30 years ago today, Kurt Cobain died from a self-inflicted gunshot. With his band Nirvana, he left his mark on the history of music and took a number of stances against sexism, racism, and homophobia … This is the story of Kurt Cobain.
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00:00At four years old Kurt Cobain started playing the piano singing and drawing at nine years old
00:05He's traumatized by his parents divorce. He'll tell the story later
00:09I had a really good childhood until the divorce then all of a sudden my whole world changed
00:15I became antisocial I was ashamed of my parents
00:18I couldn't face some of my friends at school anymore because I desperately wanted to have the classic, you know, typical family mother-father
00:25I wanted that security. So I resented my parents for quite a few years because of that
00:30People like could read into him
00:32I mean, I think that they're fascinated by him as a person that had embodied something that they could somehow relate to
00:38At 11, he discovered punk by reading an article about the Sex Pistols tour in cream magazine
00:44At 14 his uncle offered to buy him a bike or a guitar for his birthday. He chose the guitar
00:50At 17 he worked as a janitor in a building and met bassist Chris Novoselic
00:55Punk expressed the way I felt socially and politically it expressed the anger that I felt
01:00It also helped open my eyes to what I didn't like about metal bands
01:03Like Aerosmith and Led Zeppelin while I really did enjoy and still do enjoy some of the melodies those bands have written
01:10I suddenly realized I didn't like their sexist attitudes the way that they just wrote about their dicks and having sex at the age
01:17Of 19 he tried heroin for the first time
01:19He quickly became an addict using various drugs throughout his life at the age of 22 with his band Nirvana
01:25He released his first album. I always loved pop music
01:29It's just it just so happens that um, most of the songs that we wrote at the time the bleach album was coming out
01:34We're more abrasive songs
01:36There were quite a few songs that were very pop like like the songs like about a girl at the age of 23
01:42He looked for a new drummer for Nirvana and held auditions. That's how he met Dave Grohl within minutes
01:48He decided to hire him at the age of 24. He became an international star with his album
01:53Nevermind supported by single smells like teen spirit
01:56Come home to visit
02:01Could I put a tape on the stereo and it was a Sunday
02:12He was sitting in his whitey tighties in the front room the sofa and I sat on the edge of it and I went I
02:20Couldn't believe I can remember that like it's happening just a few minutes ago
02:26Oh my god
02:41Three months after its release the album sold
02:44300,000 copies a week and topped the Billboard charts beating Michael Jackson's dangerous
02:50It's 13 year old cousin of Shelly's
02:53Had for a few for the past couple of years has had her walls covered and new kids on the block posters
03:00And she had dolls and everything and she heard our album nevermind and she tore all her posters down
03:06But the artist didn't take kindly to his sudden fame in an interview with Rolling Stone magazine
03:11He declared it was so fast and explosive. I didn't know how to deal with it at the age of 25
03:16He took part in a charity concert for gay rights in Oregon
03:19This northwestern state had just passed a law requiring teachers to declare homosexuality quote
03:26abnormal unnatural and perverse
03:28Kurt Cobain in his band regularly took a stand against sexism sexual violence racism and homophobia
03:34They also supported abortion rights. I could never find any good male friends
03:38So I ended up hanging out with the girls a lot and I just felt that they weren't being treated equally and they weren't treated
03:43With respect I hated the way Aberdeen treated women in general
03:46They were just totally oppressed the words bitch and cunt were totally common
03:50You'd hear them all the time at the age of 25
03:52He married Courtney love on a beach in Hawaii in front of just eight guests a few months later
03:57Courtney love gave birth to their daughter Francis B
04:00It's hard for me to walk down the street and not see a Nirvana shirt every single from day
04:03So he's he's around me every day of my life
04:06Whether I want him to be or not
04:08I get to remember him whether I want to or not at the age of 26
04:13Nirvana's third album in utero is released
04:15The first single rape me is censored by Walmart and Kmart who refused to sell the album
04:20It was then released in an alternative version named waif me in November 1993
04:25The band recorded their first live album MTV unplugged in New York released in November
04:311997 seven months after Kurt Cobain's death
04:36Nirvana had a huge impact on the music industry as a whole, you know at that particular time and
04:42I think they still do they still you sit here. They're influencing a lot of bands around there at the age of 27 on March 4th
04:511994 he overdosed on champagne and rophenol in Rome
04:55His wife later recounted that she thought it was a suicide attempt on March 18th
05:001994 she called the Seattle police because Kurt Cobain had locked himself in a room of their home with a gun on March 30th
05:071994 he agreed to go to rehab in Los Angeles
05:09But he only stayed for 24 hours on April 8th
05:131994 an electrician and discovered Kurt Cobain's lifeless body in his home
05:17Our officers had to break into the door because it was locked. It was obvious. This person was dead
05:24At his side was a gun and a suicide note in which he wrote quote
05:28It's better to burn out than to fade away. This phrase is taken from Neil Young's song. Hey, hey, my my
05:34According to the coroner's report the artist died on April 5th 1994 Kurt Cobain was just 27 years old