28 years ago today, the music world lost a pioneer… a rock icon.
Nirvana frontman and primary songwriter Kurt Cobain passed away by a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.
He tragically joined Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, Amy Winehouse and others in the “27 Club,” the commonly-used name of a list of musicians that have passed away at the age of 27.
Unquestionably one of the biggest music icons of my time, Kurt Cobain’s influence reached far beyond the rock music scene, spreading into various facets of pop music, hip hop and even the country music world.
We all remember Post Malone’s Nirvana concert that raised over half a million dollars for Coronavirus relief, but country music great Sturgill Simpson also paid tribute to Cobain when he covered “In Bloom” on his Grammy winning album, A Sailor’s Guide To Earth, back in 2016.
First recorded in 1990, it was first released as a music video only in 1991, and then rerecorded and later released as the second single from their sophomore album, Nevermind, in 1992.
When it came time for Sturgill to release Sailor’s Guide, he told Rolling Stone that that he wanted to pay homage to Kurt:
“I remember in seventh or eighth grade when that album dropped, it was like a bomb went off in my bedroom.
For me, that song has always summed up what it means to be a teenager, and I think it tells a young boy that he can be sensitive and compassionate, he doesn’t have to be tough or cold to be a man.
I wanted to make a very beautiful and pure homage to Kurt.”
Here’s to the great Kurt Cobain.
And of course, the album cut from Nirvana:
