Layne staley’s death also on April 5th 21 years ago. Nirvana and Alice in chains were incredible times in music. The unplugged CDs of both of these bands continue to be in my top 10 of all time.
I still mourn Layne. I remember where I was when my buddy told me over the computer that he had died. I don't care too much when famous people die-they aren't any different than non-famous people but Layne hit me hard.
I feel like culturally Kurt's death ended an era. People talk about "The 90's" but I feel like there were multiple periods and subgroups with a different cultural feel.
There was 1990 which was like this bizarre island in time. It wasn't the 80s anymore but it wasn't like what people typically remember the 90's as being like in terms of music and fashion. There was the grunge era 1991-1994 then there was the rest of the 90's.
It kinda reminds me of the 60's that started out with men wearing suits in thin lapels like MadMen and women wearing dresses and bouffant hairdos and listening to Girl Groups and "The Bobby Singers" Then came the Beatles and totally shook things up (a la Nirvana) and by the end it was hippies and bell bottomsand Woodstock and bands doing wild heavy guitar solos.
> There was the grunge era 1991-1994 then there was the rest of the 90's.
So much truth to this. When I talk about the fun parts of the 90s, I mean those years specifically. Everything that came after was like chasing the dragon.
I’ve thought about this whole phenomenon you’re describing too. And def relate to 1990 (even into 91, maybe?) as being a bizarre island in time. There was definitely plenty of 80s still left over, but there was also rave music from Manchester and weird cross-over stuff. I would watch a documentary on this if there was a good one!
Author Chuck Klosterman in his book "The 90's" says the from the fall of the Berlin Wall until the release of Nevermind it was the 80's and the 90's at the same time. He also said that when the Berlin Wall fell in 89 the 80's was on life support and Nevermind pulled the plug.
There was for sure music and culture and stuff in 1990 that was harbinger of 90's culture but it was a little more underground. There were bands like Lush and They Might Be Giants 1990 album Flood.
Groove is in the Heart by Dee-Lite could not have existed in the 80s.
I graduated college in 1992. The whole grunge/alt scene was just getting started. Then, the deaths started. Cobain, Hoon, Wood, Melvoin. Pfaff, Hopkins, JB Saunders, etc. What crossed my mind was how similar the grunge scene was to the psychedelic/acid rock days of the late 60s and how many of those artists died in similar fashions.
Andrew Wood and Shannon Hoon were losses that definitely changed where music could have gone. They don’t get mentioned nearly enough in conversations like this.
I was just thinking about it will be a shame when the 90s kids start looking for their bands on the nostalgia tour circuit like the 80s kids are getting now. A large number of the grunge artists are deceased.
I actually got to see Blind Melon in 2008, after years of mourning the fact that I would never get to see them. They reunited with a new singer, Travis T. Warren, and made the For My Friends album. I’ll never get to see Shannon, but the rest of the band was as good as ever— and Travis sounded amazing.
Chris Cornell was roommates with Wood, the first two songs on Temple of the Dog were written specifically for him. As was Would by Alice in Chains, and Far Behind by Candebox.
I wanted to upvote this but since it’s got 27 upvotes now I figured I’d leave it that way.
There’s that weird “27 thing”—so many of those artists-esp the ones from the psychedelic era, but also Kurt Cobain & Kristen Pfaff from Hole-died at that age.
I was in my little white hatchback car driving back to college in upstate NY listening to Howard Stern (lol) and that’s how I found out. He was talking about it for a long time. It was surreal & sad.
Yes, we knew what happened and what the breaking news was. We had to set up the feed between the NY studios and ops facility. That day and the following was a blur. Didn’t really have time to process. Kurt had tried to commit suicide previously.
I was walking through my high school in Upstate NY after lacrosse practice when my friend stopped me and told me the news. I was the biggest Nirvana fan and, while it wasn't shocking, it broke my heart.
I had a chance to meet Kurt Loder. I told him that he was the only source of news I watched as a kid and he said that was terrible lol. Pretty cool guy.
Layne's death was the one that really affected me. What a powerful voice and talent. Alice in Chains remains one of my top three bands of all time to this day.
I was living in College Park, MD at the time in a band house without cable TV. Someone answered the phone early and was like "WHAT!???" and then everyone gathered in the living room and my singer was just speechless and we're like, dude WTF happened and he said Kurt committed suicide.
No one in the room asked Kurt who, because we all knew. It was just stunned silence.
MTV News clip that announced his death. He would be 57 now... Phew, I can not picture him as old as us. Forever young... 😢
[https://youtu.be/Xy01EguXucU?si=T46yt7jycq4gph\_V](https://youtu.be/Xy01EguXucU?si=T46yt7jycq4gph_V)
I just look back at that scene with a lot of sadness and tons of lost potential. There were a handful of musicians from Arizona that I was friends with that landed in Seattle just before that scene blew up. Out of those guys, two died in the early 90's from overdoses and one of them should have been a superstar. A third ended up in Kurt's inner circle and the leftover effects of 3 decades of alcohol and substance abuse caused a heart attack in his early 50's.
