This Day in History: April 8, 1994

Twenty-five years ago today, Kurt Cobain, the lead singer of the grunge band, Nirvana, was found dead in his home. It was later determined that Cobain had killed himself with a gunshot blast to the head three days earlier. With his suicide, Cobain became the newest member of the “27 Club”, a long list of rock stars who died tragically at the age of twenty-seven.

Although I liked the song “Smells Like Teen Spirit” (and its accompanying video), I was never a Nirvana fan. Still, I found the suicide shocking. Cobain wasn’t even ten years older than I was, which meant that he was still pretty young. His career was white-hot, he was wealthy, and he was (seemingly) happily married with an infant daughter. Why would someone in his position want to die?

Immediately after the suicide, it became clear that Kurt Cobain was much more troubled than even the often dark lyrics of his songs and previous drug overdose indicated. If Cobain’s suicide taught the members of my generation anything it was that the outer trappings of success don’t cure people of their dysfunctions. In fact success — at least as it is traditionally defined — can actually reinforce and intensify those dysfunctions.