Kurt Cobain: When Tomorrow Never Came

if you know anything about today's biographics episode you might know that courtney love is a name that's going to pop up eventually and her saga is one of thousands of stories that could eventually appear on my new true crime podcast the casual criminalist that's right even more content from me the fact boy i now have a long-form weekly podcast covering some of the darkest things that i could find from the uk doctor as the world's worst serial killer to the time an american socialite murdered her best friend with her car allegedly and totally got away with it and much more but it's also more laid back bit more free form with the occasional laugh because isn't death hilarious weekly shows wherever you get your podcasts there are links below now let's grunge it up the 1980s were spent exhausted a decade of shoulder pads leg warmers hedonistic hair metal and glitzy synth pop underneath the surface a new generation was coming of age raging to be heard to find a voice that voice arrived coarse and barely intelligible screaming over a simple riff of four power chords that voice came from the burning pit of the stomach of the harbinger of grunge the reluctant figurehead of generation x this is the story of the pain and the misery but also the talent and the ambition of kurt cobain kirkebane was born on the 20th of february 1967 in hoquim washington in the northwest corner of the united states when he was six months old his parents donald and wendy moved to aberdeen three years later the trio became a four piece with the addition of daughter kimberly kurt was a fun and precocious child delighting his extended family especially his more musical relatives uncle chuck and aunt mary it was mary who later gave curt his first guitar lesson and introduced him to the beatles and the monkeys but kurt was also hyperactive and difficult to control his parents were advised to give him ritalin which only made things worse he was then put on sedatives before an enlightened doctor advised to remove sugar from kurt's diet and that seemed to stabilize him unfortunately an unsettling event was around the corner sometime after kurt's eighth birthday mum and dad divorced and life would never be the same again around this time kurt scrawled on his bedroom wall what may have been his first piece of poetry dad hates mum mum hates dad it simply makes you want to be so sad the pain for his parents divorce was made worse by a sense of shame and guilt deriving from his father's disapproval don was disappointed by kurt's lack of interest for sports and seemed to object to him even being left-handed kurtz became withdrawn after the divorce and erupted in sudden fits of rage kurt argued constantly with his mother's new boyfriend whom he described as a mean wife-beater wendy could not tolerate this behavior and eventually shipped kurt over to don now living in nearby montesano their curtained on slowly mended their relationship but just when they were settling into a new happy routine don remarried in february of 1978. kerr was not happy not at all he disrespected his mother-in-law bullied his younger step-siblings and eventually took to skipping school to curb kurt's simmering rage and aggressive streak don persuaded the pre-teen to join the school wrestling team surprisingly he accepted even more surprisingly he was very good at it except when he lost on purpose just of a straight dawn their rift grew wider at the same time kurt developed a fascination with hard rock and early metal bands like led zeppelin black sabbath and kiss he was becoming unrulia by the day and don struggled to cope from 1978 to 1980 kurt ended up being carted off to a series of relatives moving at least twice a year in 2008 psychotherapist giuseppe troisi analyzed koben's childhood by applying dr stephen porges's polyvagal theory according to this theory the repeated trauma of neglect and abandonment prevents the natural absorption into one's psyche of relationships images and memories as a result these will later erupt chaotically in the form of intrusive images sounds movements and sensations which are impossible to control it's an interesting theory which may explain kurt's later musical style a stall which was just beginning to emerge at the age of 13 kurt moved in with his uncle chuck a rock and roll musician the two got on famously and it was chuck who gave kurt his first electric guitar one of chuck's band mates taught him to play back in black by ac dc a pivotal moment in his musical career later on i found out about power chords with power chords you could play just about anything kerr moved once again back to don's his musical taste now shifted towards punk and new wave genres more attuned to his alternating apathy disillusion and outright anger dawn forced kurt to join the school's baseball team which he accepted only so that he could hang out with an older kid matt luckin a member of a local band called the melvins the band would later be hailed as one of the trailblazers of grunge the subgenre of alternative rock which developed out of the washington state scene the distinctive sound originated around the mid-1980s with bands like the melvin's green river and mother love bone their style could be traced back to non-seattle acts like the pixies sonic youth husker dew and the meat puppets or even further away in time and space to the gloomiest noisiest edges of british post punk nirvana later popularized grunge the wider world alongside pearl jam soundgarden alice in chains and mud honey among others but back in montesano in the early 1980s the word grunge only meant grime and nirvana was just a