Scott Weiland was recently asked to comment on Kurt Cobain’s death for a new book called Survival of the Fittest: Heavy Metal in the 1990's. The question posed by author Greg Prato was ‘How did Kurt Cobain’s death affect you?’ And the short answer from Weiland was ‘very intensely.’ He then followed that with an explanation.

Prato shared an excerpt from his book on Alternative Nation. In the passage, Weiland recounts that he was dealing with his own drug addiction around the time of Cobain’s suicide, how he was supposed to be in the same rehab center as Cobain and how he felt after hearing the news of Cobain's passing.

“I was actually in detox or rehab for the first time, kicking heroin. When I knew that Kurt was over at Exodus [Recovery Center, a rehab center in Marina Del Rey, California], I was in a place in Pasadena. I was actually supposed to be going to Exodus, and [Stone Temple Pilots] had just finished our tour with the Butthole Surfers, and I found out that Gibby [Haynes] was there, so my manager made a change and put me somewhere else. And everything went down – we heard over the TV that he’d jumped the wall [a famous story in which rather than checking out of Exodus, Cobain jumped over the facility’s wall]. I’ve known a lot of people who have done that. Then he was missing, and then found out that he was dead. It was really heavy. It was kind the death of the age of innocence of our thing we had going. As far as that genre of music, there was a certain innocence about it, and then the innocence was gone. I guess every generation has their ‘Don McLean moment.’ Y’know, ‘This will be the day that I die’ [in reference to the McLean song ‘American Pie’] – the whole ‘death of rock 'n’ roll’ moments. And that was our generation’s death of rock 'n’ roll.”

Cobain died 21 years ago on April 5, 1994. Since his death his family, countless fans and a number of musicians have talked about his life and his passing. This year a new documentary about Cobain’s life called Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck was released and it included never-before-heard music from the artist, as well as interviews from his friends and family and home movies and old photos from the late singer.

You can order Survival of the Fittest: Heavy Metal in the 1990's by Greg Prato on Amazon for your Kindle or in paperback and from Barnes & Noble in paperback and for your Nook. A full chapter of the book has been posted here for those who'd like to preview the work of non-fiction.

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