Sixteen years ago today, the music world lost one of its most iconic members when Kurt Cobain took his own life at his home in Seattle. (His body was actually found on April 8, but autopsy reports showed that he likely passed on the fifth.) Most of the world heard about his passing via Kurt Loder's special report, broadcast on April 8 during regular MTV programming.
Cobain was only 27 years old when he died, but he managed to cram an awful lot of life and career into those days.
Born on February 20, 1967 in Aberdeen, Washington, Cobain grew up poor and showed an early interest in painting (something he continued to do throughout his life). His interest in music came later, when his uncle bought him a guitar for his 14th birthday. It was then that he became interested in punk rock and the growing music scenes happening in both Seattle and Olympia.
Cobain never finished high school (he dropped out a few weeks before the end of his senior when he realized he'd be a few credits short of graduation), but by then he had already met future Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic. By the mid-'80s, the pair started hanging out with proto-grunge bands the Melvins, Tad and Mudhoney. With a rotating cast of drummers, Nirvana started touring and eventually got together enough momentum to record Bleach for Seattle's Sub Pop Records in 1989.
The band's fame grew steadily, but Cobain's life remained problematic. He suffered from chronic stomach pain and had scoliosis, which often made his back sore. Though he consulted a handful of doctors, Cobain found that the only thing that made him feel any better was self-medication. As the writings in Journals proved, he was also often depressed.
The band's profile continued to rise, as they earned a reputation as a blistering live act. "Smells Like Teen Spirit" was an MTV staple by 1992, which propelled the group's second album Nevermind to the top of the charts. Cobain had gone from crashing in other people's basements (his mother threw him out of the house when he dropped out of school) to being one of the most recognizable rock stars in the world in a few short years.
But the problems continued. Though Cobain kicked heroin (which had become a full-fledged addiction) in 1992 when he discovered that wife Courtney Love was pregnant, the rigors of the road proved to be too much for him, and he ended up back on the drug. His behavior became more and more erratic (he famously fell asleep several times while on heroin during a photo shoot surrounding the band's appearance on "Saturday Night Live" in the fall of 1992).
Cobain attempted to clean up multiple times, but his downward spiral continued through 1993 (when the band's abrasive third album In Utero was cut and released), and by the beginning of 1994 things had reached a fever pitch. While on tour in Europe in March of '94, Cobain overdosed on a combination of champagne and Rohypnol. After getting his stomach pumped, Cobain returned to Seattle with wife Love. She staged an intervention for him a few weeks later, which ended with Cobain agreeing to enter a rehab program in Los Angeles.
But a few days after checking in, Cobain hopped the wall of the Exodus Recovery Center and caught a plane back to Seattle, where people lost track of him for a few days — in fact, Love hired a private investigator to track him down (at the time, she was on tour with Hole, who were preparing for the release of Live Through This). He was finally found dead on April 8 by an electrician who had come to his home to install a security system. Cobain left behind a suicide note, the shotgun he used to kill himself and a bevy of questions about his drug issues and mental health.
What's your lasting memory of Kurt Cobain? Let us know in the comments.