Kurt Donald Cobain (February 20, 1967 – c. April 5, 1994) was an American singer-songwriter and musician, best known as the lead singer and guitarist of the grunge band Nirvana.
BIOGRAPHY
Kurt Donald Cobain was born on 20 February 1967, at Grays Harbor Hospital in Aberdeen, Washington, to a waitress, Wendy Elizabeth Fradenburg and an automotive mechanic named Donald Leland Cobain. His father was of Scottish, Irish and French ancestry, and his mother, was of Cuban, Spanish, Irish, German and English ancestry. Cobain's Irish ancestors migrated from County Tyrone of Northern Ireland in 1875. Further research found them to have been shoemakers, originally named Cobane, who came from the village of Initiatives near Pomeroy, who settled in Cornwall, Ontario, Canada, and then in Washington. Cobain had one younger sister named Kimberly, born in 1970.
Following a tour stop at Terminal Eins in Munich, Germany, on 1 March 1994, Cobain was diagnosed with bronchitis and severe laryngitis. He flew to Rome the next day for medical treatment, and was joined there by his wife on 3 March 1994. The next morning, Love awoke to find that Cobain had overdosed on a combination of champagne and Rohypnol. Cobain was immediately rushed to the hospital, and spent the rest of the day unconscious. After five days in the hospital, Cobain was released and returned to Seattle. Love later stated that the incident was Cobain's first suicide attempt.
Kurt Cobain was found dead at his home in Seattle, Washington, United States on April 8, 1994. Cobain, the lead singer of the American grunge band Nirvana, had checked out of a drug rehabilitation facility and been reported suicidal by his wife Courtney Love. The Seattle Police Department incident report states that Cobain was found with a shotgun across his body had a visible head wound and there was a suicide note discovered nearby. The King County Medical Examiner noted that there were puncture wounds on the inside of both the right and left elbow. The Seattle Police Department investigated, and after an autopsy by the King County Coroner's Office, Cobain's death was ruled a suicide by a single gunshot blast coming from his jaw then exiting through the top of his head.
Despite the official ruling, several theories have arisen offering alternate explanations for Cobain's death. Tom Grant, a private investigator hired by Cobain's wife Courtney Love to find Cobain after his departure from rehab, put forth his belief that Cobain was murdered. Grant's theory has since been analyzed and questioned by television shows, films, and books. Authors and filmmakers have also attempted to explain what might have happened during Cobain's final days, and what might have led him to suicide.