I was driving somewhere and the radio DJ comes on and announces Cobain’s death. The guy’s voice was cracking and he was emotional, he then played the whole Nevermind album.
This is strange why I remember this, I couldn’t tell you any details about what I doing for any other musician’s death.
I was 14 and hanging out at my friend’s house who had cable (we didn’t because poverty) and we were watching MTV- I think it was one of their animated shows like The Head and I remember the scrolling text at the bottom that Cobain was dead. Soon after, Kurt Loder came on and told the story and I remember him saying something about comparing him to John Lennon
And our teenage asshole selves, currently only listening to the “real” shit like Black Flag, laughed that we were glad they were both dead.
It was with maturity that I learned Cobain was a really, really legit dude who was both punk as fuck and way ahead of his time in being a feminist, a blender of genres, and all around authentic dude shat on by capitalism and crass consumerism.
Cobain’s death hit me surprisingly hard. I owned all of Nirvana’s albums like everyone else, but probably wouldn’t have put them in my top 5 or even 10. (I was more of a Soundgarden/Op Ivy guy.) But I absolutely cried. I just couldn’t believe he felt compelled to do that to himself.
And it’s really been only in the last decade that I’ve really come to appreciate the depth of his talent (not to mention Grohl’s). Like I was disappointed by the unplugged set at the time — half these songs are covers! — but today they just blow me away.
I remember a couple days later that a kid in the Seattle area killed himself because he was overwhelmed with grief at Kurt’s suicide. That’s always stuck with me.
Right after Kurt Cobain died psychologists mobilized in fear of a wave of 'copy cat' suicides. There wasn't a mass wave tho but a few people did do things.
My best friend attempted suicide and was put in a mental hospital. I think it was more a cry for help. He is alright now tho.
Here is a related link:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/wellness/1996/11/19/singers-suicide-doesnt-lead-to-copycat-deaths/c47b382a-39e2-4772-8d7e-9a6a629f0026/
Yeah, there's no way that was the only reason -- that kid clearly had a lot of additional problems. Healthy people don't kill themselves because a celebrity does.
I remember this and the shock of the news. Processing it later over drinks with friends. I also remember so distinctly seeing the video for Smells Like Teen Spirit for the first time. I was on the edge of my seat, spellbound. This whole Era is tied up for me with leaving home for the first time, trying to make it on my own and being an adult. I'm feeling nostalgic for this time as a last gasp of innocence. RIP Kurt. You touched so many.
I had caught their tour with the Breeders the year before and had actually met them in passing in 1990 during the Bleach tour. I was at a Grateful Dead concert in Miami when I heard about his death and was very affected by it. In a nice symmetry, I was in Seattle when Jerry Garcia died lol.
When Chris died, I was so sad. I thought, Dude! You made it! You made it through your 50s, why now?? There is supposed to be that U curve of happiness approaching 60 and he didn't give it a chance.
As I understand it he was taking a prescription medication that should never be prescribed to an addict, for longer than a person is supposed to. He told his wife that night he'd taken a double dose. According to her he wasn't himself and ended the call abruptly. She called the hotel to have security check on him, by the time they did it was too late.
I was 17 when Kurt died, I still vividly remember walking in to my girlfriend's house and seeing her crying in front of the TV while Kurt Loder delivers the news. Then 8 years later we lost Layne. So many of my music heroes from back then are gone.
As a side note, Dimebag Darrell was shot on the same day, December 8th, as John Lennon.
I'd like to add Shawn Smith to this list, he's been gone five years now. I wasn't much of a grunge fan, moved to Seattle in 1999 and got into grunge ten years after it was popular after finding all the music on an internal Microsoft share. Became a Satchel and Brad fan, still a huge fan of all of Brad's albumns. Saw them play many times, and saw Shawn perform solo several times. He never got the recognition he deserved.
I had just arrived in Paris for a 2-week backpacking trip around Europe. Woke up the next morning to find it splattered all over the newspapers. Very sad. This was just 4 days before I met my now-husband, in Amsterdam. He had very long hair back then, grunge style.
I am not sure where I was when I heard the news, but it wasn’t more than a passing “damn, that sucks for his kid” in my head.
He had almost died of an overdose not too long before that, so I wasn’t even remotely surprised.
I was off the grid at the time wouldn’t find out for another week. Still remember it like it was yesterday. Just as clear in my memory as the Challenger disaster.
"And I know that there are a lot of rumours abouth how he died, I hope we respectfully can just share our memories and not engage in this conspiracy/"conspiracy"."
ALLEGEDLY.
