind”, he could not make songs as he wanted and could see himself as an icon of Grunge. He was tired of struggling with serious mental problems or stomachache and drug addiction:
“ Cobain’s suicide note would end with the words, “Thank you from the pit of my burning, nauseous stomach”. He blamed “a lot of [his] mental problems” on the fact that he awoke each day “with a better than even chances of feeling dead”[6].
Furthermore, there were other suggestions about what could led Cobain to suicide. One of them is that he had a “suicide gene”, as ““two of Leland’s brothers had killed themselves years earlier, fueling the most common of all the clichés about Kurt’s own fate – that he had somehow inherited the “suiside gene”[7] Love and death Finally, he chose to take his life over lying to himself and his fans.
He committed suicide with a shotgun at his home in Seattle in 1994. Thus, we can see that there were many premises for suicide and one person could hardly cope up with all of them, especially a person that was so talented and extraordinary as Kurt Cobain. According to Malcolm Butt,
“The words “Rock’n’ Roll Suicide” came so easily – and Kurt Cobain’s demise had all the elements. From a coma induced by a tranquilliser-and-champagne cocktail in Rome (now regarded as a first suicide attempt), to the tales of long-term heroin addiction, to the self-pitying note he left behind – it was a sage of self-destruction that made Cobain look like nothing more than a Nineties Sid Vicious”.[8]
Many people of art, who are much subjected to emotions, ended up their lives in suicide. No one can say what were true reasons for their decisions, but one fact is certain, they could not bear pressure of the outside world and found solution in death. Kurt Cobain is one of the most talented personalities of the 20th century.
He made a great contribution to the development of the modern rock music. As the one who led a constant struggle with stomach pain and mental disorders, he tried to find solution in drugs.
His suicide is a consequence of crucial coincidences that impacted his body and soul. No matter what made him commit a suicide, he will always remain in hearts of his fans as an icon of rock music and great person.
Notes
- Malcolm Butt, Kurt Cobain: The Cobain Dossier (New York: Plexus Publishing, 2006), 23.
- Ian Halperin & Max Wallace, Who Killed Kurt Cobain? (Kensington Pub Corp, 1999), 6.
- Max Wallace and Ian Halperin, Love & Death: The Murder of Kurt Cobain (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2004), 44.
- Wallace and Halperin, Love & Death: The Murder of Kurt Cobain, 47.
- Christopher Sandford, Kurt Cobain (New York:Da Capo Press, 2004), 236.
- Ibid., 176.
- Charles R. Cross, Heavier Than Heaven: A Biography of Kurt Cobain (New York: Hyperion Books, 2002), 4.
- Butt, Kurt Cobain: The Cobain Dossier, 8.
Bibliography
Butt, Malcolm. Kurt Cobain: The Cobain Dossier. New York: Plexus Publishing.
Cross, Charles R. Heavier Than Heaven: A Biography of Kurt Cobain. New York: Hyperion Books.
Halperin, Ian & Max Wallace. Who Killed Kurt Cobain? Kensington Pub Corp, 1999.
Sandford, Christopher. Kurt Cobain. New York: Da Capo Press, 2004.
Wallace, Max and Ian Halperin. Love & Death: The Murder of Kurt Cobain. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2004.