10 Things You might Not Know About Kurt Cobain

 

1. He claimed to have written “God is Gay” on a wall in Aberdeen Wa. as a teenager. He actually wrote “Ain’t got no whatchamacallit’.

2. His Dad tried to get him to join the Navy, presumably to Make a Man of him, and so he’d learn to do as he was told. (Incompatible aims, in my opinion…)

3. He preferred cats to dogs. Dogs are too obliging.

4. He didn’t like Indian or French food, but he loved Kraft macaroni and cheese. 

5. He was fisherman, and enjoyed cooking and eating fish. “It’s OK to eat fish, cos they don’t have any feelings…”

6. He owned a tent, when he lived in Olympia Wa.  

7. He quit a job that involved dish-washing, because it ruined his nails for guitar playing.

8. He re-built broken guitars in the garage of his Olympia home. The broken guitar on display at EMP had been repainted several times.

9. He loved thrift/op shopping.  Old cardigans were cheap, and warm. Who knew they’d become trendy?

10. He flunked Math at high school, but was very good at Art.

It’s nineteen years since he locked himself in the greenhouse of  his beautiful home, and ended his life.

He was a polite, kind and generous man, whose music brought, and still brings, joy and meaning to thousands of people.

Let’s remember him that way.

“I want people to remember him as the cool guy he was ” – Michael Azzerad

“When I think of Kurt, I think of the way he giggled, or how he loved Abba,  or of him saying to me, ‘God, man, I wish I could wear sweatpants’.  He was a human being, a nice guy, and maybe it’s selective memory, but I don’t want to think of him as some brooding suicidal genius.” – Dave Grohl

“He was an amazing guy, he was a complete gentleman. A good-hearted guy. He was one of those people – everybody’s got them in their life – somebody that you turn to when things aren’t going so good.” – Mark Lanegan

The photos in this post, apart from the mugshot, were taken at the Experience Music Project, Seattle Centre,  in the Nirvana: Taking Punk To The Masses exhibition. We visited Seattle in August 2011, and have been planning a return trip to the Pacific North West ever since.