KURT COBAIN

The latest in the publisher’s Last Interview series focuses on the grunge icon.

Kurt Cobain’s meteoric rise to musical superstardom with Nirvana and troubled descent to suicide in 1994 happened so quickly that it mostly remains shrouded in mystery. This collection pulls back the curtain on how the musician’s mind worked. It’s an odd mix of conversations led by skilled interviewers, including Rolling Stone’s David Fricke and Guitar World’s Jon Savage, and by more amateurish writers. Roberto LoRusso, a DJ for Ontario-based CHRW, titles his 1991 chat “My Embarrassing Interview With Kurt Cobain,” which does include plenty of cringey moments—though LoRusso does nail down that Nirvana’s advance for signing with major label Geffen was $175,000. Even when the interviews lean toward the perfunctory, Cobain’s honesty and genuine engagement make them enlightening. The interviews also show that the narrative in the early 1990s that Cobain was difficult and constantly strung out was not true. Fricke gets him to explain why Nirvana didn’t tour to support its breakthrough album Nevermind. “I needed time to collect my thoughts and readjust,” Cobain said. “It hit me so hard, and I was under the impression that I didn’t really need to go on tour, because I was making a whole bunch of money….So I thought I would sit back and enjoy it.” Throughout the interviews, Cobain discusses his chronic stomach pain and his complaints about how the media covers celebrities, especially after he married Courtney Love. Though his arguments are debatable, including his thoughts on whether alternative artists should embrace their mainstream fans, they are still well reasoned. “I’ve been validated far beyond anything,” he told Savage. “But I would gladly go back to the point of selling out the Vogue in Seattle, which holds about three hundred people. I’ll gladly go back to playing in front of twenty people—if I’m still enjoying it.”

A collection that helps reveal more about the man behind the mythical anthems of the grunge generation.