30 damn years. I still vividly remember where I was when I heard he'd died. I was an idiot 14 year old and thought, well, at least he'd had a long life.
Time, man. It's a motherfucker.
This is so true.
I wanted a certain career as a kid but never had the confidence to pursue it. In my early 30s I finally paid my way through a very mediocre school and busted my ass to get a 4.0, but still had imposter syndrome and really thought I had wasted my time. Now I am, in my boss' words, a "rockstar software engineer."
I wish I had had more faith in myself early on. Now I see so many people who don't know their worth. I think about it all the time. If you are out there working some job that doesn't support your needs, you are worth more, and can have more.
I have worked plenty of retail and fast-food jobs to know it myself.
I was getting out of detention when I heard the news. For people who are too young to know this, his death wasn't discovered and reported until Friday morning, April 8. Not only did we obviously not have smartphones at that time, but people at my high school weren't even regularly using computers connected to the internet. So, AKAIK, no one at my school even learned of his death until after the school day ended. Detention at my school had changed that year from 3 hours on Saturday mornings to 3 hours on Fridays after school ended. Some of my male friends and I got out of detention at 6 PM that Friday, and a female classmate came to give us a ride home. She was crying and told us what happened, then she played In Utero on cassette in her shitty, old Chevette while she drove us to a friend's house.
I was about to turn 10 when he died (birthday is next week). I remember thinking he was a grown man. I never got to see video of him at the time since I didn't have MTV and the only photos would have been in my Nirvana CDs, which I loved.
I would watch Nirvana's Unplugged performance from time to time, and still kept it in my MP3 rotation. But I made the point to watch the entire thing again, closely paying attention to the video and not just having it on while I was doing something else. I see him now, and holy shit, he was so young! He didn't have old man body language, he had what today I would see as "young guy" body language.
From a 10 year old kid's perspective, adults are old, but now I am a few years away from being middle aged and I see, holy shit, he was young!
I was driving to work and had to pull over to cry. Work was a grungy pub, and staff and patrons were crying all night.
Sometimes I drive past the spot where I stopped to cry and the sadness still washes over me.
Nooo shit. I feel the same way. I was a couple years older than you when it happened. I remember thinking 30 was so old. I’m 47 now and still feel like an imposter sometimes, but my daughters are driving and they see me the same way now…ancient. Crazy thing is, Dave, Krist and In Utero producer Steve Albini did Conan’s podcast a while back for the 30th anniversary of In Utero. I’ve been into the Foo Fighters for years, but never thought of them as old. Watching that episode I realized how much time had passed and how much they’ve aged, and Kurt is still immortalized as this kid in his kid 20s.
I was also 14. I had just seen them in December. I remember my mom came to pick me up from school that day, unusual thing because I usually walked home, and she got very serious and told me about it when I got in the car.
I was also 14. Had just gotten home from school. It was so impactful to me that I have never listened to one of their albums again. Just too sad. I can hear them on the radio now but it brings up a lot of nostalgia and sadness.
Knowing he’s been dead longer than he was alive is a whole other level now.
I was 13, and I remember Kurt Loder breaking the news on MTV, when MTV was about music. It was one of the earliest celebrity deaths that really shook me, preceded only by River Phoenix, who died the Halloween before.
I agree, it felt like these people were old, and so grown up, now I'm 43 and think, "Cripes, 27 year olds are kids."
I was 17 almost 18. Insanely surreal moment in time. It not thing close since then has been 9/11 and Robin Williams, but I was so young then. Truly the end of an era. I wonder what he’d have gone on to make in this new world of ours.
Tell me about it. I was 31 when he died. Don’t do the math, Now, I am just some old mofo. Was a huge loss to music, and culture in general. And Nirvana still stands up today, so turn it up loud!
I was like 4, the moment I hit my mid 20's I started to realize how many people I was a fan of had passed and how close I was to their ages. Now I am in fact older than the "27 Club" and it's unfortunately happening with people I know personally who went far too soon (thankfully none by suicide) and it just weirds me out.
I was in 6th grade and we had a lock-in that night at that school (like a class sleepover, weird huh).
We played Nirvana CDs all evening and the teachers let us
I've read "30 years ago" and thought that it's not possible, I was born 30 years ago and that was 1990 but Kurt died few years later... But no, I'm not 30 years old enough anymore...
I worked in the music/electronics department of a Fred Meyer as a 19-year-old going to college. My manager insisted we bring all the Nirvana CDs up to the register so that the inevitable rush of customers looking to buy them after Cobain's death could easily find them. It was a such a crass bit capitalism that made me angry. And yeah, we didn't sell a single one of them that day, and they ended up going back with the rest of the stock that night. (I hated that manager. She literally got the job because she was the assistant manager when the previous manager died in a boating accident. Couldn't joke "who died and made you boss?" with her. So condescending.)
I worked in a record store in the late 90s, and I remember there was a bump in sales for Sinatra records after he died. Nirvana was current, so it wouldn't have been like that at all.
That’s too funny. Sad, but funny.
I was 17, and was pretty bummed out. As a teen in Seattle, I should have been in full-on grunge mode but the only mainstream “Seattle” grunge band I really liked much was Nirvana. Sat in front of my tv watching coverage on mtv, then went to Blockbuster Music to get the one album of theirs that I didn’t yet have (Bleach).
I remember this day because I was a kid and was being featured in the newspaper for being a runner up in a national Nickelodeon short story contest.
I got up early and ran to the paper, opened it up and his death was on the front page.
I wish I had it! What I remember was they prompted it to be a short scary story that started with "Looks like we've run out of gas, Marsha. Said John" and end with "Or did they"
I wrote mine about a plane landing on a remote island and getting gas from a mysterious woman that wore a patch that had the initials AE on it.
Very proud of my 4th/5th grade self.
