It’s been three decades since Nirvana legend Kurt Cobain’s death utterly rocked the music industry – and the world.
The Smells Like Teen Spirit hitmaker joined the unfortunate 27 club on April 5, 1994 after he sadly ended his own life in his Seattle home.
Cobain left behind a one-year-old daughter, Frances Bean Cobain, his wife, Courtney Love, and an unforgettable discography that is still lauded to this day.
Die-hard music fans will remember Cobain’s band, Nirvana – which was formed in 1987 – unknowingly performed their swan song in March 1994 in Germany, a little over a month before the singer died.
Watch the video above.
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On March 1, the grunge band played at a concert at Terminal 1 in Munich, Germany. The setlist was filled with some of Nirvana’s biggest hits – and fans had no idea they were witnessing a morbid piece of history.
Nirvana’s members, including Cobain, Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic, played songs from their third and final studio album, In Utero.
Tickets cost around 35 Deustche mark ($A29), the country’s official legal currency between 1948 and 2002. If promoters only knew what lay ahead, the tickets would have been astronomically more expensive.
According to The Rolling Stone, that final concert was a tough one for Cobain.
He lost his voice halfway through the concert and scheduled a visit with an ear, nose and throat specialist to get checked out.
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“[Cobain] was told to take two to four weeks’ rest,” road manager Alex Macleod told the publication in 1994.
“He was given spray and [medicine] for his lungs because he was diagnosed as having severe laryngitis and bronchitis.”
Doctors then warned Covian he “shouldn’t be singing the way you’re singing” and told him to take two months off. Their other shows in Germany were postponed as Cobain recovered.
“He as much as anyone else was bummed out that they had to pull these two shows,” Macleod added.
Cobain and Love returned to Seattle after a difficult few days still in Europe.
It was in this home that Cobain took his own life. His body was found by an electrician, Gary Smith, who had arrived to do some work on the house.
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Smith’s co-worker broke the news of Cobain’s death by leaking it to a local radio station.
Cobain’s sister, Kim, and his mother, Wendy, first heard their brother and son had died on the airwaves.
“Now he’s gone and joined that stupid club,” O’Connor said to a reporter, referring to Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Brian Jones and Jim Morrison, all of whom had died at the age of 27 – like Cobain.
“I told him not to join that stupid club.”
Later, Wendy would speak about her son’s battle with mental health and gave some insight into the pain he was feeling.
“He was a wonderful person, but he just couldn’t stand the pain anymore,” she told Entertainment Weekly.
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“That’s why I’m not angry at Kurt.”
The Come as You Are singer’s death had a devastating ripple effect on his devoted fans and the wider community.
Fans stood vigil outside his home, the Seattle Crisis Clinic received 100 more calls than usual on that day and the band Pearl Jam cancelled their summer US tour because, as group manager Kelly Curtis said, Cobain’s passing “knocked the wind out of the band”.
But none were more impacted than Cobain’s widow, Love, and their toddler daughter Frances.
Frances, now 31, marked the morbid 30-year anniversary since her father’s death earlier this month.
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“I wish I could’ve known my Dad. I wish I knew the cadence of his voice, how he liked his coffee or the way it felt to be tucked in after a bedtime story,” she wrote in a post on Instagram.
“I always wondered if he would’ve caught tadpoles with me during the muggy Washington summers, or if he smelled of Camel Lights & strawberry Nesquik (his favorites, I’ve been told).”
“But there is also deep wisdom being on an expedited path to understanding how precious life is. He gifted me a lesson in death that can only come through the LIVED experience of losing someone.”
If you or someone you know is struggling with mental health or suicidal thoughts, visit rightbyyou.org.au, call Lifeline on 131 114 or Beyond Blue on 1300 224 636.
In an emergency, call 000.