Remembering Kurt Cobain: 25 years after singer’s death, Nirvana manager tells his story
- A new book, Serving the Servant: Remembering Kurt Cobain, by Cobain’s mentor and band manager Danny Goldberg, was published this week
- Goldberg remembers the rocker as ahead of his time, whose quick wit and humanity shone through the melancholy
Decades after Kurt Cobain’s guttural rasp seduced Generation X from its collective bedroom and into the post-punk clubs of 1990s Seattle, the late Nirvana frontman remains a talisman for the young and disaffected the world over.
April 5 marks a quarter-century since grunge’s reluctant poster boy took his own life at the age of just 27, and Cobain’s former manager Danny Goldberg says he is finally ready to reflect publicly on the legacy of an enigma and a pioneer.
In Serving the Servant: Remembering Kurt Cobain – published this week to mark the anniversary – Goldberg remembers a Cobain ahead of his time, whose quick wit and humanity shone through the brooding melancholy.
“The impression of him in the media had become a little distorted and focused disproportionately on his death, and not as much on his life and his artwork,” Goldberg says.
“He was an incredibly soulful singer; his voice conveyed a vulnerability and an intimacy that’s rare. He tuned into something that helped people feel less like freaks, less alone.”
This empathetic quality ensured that the songwriter’s work remained relevant, Goldberg says, even to teenagers born after Cobain’s death, a world away from the drizzly Pacific northwest of his formative years.