"He was an extraordinarily thoughtful and supportive friend, a loving husband and father, as well as a tormented depressive and textbook druggie," Nirvana manager Danny Goldberg writes about band frontman Kurt Cobain in the book "Bumping into Geniuses: My Life Inside the Rock and Roll Business," which comes out September 18.
For those who came of age during the chaotic maelstrom of '90s grunge, Kurt Cobain seemed both an unwilling generational icon and an unlikely martyr. But to many on the "inside," he was vulnerable, self-deprecating and volatile -- a tormented soul suffering from phantom stomach pain, severe depression and unwilling to find happiness in his extraordinary life. Maybe that's one of the reasons his music sounded so desperate, so gripping and so f---ing good.
When Cobain killed himself on April 5, 1994 it signaled more than just the death of grunge, it was the death of innocent anarchic subversion. Sure, there had been several drug casualties in the scene and there were plenty of addicts, but this was the first violent death that really hit home, and, perhaps, the first real indication that the pain and contempt of Cobain's music was more than cathartic poetry; it was as real as a shotgun blast to the head.
Moreover, Cobain's death was a shock to the system of millions of young adults who had idolized his talent, irreverence and dark sense of humor. Not only was it a forceful reminder that death is ugly, inevitable and upsetting, it was their first real exposure to loss, and it ached. This was a generation that was saddened by the deaths of John Lennon, John Bonham, Keith Moon, Jimi Hendrix, Randy Rhoads, but were too young at the time to have been deeply affected by them. Cobain was their first fallen hero and had as profound an impact on them as the deaths of Tupac Shakur and Notorious B.I.G. would have on the hip-hop community years later.
But back to Danny Goldberg for a moment. Spinner.com has published an excerpt from his book about Cobain and Nirvana. Click "more" to read what Goldberg has to say about Cobain's drug addiction, relationship with Courtney Love and hunger for stardom.
Excerpt From Danny Goldberg's "Bumping into Geniuses"
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