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Kurt Cobain is a celebrated and defiant icon of Generation X. His wife, Courtney Love was once the most hated woman in America. Courtney like Kurt, was unapologetic, fierce, determined, ambitious, authentic and a total hypocrite. They were both totally in love and for a minute shined brighter than most. They challenged gender norms and the music industry patriarchy and reluctantly played the roles of their generation’s John and Yoko by way of Sid and Nancy all while making great music, but only one of them would make it out of the nineties alive.

Extra Credit

This episode was co-written with Ellen Thibault. Editorial and writing assistance by Pat Healy.

Sources

Heavier Than Heaven: A Biography of Kurt Cobain by Charles R. Cross

Cobain: Montage of Heck, A Film by Brett Morgen

Vanity Fair: Strange Love, The Story of Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love by Lyn Hirschberg

Huffington Post: Courtney Love Admits to Using Heroin While Pregnant With Frances Bean Cobain

Kurt Cobain Journals

VH1 Behind The Music, Courtney Love

Musician Magazine: Territorial Pissings by Michael Azzerad

Clash: Evan Dando Talks Cobain

Disgraceland is a podcast about musicians getting away with murder and behaving very badly. It melds music history, true crime and transgressive fiction. Disgraceland is not journalism. Disgraceland is entertainment. Entertainment inspired by true events. However, certain scenes, characters and names are sometimes fictionalized for dramatic purposes.

Music

Score by Jake Brennan.

Mixed and engineered by Sean Cahalin.

Disgraceland theme song, “Crenshaw Space Boogie” written and produced by Jake Brennan. Performed by Jake Brennan, Jay Cannava, and Evan Kenney. Mixed and engineered by Adam Taylor. Additional music and score elements by Ryan Spraker.

Episode mix doctoring by Pat Dicenzo. Bryce Kanzer and Joel Edinburgh, additional scoring. Ad music by Ian Kennedy.

*illustrations by Avi Spivak @avispivak