1988-1994Kurt CobainVocals, guitar
Krist NovoselicBass
Dave GrohlDrums
Kurt Cobain went missing on April 1, 1994 and was found dead in the greenhouse above his garage on April 8 by an electrician sent to install security lighting. He had killed himself three days earlier with a shotgun, leaving behind a suicide note that alluded to his debilitating stomach problems: "Thank you all from the pit of my burning, nauseous stomach."
Cobain married Courtney Love from the group Hole on February 24, 1992 - they met at an L7 and Butthole Surfers concert. Their daughter, Frances Bean Cobain, was born six months later.
Dave Grohl was the drummer in Nirvana, but when he formed The Foo Fighters in 1995 he became their lead singer and guitarist. In fact, the first Foo Fighters album was just him - he didn't have a band yet. He brought in a guitarist for one track, but otherwise played every instrument and handled all the vocals. He also wrote all the songs.
Cobain had extensive drug problems. In his final years he was hooked on heroin, which he used to mask the pain of his stomach ailments. In his journals, he wrote about how he would dread eating because he knew it would cause him excruciating pain.
Before releasing their paradigm-shifting album Nevermind in 1991 on DGC Records, they were signed to the Seattle indie label Sub Pop, which released their debut album, Bleach, in 1989. That album did well on college radio in the Pacific Northwest, but after Nirvana took off it sold nearly 2 million copies, helping Sub Pop support acts like Mudhoney and Sleater-Kinney.
Their first single was a cover: "
Love Buzz" (originally by the Dutch group The Shocking Blue) in 1988.
Kurt Cobain did most of their songwriting and is the only writer credited on most of their songs. His very lucrative publishing rights passed down to Courtney Love after his death.
Two days after Kurt Cobain's body was found, about 5,000 fans gathered in Seattle for a candlelight vigil. The distraught crowd filled the air with profane chants, burned their flannel shirts and fought with police. They also listened to a tape made by Cobain's wife in which she read parts from his suicide note.
During Nirvana's last tour, a second guitarist, Pat Smear, joined the band so Cobain could focus more on singing and less on lead guitar. Smear performed on MTV's Unplugged with the band, and in 1995 he joined Dave Grohl's Foo Fighters.
Some of the bands they toured with include
Mudhoney, Jesus Lizard and Dinosaur Jr.
Novoselic is 6' 7" and was known as a wildman on stage with Nirvana, often jumping around and throwing his bass in the air. At the 1992 MTV Video Music Awards he got his bell rung when he tossed his bass and
caught it with his head.
The first instrument Novoselic learned how to play was the accordion.
After Nirvana, Novoselic played with a variety of other bands and collaborative projects, including Sweet 75, the No WTO Combo, Eyes Adrift, Filthy Friends, Giants in the Trees and 3rd Secret. He also was a member of the San Francisco-based punk band Flipper from 2006 to 2009. In addition, Novoselic hosted a radio show at the Astoria, Oregon community radio station KMUN under the name "DJ K-No."
Before joining Nirvana, Grohl began his music career in the '80s as the drummer for several Washington, DC area bands, most notably the Punk band Scream.
Led Zeppelin drummer John Bonham was a big influence on Grohl, who had Bonham's three-circle logo tattooed on his wrist.
Grohl played drums on several tracks on the 2005 Nine Inch Nails 2005 album With Teeth, and he's also done a lot of drumming with Queens of the Stone Age, including on their 2002 album Songs For The Deaf.
They're from Aberdeen, Washington, but are often lumped in with Seattle. Aberdeen is about 110 miles away from Seattle, which is apparently close enough to link them with that scene.
All three members came from divorced families. Cobain was seven years old when his parents split, and he claimed that this was when he became antisocial and rebellious.
Quentin Tarantino received a special thanks from Nirvana in the liner notes of In Utero because he asked Cobain to play a heroin dealer in Pulp Fiction. Cobain didn't take up his offer (it was too close to home), and the role went to Eric Stoltz.
Frances Bean Cobain has kept a low profile. She did do a Rolling Stone interview in 2015 (when she was 22) where she said she wasn't that into Nirvana but loves their song "
Territorial Pissings." In 2023 she married Riley Hawk, son of the skateboarder Tony Hawk.
Grohl's first drum kit consisted of pillows and furniture. "Until I was 17, I didn't have enough money to get a drum set," Grohl told Uncut in 2007. "But I knew the configuration of a drum set, so I'd set up a pillow between my legs as a snare drum, and I'd use my bed as a tom and a chair as a high hat. I'd just play along with the records all day long, (mostly) fast hardcore punk rock albums like Bad Brains and Minor Threat. It was great. And it was cheap."
Dave Grohl often downplays his talents as a drummer, but most of his peers don't. "There was a funk to his punk rock that I appreciated," Dave Abbruzzese, who was Pearl Jam's drummer from 1991-1994,
explained to Songfacts. "It reminded me of Greg Errico, the drummer for Sly & The Family Stone. The tension he created by pushing his hi-hat and the rest of it still pulling back. He was the right drummer for the band. With Krist pulling back and Kurt always on top of the beat, Dave was able to support both but define it at the same time."
According to Courtney Love, the "new complaint" in "
Heart-Shaped Box" is Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth. On
The Magnificent Others podcast, she explained that Gordon treated her and Cobain rudely when they crossed paths, and Kurt took it to heart.