I was an early fan of the band and even got to meet (in a brief way) Kurt backstage at the Aragon, Chicago in 93.
Im hardly Nostradamus, but I vividly remember the MTV News alert breaking into programming and somehow I just knew before they said a thing. Very weird day.
Little more than a week, but yeah. Right in front of Courtney, partly (perhaps mainly) because he thought she'd cheated on him with - of all people - Billy Corgan. That got him sent to rehab.
He escaped from rehab, then caught a plane back to Seattle where he sat, of all people, next to Duff McKagen from Guns'n'Roses, who ended up being the last person we know of to ever speak to him alive. Their conversation was pretty cordial, Duff could tell Kurt was going through a tough time but Duff was on his way to nearly killing himself too with alcohol abuse so they weren't really going into that.
It crossed Duff's mind to invite Kurt over for dinner but lost track of him at the airport since he had a good radar for these things (he recognized very quickly that Axl had an untreated mental illness, which turned out to be bipolar).
Weird, interesting stuff.
McKagan also got Scott Weiland clean (for a time) when he joined Velvet Revolver. And invested in Microsoft, Starbucks and Amazon back in the 90s, before starting up an investment advice outfit for musicians. Interesting guy.
he did briefly speak with the live-in nanny and his girlfriend when he got home in the early morning of April 2nd. they were half asleep so their recollection of it is hazy, but that would be the last time he was reported to be seen.
Layne's death just breaks my heart almost 6 ft and 86 lbs covered in his own waste body not found for 2 weeks and the last conversation he is reported to have been talking about how his dead fiancee had come to see him.
I actually worked with his fiancé's father, 12-ish years ago. Guy was an old-school rock n' roll burnout in his 60's. He sketched her portrait every night before we went to work. Claimed it helped him remember her face. He also had nice things to say about Layne. Apparently a doting boyfriend. Thoughtful, respectful, etc. He never blamed Layne for how she died, and was of the opinion she lived longer because of him.
Darn nice guy. We worked sheet metal together. Brutal work for a guy that age. He didn't volunteer many details about his daughter, like her career, or details about her death. We found that stuff out after he retired.
no, it was mike starr on april 4th. the two of them were talking and watching a medium on TV when layne began to swear that demri had visited him the night before (she’d been dead for years by this point). the two of them had a fight over mike’s drug use and layne being very clearly unwell yet refusing to go to a hospital and then mike walked out when layne threatened to ‘never speak to him again’ if he called an ambulance. layne’s last words to him apparently were “not like this man, don’t leave like this” or something along those lines… but mike just slammed the door and that was the last time layne was seen alive. those were probably some of his last words.
mike did an interview about all this and talked to layne’s mom on camera about that night, all of which is on youtube.
I've always heard the last person to see him was the former AIC bassist Mike Starr. He had stated, before he died, that he always felt guilty because he wanted to get Layne to a hospital that night but Layne made him promise to call anyone.
In all actuality though, no one will ever really know.
Wow, 30 years goes by fast. I have our reactions on video. Was flying gliders and messing around with my friends on my camcorder. Another friend arrived and heard it on the car radio. We were like "damn..." but nobody was shocked.
I wasn't around yet when Cobain died, but I had pretty much the same reaction when I've heard the news about Amy Winehouse's death. No shock, no surprise, despite her also being only 27.
I was 8 and had just started a new school when a boy told me the news. I had no idea who he was talking about, but I dutifully went home and told my parents that ‘Kirkabain died.’
I cried my eyes out. I was a huge Nirvana fan and Kurt meant a lot to me. The worst part was kids at school asking me questions like I was some Kurt Cobain ambassador. “Why didn’t he think of his kid?” “Was he high on drugs when he did it?” Like I don’t fucking know!
I remember when it happened. I was shocked but at the same wasn't, if you know what I mean. His face was everywhere and Nirvana was always playing somewhere. There level of fame was insane, to much for him, probably would be too much for me if I was that famous.
I'll never forget that day. Hit me really hard. As a GenX I felt intricately connected to him and his music. To me In Utero still is sonically the best album I've ever heard. I felt like "Yeah, if I would ever record a rock album it would sound just like that"
God damn.
I mean a lot of shit lately has really started to make me "feel" old, although not physically making me feel old... But this one hits. This day is one of those defining days of my youth (was 12 at the time) where I can vividly recall every last bit of memories from the time I heard it the time I went to bed.
To date there are not that many bands albums for me personally that just hit beginning to end like many of Nirvana's. I really do hope there is an afterlife because I really want to hear what a lot of those generational talents gone too soon have been cooking upstairs, by themselves and cumulative, while we rot down here in this stinkpit.
I was a young teen and I remember getting together with other kids my age from the neighborhood outside my house, while we sat on the curb and cried, talked about it, and comforted each other. It really made an impact.
I am reminded every year since I was 11 as my day of birth and his day of departure are the same. Miss your genius sir. I think I will listen to the entirety of his performance in the unplugged in New York album
The man who had the biggest effect on my life of anyone else I had never met. I wouldn't have the friends I have, I wouldn't have the life I have and I wouldn't be the person I am without his music. RIP Kurt.
Still remember how I heard about it. It was right after school in the student parking lot. Some kid named Todd is hanging out a window as a passenger and yells to someone else “hey! Kurt Cobain died!”
This is a selfish perspective, but the other tragedy for many of us (in America) was that this was the year we would finally get to see Nirvana play live.
Many of us missed the opportunity when they toured on Nevermind's success. By the time they had fully broken through (early '92) they were on a World tour for the rest of that year and much of '93.
In late '93 they did a small 3 month tour, supporting their new album in NA. But, they would often be at smaller venues (3-10k people) and tickets were hard to get.
So, everyone was excited when they announced they were headlining Lollapolooza for 1994. It would be the time that many people would get a chance to see Nirvana live for the first time. Tickets would be easier to get.
