On the 20th anniversary of Kurt Cobain's death, we honor the musician and his career by looking back at a 2011 FADER feature written by Kurt St. Thomas, a current KROQ DJ who premiered Nirvana's Nevermind in August 1991 while at a DJ at Boston's WFNX. St. Thomas interviewed Cobain multiple times and reminisces about his experiences with Nirvana before and after their fame, including their 1992 appearance on Saturday Night Live, the week Nevermind replaced Michael Jackson's Dangerous as the #1 album in America-- essentially, the moment when the group became superstars. St. Thomas discusses what Cobain was like in those days, his attitudes toward fame and punk rock, his childlike nature, and his hope that more women formed bands. "The Cobain I had met was sweet, frail, quiet and unassuming, but he was also sharp as a tack, the kind of person who could summarize a book in three words," says St. Thomas. "He could be pissed off and mean, punk rock and anti-establishment. He was a guy who loved macaroni and cheese with hot dogs in it, the Vaselines, Evel Knievel, Bukowski, and the Andy Griffin Show. He was funny, and self-deprecating. He was a troubled artist who wrote some of the best rock songs in the last 40 years." Read more here.
