a biography I wrote in 8th grade

Kurt Cobain was born on February 20, 1967 in Seattle. His mom was a cocktail waitress and his dad was an auto mechanic. Tragically, his parents divorced when he was seven; he said he never felt secure or loved again. He became increasingly difficult to talk to and was withdrawn to his parent’s divorce. Cobain didn’t have a legal guardian, so he was shuttled back and forth between various relatives and at one point living under a bridge.

            Kurt was miserable in high school; he said he had so much hatred towards the people he couldn’t stand. He knew others noticed this, he felt paranoid; they thought he was going to freak out at any point. People at school saw him as the kind of kid who would bring an AK-47 to school and just blow everyone away. Luckily he made a gay friend. He said his friend saved him from wanting to kill himself half the time. Everyone in high school knew he was gay, and because they were hanging out, people at his gym class were harassing him. Homophobics called him a fag and would either cover up their private parts or beat him up, or both. But after a while Kurt said he began to feel proud he was gay, even though he wasn’t. By 1986 he formed a band called Nirvana. Nirvana was a grunge band between Guitarist and singer Kurt Cobain, bassist Krist Novoselic, and eventually drummer and multi-instrumentalist Dave Grohl.

Cobain fell into heroin in the early 90’s, he said he use it as a shield against demands of touring and to stop the pain of stomach ulcers or an irritated bowel. Through the touring and pressure he kept writing his very personal and focused lyrics. Cobain was displeased to find that his fans were interpreting the meanings of his songs the wrong way. He was disturbed when he found out that his song Polly, a heavily ironic anti-rape song had been used as background music in a real gang rape. He noticed he had very little control, he also worried that his band was attracting the wrong kind of fans, like the ones who used to beat him up.

            In February 1992 he married Courtney Love when she was already pregnant, and in August he had hospital treatment for heroin abuse. The following year they released In Utero, the 4^th Nirvana album that had most of Cobain’s passionate work. Some songs detailed aspects of his sometimes shaky marriage, and other songs detailed the agonies and struggles in of his experiences. Nirvana went on a support tour and recorded and filmed an “Unplugged” (acoustic) performance for MTV in November of 1993, that was their 5^th and last album.

            On March the 4^th Cobain was rushed to the hospital in a coma for an unsuccessful suicide attempt in which he washed down fifty prescription painkillers with champagne. It was officially called an accident and was not even made known to close friends and associates. Even though Kurt was in deep distress, his wife, friends, and managers convinced him to enter a detox program in L.A. According to a missing person’s report Cobain fled after a few days of the program. Days later on the 8^th of April his body was found with a shotgun pointing at his blown up face by an electrician who came to check security. A medical examiner says that he had three times the normal amount of heroin in his body before he died, that would be more than enough to incapacitate him within a few seconds, but he still managed to button his sleeve and pull the trigger on a shotgun. Investigators found a suicide note, but only the last four sentences were about suicide, the rest was like a letter to why he was quitting Nirvana. Investigators also realized that someone was using Cobain’s credit cards two days before and after he was dead. People are still wondering whether his death was a suicide or a murder.