Courtney Love Says Kurt Cobain Was ‘Desperate for Fame’
The popular view of Nirvana founder Kurt Cobain is one of an artist tormented by fame -- and while that may have been true after his band took the world by storm, at one point, Cobain wanted to hit the big time as much as any kid who ever dreamed of stardom.
That's the story according to Cobain's widow Courtney Love, anyway. The Hole leader opened up about his early years during an interview conducted for 'The '90s: The Last Great Decade?,' an upcoming National Geographic miniseries set to debut on July 6. Dismissing the notion of Cobain's ambivalence toward fame as a "myth," she claimed that he "wanted it bad" and explained, "He wrote to every major [and] minor label: 'We’ll pay. Let us be on your label.' He was desperate to be the biggest rock star in the world. But he made it look like it was thrust upon him."
In public, Cobain made a major point of taking a stance against so-called "corporate rock," and 'Last Great Decade' includes footage that finds him insisting, "I’m too stubborn to allow myself to ever compromise our music or turn us into big rock stars. I just don’t feel like that." Far be it from anyone to suggest -- particularly in his absence -- that he was less than sincere, but Love makes a good point: It's just about impossible to control once you've attracted it, but fame doesn't just happen, and even though they avoided the hairspray, spandex, and flash pots of the era, Nirvana played that game as well as anyone.