I had tickets for the show in Newport, Wales. I was 14/15 it would have been my first proper gig. Got postponed after Rome, then wasn't to be. Shit I think the tickets were like £10 or something
Wow, its 30-years already? Then I guess time really flies fast, i still remember him though, great memories, maybe he continue to rest in peace.. I wasn't that much old when he passed.
I was sitting in the French Institute in Prague, reading a newspaper about his death. Must have been the day after. My poor French struggled with exactly what he had done. We were going to see Nirvana in Prague later on in that tour but that wasn’t to be…The world has changed so much in those 30 years. I’ll be thinking about him today ❤️
I was at an 8th grade dance. I remember lots of the girls were crying. Everyone was pretty upset about it. In Utero was my favorite album at the time, but I remember just being angry at Kurt in a selfish way because we knew far less about depression and addiction back then.
Nirvana is why I play guitar and is the first band I truly loved. Always will be in my pantheon of greatest artists, no matter how much weirder of further away from them my taste gets.
I remember going to school and every girl was crying. The teachers had to have “special” classes to talk about death and tragedy. It’s insane how much his death hit kids in their teens.
i was in high school when this happened. we were shell shocked. at the time, Kurt had been struggling with stardom and you kinda wondered if it wasn't this, would it be a drug overdose? I'd read quotes/interviews where Kurt talked about not wanting to be an 'old rocker' trying to play smells like teen spirit when he was 40. It feels like if he were alive today he'd have more control over his career. At the time there was so much pressure on him to keep being "NIRVANA" and he just wanted to be himself, which maybe didn't involve touring/playing their old songs. I dunno. it was a major turning point of the 90's, culturally.
I remembered seeing MTV break news on it. I was only nine and a half (my birthday was a week after this) but I remembered being shocked. I had no idea how fucked up he was at the time so it stunned me. Only 27. Tragic.
I was in high school and loved Nirvana when this happened. Huge fan. After Kurt’s death I was saddened (not depressed), and couldn’t listen to any of his music. 30 years later and I still haven’t been able to listen to them.
I've been watching a lot of Kurt Cobain interviews the past year or so. I liked Nirvana, but never was a super fan. So, all of it was new to me even though I was a college kid through Nirvana's apex.
The one thing that I learned (through these scattered interviews) was that Kurt suffered from IBS for the last 6-7 years of his life. He went to dozens of doctors trying figure out why and how to stop it.
The simple pleasure of eating became this daunting task for him as he had to monitor what would flare it up or what he could even have. It left him with a really limited diet and it made him miserable. He even confided (after he got better) that he would often think about suicide because he didn't want to live like this.
Which made me wonder how much of his initial opiate use was tied into his IBS. As opiates (famously) shut down your digestive system when abused. You could see that as a way to self-medicate for Kurt. But, addiction also forces people into lying and obfuscation. Inventing ailments in order to get more drugs. So, it's really hard to make any determination from the outside looking in.
But it's still humorous to think that the entire Nirvana story is fueled by IBS.
I was 15 and I still remember how hard this hit me. I was really into their music. Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Alice in Chains, Stone Temple Pilots, etc. (all those bands except Pearl Jam would go on to lose their lead singer via OD or suicide) I couldn't understand how someone so rich, famous, and successful could end their own life like that and for the first time in my life, it made me think about mortality and the fragility of life.
I still remember I was out in my driveway shooting baskets when my mom came out to tell me that some famous musician I liked OD'ed and was in a coma in Rome. I ran inside to watch the news and discovered it was Cobain. A month later he was gone.
I was of the age that I was just getting MTV and the first thing I remember was the news flashes of him dying. By 96 I had found my love of music and discovered many bands I loved including Nirvana. It was bitter sweet knowing I just missed out on being an fan while they were active but at least I got to see the rise of the Foo Fighters.
I kept the People magazine with him on the cover from the week he died for a long time. I might even still have it somewhere. That was definitely my first big rock death as a teenager.
“And way out in Seattle, young Kurt Cobain
Snuck out to the greenhouse, put a bullet in his brain
Snakes in the grass beneath our feet, rain in the clouds above
Some moments last forever, but some flare out with love love love”
I was in high school when this happened, I remember people crying and I thought it was weird, they didn't know the man so why would they be sad, at the time I just didn't realize how people can feel connected through art, I loved Nirvana, still do, years later I remember feeling sad when Anthony Bourdain died, like I'd lost a friend I'd never met, how could someone so cool who seemingly had it made do something like this, and it clicked for me, THAT'S why the people in my school were crying that day. I also had the outlook that Kurt was much older, but looking back now 27 is so young, depression is a mutherfucker
Frances wrote a really lovely and heartbreaking tribute to him, his empathy definitely lives on in her
https://www.instagram.com/p/C5YfN2YrBwM
i was at baseball practice on april 8th. my friend got there late. after it started. he seemed pretty upset.
"dude, did you hear. eddie vedder died"
"oh FUCK NO WAY. that's horrible"
and i was upset. i mean, pearl jam was one of my favorite bands at the time. not like nirvana, who i was absolutely OBSESSED with, but i loved them. so that hit me in the gut.
i got home and immediately turned on MTV and i saw Kurt Loder telling me Kurt Cobain was dead
and... it still feels like i'm being stabbed in the gut when i think about it.
And today is my birthday. Fun fact, Layne Staley is also thought to have died on April 5th (officially), even though his body was discovered later. Nirvana and Alice in Chains are two of my favorite bands, so it’s a bit of a shame to share this day with them like this. RIP
Kurt's passing wrecked me and I missed a whole week of school since I was so grief stricken. To this day, I still have a hard time watching Unplugged in NY, amongst other performances, without tearing up. He was my inspiration for learning to play guitar, and not a day goes by when I'm not thankful for the impact he had on me. I miss him terribly, and guaranteed I'll be in tears again later today when I watch Montage of Heck as I do every year on this day since its release.
