On this episode of the Sofa King Podcast, we look at the life, success, drugs, depression and death of legendary rocker Kurt Cobain. Born on February 20, 1967 in Aberdeen, Washington, the young Cobain was an artistic and sensitive boy who struggled with the volatile relationship of his mother and father. They divorced when he was nine, and he was shuffled from house to house, dealing with step-parents and step-siblings and a household climate that only made him depressed.

Then, his uncle gave him a gift that changed the world—a beaten up old guitar that Cobain obsessed over and used as an escape from his home life. In his teens, he started to practice and dabble in drugs, and he finally met Buzz Osborne from the punk rock band The Melvins. Osborne introduced him to punk rock, and Kurt Cobain was never the same again.

Soon after, he started a (thankfully?) failed band called Fecal Matter and eventually put together the foundations of Nirvana. After rotating through several drummers and finding little success, they met Dave Grohl on a tour in Washington DC, and the band released their biggest album, Nevermind and the smash hit “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” This song, Cobain’s style, and the music he produced impacted all of Generation X and helped usher in the Grunge movement in music and fashion.

Through all of his success, Cobain battled depression and drug addiction, and even his eventual wife Courtney Love only added to the mix. They shared a relationship that was extremely unstable, always involved in domestic abuse, drug use, and even a costly court battle to keep custody of their own child. In 1993, after Cobain broke himself out of a rehab center in Marina Del Rey, he vanished. Love hired a private detective but was too late. Kurt Cobain had killed himself in his home back in Seattle.

Or did he? What evidence makes the private detective think it was murder? Was Courtney Love involved in his death? What about rumors of another rock star who was paid $50,000 to kill Cobain (and then died being hit by a train two days after the admission)? What impact did Cobain and Nirvana have on the world, and how did his death define an entire generation? Listen, laugh, learn.

Interesting Links and Bogus Videos:

http://cobaincase.com/

http://www.nme.com/news/music/nirvana-306-1200723