Biography-

Nirvana

Kurt Cobain (vocals, guitar) met Chris Novoselic (born Krist Novoselic) (bass) in
1985 in Aberdeen, WA, a small logging town 100 miles away from Seattle. While
Novoselic came from a relatively stable background, Cobain's childhood had
been thrown into turmoil when his parents divorced when he was eight.
Following the divorce, he lived at the homes of various relatives, developing a
love for the Beatles and then heavy metal in the process. Eventually, American
hardcore punk worked its way into dominating his listening habits and he met
the Melvins, an Olympia-based underground heavy punk band. Cobain began
playing in punk bands like Fecal Matter, often with the Melvins' bassist Dale
Crover. Through the Melvins' leader Buzz Osborne, Cobain met Novoselic, who
also had an intense interest in punk, which meant that he, like Cobain, felt
alienated from the macho, redneck population of Aberdeen. The duo decided to
form a band called the Stiff Woodies, with Cobain on drums, Novoselic on bass,
and a rotating cast of guitarists and vocalists. The group went through name
changes as quickly as guitarists, before deciding that Cobain would play guitar
and sing. Renamed Skid Row, the new trio featured drummer Aaron Burkhart,
who left the band by the end of 1986 and was replaced by Chad Channing. By
1987, the band was called Nirvana.

Nirvana's success took the music industry by surprise, Nirvana included. It soon
become apparent that the band wasn't quite sure how to handle their success.
Around the time of Nevermind's release, the band was into baiting their audience --
Cobain appeared on MTV's Headbanger's Ball in drag, the group mocked the
tradition of miming on the BBC's Top of the Pops by Novoselic constantly throwing
his bass into the air and Cobain singing his live vocals in the style of Ian Curtis, and
their traditional live destruction of instruments was immortalized on a Saturday
Night Live performance that ended with Novoselic and Grohl sharing a kiss -- but by
the spring, questions had begun to arise about the band's stability. Cobain married
Courtney Love, the leader of the indie rock/foxcore band Hole, in February of 1992,
announcing that the couple was expecting a child in the fall. Shortly after the
marriage, rumors that the couple were heavy heroin users began to circulate and the
strength of the rumors only increased when Nirvana canceled several summer
concerts and refused to mount a full-scale American tour during the summer. Cobain
 complained that he was suffering from chronic stomach troubles, which seemed to be
confirmed when he was admitted to a Belfast hospital after a June concert. But,
heroin rumors continued to surface, especially in the form of a late-summer Vanity
Fair article which implied that Love was using during her pregnancy. Both Love and
Cobain denied the article's allegations, and publicly harassed and threatened the
article's author. Love delivered Frances Bean Cobain, a healthy baby girl, on August
18, 1992, but the couple soon battled with Los Angeles' children's services, who
claimed they were unfit parents on the basis of the Vanity Fair article. The couple was
granted custody of their child by the beginning of 1993.

Since Cobain was going through such well-documented personal problems, Nirvana
was unable to record a follow-up to Nevermind until the spring of 1993. In the
meantime, DGC released the odds-and-ends compilation Insecticide late in 1992; the
album reached number 39 in the U.S. and number 14 U.K. As the group prepared to
make their third album, they released "Oh, the Guilt" as a split-single with the Jesus
Lizard on Touch & Go Records. Choosing Steve Albini (Pixies, the Breeders, Big Black,
the Jesus Lizard) as their producer, Nirvana recorded their third album, In Utero, in
two weeks during the spring of 1993. Following its completion, controversy began to
surround Nirvana again. Cobain suffered a heroin overdose on May 2, but the event
was hidden from the press. The following month, Love called police to their Seattle
home after Cobain locked himself in the bathroom, threatening suicide. Prior to
debuting In Utero material during the New Music Seminar at New York's Roseland
Ballroom in July, Cobain had another covered-up overdose. By that time, reports began
to circulate, including an article in Newsweek, that DGC was unhappy with the
forthcoming album, accusing that the band deliberately made an uncommercial record.
Both the band and the label denied such allegations. Deciding that Albini's production
was too flat, Nirvana decided to remaster the album with R.E.M.'s producer, Scott Litt.

In Utero was released in September of 1993 to positive reviews and strong initial sales,
debuting at the top of the U.S. and U.K. charts. Nirvana supported it with a fall
American tour, hiring former Germs member Pat Smear as an auxiliary guitarist. While
the album and the tour were both successful, sales weren't quite as strong as expected,
with several shows not selling out until the week of the concert. As a result, the group
agreed to play MTV's acoustic Unplugged show at the end of the year, and sales of In
Utero picked up after its December airing. After wrapping up the U.S. tour on January
8, 1994, with a show at Center Arena in Seattle, Nirvana embarked on a European tour
in February. Following a concert in Munich on February 29, Cobain stayed in Rome to
vacation with Love. On March 4, she awakened to find that Cobain had attempted
suicide by overdosing on the tranquilizer Rohypnol and drinking champagne. While
the attempt was initially reported as an accidental overdose, it was known within the
Nirvana camp that the vocalist had left behind a suicide note.

Cobain returned to Seattle within a week of his hospitalization and his mental illness
began to grow. On March 18, the police had to again talk the singer out of suicide after
he locked himself in a room threatening to kill himself. Love and Nirvana's
management organized an intervention program that resulted in Cobain's admission to
the Exodus Recovery Center in L.A. on March 30, but he escaped from the clinic on
April 1, returning to Seattle. His mother filed a missing persons report on April 4. The
following day, Cobain shot himself in the head at his Seattle home. His body wasn't
discovered until April 8, when an electrician contracted to install an alarm system at
the Cobain house stumbled upon the body. After his death, Kurt Cobain was quickly
anointed as a spokesman for Generation X, as well as a symbol of its tortured angst.

Novoselic and Grohl planned to release a double-disc live album at the end of 1994, but
sorting through the tapes proved to be too painful, so MTV Unplugged in New York
appeared in its place. The album debuted at the top of the British and American charts,
as a home video comprised of live performances and interviews from the band's
Nevermind-era, titled Live! Tonight! Sold Out!, was issued at the same time (the project
began prior to Cobain's passing and was completed by surviving bandmembers).

In 1996, its electric counterpart, From the Muddy Banks of the Wishkah, was released,
debuting at the top of the U.S. charts. Following Cobain's death, Grohl formed the Foo
Fighters (early rumors that Novoselic would also be a member of the band ultimately
proved to be false) -- releasing their self-titled debut album in 1995, followed by The
Colour and the Shape in 1997 and There Is Nothing Left to Lose in 1999. Novoselic
formed the trio Sweet 75, releasing their debut in the spring of 1997, and also appeared
along with former Dead Kennedys' frontman Jello Biafra and former Soundgarden
guitarist Kim Thayil on the 2000 live set Live From the Battle in Seattle under the name
the No W.T.O. Combo.

By the late '90s, research began by Novoselic for a proposed box set of previously
unreleased songs from throughout Nirvana's career. The project was supposed to
surface in the fall of 2001 (to coincide with the tenth anniversary release of Nevermind),
but legal problems began to surface. In 1997, Grohl and Novoselic formed the Nirvana
L.L.C. partnership with Courtney Love (who manages Cobain's estate) -- a company
that required a unanimous vote by all three regarding future albums, photos, and
anything else Nirvana-related. When all three couldn't agree on the songs to be
included on the box set, the matter was taken to court as Love attempted to dissolve the
partnership. The project was ultimately shelved indefinitely as any legal decision was
tied up in court. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine & Greg Prato, All Music Guide