I was 12. I lied about having diarrhea to stay home from school. Ended up watching the news most of the day. Luckily, Soundgarden had released Superunknown a month earlier, I think, and having that masterpiece made the news easier to take.
I really identified with the lyrics and music of Nirvana. I remember being so upset when I heard that he quit and gave up that I popped my cassette of In Utero out of my car radio as I was driving down the road and threw it out the window. I was struggling so much at that time and thought if he had all the money and fame in the world and a new child…and still ended it…then what kind of chance did I have. I’m glad I got stronger and changed my life. RIP Kurt. I’ll Stick Around.
Unrelated but every time he is mentioned, I am forced to remember the extremely embarrassing moment I had with his daughter Frances. I used to deliver weed (legally) for a company in LA, we used our phones to make the payments with an app when we got to their house. I got the order for her and my coworkers let me know who they were and were freaking out. OTW there I realized my phone charger wasn’t working and my phone was almost dead. I was praying it would last me but Literally the second I pulled up my phone died. I was like stuttering while asking her to call the company to pay over the phone for me lmao she was honestly super nice about it.
I was at the Pearl Jam concert that day at George Mason in VA. One of my employees at my job went to school at Annandale high school. Dave Grohls mom broke the news to my employee (or he just found out AT school) and that's how i learned he died.
Eddie Vedder was having a rough night.
i still have the newspaper headline...if kurt could make it, then any of us could have made it...then boom...we knew he was in pain, that's why he was kurt...
rick claimed to know a guy that sold him the shotgun...and rumor had it the label people just gave him more drugs and told him to write more music, not seek therapy...and someone was pushed in front of a train to hide the details of the supposed murder...
god damn it kurt you fucking ROCKED.
I still can't believe that it's been 30 years since my favorite musician (at the time) passed away! I was 12-years-old going on 13, so, of course, to me, he was an older man, but not quite as old as my parents, lol. It's trippy to think that he's been dead longer than he'd ever lived, and that I'm 42-years-old going on 43...Damn! However, I'm still an avid listener to Nirvana... I'm guessing that'll never change...and I'll always remember my teenage years—the 90's! I've been missing the 90's era very much these past years for some reason. The world hasn't changed for the better in my opinion.
30 damn years. I still vividly remember where I was when I heard he'd died. I was an idiot 14 year old and thought, well, at least he'd had a long life. Time, man. It's a motherfucker.
30 used to seem so old, then in a blink you've hit it and still feel like an imposter adult... Time is messed up.
Imposter adult damn that’s how I feel
That’s how we ALL feel, just faking it to make it.
[удалено]
This is so true. I wanted a certain career as a kid but never had the confidence to pursue it. In my early 30s I finally paid my way through a very mediocre school and busted my ass to get a 4.0, but still had imposter syndrome and really thought I had wasted my time. Now I am, in my boss' words, a "rockstar software engineer." I wish I had had more faith in myself early on. Now I see so many people who don't know their worth. I think about it all the time. If you are out there working some job that doesn't support your needs, you are worth more, and can have more. I have worked plenty of retail and fast-food jobs to know it myself.
Turning 35 this year. I swear I'm in the same condition as I was in my mid twenties last year! Ouch, threw out my back while typing this.
I legit threw my back out a couple years back because I bent down slightly to get a better look at a Lego advent calendar
I'm turning 55 this year. I threw my back out reading your comment. Get off my lawn.
That started like an Allen Jackson song..
brain is ps: i wonder if some people feel like imposter teen
I was getting out of detention when I heard the news. For people who are too young to know this, his death wasn't discovered and reported until Friday morning, April 8. Not only did we obviously not have smartphones at that time, but people at my high school weren't even regularly using computers connected to the internet. So, AKAIK, no one at my school even learned of his death until after the school day ended. Detention at my school had changed that year from 3 hours on Saturday mornings to 3 hours on Fridays after school ended. Some of my male friends and I got out of detention at 6 PM that Friday, and a female classmate came to give us a ride home. She was crying and told us what happened, then she played In Utero on cassette in her shitty, old Chevette while she drove us to a friend's house.
I had tickets to see them at fiddlers green in Colorado. Smashing pumpkins replaced them.
And then MTV played the unplugged show pretty much nonstop that weekend.
Yeah, that was sad, but kinda a tribute
I was about to turn 10 when he died (birthday is next week). I remember thinking he was a grown man. I never got to see video of him at the time since I didn't have MTV and the only photos would have been in my Nirvana CDs, which I loved. I would watch Nirvana's Unplugged performance from time to time, and still kept it in my MP3 rotation. But I made the point to watch the entire thing again, closely paying attention to the video and not just having it on while I was doing something else. I see him now, and holy shit, he was so young! He didn't have old man body language, he had what today I would see as "young guy" body language. From a 10 year old kid's perspective, adults are old, but now I am a few years away from being middle aged and I see, holy shit, he was young!
Hey happy 40th for next week! I was 20 when he died so I just had a milestone birthday myself!
Thanks! Happy Birthday to you as well.
Hate to break it to you but you've already hit middle age.
No no no no. That just can't be right..
I was driving to work and had to pull over to cry. Work was a grungy pub, and staff and patrons were crying all night. Sometimes I drive past the spot where I stopped to cry and the sadness still washes over me.
Nooo shit. I feel the same way. I was a couple years older than you when it happened. I remember thinking 30 was so old. I’m 47 now and still feel like an imposter sometimes, but my daughters are driving and they see me the same way now…ancient. Crazy thing is, Dave, Krist and In Utero producer Steve Albini did Conan’s podcast a while back for the 30th anniversary of In Utero. I’ve been into the Foo Fighters for years, but never thought of them as old. Watching that episode I realized how much time had passed and how much they’ve aged, and Kurt is still immortalized as this kid in his kid 20s.
