Kurt Cobain Quotes (1967-1994)

“I wanted to have the adoration of John Lennon but have the anonymity of Ringo Starr. I didn't want to be a frontman. I just wanted to be back there and still be a rock and roll star at the same time.”

“I don't blame the average seventeen-year-old punk-rock kid for calling me a sellout. I understand that. And maybe when they grow up a little bit, they'll realize there's more things to life than living out your rock & roll identity so righteously.”

“ ...when I was in high school, I dressed like a punk rocker and people would scream "Devo!" at me - because Devo infiltrated the mainstream. Out of all the bands who came from the underground and actually made it in the mainstream, Devo is the most subversive and challenging of all. They're just awesome. I love them.”

“I remember watching Kurt come through and thinking, "God, this music is nuclear," This is really splitting the atom. They raised the temperature for everybody. Manufactured pop never looked so cold as when that heat was around. Nirvana made everything else look silly.”

“I was simply blown away when I found out that Kurt Cobain liked my work, and I always wanted to talk to him about his reasons for covering "Man Who Sold The World." It was a good straightforward rendition and sounded somehow very honest. It would have been nice to have worked with him, but just talking would have been real cool.”

“Cobain was very shy, very polite, and obviously enjoyed the fact that I wasn’t awestruck at meeting him. There was something about him, fragile and engagingly lost.”

“Kurt's got a literary bent, and jokes that he likes "anything that starts with a B. I think I like Burroughs best, and I'm into Bukowski and Beckett."”

“I'm sorry I couldn't have spoken to the young man. I see a lot of people at the Zen Center, who have gone through drugs and found a way out that is not just Sunday school. There are always alternatives, and I might have been able to lay something on him. Or maybe not.”

“A couple weeks ago, one of my students gave me a mixed tape of Kurt Cobain and there was a version of "Black Girl" of great artistry. Great vocal control and subtlety, it's almost as good as Leadbelly's.”

“He's the most talented person I ever worked with because he was talented in so many different ways. He's a guitar player and a lead singer and he wrote all the songs. He did everything for Nirvana that it took Jimmy Page and Robert Plant to do for Led Zeppelin. Kurt also designed the album covers and wrote treatments for the videos. He even designed the t-shirts. He was really a comprehensive genius when it came to the art of rock and roll.”

“I suddenly realized Michael [Pitt] was much taller than Kurt, and much more buff, actually. Kurt was a wee little man, with these big piercing blue eyes and this tremendous smile — and that's one thing that nobody can replicate.”

“I still dream about Kurt. Every time I see him in a dream, I’ll be amazed and I get this feeling that everyone else thinks he’s dead. It always feels totally real, probably because I’m a very vivid dreamer. But, in my dreams, Kurt’s usually been hiding - we’ll get together and I’ll end up asking him, "God, where have you been"”

“I met him a few times. As a writer I had enormous respect for him. He was an incredible writer and an incredible singer. And when I met him I found him to be a very special person. He was one of those special people. There was a light inside him that you could see. He had a charisma that went beyond his physical presence.”

“Kurt really reminded me a lot of John [Lennon] in his writing, singing, and guitar playing. More attitude than technique, but he had incredibly strong rhythm and a great solo sense.”

“Rage and aggression were elements for Kurt to play with as an artist, but he was profoundly gentle and intelligent.”

“I went to see Nirvana at a small club called the Pyramid on Avenue A in New York City. It was hard to hear the guitar, but the guy playing and singing had a vibe; he hopped around like a muppet or an elf or something, hunched over his guitar, hop hop hop, hippety hippety hop. I loved that. When he sang, he put his voice in this really grating place, and it was kind of devilish sounding. At the end of the set he attacked the drum kit and threw the cymbals, other bits and finally himself into the audience. Later I saw the same guy passing the bar. He was little, with stringy blond hair and a Stooges T-shirt. I felt proud.”

