Kurt Cobain

1967-1986: childhood and youth The son of Donald Leland Cobain (* 1946) and his wife Wendy Elizabeth Fradenburg (* 1948) and brother of Kimberly Dawn Cobain (* April 24, 1970) Kurt Cobain spent his childhood in Aberdeen, 140 kilometers southwest of Seattle. When Cobain was nine years old, his parents divorced. As a child, he was hyperactive and took drugs, including Ritalin. In an interview with the punk magazine Flipside, he later suspected the nervous disease narcolepsy behind these symptoms, which continued into adulthood. Apparently he had never obtained a medical diagnosis for this. [4] Soon afterwards he moved in with his father, as he did not get along with his mother's new partner. When his father Donald later married a new partner with two children, the relationship with Cobain's caregiver deteriorated. In the song Serve the Servants (1993, In Utero) there are hints of his relationship with his father: "I tried hard to have a father, but instead I had a dad. I just want you to know that I don't hate you anymore. There is nothing I could say that I haven't thought before. " "I always wanted a father, but instead I got a dad. I just want to let you know that I don't hate you anymore. There is nothing I can say that I haven't already thought about. " - Text excerpts from the song Serve The Servants (1993, In Utero)

Cobain was first confronted with death in adolescence when two of his great uncles committed suicide. [5] For his 14th birthday Cobain got his first guitar from his uncle Chuck. At the age of 15 he met Krist Novoselić in 1982, with whom he did not make music until some time later. In the years that followed, Cobain also befriended Buzz Osborne (singer / guitarist) and Dale Crover (drummer), both from the band The Melvins. He and Crover also played together on Fecal Matter, Cobain's first music project. Even if the later style of music had little to do with that of the Melvins, Buzz had a decisive influence on him, who introduced him to indie and punk rock. After several violent quarrels with both parents' homes, Cobain changed residence several times during this period and in the following years and in the meantime lived with his grandparents, one of his uncles, with the parents of his friend Jesse Reed - a total of ten different families in four years. At 18, Cobain dropped out of school and moved to Olympia, Washington. He lived there with his girlfriend Tracy Marander. When Cobain couldn't find work, the relationship fell into a crisis. At this point he wrote the song "About a Girl," which referred to Tracy. In the line "I can't see you every night. Free. "He alludes to the fact that he often had to move out and sleep in his car because she couldn't cope with his listlessness. Still, he never admitted to her that the song was about her.