It was a big thing for me, maybe the rock death that hit me hardest (after John Lennon, but then I was only twelve years old). I heard the news on the radio while shopping in a jeans store with my girlfriend. I wasn’t surprised, but nonetheless shocked. Maybe it’s X-generational, but for me that ended the last great classic rock band. I still listen to Nirvana a lot.
That was still in my heavy MTV-watching days so I heard pretty much as soon as anyone.
It was big news in Seattle, of course. I’m not a Nirvana fan, but I was well aware of who they were. I had a two week old baby at the time, and probably missed out on a lot of the coverage though.
What I remember most clearly was the inconsolable weeping from the girl I was seeing.
I was a Generation Jones from the era of punk. When John Lennon was murdered all my Baby Boomer college teachers were bummed out, so I kept my mouth shut. When Kurt Cobain committed suicide I was in a Gen-X heavy workplace, and I kept my mouth shut.
Not everyone exercised that discretion
Who’d have thought punk rock would transition so smoothly into Gray Rock?
Although I was not a Kurt Cobain fan, I vividly remember listening to Andy Rooney on 60 Minutes ranting about how he was not worthy of the vast outpouring of grief over his death. The insensitivity of his rant bothered me so much that I wrote a song about it. So while I had barely even heard of Kurt Cobain, his death inspired me to write a song. I will sing it today in his memory.
I can’t believe that was thirty years ago.
Edit: Wow, I can’t believe the rant was posted while I wrote my post.
I was only 9 and at this point I can’t remember when exactly I learned about it. I do remember a little of the aftermath, and it’s probably the earliest that I had some awareness of the connection between emotional pain and suicide. I did like Nirvana’s music and was sad it had happened.
Yes, my brother told me and we turned on MTV, which was non-stop talking about it.
I was 14 and I was at high school. I don’t think we had heard about it during the day. We definitely had MTV on as soon as we got home. I remember a lot of Kurt Loder that day.
My brother and I were huge fans. He had just seen them Oct 31, 1993 in Akron. It was a big friggin deal.
Don’t remember it at all. Even though at the time I had a copy of the Nevermind CD like everyone else I can’t say that Nirvana ever had much of an impact on me.
I’m a big Nirvana fan. They’re probably my favorite rock band since the Beatles.
I remember people opining that Cobain was an overrated, no-talent nobody. One critic said that in the rock and roll afterlife, he wouldn’t merit being opening act for the Big Bopper. I guess that was more common in an era when music markets were less compartmentalized. Today, if people haven’t heard of or cared for a performer who dies, they’re more likely to just shrug.
I also remember Rush Limbaugh laughing about his death (as he also had for River Phoenix, and later, Jerry Garcia). When Limbaugh’s drug problems came out a few years later, I had lots of arguments with his followers who said it was disrespectful to point out the hypocrisy.
Think I heard about it after getting home from work (26 y.o. at the time). Busted me up pretty well. Nevermind and In Utero were among my favorite CDs at the time.
One more vote for finding out on MTV, most likely from Kurt Loder.
I was 26 when he died, so almost at the same age as him and musically socialized in a similar way. I was already sure that Nirvana was an important band in rock history when Cobain died, but hearing the “Unplugged in New York” album after his death (I had missed the original TV broadcast) settled it for me. Also, much later, the “Live at Reading” album. Two of the most intense, passionate and best live albums ever.
That version of Leadbelly’s “Where Did You Sleep Last Night” is a very rare instance of the young white rock musician’s rendition being more powerful than the original.
Yeah, it gives me shivers just thinking about him in his shabby cardigan, singing this song.
I was in middle school at the time. I think I probably heard the news through that Channel One newscast that was broadcast to many American schools in those days. I think I’d hear of Nirvana, but I was a little young to really know who Kurt Cobain was.
It was my freshman year in college, and i was driving home from class in the early afternoon. I heard it on the radio (98.7 WLLZ- Detroit’s Wheels), got home and called my friend to tell him. He hadn’t heard yet. The whole thing was very distressing. We were big Nirvana fans.
I heard it on the radio of my boss’s rolling ashtray of a truck, pulling up in front of a motorcycle salvage place in Vegas.
The stench of that truck haunts me to this day.
The weird thing is, I have no memory whatsoever.
I was a freshman in college at the time. I was not a hardcore Nirvana fan, but I was more than just a casual listener – I had bootlegs, B-sides, etc. on Maxwell CrO2 tapes before Incesticide came out. I got into the Vaselines because of Nirvana. I remember many days rocking out to their covers of “Molly’s Lips” and “Son of a Gun” as a senior in high school.
But when Kurt died. That’s just a blank in my memory. I knew it was spring of freshman year, but that’s all I remember about it. I had a friend from U of I who sent me a hand-drawn portrait of Kurt on a blank postcard when he died, but that’s the only fleeting memory I have of that moment.