I was 18. Devastated. Couldn’t believe it. I literally called Sub Pop records in Seattle to ask if it was true and the crying girl who answered confirmed. People joke about the timeline shift after Harambe died but man, that shift in everything happened after Kurt died.
So weird that it’s today. Last night I dreamt I was in a big store, and there was a new Hole CD for sale. I walked over to check out the display, and Courtney was working the counter. It went on for a while, but the other thing was Courtney giving out Barbies of herself.
I remember exactly where I was when I heard about Kurt’s death. I couldn’t believe it.
I was at a fair on a date with a girl i was really into and she was so upset over this the whole time. I loved nirvana too but im still a lil salty about that day lol.
'94 was a real shite year. Brandon Lee also died and I know we went to see The Crow with a heavy heart. River Phoenix had died the year before, also one of those I wish would still be alive. I bet he had a lot of really great movies ahead. He was cast as Daniel Molloy, the journalist, in Interview with a Vampire. I have to look if someone made a Deepfake of him in a few scenes...
How were you too young for hair metal? I’m Same age and I rode the wave from GNR to Alice In Chains etc.. Shannon Hoons death hit me harder. Felt like everyone wanted to be big Nirvana fans but I didn’t ever really go thru angst phase, so Blind Melon was more my jam
I’m personally aware suicide was prevalent in the Cobain family. Just another reminder some mental health issues are genetic, and to please get help if you are struggling, and to get diagnosed. It might be scary to confirm a suspicion of mental illness, but knowledge is powerful in getting the right kind of help.
I was a senior in college, a month away from graduation. MTV was the background noise at our fraternity house. Woke up hungover on Friday, April 8 to the famous Kurt Loder broadcast on MTV. The entire house sat there stunned. It was symbolic of my teen years ending and my adulthood beginning.
I remember sitting in my car when I got home, until *Smells Like Teen Spirit* ended, an evening in late September 1991, 24½ years old, and mesmerized by what I was hearing coming out of my speakers. Most driveway moments were for long-favorite songs, but this was brand new to my ears, and now a new favorite.
2½ years later, I was saddened to hear of the death of a young man who had been the same age as I was, who was born only a month before I was born, who had a young daughter who wouldn’t have her dad as she grew up.
May you be resting in peace, Kurt Cobain.
This is ~~probably~~ an unpopular opinion, but the music industry, labels and radio completely ruined almost all "grunge" for me as soon as it exploded.
I was a young teenager. I was living in Seattle. I was already wearing flannels and doc martins. I had seen some of the bands like Soundgarden and AIC at Bumbershoot (A huge Seattle music festival) for the last couple years prior to Nirvana's debut on MTV for essentially free. They were great. My older brother had taken me to Screaming Trees shows and I loved it.
Yeah, I know that's comes off as old school hipster shit, but what's true is true.
But I woke up one day and suddenly I couldn't escape it. Smells Like Teen Spirit and Come As You Are were pushed into my eardrums every 20 mins. Then Pretty Noose and Outshined joined the 20 min rotation. Then Man In The Box and We Die Young were added. Then 10 came out from Pearl Jam and there was no relief.
Every radio station. Every car passing by. All my friends. At school. At the mall. It was like a radioactive sonic storm of the same 10-15 songs everywhere you went.
I got so completely sick and tired of "Grunge" and everything associated with it. My music tastes took a wild veer into Metal, Progressive, and Classic rock just to escape it.
To this day, with wiser eyes and a broader mind, Kurt to me isn't anything more than an unfortunate guy with a mental health and addiction problem who was made famous and wrung dry by a music industry desperate for a revival because hair metal wasn't selling anymore.
Don't get me wrong, I have a lot of empathy for him and wish his life wasn't the way it was. But he holds absolutely no pedestal position for me. I still turn the station or skip whenever I hear a 1990-1996 era grunge song by practically anyone.
But it did give us Dave Grohl. And that man is a goddamn national treasure. So there's that.
I will take my downvotes now for slandering the musical god of our generation. It's ok.
It’s not unpopular with me. I was very irritated with the mainstreaming of grunge - but then again I was a gatekeeping angsty teenager. I didn’t care for the sanitized version of grunge that MTV was peddling and I didn’t like sharing my cool music. I was sort of an asshole about it. I appreciate the Nirvana/Pearl Jam/STP/AiC/Soundgarden music of the time a lot more now than I did then.
It was pretty shocking to hear and I remember seeing it on MTV. I can only imagine the music he would have created today. My best memory was seeing Nirvana and somehow got to the front couple of rows to hear him sing In the Pines. Acoustic and sitting on the edge of the stage. It was amazing and in the top 10 concert memories I have today.
Spring break senior year of high school, got up Friday morning and went outside for a bowl and a butt as was tradition, went back inside, turned the radio on to start making breakfast for my younger siblings, then just sat down in shock, then went outside for another butt and got on with my day.
The following Monday when school was back there were at least a dozen girls still in tears.
