The death of Kurt Cobain has become by now a fundamental anniversary in pop culture, being known and remembered by far more people than those who heard his music.

And like with many other public figures who have equally become almost universally known after their deaths, a good deal of Cobain’s fame comes from his death itself: on April 8, 1994, the media broadcasted that the singer had been found dead in his residence in Seattle, Washington, and the whole world went crazy.

Cobain, who had reached fame as the songwriter, guitarist, and frontman of the rock band Nirvana (one of the most influential bands in their genre and one of the most commercially successful ones in history, with over seventy-five million records sold), is still today remembered, as was his shocking and sudden death.

Keep reading as we revise ten facts and conspiracies on his drug-and-angst-fueled death.

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10 /10 The Sad Sound Of Grunge

In exploring the background of his suicide, it must be noted how much of the success of Cobain and his band came, in fact, from exploring the themes of disillusion, depression, and overall sense of pointlessness in life, as is most apparent in their first big hit: “Smells Like Teen Spirit.”

The aesthetic movement of grunge, with which he was thoroughly associated, explores these themes through art, though never fully resolves them. In many ways, it is (and was throughout his life) a cry for help.

9 /10 Cobain's Family History

His family history was an equally strong call of attention, in perspective. At the time of his suicide, Cobain became the third person in his family to take his own life through the use of guns: two of his uncles had died in the same way.

A cousin of his and mental health professional, Beverly Cobain, explained in an interview: “It’s my observation that the Cobain men had painfully low self-esteem, and used alcohol to relieve their inhibitions.”

In the case of Kurt, his substance abuse came under the form of drug addiction.






Seattle Police Department

8 /10 Interventions And Intentions

Beverly notes his addiction to ever-stronger drugs, another factor in his early death, as he had become highly dependent on heroin by 1994.

By March 25, 1994, his girlfriend Courtney Love had arranged an intervention in which he participated close friends, executives of record companies, and herself.

Although at first, Cobain released a string of insults upon those present and locked himself in his room, he had agreed to enter a drug rehabilitation center by the end of that day.

7 /10 A Previous Attempt

Part of their concern came from what had happened earlier that month in Rome, Italy, where the singer nearly died from an overdose of Rohypnol (he had taken over fifty pills) mixed with champagne.

This was understood by Love and other members of his inner circle, as an apparent suicide attempt.

He spent five days in the hospital (where he should have been already receiving treatment anyhow, on account of suffering from bronchitis and laryngitis) before returning to Seattle.

6 /10 A Six-Foot Wall

Once in Seattle and after the March 25 intervention had taken place, Cobain flew to the West Coast and entered the Exodus Recovery Center of Los Angeles, California, on March 30.

He was only there for one night, however: he went outside to supposedly smoke a cigarette on the night of the next day.

Animated by the extreme desire that deprived drug addicts experience, he dropped the cigarette, climbed the six-foot brick wall of the facility, and took a taxi to the Los Angeles Airport, from where he flew back to Seattle. None of his friends or family knew where he had gone.

Seattle Police Department

5 /10 Carlson's Shotgun

After wandering around for several days in Seattle, Cobain returned home and drew out the shotgun that his friend Dylan Carlson had legally bought and given to him (Carlson would later allege that he didn’t know of Cobain’s suicidal state of mind).

Before that, on March 10, the police had removed all of his other guns, and only this one remained.

After listening to some music and doing heroin with his heroin kit (found next to his body), Cobain introduced the cannon of the shotgun in his mouth, put his finger in the trigger, and fired, at twenty-seven years of age.

Seattle Police Department

4 /10 A Greenhouse In Washington State

On April 8, an electrician named Gary Smith arrived at the house to install a security system and found Cobain’s body in the greenhouse atop the garage.

Seeing only a little bit of blood near his ear, the electrician thought that Cobain was sleeping after a wild night away, only to notice then the shotgun pointing at his chin.

A suicide note (later highly mediatized) was found near a pen, addressed to his childhood years’ imaginary friend. The coroner estimated that he had been dead for days, probably since April 5.

Seattle Police Department

3 /10 Kurt Cobain, Murdered?

However, it didn’t pass much time before people began speculating that his death had been a murder and the result of a conspiracy.

Of all those to make a claim of this nature, the most reliant on some barely reasonable proof is that of Tom Grant, a private investigator that Courtney Love had hired to find Cobain on the days between his escape from the rehabilitation center and his death.

He accuses Love of being behind Cobain’s death to this day and has since then stated that the official account of his suicide is “filled with lies, contradictions in logic, and countless inconsistencies.”

Seattle Police Department

2 /10 Friends And Family Speak

Some friends and family have equally expressed their discomfort at the events’ official account, among these Courtney Love’s father, Hank Harrison, Cobain’s grandfather Leland Cobain, and Cobain’s friend Thurston Moore.

His cousin Beverly, in turn, is outright against the idea of his murder: “I believe there is a strong possibility that Kurt would have taken his life no matter what he chose as his career. His risk was very high: untreated bipolar disorder, drug addiction, prior suicides of family members, alcohol, violence, and unpredictability in his childhood, poor self-esteem, violence in his married life. Kurt could have been a poster child for risk of suicide.”

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1 /10 Kurt And Courtney

The English filmmaker Nick Broomfield tried to investigate the case by himself, producing a documentary called Kurt & Courtney in 1998.

Apart from some strange circumstances (a singer named Eldon Wayne Hoke claiming in the film that Love offered him $50,000 to “whack” Cobain but that he didn’t take it, and then dying two days after the interview after being hit by a train), Broomfield’s conclusions are sadly simple: “I think that he committed suicide. Not that he was murdered, but that there was just a lack of caring for him. I just think that Courtney had moved on, and he was expendable.”

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