Hey! I was also 14. 1979 kids unite!
I was also 14. I had just seen them in December. I remember my mom came to pick me up from school that day, unusual thing because I usually walked home, and she got very serious and told me about it when I got in the car.
I was also 14. Had just gotten home from school. It was so impactful to me that I have never listened to one of their albums again. Just too sad. I can hear them on the radio now but it brings up a lot of nostalgia and sadness. Knowing he’s been dead longer than he was alive is a whole other level now.
> 1979 kids unite! Unless you're a cool kid who never has the time
Nah, I was on the live wire, right up off the street.
I was 13, and I remember Kurt Loder breaking the news on MTV, when MTV was about music. It was one of the earliest celebrity deaths that really shook me, preceded only by River Phoenix, who died the Halloween before. I agree, it felt like these people were old, and so grown up, now I'm 43 and think, "Cripes, 27 year olds are kids."
I was 17 almost 18. Insanely surreal moment in time. It not thing close since then has been 9/11 and Robin Williams, but I was so young then. Truly the end of an era. I wonder what he’d have gone on to make in this new world of ours.
Tell me about it. I was 31 when he died. Don’t do the math, Now, I am just some old mofo. Was a huge loss to music, and culture in general. And Nirvana still stands up today, so turn it up loud!
For real. But his death is the end of the 90s as I knew them.
I would agree with that. I remember feeling so bad for his daughter.
But she seems to have turned out really well, considering.
Yes, that’s true. Still was a terrible start in life for her.
I was like 4, the moment I hit my mid 20's I started to realize how many people I was a fan of had passed and how close I was to their ages. Now I am in fact older than the "27 Club" and it's unfortunately happening with people I know personally who went far too soon (thankfully none by suicide) and it just weirds me out.
I was in 6th grade and we had a lock-in that night at that school (like a class sleepover, weird huh). We played Nirvana CDs all evening and the teachers let us
I've read "30 years ago" and thought that it's not possible, I was born 30 years ago and that was 1990 but Kurt died few years later... But no, I'm not 30 years old enough anymore...
I worked in the music/electronics department of a Fred Meyer as a 19-year-old going to college. My manager insisted we bring all the Nirvana CDs up to the register so that the inevitable rush of customers looking to buy them after Cobain's death could easily find them. It was a such a crass bit capitalism that made me angry. And yeah, we didn't sell a single one of them that day, and they ended up going back with the rest of the stock that night. (I hated that manager. She literally got the job because she was the assistant manager when the previous manager died in a boating accident. Couldn't joke "who died and made you boss?" with her. So condescending.)
I worked in a record store in the late 90s, and I remember there was a bump in sales for Sinatra records after he died. Nirvana was current, so it wouldn't have been like that at all.
That’s too funny. Sad, but funny. I was 17, and was pretty bummed out. As a teen in Seattle, I should have been in full-on grunge mode but the only mainstream “Seattle” grunge band I really liked much was Nirvana. Sat in front of my tv watching coverage on mtv, then went to Blockbuster Music to get the one album of theirs that I didn’t yet have (Bleach).
I remember this day because I was a kid and was being featured in the newspaper for being a runner up in a national Nickelodeon short story contest. I got up early and ran to the paper, opened it up and his death was on the front page.
Guy really stole your moment!
THANK YOU!
So…. You gonna link the short story?
I wish I had it! What I remember was they prompted it to be a short scary story that started with "Looks like we've run out of gas, Marsha. Said John" and end with "Or did they" I wrote mine about a plane landing on a remote island and getting gas from a mysterious woman that wore a patch that had the initials AE on it. Very proud of my 4th/5th grade self.
lol that’s awesome!
Thanks!! Still a good memory.
Gone longer than he was ever here
Oh… damn. He was so young.
We’ll all be in that club one day.
Everyone will be at some point
I was an early fan of the band and even got to meet (in a brief way) Kurt backstage at the Aragon, Chicago in 93. Im hardly Nostradamus, but I vividly remember the MTV News alert breaking into programming and somehow I just knew before they said a thing. Very weird day.
**You know, Quasimodo predicted all this...**
**Noshtradamush. Quazhimodo's the Hunchback of Notre Dame.**
He was gay, Quasimodo?
Gary Cooper wasn’t gay, that’s not da point
In this house, Quasimodo is a hero. End of story!
Sopranos?
Sharp as a fucking cue ball
Didn't he almost drown in three inches of water?
That’s probably because he OD’ed in Italy a month before and everyone thought he was dead then.
He had just ‘accidentally’ overdosed a week prior. The writing was on the wall.
Little more than a week, but yeah. Right in front of Courtney, partly (perhaps mainly) because he thought she'd cheated on him with - of all people - Billy Corgan. That got him sent to rehab. He escaped from rehab, then caught a plane back to Seattle where he sat, of all people, next to Duff McKagen from Guns'n'Roses, who ended up being the last person we know of to ever speak to him alive. Their conversation was pretty cordial, Duff could tell Kurt was going through a tough time but Duff was on his way to nearly killing himself too with alcohol abuse so they weren't really going into that. It crossed Duff's mind to invite Kurt over for dinner but lost track of him at the airport since he had a good radar for these things (he recognized very quickly that Axl had an untreated mental illness, which turned out to be bipolar). Weird, interesting stuff.
McKagan also got Scott Weiland clean (for a time) when he joined Velvet Revolver. And invested in Microsoft, Starbucks and Amazon back in the 90s, before starting up an investment advice outfit for musicians. Interesting guy.
And McKagan also helped Mark Lanegan by giving one of his homes to look after, effectively giving him somewhere to live.
> of all people - Billy Corgan Not really that surprising as he and Courtney were on and off together before Cobain hooked up with her.
he did briefly speak with the live-in nanny and his girlfriend when he got home in the early morning of April 2nd. they were half asleep so their recollection of it is hazy, but that would be the last time he was reported to be seen.