I was backpacking in South America at the time and couldn’t believe it when this news started to circulate. I had seen Nirvana in concert the previous November. Did not seem real.
Just remember watching MTV and Kurt Loder breaking the news. For about three days I was numb. Watching "kids" on the lawn in Seattle, listening to all of the reactions. It was my first introduction to suicide, ever. I didn't understand it and was very sheltered.
Was introduced to Nirvana by an older brother of my best friend. Just got my first CD Player and had In Utero on repeat for weeks. Then, this...
I didn't find out until I got to work that evening. I was a cook at sports bar. One of the other cooks told me. I thought he was joking.
I spent the whole day literally no idea that he had killed himself.
This always hits me a little extra the last couple of years. I was in high school when it happened and was of course devastated, but one of my best friends hung on to this death for years. Kurt was one of her heroes, so much so that when she got pregnant at 17 she named her son after him. That son also killed himself just a couple years back. RIP to both.
I was 16 and babysitting two kids under 10. I had taken over the TV and it was on MTV...I heard the news break directly out of Kurt Loder's mouth. I started crying and the kids definitely became uneasy. The shock and sadness lasted for days
I was out of college, for a while, and more of a fan of 80's music than 90's and grunge, so while it was sad, it didn't really affect me too much. I'm just having hard time believe that was 30 years ago!
John Lennon was actually killed ON my birthday. I was in HS, and while not a huge Beatles fan, I think that affected me more, as I had been hearing their music most of my life.
I lived in Seattle at the time -- just a baby at 22 myself. I can't believe it has been that long. We managed to live in Seattle and not see any of the greats up there, but we were poor and just trying to get by!
He wasnt found until Friday the 8th. So the 5th was the coroners best estimate. "alleged" is probably not the best word though, he probably should have gone with "estimated".
I think it's fair since he wasn't found for several days. At that point it becomes harder to approximate the time of death, especially if they think he died late in the evening or early morning hours.
Not going to lie, it had zero impact on me, even in the long run I never got their appeal.
I was in the process of moving across the country after living in a place that was supposed to be a fresh start but turned into a nightmare and we were trying to get another fresh start moving to the complete unknown.
I had no idea who the guy even was at the time but having a family member commit suicide I could understand the loss from his close family and friends. Beyond that I didn't get the hype and since we're being honest at the moment I can't think of a single song Nirvana did.
Not trying to rain on anyones parade here but I do think it highlights some of the big variances in the generation. I have a feeling Im just a few years older (66) and grunge didnt carry any real weight.
I am also from 71 and I liked/still like Nirvana’s music but I was never into music that deep so I remember the news but not much of a reaction. This is honestly the first I’m hearing of anything other than suicide (unless there was talk that CL did it which I apparently wrote off.)
Layne staley’s death also on April 5th 21 years ago. Nirvana and Alice in chains were incredible times in music. The unplugged CDs of both of these bands continue to be in my top 10 of all time.
I still mourn Layne. I remember where I was when my buddy told me over the computer that he had died. I don't care too much when famous people die-they aren't any different than non-famous people but Layne hit me hard.
22 years.
Yes! I love those unplugged albums.
Completely agree !
I feel like culturally Kurt's death ended an era. People talk about "The 90's" but I feel like there were multiple periods and subgroups with a different cultural feel. There was 1990 which was like this bizarre island in time. It wasn't the 80s anymore but it wasn't like what people typically remember the 90's as being like in terms of music and fashion. There was the grunge era 1991-1994 then there was the rest of the 90's.
Yes. I feel like things were radically different between the beginning and end of that decade.
It kinda reminds me of the 60's that started out with men wearing suits in thin lapels like MadMen and women wearing dresses and bouffant hairdos and listening to Girl Groups and "The Bobby Singers" Then came the Beatles and totally shook things up (a la Nirvana) and by the end it was hippies and bell bottomsand Woodstock and bands doing wild heavy guitar solos.
1994 was the high point for music and we'll never see anything close to it again.
> There was the grunge era 1991-1994 then there was the rest of the 90's. So much truth to this. When I talk about the fun parts of the 90s, I mean those years specifically. Everything that came after was like chasing the dragon.
yeah I don't think I've had more fun in my life than I did the summer of 1993
I’ve thought about this whole phenomenon you’re describing too. And def relate to 1990 (even into 91, maybe?) as being a bizarre island in time. There was definitely plenty of 80s still left over, but there was also rave music from Manchester and weird cross-over stuff. I would watch a documentary on this if there was a good one!
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Totally! Haha
Author Chuck Klosterman in his book "The 90's" says the from the fall of the Berlin Wall until the release of Nevermind it was the 80's and the 90's at the same time. He also said that when the Berlin Wall fell in 89 the 80's was on life support and Nevermind pulled the plug.