state of beautitude transcending suffering kurt found a mentor in the melvin's front man buzz osborne who expanded kurt's musical horizons to california hardcore punk acts especially black flag in the summer of 1984 ker began to take his guitar playing more seriously but he needed a new amplifier the right occasion came after he moved back to wendy's in aberdeen who had just remarried one pat o'connor it was another unhappy marriage due to his drinking and womanizing one day wendy could not take it any longer she took a gun from pat's collection and threatened to shoot him but she didn't know how to load the gun so she punished him in another way she collected pat's entire arsenal and dumped it into the wishcar river kerr later recovered the weapons took them downtown and sold them for a nice sum with the cash from the sale he bought the amp that he needed the guy who sold it to him spent all the cash he had just made on pot which he and curt then smoked together at the age of 17 curt's use of alcohol and drugs was relatively tame he had to be careful with what he put into his body due to several chronic ailments scoliosis which dogged him with back pain as well as recurring bronchitis but worst of all a constant burning pain prodded him from the pit of his stomach causing digestive problems and frequent vomiting this was a gastric condition that was never fully identified and which as we'll see later will become an integral part of kurt's identity as an artist on the bright side kurt's new amp was powerful beast windows and walls trembled when kirk plugged in his guitar to crank out his power cords when the melvins moved to aberdeen kurt was ready to audition for the band or so he thought he proudly prepared one of his own compositions for buzz and friends but on the day of the audition he just froze kurt may have missed the chance to join one of his favorite bands but he was determined to become someone in music the next obstacle in this course to greatness were his parents after a row with wendy kerr was sent packing again to stay at dons don accepted on the condition that he gave up music surprisingly kurt accepted not only that he pawned off his guitar and what's even more surprising is he took and passed an entry test for the u.s navy when a navy recruiter showed up to talk ker returned to form he retreated to the basement and rolled the fattest joins he'd ever seen the next day kurt left don's house never to return after he was cut off by his parents curt led a vagabond's life for several months the young rocker spent his days at the aberdeen public library reading and writing at night sometimes he slept under the north aberdeen bridge when he was lucky he could use the van of a new friend that he had met at melbourne's rehearsals a seven foot californian of croatian origin chris novoselets in between he would rehearse his songs with his newly formed power trio with dale crover from the melbournes on base and greg horkinson on drums under the name fecal matter the trio recorded a demo tape at aunt mary's house which proudly gave to chris he wanted to convince the croatian giant to play with him but for the time being the only activity they shared was vandalism at night kurt chris and buzz osborne covered the walls of aberdeen with huge graffiti on one occasion kurt was arrested and searched the police found in his pockets the tape of the band called millions of dead cops which they must have loved while performing his vandalistic antics kurt picked up addiction after addiction from acid to godin and finally heroin in the meantime kurt and chris had finally joined forces musically speaking the two friends finally settled on a name for their band nirvana with that name they set out to record a demo tape with local producer jack endino kerr financed the session by selling laughing gas he had pilfered from a dental clinic where he worked as a janitor kurt on guitars and vocals chris on bass and a returning dale crover on drums recorded seven songs six originals and love buzz a pop rock song by dutch band shocking blue in january of 1988 kroger left the band to concentrate on the melvins handing the drumsticks to chad channing throughout the rest of the year the pow trio got noticed both thanks to their energetic shows and because of their demo tape unbeknownst to the band endino had sent the tape to one bruce pavett he was the head of subpop a seattle label which had already published soundgarden's first ep habit loved their sound and asked nirvana if they wanted to release lovebuzz as a single with subpop the next step was to release a full album pavo was happy to press and distribute it but he would not pay for the recording luckily kurt had just recruited a second guitarist jason everman the new guy did not play one single note in the album but he did something more important he paid the 600 needed for the recording sessions bleach never became a best seller but subpop booked a european tour for nirvana which kicked off in october of 1989 in the uk nirvana was the opening act for tad another early grunjack from seattle it was an important experience for curt and friends but also a borderline traumatic one the bands played 36 shows in 42 days traveling across the uk and the continent in a crammed fiat van experiencing equipment problems and poor acoustics at every venue every morning curt and town's frontman tad doyle shared a peculiar right doyle marred with gastrointestinal problems had to throw up before getting on the van and cobain demanded the privilege to hold the sick bowl kurt's own chronic stomach pains worsened on tour his journals published in 2002 offer a vivid account