Have you ever stopped to consider if Kurt Cobain's death was actually suicide? He was a music artist that was quickly becoming well-known across the world; he sold over 75 million albums worldwide. There are theories behind his death concluding he was actually murdered by his wife at the time, Courtney Love, who he also had a daughter with. His death has been something people have been talking about since 1994. Numerous people believed it was premediated murder, but let's take a look into the conspiracies surrounding the suicide or possible homicide that ended this well-known young man's life.
Kurt Cobain was a very talented but, also, a problematic rock legend in the 1990's. He was a truly manic person who struggled extremely with drug addiction. Cobain showed interest in music and art starting at a remarkably young age ("Kurt Cobain"). Kurt was excelling at art from a really young age. In kindergarten, it became apparent his skills were rather higher than the kids around him (1). Music and art were always his best ways of finding an escape from reality. At the age of nine, Cobain received a guitar from his uncle Chuck (1). When Kurt started playing, it offered him this peace in his life that he had been searching for. In high school, he amazed all the teachers and students with his unique artistic skills (1).
Cobain's life had changed dramatically when he discovered punk rock ("Kurt Cobain"). It helped him release the anger that had been stirring up inside of him. He met Buzz Osbourne, a member in the Melvins, who he befriended shortly after seeing his band preform (1). He started attending his shows and hanging around their gigs more frequently. Eventually, "Cobain started playing music with bassist Krist Novoselic who was two years older than him" (1). Kurt's aspirations were ultimately about to become a reality.
Cobain had finally founded a band of his own called Nirvana, the fifth name they finally settled on for their group in 1998 ("Too Young to Die-Kurt Cobain"). "Love Buzz" was Nirvana's first single that was released by Sub Pop Records (1). Around this time the popularity of Kurt's band was drastically increasing. "When About a Girl" was released, Kurt's emerging abilities as a song writer began to revile (1). It was becoming clear that the signature sound of the band had a heavy metal or punk tone to it. With hard work and dedication, "Nirvana made the leap to a major label in 1991, signing with Geffen Records" (1). Within the same year, "Nevermind", was the song that made a huge movement towards a music revolution (Kurt Cobain). Cobain's talent began to inspire people from all around the world.
Kurt's talent started to emerge as he produced more and more music as they became more successful. The single "Smells Like Teen Spirt" was a mix between heavy metal and alternative, like many of Nirvana's music ("Kurt Cobain"). It actually proved to be the bands best-selling single that put them high over the charts, including to be the most recognition they'd ever had (1). In September of 1993, Kurt began expressing his depression and anger towards the world within his lyrics (1). Everyone was starting to realize he wasn’t this joyful person society had made him out to be. Kurt was actually struggling really hard to get a grasp with every event going on in his life and his new reality of being a rock star.
Kurt Cobain had been struggling with manic depression his whole life; "He sometimes spent time with his little sister Kim who was born in 1971, but both Cobain kids had to deal with their parents yelling and fighting as their marriage became increasingly stormy" ("Kurt Cobain"). It had a huge impact on his life that neither of his parents seemed to realize the severity of his mental health. When Kurt turned nine his parents divorced, causing him to become withdrawn from everyone (1). The divorce further damaged Cobain's mental health, making it harder for him to feel stability within his emotions. He went to live with his dad, and only got to see his mother and sister on the weekends (1). Moving back and forth was slowly causing him to grow more spiteful in his life.
Another problematic event Cobain endured was when his dad remarried a girl named Jenny, who Kurt resented including her two children as well ("Kurt Cobain"). This was when Kurt turned to music and art for replacing this gap that had formed in his life due to his parent's divorce and his father's sudden remarriage. He started to feel alienated and vexed towards his family, he believed his father always took his wife's side; His father favored her children and his half-brother Chad was born in 1979 (1). Kurt recognized his father's love towards his new family, and grew to feel unloved by his farther. Kurt began to experiment with drugs in his teenage years and then pushed his father out of his life (1). The influence of drugs had a negative impact on Kurt's mental health causing him to avoid feeling important emotions. "In 1982, Cobain left his father's place and bounced around from relative to relative for several months" (1). He never could seem to find that place where he felt complete or loved.
