As Roommate Sells His Possessions, We Remember Kurt Cobain, Nirvana Frontman

News that Kurt Cobain’s former roommate is flogging the deceased Nirvana frontman’s belongings on the internet has temporarily brought Kurt’s name back from the dead. Cobain committed suicide in 1994, but enthusiasm for the singer’s music has never waned, while Nirvana’s 1991 album Nevermind remains one of the best-selling albums of all time.

Kurt was just 27 when he commited suicide

Kurt was the quintessential grunge rocker, sadly he struggled with depression and heroin addiction and was found dead at his Lake Washington home on April 8, 1994, with an apparent gun shot wound to the head. Cobain left a suicide note in which he famously claimed ‘It’s better to burn out that to fade away’, lyrics taken from Neil Young’s 1979 song Hey Hey, My My. Cobain was just 27 when he died, joining the infamous ’27 Club’, a group of musicians who have all died at the age of 27. Other members of this sad group include Janis Joplin, Amy Winehouse and Jim Morrison.

Kurt Cobain was born in Washington in 1967 to parents who divorced when he was 7 years old. Cobain later noted that his parents divorce had an irreversible effect on him, making him feel ashamed and insecure. After his uncle gave him a used guitar for his 14th birthday, Kurt began learning iconic rock songs such as Led Zeppelin’s Stairway to Heaven and The Cars’ My Best Friend’s Girl, before transitioning to writing his own songs.


Cobain met Krist Novoselic while at the Melvins’ practice space and the pair would later go on to form Nirvana. After Cobain became dissatisfied with drummer Chad Channing, the band discovered Dave Grohl who would later go onto found the band Foo Fighters. The band’s fist major label album Nevermind catapulted Nirvana into the limelight, a place that Kurt never truly felt comfortable. This discomfort grew along with Nirvana’s success, Cobain began to feel persecuted by the media and resented fans who didn’t understand what he believed the ideology of the band to be.

Watch Nirvana perform 'About a Girl' live in Reading in 1992:

In 1990 Kurt had married Courtney Love, with whom he had a tumultuous relationship with. In 1992 Love became pregnant with the pair’s only child, Frances Bean Cobain, who was born in August, 1992. Cobain had been using heroin since 1986 and his addiction had worsened over the years, leading to a stint in rehab just before the birth of his daughter. Relations with Love worsened too, although she arranged a drug intervention including ten of Kurt’s closest friends in March of 1994. The intervention was unsuccessful and less than two weeks later, Cobain was found dead with a high level of heroin and diazepam in his system and a shotgun pointed to his head.

We’re sure that there are a lot of fans out there who would love a piece of Kurt Cobain memorabilia, but the most important thing that the talented but troubled musician left behind is his catalogue of music. In the eyes of his fans Kurt will never age, so it’s strange to think that on February 20th he would have turned 47.

Are any Nirvana fans planning on buying one of Kurt’s possessions?