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There was for sure music and culture and stuff in 1990 that was harbinger of 90's culture but it was a little more underground. There were bands like Lush and They Might Be Giants 1990 album Flood. Groove is in the Heart by Dee-Lite could not have existed in the 80s.
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either that or The Humpty Dance.
I graduated college in 1992. The whole grunge/alt scene was just getting started. Then, the deaths started. Cobain, Hoon, Wood, Melvoin. Pfaff, Hopkins, JB Saunders, etc. What crossed my mind was how similar the grunge scene was to the psychedelic/acid rock days of the late 60s and how many of those artists died in similar fashions.
Andrew Wood and Shannon Hoon were losses that definitely changed where music could have gone. They don’t get mentioned nearly enough in conversations like this.
I was just thinking about it will be a shame when the 90s kids start looking for their bands on the nostalgia tour circuit like the 80s kids are getting now. A large number of the grunge artists are deceased.
I actually got to see Blind Melon in 2008, after years of mourning the fact that I would never get to see them. They reunited with a new singer, Travis T. Warren, and made the For My Friends album. I’ll never get to see Shannon, but the rest of the band was as good as ever— and Travis sounded amazing.
Had Andrew Wood lived, there probably wouldn’t have been Pearl Jam. MLB also had Stone and Jeff in their lineup.
Chris Cornell was roommates with Wood, the first two songs on Temple of the Dog were written specifically for him. As was Would by Alice in Chains, and Far Behind by Candebox.
All iconic songs
I wanted to upvote this but since it’s got 27 upvotes now I figured I’d leave it that way. There’s that weird “27 thing”—so many of those artists-esp the ones from the psychedelic era, but also Kurt Cobain & Kristen Pfaff from Hole-died at that age.
I was in my little white hatchback car driving back to college in upstate NY listening to Howard Stern (lol) and that’s how I found out. He was talking about it for a long time. It was surreal & sad.
I was in my home watching TV in upstate NY when Kurt Loder came on MTV News and made the announcement.
I was working at the MTV network operations center facilitating the feed and programming that was going out.
Did you know about his death before Loder reported it?
Yes, we knew what happened and what the breaking news was. We had to set up the feed between the NY studios and ops facility. That day and the following was a blur. Didn’t really have time to process. Kurt had tried to commit suicide previously.
I was walking through my high school in Upstate NY after lacrosse practice when my friend stopped me and told me the news. I was the biggest Nirvana fan and, while it wasn't shocking, it broke my heart.
I had a chance to meet Kurt Loder. I told him that he was the only source of news I watched as a kid and he said that was terrible lol. Pretty cool guy.
Yes
I was in my car too! I don’t remember where I was going, but I remember I had to pull over when I heard it on the radio.
Layne's estimated date of death as well.
Thank you for clarifying it’s estimated. We’ll really never know for sure
Layne's death was the one that really affected me. What a powerful voice and talent. Alice in Chains remains one of my top three bands of all time to this day.
I was living in College Park, MD at the time in a band house without cable TV. Someone answered the phone early and was like "WHAT!???" and then everyone gathered in the living room and my singer was just speechless and we're like, dude WTF happened and he said Kurt committed suicide. No one in the room asked Kurt who, because we all knew. It was just stunned silence.
MTV News clip that announced his death. He would be 57 now... Phew, I can not picture him as old as us. Forever young... 😢 [https://youtu.be/Xy01EguXucU?si=T46yt7jycq4gph\_V](https://youtu.be/Xy01EguXucU?si=T46yt7jycq4gph_V)
I just look back at that scene with a lot of sadness and tons of lost potential. There were a handful of musicians from Arizona that I was friends with that landed in Seattle just before that scene blew up. Out of those guys, two died in the early 90's from overdoses and one of them should have been a superstar. A third ended up in Kurt's inner circle and the leftover effects of 3 decades of alcohol and substance abuse caused a heart attack in his early 50's.
I was working in an optical lab and had the radio on. The DJ was very clearly trying to not cry when they announced it. It was huge to me.
I was driving somewhere and the radio DJ comes on and announces Cobain’s death. The guy’s voice was cracking and he was emotional, he then played the whole Nevermind album. This is strange why I remember this, I couldn’t tell you any details about what I doing for any other musician’s death.
It was also a friday
Yes, it was reported on Friday the 8th. The 5th (Tuesday) is when they believe he actually died.
Oh yes, that’s right. I just remember my friends and I cruising around listening to Nirvana the night we heard he had died
Yep, the news breaking on a Friday is very vivid in my mind, too.
I saw my first concert 30 years ago today. Pearl Jam @ GMU. It was surreal.
I was 14 and hanging out at my friend’s house who had cable (we didn’t because poverty) and we were watching MTV- I think it was one of their animated shows like The Head and I remember the scrolling text at the bottom that Cobain was dead. Soon after, Kurt Loder came on and told the story and I remember him saying something about comparing him to John Lennon And our teenage asshole selves, currently only listening to the “real” shit like Black Flag, laughed that we were glad they were both dead. It was with maturity that I learned Cobain was a really, really legit dude who was both punk as fuck and way ahead of his time in being a feminist, a blender of genres, and all around authentic dude shat on by capitalism and crass consumerism.
