A very
interesting person.
Grew up in a
trailer park with his
mother.
Heroin addict since age
fourteen: he is said to have
started it to
escape stomach pains for which there was no
cure at the time. At age
eighteen he got
arrested for
spray painting "
HOMOSEXUAL SEX RULES" on other people's
cars, I personally find that
hilarious.
He
hated his
success, this was the reason he
killed himself (although some
paranoid folk, including me, will tell you it's
murder) and was
shown in many
interviews and
documented in songs such as
In Bloom and
Radio Friendly Unit Shifter. The
inside cover of his
Nevermind CD has a
photo of him giving
the finger at the
unsuspecting consumer. This guy would
definitely love Napster if he were
alive to see it; he's said to have gotten in various
fights with
record industry execs.
In
early 1994,
months before his
death, he tried to
quit heroin, but eventually
relapsed and got himself in a
coma in
overdose.
The "
story" of how he
killed himself is weird: in late
March of 1994, he
threatened to
kill himself, so
Courtney Love sent him to a
mental institution. He
escaped, and by early
April, made it up to
Seattle (from
California) where he was found
dead in his home. Of course, the
theory (and there is
overwhelming evidence) is that he was
murdered by
Courtney Love: see my
writeup in
Kurt and Courtney.
You can tell he was really getting
tired of his
career by
In Utero. It's all full of
angst and
weird screaming. Still sounded great though.
Oh, and did I mention he had
bipolar disorder?