A Thoughtful Gesture or a Deceptive Plan?”, “A Look Back”, “The Best of Times” and “The Bad Guys Won”. With no warning and no mercy, two of the most popular bands in the world—Nirvana and Soundgarden—simply broke up and walked away, seemingly taking their fans with them. A year later, Kurt Cobain’s life—and music—were tragically cut short in April of 1994, at the age of 27, but for his fans his legacy remains. The man they called Kurt Cobain lives on in more ways than one. But how did it happen? It is a fact that there were warning signs, not least of which was an alarming string of cancelled and changed concert dates, poor sales of the new record, “In Utero” and on the eve of his suicide, Cobain talked of killing himself. How could an artist at the height of popularity and success in a business they loved—and a band that was at the peak of its game, commercially and critically—all of a sudden and without warning quit? The man who first got up in front of an audience to sing these songs—in this business, he never had to worry about the next gig or next royalty check, so why did he? Cobain’s life has been well documented, thanks to his friend and confidante, director and journalist Michael Azerrad, who came along for the ride as Cobain’s biographer. It’s an exhaustive, in-depth exploration of this legendary figure’s rise and demise and includes first hand interviews with family and friends, archival footage and personal photos and documents such as fan letters and press clippings. There is a wealth of information from which to draw insights into Cobain and the world he inhabited. In addition to a vast array of firsthand quotes, the personal nature of this book has many intimate insights and reveals how Cobain became the rock star he was, as told by his own words. Azerrad also examines and contextualizes Cobain’s place in the landscape of rock music, which influenced generations of artists both in America and the UK, and the rise and fall of grunge, a musical and cultural movement whose influence has been felt long after Cobain’s death. Author Michael Azerrad: For over 25 years I’ve been studying, exploring, and telling the stories of these artists in my books, film, and television, but I’m always humbled by the reaction that people have when they meet the artists themselves. For the first time, on November 4th at a Seattle bookstore called Elliott Bay Book Co., I’ll be discussing my work on Nirvana and other artists with Alex Gibney, who has been my partner in the making of this documentary, Kurt and Courtney. I’ve been at this for a long time now, and I look forward to it as much as anyone. I’m always humbled by the reaction that people have when they meet the artists themselves. For the first time, on November 4th at a Seattle bookstore called Elliott Bay Book Co., I’ll be discussing my work on Nirvana and other artists with Alex Gibney, who has been my partner in the making of this documentary, Kurt and Courtney. I’ve been at this for a long time now, and I look forward to it as much as anyone.I’ve been told that I’m kind of a rock-and-roll rock star myself, and that’s because we all know people who have died as part of this lifestyle. They’re not alone. As a former editor and now a writer, there are no more books about rock-and-roll, so I had to figure out something else to do. These two bands were one of the great sources for a generation and that’s because they’re great bands. They really gave people a sense of possibility. They were making music out of pain—for the pain and the anger inside themselves and the pain and the anger inside everybody else. It was so compelling, like listening to an angel cry in front of you. No one’s had a chance to come back into the world from that. The kids who came before didn’t have that chance—whether it was Dylan, Punk rock, Jazz, whatever. The kids had to pick up from where they left off. With Nirvana, we got to pick up from where we left off. I always say that these bands, when they were around, were a chance for people to have their cake and eat it too—to say goodbye and have a memory. I can’t say for sure, but I do think that when Nirvana did it, that was a message that they’re still there. That’s always been my belief, at least. After two decades of following their careers and the work they’ve done, I don’t think they’ll ever really be gone. Ever. Even though we’re seeing a lot more talk about the music, and the sound and the legacy—which is the reason why I’m doing this book—I really felt it was important that there be a book written about them now and that it be as deep and as deep an exploration of the life of Kurt Cobain as possible. There’s this sort of misconception that grunge and all of the anger and sadness is somehow coming from Seattle, that it’s Seattle rock-and-roll. It isn’t. It isn’t grunge rock or Seattle rock. It’s American rock, it’s hard rock, it’s punk rock and it’s just real hard core. That makes it unique, not just in the sense of being a rock band, but a rock band that’s just doing its own thing. They set a template for rock-and-roll. It’s not heavy metal, it’s not hard rock, and it’s not punk rock. It’s hard rock that just had a message. It’s real hard core. Sometimes hard rock can become just another way to make a living—not just another way to make a living, but a way to keep the dream alive. I think people like that are disappearing. When it comes to heavy metal and punk rock and all of these things that seem to be popular, in terms of going down, they have to keep repeating themselves, and their music has to keep getting more and more difficult. To me, hard rock isn’t that. Hard rock is a different kind of energy than that and I wanted to share what I had to say about them, and why they’ve made such a difference in all of our lives. I don’t want to be too self-important, but I’m a music writer, I’m a rock critic, and I live in the same world that a lot of my readers live in and a lot of the kids who still listen to Nirvana listen to Nirvana—and a lot of them aren’t even born yet. I feel like the energy from Nirvana is still alive. It’s certainly been carried forward. They have no reason to quit. They don’t have a reason to quit—they don’t have a reason to quit and they don’t have a reason to quit. I couldn’t think of anything better than what I was doing and I don’t know that they’re at the end of the road. Kurt Cobain wasn’t at the end of the road, neither was Eddie Vedder or Alice in Chains or the other bands. They had nothing to do with what happened to Kurt and they’re all still doing it, but it isn’t the same. We don’t have anyone in the same space right now and that’s what I wanted to explore. I wanted to go back and see what made it happen. It happened so fast and it’s not going to happen again for a long time. If it’s going to happen again, it’s going to take longer than it did to happen before. When Nirvana was a band and started out, I was writing about them on my own—from L.A. As it went along, I was in New York, writing about them. Eventually, when they signed their record deal, I became their press agent, which was great, because I was able to see them from a different perspective. Then when they started having success, I was on the road with them. That meant that all of a sudden the people who were my friends from the band were my friends on the road, and that’s very interesting when you’re hanging out with them. Now that you’ve worked together, you go on the road with them, you tour with them, you fly back together—you go to a party and you hang out with them, you start hanging out with them the rest of your life. And you can’t escape that. So after a while, I did that and I still did it. The only thing that changed was that I had more than just a job. I also had a family, but I’ve always been in a career like this. What happened was I decided to become a writer and a critic. I started working for Rolling Stone magazine and I started following Nirvana around the world for the magazine and for Rolling Stone. I got to know everybody who was involved in the band and it was just in time because when “Nevermind” was really exploding and starting to kick up all