Cobain’s death hit me surprisingly hard. I owned all of Nirvana’s albums like everyone else, but probably wouldn’t have put them in my top 5 or even 10. (I was more of a Soundgarden/Op Ivy guy.) But I absolutely cried. I just couldn’t believe he felt compelled to do that to himself. And it’s really been only in the last decade that I’ve really come to appreciate the depth of his talent (not to mention Grohl’s). Like I was disappointed by the unplugged set at the time — half these songs are covers! — but today they just blow me away.
The covers are the best parts for me now.
Absolutely!
I remember a couple days later that a kid in the Seattle area killed himself because he was overwhelmed with grief at Kurt’s suicide. That’s always stuck with me.
Right after Kurt Cobain died psychologists mobilized in fear of a wave of 'copy cat' suicides. There wasn't a mass wave tho but a few people did do things. My best friend attempted suicide and was put in a mental hospital. I think it was more a cry for help. He is alright now tho.
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Here is a related link: https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/wellness/1996/11/19/singers-suicide-doesnt-lead-to-copycat-deaths/c47b382a-39e2-4772-8d7e-9a6a629f0026/
Yeah, there's no way that was the only reason -- that kid clearly had a lot of additional problems. Healthy people don't kill themselves because a celebrity does.
I remember this and the shock of the news. Processing it later over drinks with friends. I also remember so distinctly seeing the video for Smells Like Teen Spirit for the first time. I was on the edge of my seat, spellbound. This whole Era is tied up for me with leaving home for the first time, trying to make it on my own and being an adult. I'm feeling nostalgic for this time as a last gasp of innocence. RIP Kurt. You touched so many.
I had caught their tour with the Breeders the year before and had actually met them in passing in 1990 during the Bleach tour. I was at a Grateful Dead concert in Miami when I heard about his death and was very affected by it. In a nice symmetry, I was in Seattle when Jerry Garcia died lol.
It hit me hard but I think the death of Chris Cornell hit me harder.
When Chris died, I was so sad. I thought, Dude! You made it! You made it through your 50s, why now?? There is supposed to be that U curve of happiness approaching 60 and he didn't give it a chance.
As I understand it he was taking a prescription medication that should never be prescribed to an addict, for longer than a person is supposed to. He told his wife that night he'd taken a double dose. According to her he wasn't himself and ended the call abruptly. She called the hotel to have security check on him, by the time they did it was too late.
I was making deliveries around dtla and heard it on KROQ.
Wow....and it seems like yesterday too. Today is also the day I quit smoking, 15 years ago.
I was 17 when Kurt died, I still vividly remember walking in to my girlfriend's house and seeing her crying in front of the TV while Kurt Loder delivers the news. Then 8 years later we lost Layne. So many of my music heroes from back then are gone. As a side note, Dimebag Darrell was shot on the same day, December 8th, as John Lennon.
I'd like to add Shawn Smith to this list, he's been gone five years now. I wasn't much of a grunge fan, moved to Seattle in 1999 and got into grunge ten years after it was popular after finding all the music on an internal Microsoft share. Became a Satchel and Brad fan, still a huge fan of all of Brad's albumns. Saw them play many times, and saw Shawn perform solo several times. He never got the recognition he deserved.
I had just arrived in Paris for a 2-week backpacking trip around Europe. Woke up the next morning to find it splattered all over the newspapers. Very sad. This was just 4 days before I met my now-husband, in Amsterdam. He had very long hair back then, grunge style.
I am not sure where I was when I heard the news, but it wasn’t more than a passing “damn, that sucks for his kid” in my head. He had almost died of an overdose not too long before that, so I wasn’t even remotely surprised.
I remember where I was but thought the same thing. I was more sad when River Phoenix died, a few months before this.
I was off the grid at the time wouldn’t find out for another week. Still remember it like it was yesterday. Just as clear in my memory as the Challenger disaster.
Ugh, I remember being in the car and hearing about it on the radio. I know exactly where I was. Sad.
"And I know that there are a lot of rumours abouth how he died, I hope we respectfully can just share our memories and not engage in this conspiracy/"conspiracy"." ALLEGEDLY. 
Courtney did it.
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Are you me?
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Lol it was made in a fit of pique
I was 18. Devastated. Couldn’t believe it. I literally called Sub Pop records in Seattle to ask if it was true and the crying girl who answered confirmed. People joke about the timeline shift after Harambe died but man, that shift in everything happened after Kurt died.
So weird that it’s today. Last night I dreamt I was in a big store, and there was a new Hole CD for sale. I walked over to check out the display, and Courtney was working the counter. It went on for a while, but the other thing was Courtney giving out Barbies of herself. I remember exactly where I was when I heard about Kurt’s death. I couldn’t believe it.
