Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain died 30 years ago, but his legacy lives on

Kurt Cobain, Nirvana frontman and music icon, died April 5, 1994, 30 years ago Friday.

With Nirvana, Cobain released only three albums during his lifetime over a five-year span, including the RIAA Diamond-certified "Nevermind," making him the face of counterculture and the grunge and alternative movement of the early ‘90s. Yet despite their brief tenure, Nirvana and its frontman had a profound impact on both rock music and pop culture, which continues more than a generation later.

Kurt Donald Cobain was born February 20, 1967, in Aberdeen, Washington. While in high school, he met fellow musician Krist Novoselic, and they started a band together.

After various personnel and name changes, Nirvana was created, with Cobain on guitar and vocals, Novoselic on bass, and Chad Channing on drums. They released their debut album, "Bleach," in June 1989, on the influential, independent Seattle label Sub Pop – the choice a reflection of Cobain’s passion for the anti-corporate ethos of punk and indie rock.

“Kurt subscribed to that very deeply,” Michael Azerrad, who interviewed Cobain as author of the 1993 authorized Nirvana biography "Come as You Are: The Story of Nirvana," told ABC News. “And yet, he had this conflicting impulse to be as famous as he felt his talented merited. That was a large conflict, I think, that he never managed to resolve.”

After "Bleach," Nirvana jumped from Sub Pop to a major label, DGC Records, and brought on a new drummer: Dave Grohl, who cut his teeth playing in Washington, D.C. punk bands. Together, the band recorded what would become "Nevermind," adding a glossier, expansive finish to their sound.

"Nevermind" was released in September 1991, and word quickly spread of its lead single, “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” and its video, which showed Nirvana performing in a high school gym while surrounded by anarchist cheerleaders.

By January 1992, "Nevermind" hit #1 on the all-genre Billboard 200 album chart. Driven by hits that also included "Come as You Are," "In Bloom" and "Lithium," the album ultimately sold over 10 million units and was RIAA-certified Diamond just seven years later.

Cobain’s lyrics, about self-hatred to adolescent rebellion, coupled with Nirvana’s hook-filled, distorted rock, spoke directly to the disaffection felt by that generation’s youth, and was viewed as an antidote to the excess and debauchery of the ‘80s hair metal scene. “Grunge” quickly became a household term, and the Seattle bands Pearl Jam, Soundgarden and Alice in Chains – all of which embodied the same sound and ethos – surged up the charts.

As Nirvana's popularity grew, so too did interest in Cobain’s personal life, which deeply affected his already fragile mental and emotional health. Reports of his heroin use, as well as his relationship with his wife, Hole frontwoman Courtney Love, became tabloid fodder.

Cobain and Love welcomed a baby girl, Frances Bean, in August 1992. Shortly thereafter, Vanity Fair published an article that alleged Love had used heroin while pregnant. In September, Los Angeles officials investigated the couple's fitness as parents, with Cobain and Love briefly losing custody of Frances.

Nirvana’s third and final album, the dissonant "In Utero," dropped in September 1993. The following November, at the height of their popularity, the band recorded an intimate show for the TV concert series "MTV Unplugged." The performance was released in 1994 as the live album "MTV Unplugged in New York," which ultimately was RIAA-certified eight-times Platinum. Nearly thirty years later, the guitar Cobain played during the concert sold at auction for a record-breaking $6 million in 2020, while the tattered green cardigan he wore sold a year earlier for $334,000.

Yet Cobain remained a troubled soul. His drug use continued, and on March 4, 1994, he was hospitalized in Rome for an overdose while Nirvana was on tour in Europe. Following a five-day hospitalization, Cobain returned home to Seattle.

On April 8, an electrician who arrived at Cobain's Seattle home to do some work discovered him dead. Following an investigation, it was ruled that he had died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound on April 5. Cobain had turned 27 not two months earlier.

Cobain’s death marked the end of both Nirvana and the grunge era, and enhanced the dark notoriety of the so-called '27 Club,' which includes the late musicians Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison and Janis Joplin, all of whom died at the same age. More poignantly, his death raised national awareness of both suicide and mental health, and focused a spotlight on Cobain’s past comments and lyrics that referenced guns or self-harm.

“It’s very painful,” Azerrad told ABC News of revisiting those earlier Cobain comments. “You smack your forehead metaphorically and just think, ‘Oh, why didn’t I notice that?’ It was staring at you in plain sight. But sometimes there’s such thing as hiding in plain sight, and that was one of those things.”

With Nirvana over, Grohl formed his own band, the chart-topping Foo Fighters. He and Novoselic have reunited several times, perhaps most notably at the 2014 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony, where Cobain and Nirvana were inducted during their first year of eligibility, and during which they performed Nirvana hits with guest singers including Lorde and Joan Jett.

In the three decades since Cobain's death, Nirvana's influence never waned, and has reached beyond rock music into other genres, and pop culture in general. Rapper Post Malone livestreamed a celebrated Nirvana tribute set during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, while actress and singer Selena Gomez – born less than a month before Frances Bean – recently shared that she was “obsessed” with Kurt Cobain growing up. In 2022, the "Nevermind" song “Something in the Way” enjoyed a resurgence due to its use in the trailer for the hit movie "The Batman."

"That's why Kurt made music – to rock people and himself," Azerrad said. "To make him feel better, and, by extension, hopefully, the audience feel better."

Josh Johnson writes about alternative and active rock music for ABC Audio.

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