of his daily struggles every time i swallowed a piece of food i would experience an excruciating burning nauseous pain in the upper part of my stomach lining the pain left me immobile doubled up on the bathroom floor vomiting water and blood cobain's relationship with his illness may have informed his obsession with everything visceral vomiting feces and bodily functions in general are occurring images in both his lyrics and journal entries and it clearly had an influence on his singing and style kurt later confirmed to his biographer michael azerad that both his screaming vocals and his constant pain emanated from the same spot just below the breastbone in a new york times interview cobain confirmed i'm always in pain and that adds to the anger in our music i'm grateful to it in a way [Music] the tour continued from bad to worse until nirvana and ted joined mud honey for london's lane first in december this was anything but lame audiences were treated to a rare sight cobain enraged by his malfunctioning guitar flung it in the air another seller stepped forward holding his base like a baseball bat and he struck the guitar mid-air smashing it into pieces this was not mere posturing aping the who and jimi hendrix famous to straws of instruments this was pure motivated punk rage this was noticed by the right people upon havana's return to the u.s when they played new york in early 1990 they attracted the attention of iggy pop as well as the noise rock kings and queens of new york sonic youth sonic youth showed up with their new buddy gary gershinto gersch was an executive at gaffin records a major music label that was on the hunt for noise rockers and cobain was looking for exactly that a major label deal that could offer nationwide distribution curtin chris decided to start talks with geffen while looking for a new drummer chad channing had been forced out as his compositions were being rejected for being too prog rock or elfin music as kurt once put it curtain chris hick gold was the young drummer of a punk band from washington dc called scream kurt described him as the drummer of our dreams and we tend to agree as the new guy was one dave grohl groll had stepped in just at the right moment when nirvana was about to make it big besides gethin and other major labels were interested sure big companies loved their music but they were also trying to ride the crest of the wave a new era was dawning one of raw guitars distorted bass lines energetic drum roles and introspective lyrics alternative was the key word and every record executive was on the prowl for the next alternative sensation in the end it came to two labels gethin versus capital capital offered one million gethin a mere 287 thousand dollars but kevin's offer included an additional detail that nirvana could not refuse complete creative control the three bandmates signed the geffen deal which made kurt ecstatic we have one of the best contracts any band has ever had we have complete control over what we do if we handed in a 60-minute tape of us defecating gevin would have to release and promote it luckily havana's next effort was not of that kind the trio held up in van nuys california with producer butch vig and went on to record their second album never mind they had made bleach with 600 bucks now their budget was 650 000 the new songs had the same raucous desperate energy of bleach enriched by cobain's knack for nailing catchy tunes on the top of his distorted power cords or in his own words the bay city rollers being molested by black flag kurt chris dave and butch were satisfied with the record when it came out on august 27 1991. there was one song in particular which started with a clean guitar then exploded into a roaring chord progression followed by an obstinate bass line nova selects commented that the song was okay he guessed and later admitted that yeah it kind of rocked the song became a single on heavy rotation both on the radio and on mtv pulled by that single never mind went gold at the end of september that song was smells like teen spirit the anthem that generation x had been waiting for nirvana had arrived kurt had made it big but would he be able to handle the success by december of 1991 nevermind had sold 3 million copies displacing michael jackson's dangerous from the top of the charts the sudden fame did not sit well with kurt from the outside he looked as if he enjoyed playing the role of the rock star but close friends could tell that he hated the sense of importance and the scrutiny that came with stardom most of all he could not deal with the mantle received by the so-called generation x the role of spokesperson of messiah for a whole demographic that appeared directionless and devoid of ideals and ambition superficially cobain and nirvana seemed to fit the bill some of kurt's lyrics and journal entries expressed almost proudly a resistance to taking action a passive approach to life and the lack of anything resembling a spine superficially kurt did not lack the ambition and the intelligence to get where and what he wanted and we'll later see how nirvana was more involved in activism than many people might have realized at the time what the press and public seemed to focus on were two aspects of cobain's private life his romance with courtney love and his drug problems by march 1992 bam hits and rolling stone magazines all insinuated that kurt had been regularly using heroin kurt denied at all claiming that his stomach problems would not allow him to shoot drugs but this was not true according to biographer michael azerad kurt had been using heroin since november of 1990. in part it relieved kurt's