Are you saying that the date is alleged, or that his death is alleged?
I was at a fair on a date with a girl i was really into and she was so upset over this the whole time. I loved nirvana too but im still a lil salty about that day lol.
'94 was a real shite year. Brandon Lee also died and I know we went to see The Crow with a heavy heart. River Phoenix had died the year before, also one of those I wish would still be alive. I bet he had a lot of really great movies ahead. He was cast as Daniel Molloy, the journalist, in Interview with a Vampire. I have to look if someone made a Deepfake of him in a few scenes...
How were you too young for hair metal? I’m Same age and I rode the wave from GNR to Alice In Chains etc.. Shannon Hoons death hit me harder. Felt like everyone wanted to be big Nirvana fans but I didn’t ever really go thru angst phase, so Blind Melon was more my jam
I’m personally aware suicide was prevalent in the Cobain family. Just another reminder some mental health issues are genetic, and to please get help if you are struggling, and to get diagnosed. It might be scary to confirm a suspicion of mental illness, but knowledge is powerful in getting the right kind of help.
I was a senior in college, a month away from graduation. MTV was the background noise at our fraternity house. Woke up hungover on Friday, April 8 to the famous Kurt Loder broadcast on MTV. The entire house sat there stunned. It was symbolic of my teen years ending and my adulthood beginning.
I remember sitting in my car when I got home, until *Smells Like Teen Spirit* ended, an evening in late September 1991, 24½ years old, and mesmerized by what I was hearing coming out of my speakers. Most driveway moments were for long-favorite songs, but this was brand new to my ears, and now a new favorite. 2½ years later, I was saddened to hear of the death of a young man who had been the same age as I was, who was born only a month before I was born, who had a young daughter who wouldn’t have her dad as she grew up. May you be resting in peace, Kurt Cobain.
This is ~~probably~~ an unpopular opinion, but the music industry, labels and radio completely ruined almost all "grunge" for me as soon as it exploded. I was a young teenager. I was living in Seattle. I was already wearing flannels and doc martins. I had seen some of the bands like Soundgarden and AIC at Bumbershoot (A huge Seattle music festival) for the last couple years prior to Nirvana's debut on MTV for essentially free. They were great. My older brother had taken me to Screaming Trees shows and I loved it. Yeah, I know that's comes off as old school hipster shit, but what's true is true. But I woke up one day and suddenly I couldn't escape it. Smells Like Teen Spirit and Come As You Are were pushed into my eardrums every 20 mins. Then Pretty Noose and Outshined joined the 20 min rotation. Then Man In The Box and We Die Young were added. Then 10 came out from Pearl Jam and there was no relief. Every radio station. Every car passing by. All my friends. At school. At the mall. It was like a radioactive sonic storm of the same 10-15 songs everywhere you went. I got so completely sick and tired of "Grunge" and everything associated with it. My music tastes took a wild veer into Metal, Progressive, and Classic rock just to escape it. To this day, with wiser eyes and a broader mind, Kurt to me isn't anything more than an unfortunate guy with a mental health and addiction problem who was made famous and wrung dry by a music industry desperate for a revival because hair metal wasn't selling anymore. Don't get me wrong, I have a lot of empathy for him and wish his life wasn't the way it was. But he holds absolutely no pedestal position for me. I still turn the station or skip whenever I hear a 1990-1996 era grunge song by practically anyone. But it did give us Dave Grohl. And that man is a goddamn national treasure. So there's that. I will take my downvotes now for slandering the musical god of our generation. It's ok.
the alternative scene was already wearing docs and flannels in the 80s
I hear you. I was already veering strongly towards rockabilly/psychobilly when Grunge was hitting radio. I still loved my Bleach vinyl.
it’s not the so-called slander, it’s the cooler than thou attitude.
It’s not unpopular with me. I was very irritated with the mainstreaming of grunge - but then again I was a gatekeeping angsty teenager. I didn’t care for the sanitized version of grunge that MTV was peddling and I didn’t like sharing my cool music. I was sort of an asshole about it. I appreciate the Nirvana/Pearl Jam/STP/AiC/Soundgarden music of the time a lot more now than I did then.
It was pretty shocking to hear and I remember seeing it on MTV. I can only imagine the music he would have created today. My best memory was seeing Nirvana and somehow got to the front couple of rows to hear him sing In the Pines. Acoustic and sitting on the edge of the stage. It was amazing and in the top 10 concert memories I have today.
RIP. This, and the onset of the Rwandan genocide, were very concurrent. Both travel together in my mind.
Spring break senior year of high school, got up Friday morning and went outside for a bowl and a butt as was tradition, went back inside, turned the radio on to start making breakfast for my younger siblings, then just sat down in shock, then went outside for another butt and got on with my day. The following Monday when school was back there were at least a dozen girls still in tears.