As Cobain progressed in high school, drinking and drugs became a more of a frequent habit. Kurt decided to move back in with his mother and her boyfriend at the time, Pat O'Conner ("Kurt Cobain"). Cobain began fighting with his mother who often also drank a lot, and he could not stand being around his stepfather (1). Kurt began to resent his family, feeling like he just didn't belong with them. In the years 1984 and 1985 Cobain spent numerous nights sleeping in various places (1). He would often stay a few nights with friends, but the majority of his nights he spent sleeping in places like apartment buildings and hospital waiting rooms (1). He began getting into trouble with the law around this time. One-time Cobain was spray painting buildings with his friends around town, when the police suddenly arrived, his friends managed to get away but he got arrested and taken to the station (1). The following year he got arrested for being drunk wandering around an abandoned building (1). The trouble with law-enforcement caused him to feel more rebellious.
Another troubled occurrence in Kurt's life was in 1990 when Kurt met Courtney Love, his ideal match for his rocker role style ("Kurt Cobain"). They started to become exclusive with each other. Around this time Cobain was becoming known as the one of the best song-writers of his generation (1). He was becoming really successful and selling music commercially, and was well-known all over the world. Kurt started feeling concerned with how his music was being received to the public, and he didn’t know how to regain control of his future (1). Heroine was also becoming Kurt's life, he claimed is was relief for his chronic stomach pain (1). Courtney definitely had a negative impact on Cobain's life, causing him to get more wrapped up in drugs.
Kurt and Courtney weren't the best for each other considering both Cobain and Love were drug addicts who often used together ("Kurt Cobain"). February 1992, Kurt and Courtney got married, and welcomed their daughter in August of the same year. The couple was investigated by social services, when Courtney claimed she took heroine while she was pregnant (1). After the custody battle they were able to keep their daughter. The couple had become increasingly dangerous, in one altercation the Seattle police arrived to their house after an accusation about Cobain owning guns (1). At this point Kurt's band was becoming highly successful, but Kurt began to grow very distant from the band. Although, Kurt's mental health was clearly deteriorating, he was still pushing performances and played in New York 1993 for MTV (1).
On March 4, 1994, in Rome Italy, Kurt attempted suicide for the first time from an over dose on drugs ("Kurt Corbin"). Love woke up in a surprise and rushed Cobain to the hospital while he was in a coma (1). The official reports claim it was an accidental overdose, but Cobain had written a suicide letter, clearly trying to take his life (1). After the first attempted suicide Kurt had become more depressed. Then after returning to the United States Kurt spent time alone and intoxicated (1). On March 18, 1994, Courtney called the police to report Kurt was suicidal, he locked himself in the closet with medication and some guns (1). "After interviewing Love and Cobain, it was determined that he had not threatened to kill himself, but Love called authorities because he had locked himself in and would not open the door" (1). Courtney attempted to get Kurt to quit using, going as far as traveling to Los Angeles then checking him into rehab.
On April 5, 1994, 27-year-old Kurt Cobain had been found shot, he had committed suicide. Before dying, "He left a lengthy suicide note in which he addressed his many fans as well as his wife and young daughter" ("Kurt Cobain"). Although an extensive time passed since 1994, Kurt still continued to inspire his fans. In the year 2014, Nirvana joined the Rock Hall of Fame. Despite Kurt's talent, his troubled past led him to tragic suicide.
Kurt Cobain's death has been lurking in the darkness for many decades, holding many conspiracies behind how this talented young man died. We are going to take a look into the numerous assumptions behind Kurt Cobain's death.
One thing that caught the majority of citizens attention was the eeriness of Kurt's own suicide letter. The beginning of the note was clearly written in a different font than the ending of Cobain's letter. It seemed as though Kurt had written about half a page, and someone picked it up and finished the rest. When an investigator from Kurt's case enlarged the suicide letter the more sinister possibility of murder seemed to become more transparent (Shelton 1). "The ink printed line of that one critical comment, ("which will be so much happier without me"), are thinner than all of the ink printed lines in the rest of the note." (1). The little details weren't adding up throughout Kurt's suicide note, suspicion began to raise drastically.