stomach and back pain most of all it helped him cope with stressful situations and the habits had escalated since then to chris and dave's disapproval azerath's claim also dispels the myth that kurt was introduced to heroin by his later wife courtney love it was cobain who actually got courtney to try heroin in 1991. but let's proceed in chronological order corny love was also a child of divorced parents psychologist linda carroll and writer hank harrison just like kurt she had experienced a vagabond childhood moving from oregon to new zealand to england courtney had considered an acting career and even paid the bills by working in strip clubs until she became a professional musician in march 1990 courtney formed the band whole in september of 1991 their album pretty on the inside was released to great claim rivaling never mind in the alternative rock charts in between those two dates courtney and kurt had been introduced by a friend of dave grohls the initial flirtation resulted in courtney presenting kurt with a red heart-shaped box which would later appear in havana's album in utero but during that period corny was dating another old rock giant billy corgan of the smashing pumpkins on october 12 1991 courtney was visiting corgan in chicago when in his own words he flipped out and made her leave his apartment nirvana happened to be in town so courtney joins them for an after concert party according to corgan she gets completely fed up goes home with kurt kurt calls me the next morning and begs me to let her come back to my house that's the way it happened from then on the couple proceeded at warp speed shortly after kurt introduced courtney to heroin she discovered she was pregnant the mum-to-be decided to clean up her axe although she had used some heroin in the first trimester of her pregnancy soon after they announced their wedding scheduled for the 24th of february 1992. in june nirvana took off for a european tour with courtney tagging along on the 23rd curt was rushed to hospital in belfast according to the tabloid press it was an overdose actually kurt had gotten off heroin replacing it with methadone it is more likely that hospitalization was due to a stomach ulcer or methadone withdrawal the talk continued until courtney suffered some contractions during a gig in spain it was a false alarm but her doctor advised her to return to los angeles and rest until her due date in the meantime the media scrutiny had increased courtney's band hold had also signed a pretty sweet deal with geffen for a million dollars attracting the attention of vanity fair the resulting interview with courtney cemented with the public the image of love and cobain as two doomed lovers obsessed with heroin and stardom and unfit to raise a family when francis bean cobain was born on august 18 1992 a los angeles family court placed her in the care of courtney's sister jaime kurt and courtney were at their lowest nirvana was also on the verge of collapsing due to quarrels over kurt's drug use and the splitting of royalties but kurtz and the band surprised everybody when they showed up 10 days later at the reading festival cobain was brought on stage in a wheelchair apparently drained of any energy but he sprung up to his feet and gave a hell of a performance and to think that just days before kurt and courtney were on the verge of suicide but the thought of winning back francis had kept them from taking that final step it seemed that kurt was getting his life back on track on september the 8th nirvana won two mtv music video awards they then flew to seattle playing two shows and donating the proceeds to support an anti-censorship group and the legal battle against oregon's anti-homosexual proposition 9. all these contributed to clearing up the image of curt and his band as being just some wasted slackers in december nirvana released their new album insesticide a collection of b-sides outtakes and covers dedicated to kurt's musical heroes like the vaselines and the raincoats these successes were topped by kurt and courtney regaining custody of francis but bad news would be soon around the corner [Music] it was time for nirvana to record a new studio album initially titled verse chorus verse this would eventually become in utero kurt feared that geffen would influence the band into softening up their sound so he recruited producer steve albini who had worked with the pixies and heavy industrial rock band pig face the album was completed in two weeks over february of 1993 and it combined the two souls of nirvana from the extreme punk aggression of tourette's to the bittersweet melodic riff of all apologies the album would be released in september which left nirvana some time for more activism in april they played a benefit show in san francisco raising funds to help rape victims of the conflict in ex-yugoslavia or cause dear to chris neversellets they then contributed a song to the art of self-defense a fundraising cd for the anti-violence organization home alive the album was released in memory of mia zapata a seattle punk singer who had been murdered on july the 7th unfortunately the spring and summer of 1993 also saw the return of kurt's old heroin habit on may the 2nd a delirious curt had returned to his home in seattle from a party he was back on heroin and he was overdosing courtney tried to revive him with a shot of buprenorphine but nothing seemed to work kurt was rushed to a hospital and barely made it out alive the following month the couple had a violent altercation which prompted the arrival of the police courtney had found a stash of guns which kurt had hidden at home not the safest move with a