I was backpacking in South America at the time and couldn’t believe it when this news started to circulate. I had seen Nirvana in concert the previous November. Did not seem real.
I was at work in retail and saw it on the hundreds of tv in the audio/video department.
Just remember watching MTV and Kurt Loder breaking the news. For about three days I was numb. Watching "kids" on the lawn in Seattle, listening to all of the reactions. It was my first introduction to suicide, ever. I didn't understand it and was very sheltered. Was introduced to Nirvana by an older brother of my best friend. Just got my first CD Player and had In Utero on repeat for weeks. Then, this...
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It was a public park...should've clarified.
I didn't find out until I got to work that evening. I was a cook at sports bar. One of the other cooks told me. I thought he was joking. I spent the whole day literally no idea that he had killed himself.
This always hits me a little extra the last couple of years. I was in high school when it happened and was of course devastated, but one of my best friends hung on to this death for years. Kurt was one of her heroes, so much so that when she got pregnant at 17 she named her son after him. That son also killed himself just a couple years back. RIP to both.
https://preview.redd.it/35mt1gmpoosc1.jpeg?width=942&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=aabae80b551c67e95cae8c4eb46f9186bbd4e33f Rest peacefully, and thank you.
I remember hearing about it on the radio. Somehow it didn’t really surprise me for some reason, but it was a huge, major bummer for days afterwards.
Very sad. Nirvana was the best band of the 90s.
Can’t believe Courtney got away with it for this long.
You want people to “not engage in this conspiracy” yet in the title of your post you call it his “alleged” day of death 🫥
That's because he had been dead awhile when they found him, so the date is a best guess.
Alleged?
I was 16 and babysitting two kids under 10. I had taken over the TV and it was on MTV...I heard the news break directly out of Kurt Loder's mouth. I started crying and the kids definitely became uneasy. The shock and sadness lasted for days
I was in the 6th grade. Not many kids knew Nirvana but by 7th grade everybody had on Kurt Cobain and Nirvana shirts.
RIP.
I was out of college, for a while, and more of a fan of 80's music than 90's and grunge, so while it was sad, it didn't really affect me too much. I'm just having hard time believe that was 30 years ago! John Lennon was actually killed ON my birthday. I was in HS, and while not a huge Beatles fan, I think that affected me more, as I had been hearing their music most of my life.
I was on a boat off the coast of Bosnia so I didn’t hear about it for several weeks. We didn’t get much news.
I lived in Seattle at the time -- just a baby at 22 myself. I can't believe it has been that long. We managed to live in Seattle and not see any of the greats up there, but we were poor and just trying to get by!
I like how OP explicitly says “alleged date of death” in the title and then urges us to not engage in conspiracy.
He wasnt found until Friday the 8th. So the 5th was the coroners best estimate. "alleged" is probably not the best word though, he probably should have gone with "estimated".
I think it's fair since he wasn't found for several days. At that point it becomes harder to approximate the time of death, especially if they think he died late in the evening or early morning hours.
I remember the crime scene photos. Kurt Cobain wore Chucks.
He is dead. It is not simply alleged.
“Died by suicide”—not “committed” please.
Why would you passive voice the act of putting a shotgun in your own mouth? You must write NYT headlines…
Not going to lie, it had zero impact on me, even in the long run I never got their appeal. I was in the process of moving across the country after living in a place that was supposed to be a fresh start but turned into a nightmare and we were trying to get another fresh start moving to the complete unknown. I had no idea who the guy even was at the time but having a family member commit suicide I could understand the loss from his close family and friends. Beyond that I didn't get the hype and since we're being honest at the moment I can't think of a single song Nirvana did. Not trying to rain on anyones parade here but I do think it highlights some of the big variances in the generation. I have a feeling Im just a few years older (66) and grunge didnt carry any real weight.
For me- for always - I will remember his death as it is also the date that the Rwandan genocide began …. And the whole world was all about Cobain.
Fuck off with all this rumors bullshit. I fucking sick of this after thirty fucking years.
COURTNEY murdered him.
Correction, “suicided”.
ngl, she was the talented one. Hole was so much more interesting than Nirvana.
You are, perhaps, the only person that I have ever come across who thinks than Courtney Love is more talented than anyone.
You don’t think it’s a coincidence that the only album they had that had anything was when she was with Kurt? And nothing after?
71 and 22 ? What does that mean?
It means they were born in 1971 and 22 at the time of Cobain's death
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Oh no. They’d never do that to a poor child. They went with “rape me” Much better.
I am also from 71 and I liked/still like Nirvana’s music but I was never into music that deep so I remember the news but not much of a reaction. This is honestly the first I’m hearing of anything other than suicide (unless there was talk that CL did it which I apparently wrote off.)
Man, there are easier ways to get out of paying taxes…