The Nirvana co-founder, guitarist, singer and main songwriter Kurt Cobain was like a shooting star. From the late 80s until the early 90s he became one of the most promising and successful rock stars in the world but he tragically decided to take his own life at the age of 27 in 1994.
His band transformed the whole Rock and Roll scene at the time with the release of their groundbreaking album “Nevermind” in 1991, changing the course of the music genre forever. Although he was a big fan of independent bands and alternative rock groups, he also liked bands like The Beatles.
The Beatles album that Kurt Cobain said is one of his favorites
Kurt Cobain‘s journals were published back in 2002 and showed the world a little bit more about his taste in music. He had made a list called “Top 50 by Nirvana” and one of the albums listed was “Meet The Beatles!” (1964), the second album of the Fab Four to be released in the United States. It has famous tracks like “I Want to Hold Your Hand”, “I Saw Her Standing There”, “All My Loving” and “I Wanna Be Your Man”.
In the USA the album debuted at number 92 on the album chart for the week and two weeks later it peaked at number 1 where it remained for the next 11 weeks, being only replaced by another Beatles album: “The Beatles’ Second Album”.
John Lennon was his favorite Beatle
One year before his tragic death, Kurt Cobain gave an interview to Rolling Stone magazine and talked about a lot of things, including The Beatles. He revealed that John Lennon was actually his favorite Beatles member. He said that he could relate to how Lennon felt sometimes about being a celebrity.
“John Lennon was definitely my favorite Beatle, hands down. I don’t know who wrote what parts of what Beatles songs, but Paul McCartney embarrasses me. Lennon was obviously disturbed [laughs]. So I could relate to that.”
“And from the books I’ve read — and I’m so skeptical of anything I read, especially in rock books. So I just felt really sorry for him. To be locked up in that apartment. Although he was totally in love with Yoko and his child, his life was a prison. He was imprisoned. It’s not fair. That’s the crux of the problem that I’ve had with becoming a celebrity — the way people deal with celebrities. It needs to be changed; it really does.”
“No matter how hard you try, it only comes out like you’re bitching about it. I can understand how a person can feel that way and almost become obsessed with it. But it’s so hard to convince people to mellow out. Just take it easy, have a little bit of respect. We all shit (laughs),” Kurt Cobain said.
He wanted to be as John Lennon but less famous like Ringo Starr
Kurt Cobian said in an interview back in the 90s (Transcribed by Rock and Roll Garage) that he first decided that he wanted to be a Rock star after he had his first Beatles album. He recalled that he would like to be adored like John Lennon but also have the anonymity of Ringo Starr.
“At a really early age I wanted to become a Rock and Roll star. I wanted to play drums since I got my first Beatles record. I wanted to have the adoration of John Lennon but have the anonymity of Ringo Starr. You know, I didn’t want to be the frontman. I wanted to be back there but be a Rock and Roll star at the same time. Not to compare us with The Beatles, but the Beatles and Rolling Stones, bands like that, you know ‘I Want To Hold Your Hand’ to “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’, that was a massive progression and I just want to experiment.