nine-month-old child crawling around in july kurt experienced another overdose in new york this time courtney managed to revive him and cobain played a concert that same night as if nothing had happened the months before and after the release of in utero required havana to talk endlessly on stage kurt went from strength to strength nirvana had recruited a second guitarist pat smear from the germs allowing kurt to focus on his vocal delivery he and the band appeared to enjoy themselves when nirvana recorded a live acoustic set for mtv unplugged in october but offstage cobain alternated brief episodes of infectious happiness with longer and longer periods in which he just withdrew from the world around him diving deep into a depressed state in early 1994 nirvana was on tour in europe when kurt's depressed mood decisively took over his stage performance two gigs in milan at the end of february were just disastrous as kurt looked dead on stage on march the 1st kurt walked off stage after a concert in munich physically exhausted and mentally drained that would be his last concert [Music] on march 4th 1994 kurt was diagnosed with bronchitis and severe laryngitis he and courtney flew to rome for treatment and checked into a hotel the next morning kurt did not wake up courtney found him comatose having overdosed on champagne and rehypnol this was very likely a first suicide attempt but kurt recovered but five days later the cabanese returned to the home in seattle on the 18th curt was found by the police locked in the bathroom armed with a loaded gun and in a delirious state he told the police that he was going to get away from courtney but according to her he was just going through another suicidal episode one week later courtney organized an intervention with family and friends to convince kurt to enter rehab in los angeles courtney went ahead checking in at the peninsula hotel in l.a kurt reached california only on the 30th staying at the exodus treatment center for rehab before leaving seattle he had bought a shotgun from a friend kurt did not stay long on april the 1st kirk climbed the garden wall and flew back to seattle the following day he was spotted buying rifle shells in the meantime courtney had heard about her husband's escape she put his credit cards on hold and hired private detective tom grant to find him gronn went to investigate the cabanese home but failed to check the greenhouse over the garage that is where kurt cobain's dead body was spotted by an electrician on the morning of april 8 1994. next to him police found a cigar box filled with drug paraphernalia and a handwritten suicide note the official cause of death was a self-inflicted shotgun wound to the head the autopsy revealed that the suicide had occurred between april the 3rd and april the 5th and what happened during those hours remains a mystery to this day kurt had been spotted around seattle in that time but the sightings are not 100 confirmed there are other mysterious circumstances around kurt's death which have prompted many to theorize that this was a case of homicide rather than suicide journalists ian halperin and max wallace filmmaker nick broomfield and even private detective tom grant believe that cobain was injected with a lethal amount of heroin before being shot by an unknown party the most common theory is that courtney love was behind cobain's death kurt was planning to divorce her and due to their prenuptial agreement she would have inherited only half of his wealth broomfield spoke to seattle singer elden wayne hogue known as el duce hoke claimed that courtney had offered him fifty thousand dollars to kill kurt but he had declined the offer only for it to be accepted by someone called allen el duce was found dead eight days after the interview decapitated by a freight train the event fanned the fire of conspiracy but the coroner inquest and eyewitness accounts ruled the death as accidental ultimately suicide remains the official and more realistic cause of death bev cobain kurt's cousin and a registered nurse noted that kurt suffered from bipolar disorder which can lead to suicidal ideation bev also pointed out that three of kurt's relatives had killed themselves a fourth one had shot himself in the chest but survived the note found by kurt's body was even analyzed by forensic linguists eva sudyana and neural fitry the letter was addressed to kurt's childhood friend bora and it expressed feelings of guilt and frustration not enjoying music or life in general any longer i don't have the passion anymore and so remember it's better to burn out than to fade away the forensic review established that the note contained the characteristic hallmarks of suicidal intention a lexical analysis further highlighted the use of language typical of genuine clinical depression so it's likely that kurt cobain really did believe that it's better to burn out though many still believe someone else made that decision for him biographics well not an appeals court so we'll leave the final verdict to you the viewers fortunately kurt's talent and legacy never risked disappearing into oblivion nirvana only produced three studio albums but his songs and the group's beautiful grungy influence are unlikely to ever fade away so i really hope you found that video interesting if you did please do hit that thumbs up button below don't forget to subscribe and thank you for watching

Channel: Biographics

Views: 355,893

Rating: 4.9248614 out of 5

Keywords: biographics, biography, biographies, people, famous people, simon whistler

Id: tFAjKbONIXo

Length: 26min 36sec (1596 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 01 2021