Kurt Cobain Would Have Been 50 Years Old Today...Did You Know A LOT Of People Think He Was Murdered Instead Of Committed Suicide?
Today, February 20th, would have been Kurt Cobain’s 50th birthday. There’s still a lot of Nirvana love out there these days but there’s a decent chance some younger Stoolies may not be familiar with Cobain’s impact on the music of the 90s and also just how amazing of a presence and performer he was. Here’s another legendary live performance where you can get a taste of the raw energy the dude brought to every show:
I was a little young to fully appreciate Nirvana during their original run but in terms of a guy symbolizing a piece of Americana, early 90s masculinity represented through the prism of Seattle grunge, Kurt Cobain was one of a kind. In my eyes, Cobain was a James Dean or a Sinatra, a guy very much of his era who combined elite creativity with a persona that can transcend the test of time. I’m sure there are ways to dissect the work of Kurt and Nirvana and grunge music as a whole but his body of work combined with his hasty exit from the world at the hands of what was believed to be a suicidal shotgun blast made him one of a kind.
But one thing I learned recently: There are a lot of conspiracy theories around how Kurt Cobain passed. Namely that the self-inflicted shotgun wound that was reportedly the end of his life may not be as cut and dry of a story as it seems.
A former private investigator who worked with Courtney Love on finding Kurt after a possible post-rehab bender has written books on the subject of his death and also maintains a website called CobainCase.com (which, admittedly, is not likely to be an unbiased source) that claims that there’s a lot more to Kurt’s death than has been reported:
Kurt Cobain left a drug rehab center in Marina Del Rey California on April 1, 1994 and was later reported missing. As you probably know, he was found dead just seven days later.
My name is Tom Grant. I am a retired private investigator and former detective with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.
On April 3, 1994 (while conducting business as a California State licensed private investigator), I was hired by Courtney Love (who was in Los Angeles at the time), to locate her husband after he left a drug rehab center in Marina Del Rey, California. Ms. Love stayed in Los Angeles while I flew to Seattle to search for Cobain with his best friend Dylan Carlson. In fact, Carlson and I had been in the Cobain residence the night before Kurt’s body was discovered in the room above the garage.
The police immediately concluded “suicide.” I wasn’t so sure. Neither was Rosemary Carroll, Courtney Love’s own entertainment attorney. Ms. Carroll was also a close friend to both Courtney and Kurt. We both knew something was terribly wrong here.
The site chronicles a lot of facets of the case, namely that Kurt was so doped up on heroin that managing to shoot himself would have been logistically EXTREMELY difficult, some inconsistencies with the suicide note and Kurt’s handwriting, a potential divorce looming that may have given Courtney Love enough motivation, and a lot of misreporting by the media.
An old Gawker sub-site also has a full reported out breakdown on the theory and stories with a lot of sourcing from CobainCase.com and other outlets. Take a look for yourself. Their final conclusion on the matter:
Was he murdered? Probably not. But also: maybe.
The world may never fully know.