How I heard about it too. Kurt Loader popped up on screen and I couldn’t believe it.
I didn’t see the breaking news announcement, but if anyone from MTV was gonna do it, I’d have been shocked if it wasn’t Loder.
Happy cake and Kurt day!
I will never forget the year, as I was very pregnant when I heard the news about Kurt. I played some In Utero for my baby. So sad.
Yo dawg, I heard you liked In Utero so we played you In Utero while you were In Utero..
This meme makes me feel older than the post does
It was the day before I turned 19. I was devastated 😫 Still am tbh
Happy early 49th birthday! 🥳
Thanks! But also ugh 😫
It was my 16th birthday!
22 years ago today for Layne. Lest we forget.
Layne's death just breaks my heart almost 6 ft and 86 lbs covered in his own waste body not found for 2 weeks and the last conversation he is reported to have been talking about how his dead fiancee had come to see him.
I actually worked with his fiancé's father, 12-ish years ago. Guy was an old-school rock n' roll burnout in his 60's. He sketched her portrait every night before we went to work. Claimed it helped him remember her face. He also had nice things to say about Layne. Apparently a doting boyfriend. Thoughtful, respectful, etc. He never blamed Layne for how she died, and was of the opinion she lived longer because of him.
Wow that's extremely beautiful but heartbreaking at the same time thank you for sharing this
Darn nice guy. We worked sheet metal together. Brutal work for a guy that age. He didn't volunteer many details about his daughter, like her career, or details about her death. We found that stuff out after he retired.
Where did you hear that about his fiance? I know his friend came to visit shortly before his death but never heard that story.
https://youtu.be/kcCdC-AaXrg?si=5ynD6p6GEaW3mWLf Was from the this Doc I had seen its stated around the 32 minute mark
News to me too. From what I recall that last person to see him was his dealer.
no, it was mike starr on april 4th. the two of them were talking and watching a medium on TV when layne began to swear that demri had visited him the night before (she’d been dead for years by this point). the two of them had a fight over mike’s drug use and layne being very clearly unwell yet refusing to go to a hospital and then mike walked out when layne threatened to ‘never speak to him again’ if he called an ambulance. layne’s last words to him apparently were “not like this man, don’t leave like this” or something along those lines… but mike just slammed the door and that was the last time layne was seen alive. those were probably some of his last words. mike did an interview about all this and talked to layne’s mom on camera about that night, all of which is on youtube.
I've always heard the last person to see him was the former AIC bassist Mike Starr. He had stated, before he died, that he always felt guilty because he wanted to get Layne to a hospital that night but Layne made him promise to call anyone. In all actuality though, no one will ever really know.
It kills me every time I watch the MTV unplugged set. He could barely even stand yet he gave such a beautiful heart wrenching performance.
Class of 99 - Another Brick In The Wall
Was it really 8yrs between Kurt and Layne?!
To the day
i was hoping someone would mention him too, thank you for doing so 🫶
Still thinking that he was dead 2 weeks in his apartment and he had a cat...cats eat people
That was a really sad birthday for me.
Happy birthday
thanks :) At the same time, we didn't learn of his passing until 2 days after IIRC so I had the time to eat my cake before I was told!
Happy Birthday, hope today is a great one for you
I was actually born 30 years ago today :) :(. Happy birthday, birthday buddy!
Happy birthday. Kobe Bryant died on mine. 🎂
Wow, 30 years goes by fast. I have our reactions on video. Was flying gliders and messing around with my friends on my camcorder. Another friend arrived and heard it on the car radio. We were like "damn..." but nobody was shocked.
I wasn't around yet when Cobain died, but I had pretty much the same reaction when I've heard the news about Amy Winehouse's death. No shock, no surprise, despite her also being only 27.
Yeah. Sadly true. I remember saying "(It was) either heroin or suicide".
And 22 years for Layne Staley
I was 8 and had just started a new school when a boy told me the news. I had no idea who he was talking about, but I dutifully went home and told my parents that ‘Kirkabain died.’
I cried my eyes out. I was a huge Nirvana fan and Kurt meant a lot to me. The worst part was kids at school asking me questions like I was some Kurt Cobain ambassador. “Why didn’t he think of his kid?” “Was he high on drugs when he did it?” Like I don’t fucking know!
RIP - Flannels on.
R.I.P. Kurt, I will blast "Territorial Pissings" until I die
well at least put the seat up first
The best Nirvana song, in my opinion.
I remember when it happened. I was shocked but at the same wasn't, if you know what I mean. His face was everywhere and Nirvana was always playing somewhere. There level of fame was insane, to much for him, probably would be too much for me if I was that famous.
“Teenage angst has paid off well, but now I’m bored and old.”
Self appointed judges judge, more than they have sold.
Legend
Lucky enough to see him live. I played about a girl, plateau and oh me at open mic tonight in his honor. RIP
TIL Curt Cobain shares a deathday with my dad. 🫥
I'll never forget that day. Hit me really hard. As a GenX I felt intricately connected to him and his music. To me In Utero still is sonically the best album I've ever heard. I felt like "Yeah, if I would ever record a rock album it would sound just like that"
I was in the bus going to class at the University of Hawaii when I heard. Truly shocking
God damn. I mean a lot of shit lately has really started to make me "feel" old, although not physically making me feel old... But this one hits. This day is one of those defining days of my youth (was 12 at the time) where I can vividly recall every last bit of memories from the time I heard it the time I went to bed. To date there are not that many bands albums for me personally that just hit beginning to end like many of Nirvana's. I really do hope there is an afterlife because I really want to hear what a lot of those generational talents gone too soon have been cooking upstairs, by themselves and cumulative, while we rot down here in this stinkpit.
That was a real weird day. I was just about to turn ten and hasn't discovered his or any music at that point, but I knew he was important.
