Kurt Cobain
Kurt Cobain
20.02.1967 - 05.04.1994 (27 years) (Aberdeen, Washington, USA)
Kurt Donald Cobain (February 20, 1967 – April 5, 1994) was an American singer, songwriter, and musician. Cobain was the frontman of American rock band Nirvana. He is remembered as one of the most iconic and influential musicians in the history of alternative rock. Ten years after his death, Eric Olsen of MSNBC wrote "In the intervening decade, Cobain, a small, frail but handsome man in life, has become an abstract Generation X icon, viewed by many as the "last real rock star" [..] a messiah and martyr whose every utterance has been plundered and parsed."Born in Aberdeen, Washington, Cobain formed the band Nirvana with Krist Novoselic and Aaron Burckhard in 1987 and established it as part of the Seattle music scene which later became known as grunge. Nirvana's debut album Bleach was released on the independent record label Sub Pop in 1989. After signing with major label DGC Records, Nirvana found success with "Smells Like Teen Spirit" from their second album Nevermind (1991). Nevermind was in part responsible for bringing both alternative rock and grunge to a mainstream audience. It has been ranked highly on lists of the greatest albums of all time by publications such as Rolling Stone and Time. Following the success of Nevermind, Nirvana was labeled "the flagship band" of Generation X and Cobain was hailed as "the spokesman of a generation." Cobain resented this, believing his message and artistic vision had been misinterpreted by the public, with his personal problems often subject to media attention.During the last years of his life, Cobain struggled with heroin addiction and chronic health problems such as depression. He struggled with the personal and professional pressures of fame, and his marriage to musician Courtney Love. On April 8, 1994, Cobain was found dead at his home in Seattle by an electrician who had come to install a home security system. The King County Coroner concluded Cobain died on April 5 from a self-inflicted shotgun wound to his head. His death at age 27 has been a topic of public fascination and debate. Cobain is one of the significant members on the 27 Club, a list of musicians who died when they were 27. Nirvana, with Cobain as a songwriter, has sold over 25 million records in the U.S. alone and over 80 million records worldwide making them one of the best-selling bands of all time. In 2003, David Fricke of Rolling Stone ranked him the 12th greatest guitarist of all time. He was ranked by MTV as seventh in the "22 Greatest Voices in Music". In 2006, he was placed at number twenty by Hit Parader on their list of the "100 Greatest Metal Singers of All Time". Kurt Cobain was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, along with Nirvana bandmates Dave Grohl and Novoselic, in their first year of eligibility, by Michael Stipe, who was a close friend of Cobain, in 2014.