Kurt Cobain

Kurt Donald Cobain (February 20, 1967 – c. April 5, 1994) was an American rock musician. A founder of the grunge band Nirvana, he was the band's lead singer, guitarist, and primary songwriter from 1987 until his suicide in 1994. Through his angsty songwriting and anti-establishment persona, he broadened the thematic conventions of mainstream rock music and was heralded as a spokesman of Generation X. Cobain is widely regarded as one of the most influential rock musicians of all time. Nirvana went through several changes of members before recruiting Dave Grohl in 1990; with this final lineup of Cobain, Grohl and Krist Novoselic, the band signed with DGC and found commercial success with the single "Smells Like Teen Spirit" from their critically acclaimed second album Nevermind (1991). Cobain wrote many other hit Nirvana songs, notably "Come as You Are", "Lithium", "In Bloom", "Heart-Shaped Box", "All Apologies" and "Something in the Way". Although Cobain was often hailed as the voice of his generation following Nirvana's sudden success, he was uncomfortable with this role. During his final years, Cobain struggled with a heroin addiction, stomach pain, and chronic depression. He also struggled with the personal and professional pressures of fame, and was often in the spotlight for his tumultuous marriage to fellow musician Courtney Love, with whom he had a daughter named Frances. On April 8, 1994, he was found dead in the greenhouse of his Seattle home at the age of 27, with police concluding that he had died around three days earlier from a self-inflicted shotgun wound to the head. Cobain was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, alongside Nirvana bandmates Novoselic and Grohl, in their first year of eligibility in 2014. Rolling Stone included him on its lists of the 100 Greatest Songwriters of All Time, 100 Greatest Guitarists, and 100 Greatest Singers of All Time. He was ranked 7th by MTV in the "22 Greatest Voices in Music", and was placed 20th by Hit Parader on their 2006 list of the "100 Greatest Metal Singers of All Time".

Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0