“[Cobain] was a revealing symbol. He called himself passive-aggressive. There was self-pity, whining. There was a diminishment, a diminution. He was sitting there in his sweater, hunched over his guitar, looking like a little lost boy. Compare that with the great figures of my generation: Jimi Hendrix. Pete Townshend. Keith Richards.”

“Kurt Cobain represents a very legit, realistic outlook. Before that, in my head, to be a white artist was to be privileged. You celebrated the glamor and you got respect. But here's someone that was really taking a hip-hop stance on all of that. Who doesn't play their hit single in concert? Are you crazy? He took that nihilistic Sonic Youth approach, that tortured-everyday-guy thing, to the hilt”

“Cobain changed the course of where the music went. There are certain people where you can see the axis of musical history twisting on them: Hendrix was pivotal, Prince was pivotal, Cobain was pivotal.”

“In Kurt’s voice I could hear his love of bluegrass music, of Bill Monroe and Leadbelly. It’s in the twang of his voice.”

“Yeah, he talked a lot about what direction he was heading in. I mean, I know what the next Nirvana recording was going to sound like. It was going to be very quiet and acoustic, with lots of stringed instruments. It was going to be an amazing fucking record, and I’m a little bit angry at him for killing himself. He and I were going to record a trial run of the album, a demo tape. It was all set up. He had a plane ticket. He had a car picking him up. And at the last minute he called and said, "I can't come."”

“I was in Pioneer Square - I went to see some band, I don't know if it was the the Melvins. Kurt was there - I think Kurt was by himself and I was by myself. I went over to tell him how much I loved Bleach. He was very quiet and subdued. He said, "Thanks - that means a lot coming from you. Consider yourself our biggest influence."”

“And like I said I love Kurt Cobain and Nirvana, the lyrics are so deep--stuff like "The animals I've trapped have now become my pets".”

“Kurt's wounds were so deep that when the music floated to the surface after being filtered through his soul, it was incorporeal.”

“...With Kurt Cobain you felt you were connecting to the real person, not to a perception of who he was - you were not connecting to an image or a manufactured cut-out.”

“You know, I always thought I'd go first. I don't know why I thought that, it just seemed like I would. I mean, I didn't know him on a daily basis - far from it. But, in a way, I don't even feel right being here without him. It's so difficult to really believe he's gone. I still talk about him like he's still here, you know. I can't figure it out. It doesn't make any sense.”

“We came offstage and were about to go on for the encore, and I think the bass player of Tad came in and told us [about Cobain's death]. He just kind of barged in and was emotional, and started talking about the reports that they had found Kurt but they weren't sure if it was him or not, but it was. We all got very emotional; it was very surreal. We weren't home; we weren't around any people we knew. I guess, in a sense, we could all take solace in the fact that — especially Soundgarden — that we were born from this idea that we played kind of dark, moody music. Our identity … kind of was a band that created a soundtrack for that type of weird, awful scenario.”

“I didn't really know Kurt that well, but there was a guy I always admired. We didn't spent much time together, but the few times we did spend together, you know, were times I'll always remember. You know, he was a really sweet guy, and a really genuine soul, you know, and an incredibly talented artist.”

“He really, really inspired me. He was so great. Wonderful. One of the best, but more than that. Kurt was one of the absolute best of all time for me.”

“I think I'm Jimi Hendrix, I think I'm Kurt Cobain I think I'm John Lennon, gone insane Someone take this gun, before I blow out my brains (BANG).”

“And KDC you were much too young And you changed my life But I draw the line at suicide. Here's to Life!”

“I remember doing nothing on the night Sinatra died And the night Jeff Buckley died And the night Kurt Cobain died And the night John Lennon died.”

“A transvestite in trouble, gee We can make a double CD People want to see blood, To see 'em messed up like a Kurt Cobain.”

“I'll spend my days with J.F.K., Marvin Gaye, Martha Raye, and Lawrence Welk, And Kurt Cobain, Kojak, Mark Twain and Jimi Hendrix's poltergeist.”

