With mic pressed to lips and accompanying himself on guitar, Kurt Cobain made millions with his lugubrious ditties of love, loss, dereliction, and disintegration with an undertow of masochistic violence. And his unquiet ghost still walks abroad.
Born in 1967, he grew up loving The Beatles but wanting to emulate the Sex Pistols, and, after abortive attempts to become an artist, he found his niche as guitarist-singer-songwriter for Nirvana, the rock band he formed. Nirvana set the tone for grunge music, and became the rallying point for Cobain’s generation in America. His fanbase was vast, as was his musical influence, and also his wealth.
