The 80s and 90s era of Grunge and metal music is often regarded as one of the greatest eras in music history. Metallica, Pearl Jam, SoundGarden, Alice in Chains, Mother Love Bone and even Nirvana are only a few of these influential bands.

While this time period was filled with diversity, a new age of music and the start of multiple influential bands in Washington, there, too, were tragic losses along the way. 

Kurt Cobain, the lead singer of the band Nirvana, is one of these tragedies. Cobain was born on Feb. 20 1967, in Aberdeen, Washington. Cobain’s childhood is said to be troubled: following his parents’ divorce, he started abusing drugs and involved himself in vandalism. 

“Cobain was musically inclined from an early age…he began playing with members of the ‘sludge rock’ band the Melvins,” said the online encyclopedia, Britannica.

 At this time, he started recording song demos with the drummer of the Melvins, which later attracted the attention of bassist Krist Novoselic.

Nearly two years after he started recording demos, Cobain and Novoselic went on to form Nirvana in 1987, recruiting a series of drummers in the process. 

Nirvana, with the help of producer Jonathan Poman, released their first single “Love Buzz” in 1988 and their first album Bleach within the next year. They eventually settled on the drummer Dave Grohl, releasing their hit album Nevermind shortly after. 

After Nirvana’s initial fame, though, Cobain started abusing drugs, especially heroin and painkillers to help with his stomach pains. 

Through his copious use of drugs and his Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD), he is said to have shot himself to death on April 5 1994. However, there are many others who believe this was a homicide. 

Tom Grant, a private investigator at the time, believes this was a faked suicide. “Grant claims that the amount of heroin in Cobain’s system was so large that he would not have been able to pull the trigger after injecting it,” said Tree House Recovery.

This, among many other sources of evidence, have brought to light that his wife, Courtney Cobain, may have been the prime suspect in this proposed homicide.

No matter the cause or the reason, Cobain and many other rock stars of this era have influenced music in multiple different ways.