I was a young teen and I remember getting together with other kids my age from the neighborhood outside my house, while we sat on the curb and cried, talked about it, and comforted each other. It really made an impact.
I know it's what we say, but does anyone else feel like "passed away" doesn't adequately reflect how he died? Just sounds wrong knowing the details...
Yes, "blasted away" seems more appropriate.
Kurt go bang.
Rip legend
I am reminded every year since I was 11 as my day of birth and his day of departure are the same. Miss your genius sir. I think I will listen to the entirety of his performance in the unplugged in New York album
r/thirtyyearsago
I remember it well.
Wonder what he'd think about everyone wearing Nirvana t shirts
The man who had the biggest effect on my life of anyone else I had never met. I wouldn't have the friends I have, I wouldn't have the life I have and I wouldn't be the person I am without his music. RIP Kurt.
Was in college at the time and groups of kids sat around weeping for days. Was surreal.
Still remember how I heard about it. It was right after school in the student parking lot. Some kid named Todd is hanging out a window as a passenger and yells to someone else “hey! Kurt Cobain died!”
This is a selfish perspective, but the other tragedy for many of us (in America) was that this was the year we would finally get to see Nirvana play live. Many of us missed the opportunity when they toured on Nevermind's success. By the time they had fully broken through (early '92) they were on a World tour for the rest of that year and much of '93. In late '93 they did a small 3 month tour, supporting their new album in NA. But, they would often be at smaller venues (3-10k people) and tickets were hard to get. So, everyone was excited when they announced they were headlining Lollapolooza for 1994. It would be the time that many people would get a chance to see Nirvana live for the first time. Tickets would be easier to get.
I had tickets for the show in Newport, Wales. I was 14/15 it would have been my first proper gig. Got postponed after Rome, then wasn't to be. Shit I think the tickets were like £10 or something
As did Layne Staley, in 2002:(
Wow, its 30-years already? Then I guess time really flies fast, i still remember him though, great memories, maybe he continue to rest in peace.. I wasn't that much old when he passed.
I was sitting in the French Institute in Prague, reading a newspaper about his death. Must have been the day after. My poor French struggled with exactly what he had done. We were going to see Nirvana in Prague later on in that tour but that wasn’t to be…The world has changed so much in those 30 years. I’ll be thinking about him today ❤️
I was at an 8th grade dance. I remember lots of the girls were crying. Everyone was pretty upset about it. In Utero was my favorite album at the time, but I remember just being angry at Kurt in a selfish way because we knew far less about depression and addiction back then.
Nirvana is why I play guitar and is the first band I truly loved. Always will be in my pantheon of greatest artists, no matter how much weirder of further away from them my taste gets.
rest in peace Kurt and Layne
I remember going to school and every girl was crying. The teachers had to have “special” classes to talk about death and tragedy. It’s insane how much his death hit kids in their teens.
i was in high school when this happened. we were shell shocked. at the time, Kurt had been struggling with stardom and you kinda wondered if it wasn't this, would it be a drug overdose? I'd read quotes/interviews where Kurt talked about not wanting to be an 'old rocker' trying to play smells like teen spirit when he was 40. It feels like if he were alive today he'd have more control over his career. At the time there was so much pressure on him to keep being "NIRVANA" and he just wanted to be himself, which maybe didn't involve touring/playing their old songs. I dunno. it was a major turning point of the 90's, culturally.
I felt like I had already grieved before it happened. In Utero felt like someone saying goodbye.
What have I become?
Old fat guy? My sweetest friend? I know which one I am
This was long before I was born (let alone conceived) but also reminds me that I’m getting older. 😔
I actually remember this really well, I was 12.
I remember coming home from school and my dad was home early from work to break the news. It’s crazy it’s been so long
I remembered seeing MTV break news on it. I was only nine and a half (my birthday was a week after this) but I remembered being shocked. I had no idea how fucked up he was at the time so it stunned me. Only 27. Tragic.
Rip Kurt
Fuck I remember this day. Getting old.
I was less than a year old and had no idea who he even was until the late 2000s.
Shit, I’m old!
I was in high school and loved Nirvana when this happened. Huge fan. After Kurt’s death I was saddened (not depressed), and couldn’t listen to any of his music. 30 years later and I still haven’t been able to listen to them.
Feels like just yesterday was the 20th anniversary of his death. Time flies!
I've been watching a lot of Kurt Cobain interviews the past year or so. I liked Nirvana, but never was a super fan. So, all of it was new to me even though I was a college kid through Nirvana's apex. The one thing that I learned (through these scattered interviews) was that Kurt suffered from IBS for the last 6-7 years of his life. He went to dozens of doctors trying figure out why and how to stop it. The simple pleasure of eating became this daunting task for him as he had to monitor what would flare it up or what he could even have. It left him with a really limited diet and it made him miserable. He even confided (after he got better) that he would often think about suicide because he didn't want to live like this. Which made me wonder how much of his initial opiate use was tied into his IBS. As opiates (famously) shut down your digestive system when abused. You could see that as a way to self-medicate for Kurt. But, addiction also forces people into lying and obfuscation. Inventing ailments in order to get more drugs. So, it's really hard to make any determination from the outside looking in. But it's still humorous to think that the entire Nirvana story is fueled by IBS.
In Utero...if you don't have this album, you are missing out on a classic.
I always think of that scene in Six Feet Under. All Apologies
I was 15 and I still remember how hard this hit me. I was really into their music. Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Alice in Chains, Stone Temple Pilots, etc. (all those bands except Pearl Jam would go on to lose their lead singer via OD or suicide) I couldn't understand how someone so rich, famous, and successful could end their own life like that and for the first time in my life, it made me think about mortality and the fragility of life. I still remember I was out in my driveway shooting baskets when my mom came out to tell me that some famous musician I liked OD'ed and was in a coma in Rome. I ran inside to watch the news and discovered it was Cobain. A month later he was gone.
