



Kurt Cobain discusses literature among other things with Erica Ehm of Canada’s Much Music TV channel. The interview was conducted on August 10, 1993.

In this 23 minute clip, Cobain is sweet-tempered, focused and relatively at ease with himself and the world (as much as most artists are). While watching the video, it was hard for me to imagine that this beautiful young guy would kill himself nine months later on April 5, 1994. Of course, it is impossible to know what Cobain was really going through at this point in his life, but he doesn’t appear, in this very small slice of a moment in time, to be a man locked in a struggle with mortality (oh maybe a bit, but no more than most sentient beings). His distaste for humanity seems rather healthy, perhaps because I share it. His perspective on wealth and fame is Zen-like. He has a certain melancholia, but so did I when I was his age. In fact, I still do.

I was never much of a Nirvana fan but I love the soulful intelligence and honesty that Cobain radiates in this video. I like his feminist point of view and social/political consciousness. He doesn’t strike me as someone who has given up on life. But maybe the drugs (the dirty ones) got the best of him.

I think it’s time for me to grab my wife’s Nirvana albums and give them another spin.

