Remembering the Death of Kurt Cobain 20 Years Later (VIDEOS)

UPDATED: March 21, 2014 As reported by The Hollywood Reporter, with the 20th anniversary of Cobain’s death around the corner, Seattle police decided to review all the case files, ultimately finding “no new information to change the police conclusion that Cobain took his own life.” However, the detective reviewing the case “did discover four rolls of undeveloped film from the suicide scene.”

Late Thursday, Seattle police released two previously unseen images from those rolls. One showed a box containing drug paraphernalia, a spoon and what look like needles on the floor next to half a cigarette and sunglasses. The other showed the paraphernalia box closed, next to cash, a cigarette pack and a wallet that appears to show Cobain’s identification.

“There was nothing earth-shattering in any of these images,” police spokeswoman Renee Witt said. “The detective went into the case files to refresh himself. The outcome of the case has not changed.”

It is hard to believe that nearly 20 years have passed since Kurt Cobain committed suicide, although his body was not discovered until three days later on April 8, 1994.

Best known as the front man, lead singer, guitarist and main songwriter for Nirvana, Cobain was born on February 20, 1967.

Prone to alcoholism and drug abuse, it was later revealed by a cousin that Cobain had been diagnosed growing up with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder as well as bipolar disorder, and had a history of mental illness in the family including two uncles who had committed suicide themselves with guns.

Suffering from intense physical pain due to an undiagnosed chronic stomach condition, Cobain eventually began abusing hard drugs, overdosing on heroin in 1993 and on a combination of champagne and Rohypnol on March 4, 1994 in an incident his wife, Courtney Love would later come to describe as his first suicide attempt. Later that month, Love called the Seattle police on Cobain and they confiscated guns and a bottle of pills.

On March 30th, Cobain entered a rehab facility after a successful intervention arranged by Love. However, the next evening he excused himself for a cigarette break, scaled the wall surrounding the facility and hopped on an airplane to Seattle where he was spotted in various locations around town the next few days. Then on On April 8, 1994, Cobain’s body was found at his Lake Washington home by an electrician who had arrived to install a new security system. The body had been lying there for days and the coroner’s report estimated the time of death to have been sometime on April 5, 1994.

Even after the passage of 19 years, I find myself a bit distressed on the anniversary of his passing. For one thing, he was born the same year my little sister was born, making his passing even more frightening for me. Additionally, my mother would go on to die in November of that same year, ending her nearly 10 year struggle with cancer of the stomach.

To help remember Cobain, we have included a couple of live music videos below from Nirvana’s VEVO page on YouTube followed by the original Smells Like Teen Spirit video and an interesting video filmed during rehearsal for Nirvana’s 1993 MTV Unplugged Session in New York. We hope you enjoy the features and have a long and happy life.

Nirvana – Aneurysm (Live at Reading 1992)
Music video by Nirvana performing Aneurysm. (C) 2009 Geffen Records

Nirvana – All Apologies (MTV Unplugged)
Music video by Nirvana performing All Apologies. (C) 1993 Geffen Records

Nirvana – Smells Like Teen Spirit
Music video by Nirvana performing Smells Like Teen Spirit. (C) 1991 Geffen Records

Nirvana MTV Unplugged REHEARSAL
11/18/93 – Sony Music Studios (MTV Unplugged rehearsal), New York, NY

The rehearsal was reportedly about three hours long, a large portion of which was spent checking sound and tuning. Curt and Cris Kirkwood from the Meat Puppets joined the band onstage for the three Meat Puppets songs (“Plateau,” “Lake Of Fire,” and “Oh, Me”). Curt played guitar, and Cris played bass and sang backup vocals. Two versions of “Oh, Me” were rehearsed. – NLG

Includes only “Come As You Are” (first take), “Polly,” “Plateau” (second take), “Pennyroyal Tea” (both takes), and “The Man Who Sold The World” (one take).
“Pennyroyal Tea” (second take) cuts in.

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