One observation, "During the investigation, a piece of paper was found in Courtney Love’s bag, and the paper appeared to be filled with handwriting practice" ("Kurt Cobain’s Suicide Note"). Investigators noticed it was the same letters repetitively, partially resembling Kurt's handwriting. The investigators concluded the writing was an identical match to the strange writing found on Kurt's letter. However, other than this investigator's statements, there is no official evidence concluding that Kurt Cobain didn’t write the entire letter.
The most favored conspiracy concluded his wife, Courtney Love, murdering Kurt. In Cobain's suicide investigation multiple items just didn’t seem to fit together; "In Nick Broomfield's documentary "Kurt & Courtney", Eldon Hoke, also known as "El Duce," singer of Seattle band The Mentors, claims Courtney Love approached him at a record store in Hollywood and offered to pay him $50,000 to kill Kurt Cobain" (Conaboy 1). Two days after El Duce was interviewed he was hit by a train and killed, with no witnesses to his death. Could Courtney have killed him to hide the evidence behind her being in evolved in Kurt's case. After El Duce's interview, public eye was drawn to the possibility of Courtney Love staging Kurt's suicide. Considering this, Love could have taken matters into her own hands and had El Duce silenced forever.
Courtney could have been painting this picture of a manic depressed, suicidal husband for all of the media to see and judge. Courtney had also contacted the police numerous times claiming Kurt was extremely suicidal. After one official report, the police noted Kurt never threatened to commit suicide, he had just locked himself inside of a closet. Courtney accomplished her goal of making Kurt's sudden suicide appear believable and bound to happen. However, the suicide was flawed with many details that didn't add up to Kurt killing himself. When Cobain was found, he had over three times the lethal amount of heroin in his body. Also, "The forensic pathologist we spoke to said that there's no way this guy could have injected a triple lethal dose of heroin into his system, then rolled down his sleeve, put away the drug kit, picked up the shotgun and shot himself. He would have been incapacitated within seconds,” (Conaboy 1). Also, when the police brought in his gun for forensic testing, they could not find any finger prints on Kurt's shotgun or on the pen that was used to write this oddly enough suicide letter. Thus, concluding there is no way Kurt could have physically shot himself. The poll that was tested for this theory only 25% of people believed Kurt's death was murder, and 75% believed he had actually committed suicide, due to how well Courtney made Kurt appear suicidal. Considering all of the strange evidence found within Kurt Cobain's mysterious death, could he have really committed suicide, or was Kurt Cobain murdered in cold blood?
Work Cited
Conaboy, Kelly. “How Did Kurt Cobain Really Die? The Murder Conspiracy Theory, Explained.” Gawker, blackbag.gawker.com/how-did-kurt-cobain-really-die-the-murder-conspiracy-t-1690091851
“Kurt Cobain.” Biography.com, A&E Networks Television, 28 Apr. 2017, www.biography.com/people/kurt-cobain-9542179
"Kurt Cobain." Newsmakers, Gale 1994. Biography in context ezproxy.com.edu/login? url=http://link.galegroup.com/apps/docs/k1618001413/BIC1? U=txshracd2496&xid=a42c33fb. Accessed 16 Oct. 2017
“Kurt Cobain's Suicide Note.” Those Conspiracy Guys, 28 Aug. 2016, thoseconspiracyguys.com/kurt-cobains-suicide-note/.
Shelton, Jacob “Was Kurt Cobain's Death Really A Suicide Or Was It Something More?” Ranker, www.ranker.com/list/kurt-cobain-murder-conspiracies/jacob-shelton.
“Too Young to Die - Kurt Cobain.” FilmRiseDocumentary. YouTube, YouTube, 20 Oct. 2016, www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rb89jWy2H8Y.
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