“And going for the clincher, a girl cries out in vain How Jesus lived 6 years longer than Kurt Cobain And Jesus' hair was longer, and Jesus' arms were stonger And Jesus's eyes were bluer, and Jesus' thoughts were truer.”

“Where did you sleep last night With the angels locked up tight Love was his only light Did she have another one?”

“My sister, she says she knows Elvis Presley She knows Jesus, John Lennon, and Kurt Cobain personally.”

“A daily dose of eMpTyV Will flush your mind right down the drain Shannon Hoon and Kurt Cobain, Make yourself a household name.”

“Get your brains bashed in so bad You gone have Kurt Cobain asking To autograph a bloodstained napkin.”

“He lies in an empty room With his hair burnt to the back It sure sounds funny When you say his name like that.”

“I hang with John and Kurt and Jimi too With Sandy, Jannie, Albert, Charlie, the whole departed crew.”

“Y hoy me encuentro tan solo y tristeCual hoja al vientoQuisiera llorar, quisiera morir,Como Kurt Cobain, de sentimiento.(And today I am so alone and sadLike a leaf in the windI wish to cry, I wish to dieLike Kurt Cobain, of feeling.)”

“They all stand straight and swing to the sideNo heads, but they feet still glideTake a step back, twist and diveI even seen Kurt Cobain get live.”

“The whole world was crying when Kurt's gun went bangWhen Eazy-E died though, it wasn't no thangRapper dies of A.I.D.S. but you hardly mentionRocker blows his face off and becomes a legend.”

“Just one bitch don't feel the same no moreAnd Henny don't really kill the pain no moreNow I'm Cobain with a shotgun aimed at my brainCause I can't maintain no more”

“What's coursing through my veins? Horrible, hurts the brain Listen to Jimi Hendrix, worshiping Kurt Cobain The ghetto Edgar Allan Poe”

“Frightening, so fucking frightening Enough to drive a man insane, a woman insane The reason Lauryn Hill don't sing, or Kurt Cobain Loaded that clip and then said bang, the drama it bring is crazy”

“Hollywood's dead Elvis is crying Lennon wake up Cobain stop lying there In the light you're sickeningly beautiful”

“But it's all entertainment Wonder when Cobain blew out his brains, did he blame it? And if those snakes in the industry helped him aim it Started pressing up records before the bullet left the chamber”

“Ne me parle pas de travail à la chaîneJe veux pas finir comme Kurt Cobain.(Don't talk to me about working on the assembly line I don't wanna end like Kurt Cobain.)”

“Some believe that you are God, Others say you were an idiot. But I only see a good, sad man, Whose name was K. Cobain.”

“Johnny wishes he was famous Spends his time alone in the basement With Lennon and Cobain And a guitar and a stereo.”

“Low budget hoes trynna knock ya game, like Did Courtney Love kill Kurt Cobain, from close range Turn his brain to shrimp lo mein?”

“Maybe I'm crazy, addicted to pain Maybe the cocaine destroyed my brain Private conversations with Kurt Cobain I'm drownin' my fears in the acid rain.”

“Maybe if I put a bullet in my brainThey'd remember me like Kurt CobainAnd the parasites on MTVWould wipe their eyes and act like they knew me .”

“Sometimes I wonder what goes on inside her mind When she said she thought Dave Grohl had died, and Kurt Cobain was still alive.”

“There was this boy who played in a rock n' roll band And he wasn't half bad at saving the world She said he could do no right, so he took his life The story is true.”

“See the whites of their eyes, white skin, white lies House of Pain white, Everlast, Kurt Cobain white Elvis, simple and plain white, John Wayne white.”

“So I watched pay per view and polished my shoes and my gun Was diggin' on Kurt Cobain sing about lithium.”

“Xzibit easily dispersed like crack cocaine See I lent my shotgun to Kurt Cobain And the motherfucker never brought it back (Ah, that's wack)”