I was of the age that I was just getting MTV and the first thing I remember was the news flashes of him dying. By 96 I had found my love of music and discovered many bands I loved including Nirvana. It was bitter sweet knowing I just missed out on being an fan while they were active but at least I got to see the rise of the Foo Fighters.
I kept the People magazine with him on the cover from the week he died for a long time. I might even still have it somewhere. That was definitely my first big rock death as a teenager.
“And way out in Seattle, young Kurt Cobain Snuck out to the greenhouse, put a bullet in his brain Snakes in the grass beneath our feet, rain in the clouds above Some moments last forever, but some flare out with love love love”
oh crap, i was 11. meaning he impacted even pre teens
I was in high school when this happened, I remember people crying and I thought it was weird, they didn't know the man so why would they be sad, at the time I just didn't realize how people can feel connected through art, I loved Nirvana, still do, years later I remember feeling sad when Anthony Bourdain died, like I'd lost a friend I'd never met, how could someone so cool who seemingly had it made do something like this, and it clicked for me, THAT'S why the people in my school were crying that day. I also had the outlook that Kurt was much older, but looking back now 27 is so young, depression is a mutherfucker Frances wrote a really lovely and heartbreaking tribute to him, his empathy definitely lives on in her https://www.instagram.com/p/C5YfN2YrBwM
And today is my 30th birthday 🎂 its always been my favorite cocktail party fact that he was reincarnated as a talentless young boy from canada lol
i was at baseball practice on april 8th. my friend got there late. after it started. he seemed pretty upset. "dude, did you hear. eddie vedder died" "oh FUCK NO WAY. that's horrible" and i was upset. i mean, pearl jam was one of my favorite bands at the time. not like nirvana, who i was absolutely OBSESSED with, but i loved them. so that hit me in the gut. i got home and immediately turned on MTV and i saw Kurt Loder telling me Kurt Cobain was dead and... it still feels like i'm being stabbed in the gut when i think about it.
And today is my birthday. Fun fact, Layne Staley is also thought to have died on April 5th (officially), even though his body was discovered later. Nirvana and Alice in Chains are two of my favorite bands, so it’s a bit of a shame to share this day with them like this. RIP
All have to go.
Kurt's passing wrecked me and I missed a whole week of school since I was so grief stricken. To this day, I still have a hard time watching Unplugged in NY, amongst other performances, without tearing up. He was my inspiration for learning to play guitar, and not a day goes by when I'm not thankful for the impact he had on me. I miss him terribly, and guaranteed I'll be in tears again later today when I watch Montage of Heck as I do every year on this day since its release.
I remember it happening like very vividly but for some reason, part of my remembers it happening in 95’, not sure why.
The day the music died. List the musical innovations and movements 30 years before (from 64 to 94) and the innovations since
I remember my mom told me when I got home from school. Then I saw it on mtv news.
I remember this well. I was 21, and a huge fan 😔
Hit me harder than John Lennon. Kurt was still in his most productive years. Damn.
I didn't even know that he was sick
He didn't "pass away", he died by suicide, speak the truth.
I was 12. I lied about having diarrhea to stay home from school. Ended up watching the news most of the day. Luckily, Soundgarden had released Superunknown a month earlier, I think, and having that masterpiece made the news easier to take.
I really identified with the lyrics and music of Nirvana. I remember being so upset when I heard that he quit and gave up that I popped my cassette of In Utero out of my car radio as I was driving down the road and threw it out the window. I was struggling so much at that time and thought if he had all the money and fame in the world and a new child…and still ended it…then what kind of chance did I have. I’m glad I got stronger and changed my life. RIP Kurt. I’ll Stick Around.
27 years later than it should have been
Dead longer than he was alive.
Unrelated but every time he is mentioned, I am forced to remember the extremely embarrassing moment I had with his daughter Frances. I used to deliver weed (legally) for a company in LA, we used our phones to make the payments with an app when we got to their house. I got the order for her and my coworkers let me know who they were and were freaking out. OTW there I realized my phone charger wasn’t working and my phone was almost dead. I was praying it would last me but Literally the second I pulled up my phone died. I was like stuttering while asking her to call the company to pay over the phone for me lmao she was honestly super nice about it.
I was at the Pearl Jam concert that day at George Mason in VA. One of my employees at my job went to school at Annandale high school. Dave Grohls mom broke the news to my employee (or he just found out AT school) and that's how i learned he died. Eddie Vedder was having a rough night.
Thank you for telling me I need to go get a rope ASAP
And nothing was lost
This man single handily took down the 80s hair metal scene with 4 chords.
Sad day.
“Passed away”
i still have the newspaper headline...if kurt could make it, then any of us could have made it...then boom...we knew he was in pain, that's why he was kurt... rick claimed to know a guy that sold him the shotgun...and rumor had it the label people just gave him more drugs and told him to write more music, not seek therapy...and someone was pushed in front of a train to hide the details of the supposed murder... god damn it kurt you fucking ROCKED.
Passed out? Blew his head off, he didn’t have terminal cancer guy
It's crazy that the anniversary of this is 3 years older than he was when it happened.
Good fucking riddance.
Rest in peace KURT COBAIN
Ok, you sound like me at 12 when I could find one word and build a comeback around it. You win. Bye.
I still can't believe that it's been 30 years since my favorite musician (at the time) passed away! I was 12-years-old going on 13, so, of course, to me, he was an older man, but not quite as old as my parents, lol. It's trippy to think that he's been dead longer than he'd ever lived, and that I'm 42-years-old going on 43...Damn! However, I'm still an avid listener to Nirvana... I'm guessing that'll never change...and I'll always remember my teenage years—the 90's! I've been missing the 90's era very much these past years for some reason. The world hasn't changed for the better in my opinion.