Nine reasons why we still love Kurt Cobain

Feb 21. 2017
by Characters team

On 8 April 1994, Kurt Cobain was found dead in his home. He committed suicide at the age of 27, leading to both his life and death entering the realm of rock folklore. To many he was a hero, a genius, and a good man. Despite the final stages of his life being filled with darkness, it’s important to remember that his legacy is much more than that. Songs that inspired a generation of kids to pick up guitars and countless gigs that proved the true spirit of rock ’n’ roll was alive and well. But there was more to Kurt than the music, he knew how to have fun and how to piss people off. Here’s some of our favourite moments from Kurt and Nirvana over the years; from refusing to play their own songs to sticking it to the music press, he did it all.

Sources: MTV, BBC, Rolling Stones, Guitar.com

LIKE:

I never wanted to sing. I just wanted to play rhythm guitar — hide in the back and just play. But during those high-school years when I was playing guitar in my bedroom, I at least had the intuition that I had to write my own songs.

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LIKE:

I really haven't had that exciting of a life. There are a lot of things I wish I would have done, instead of just sitting around and complaining about having a boring life. So I pretty much like to make it up. I'd rather tell a story about somebody else.

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LIKE:

What's alternative? What's counterculture? What's cool? Who knows? Who cares? If chasing cool is important to you, you're an idiot!

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LIKE:

Practice makes perfect, but nobody’s perfect, so why practice?

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LIKE:

I'm disgusted by my own and my generation's apathy. I'm disgusted at what we allow to go on, by how spineless, lethargic and guilty we are of not standing up against racism, sexism and all those other 'isms' that the counterculture has been whining about for years while they sit and enforce those same attitudes every night on their televisions and in the magazines.

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LIKE:

I'm such a nihilistic jerk half the time. I'm so fucking sarcastic at times and then at other times I'm still vulnerable and so sincere. That's pretty much how every song comes out — it's like a mixture of both of them, and that's pretty much how people my age are. I'm just as pissed off about the things that made me pissed off a few years ago. I'm pissed off about everything in general so all these songs are pretty much about my battle with the things that piss me off.

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LIKE:

I don't know if rock is dying. I consider rock 'n' roll like mathematics. There's only so much you can do after a while until someone comes up with an entirely new approach. I mean, we're working with a 4/4 time beat, the standard rock tempo, and there are only so many notes on a guitar.

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LIKE:

We have this conflict between good and evil and man and woman because there are people doing evil things to other people for no reason, and I just want to beat the shit out of them. That's the bottom line. All I can do is scream into a microphone instead.

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LIKE:

Chris and I watch the news and get pissed off about it and start spewing on things for days. I usually get intimidated by people who pressure their opinions on me. If I go into a truck stop, I'm gonna get laughed at, or get called "queer," "hippie," or instantly stereotyped. Me, I'm just too sensitive about that kind of stuff to shake it off. It bothers me too much. When I was a kid I thought everything was so great. I was so excited to grow up. But in sixth grade I realized, "Wow, my whole life really sucks. Everyone I know is an asshole."

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