--- title: Kurt Cobain Biographer: I Changed My Mind—Let's Leave the Legend Alone description: The Nirvana lead singer and songwriter would never have wanted the public to view his drafts or his discards canonical: https://time.com/4002000/kurt-cobain-legacy/ author: Jeff Burlingame article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-08-19T13:13:50.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:41:30.092Z article:section: Ideas og:title: Kurt Cobain Biographer: I Changed My Mind—Let's Leave the Legend Alone og:description: The Nirvana lead singer and songwriter would never have allowed the public to view his drafts or his discards og:url: https://time.com/4002000/kurt-cobain-legacy/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta769143b39b85a60/6986869d36176017da90b08d/3220062.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4290 og:image:height: 2413 og:image:alt: Kurt Cobain performs with Nirvana on 'MTV Unplugged,' on Nov. 18, 1993, in New York City. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Kurt Cobain Biographer: I Changed My Mind—Let's Leave the Legend Alone twitter:description: The Nirvana lead singer and songwriter would never have allowed the public to view his drafts or his discards twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta769143b39b85a60/6986869d36176017da90b08d/3220062.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Kurt Cobain Biographer: I Changed My Mind—Let's Leave the Legend Alone > Sponsored content. 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A paid TIME subscription is separate and available at time.com/subscribe-agent. ## Video: Kanye West on Why He Doesn't Care About His Legacy [Watch (HLS stream): Kanye West on Why He Doesn't Care About His Legacy](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/hQZVDnKU.m3u8) (3:58)  _Published 2015-04-16. “Every time I say something that’s extremely truthful out loud, it literally breaks the internet. So what are we getting all of the rest of the time?” asks West, the rapper and designer._ by [Jeff Burlingame](https://time.com/author/jeff-burlingame/) ## Jeff Burlingame Aug 19, 2015 1:13 PM UTC  Kurt Cobain performs with Nirvana on 'MTV Unplugged,' on Nov. 18, 1993, in New York City. Kurt Cobain performs with Nirvana on 'MTV Unplugged,' on Nov. 18, 1993, in New York City. Frank Micelotta—Getty Images by [Jeff Burlingame](https://time.com/author/jeff-burlingame/) ## Jeff Burlingame Aug 19, 2015 1:13 PM UTC I wrote a [biography](http://t.sidekickopen17.com/e1t/c/5/f18dQhb0S7lC8dDMPbW2n0x6l2B9nMJW7t5XYg4Xz0XjW3Lr00T653r0lW2B89Qs56dCLkf73SJcY02?t=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2FKurt-Cobain-Whatever-Nevermind-American%2Fdp%2F0766032558%2Fref%3Dsr%5F1%5F1%3Fie%3DUTF8%26qid%3D1439937780%26sr%3D8-1%26keywords%3Dkurt%2Bcobain%2Boh%2Bwell%2Bwhatever%2Bnevermind&si=6197368275337216&pi=4da924aa-0bcd-4cac-87eb-4212492f741a) about Kurt Cobain in 2006\. Since then, I’ve come to the realization that it’s better to let his legacy lie because I believe he would have wanted it that way. Kurt Cobain kicked drummers out of his band because they wouldn’t play nice with his not-so-punk-rock, practice-makes-perfect ethos. He frustrated associates (_Nevermind_ producer Butch Vig once [said](http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/inside-the-20th-anniversary-reissue-of-nevermind-20110823) Kurt was a “pain” in the studio) who couldn’t immediately grasp some vague vision he had for specific songs or his big-picture plan for Nirvana Inc. He even almost didn’t allow Dave Grohl to sit in on his band’s _MTV Unplugged_ session because he hadn’t liked the way the drummer’s hard hitting had translated to the acoustical arrangement during rehearsals. When it came to his image, Kurt was the careless loafer in threadbare jeans and worn flannel we still recall him to be today, more than 21 years after his death. But when it came to his art, Kurt was a perfectionist who would never allow the mediocrity that’s now being released with his name attached to see the light of day. Were it not for Kurt’s fastidiousness, to cite another of countless examples of such, “Smells Like Teen Spirit” might have left early 1990s disaffected youth screaming, “A deposit/for a bottle/stuck inside it/no role model” for the past two and a half decades. But to Kurt, those lyrics weren’t good enough, so he scrapped them in favor of the mulatto, albino, mosquito, libido sequence those kids – myself included – came to know and still sing. Those alternate “Teen Spirit” lyrics were published in 2002’s _Journals_, which was one of the earliest posthumous in-depth looks at the way Kurt worked behind the scenes. In the book’s first pages, Kurt writes: “Don’t read my diary when I’m gone.” And a few words later: “Please read my diary. Look through my things and figure me out.” Those who engage in Kurt-related voyeurism today by purchasing what’s offered them often use that last quote to justify their actions: _It’s OK for us to look because Kurt wanted us to see_. But — as the above example indicates — Kurt was contradictory. He also tells us through his journals that he despises celebrity, yet he specifies ways in which he is working toward achieving it. He tells us he’s not addicted to heroin, then he tells us he’s a junkie. “My lyrics are a big pile of contradictions,” Kurt writes in _Journals_. When _Journals_ came out, I ate it up. I knew the author — we were [friends](http://www.altpress.com/features/entry/as%5Fhe%5Fwas%5Fqa%5Fwith%5Fcobain%5Fbiographer%5Fjeff%5Fburlingame) as teenagers — and the primary source came in all-too handy two years later when I set about writing _my_ book on Kurt. But as I’ve grown, I’ve thought deeper. Why were these journals available for me to read? Should they have been? Would Kurt have wanted them to be? After I honestly answered those questions for myself, I stopped caring about subsequent Kurt-related products. But – thanks to my circle of influence and that ubiquitous fiend social media — I still learned of each of the dozens of products as they came into existence. The pre-distressed [Converse tennis shoes](http://www.gigwise.com/photos/89923/release-of-kurt-cobain-death-scene-photos-has-been-denied) scribbled with lyrics. The 18-inch stubble-faced [action figure](http://www.amazon.com/Kurt-Cobain-18-Inch-Action-Figure/dp/B000JQ57ZI) (“with sound!”). The lifeless “Lithium”-playing [avatar](http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/grohl-novoselic-didnt-approve-cobains-guitar-hero-avatar-20090910) in _Guitar Hero 5_. The humanity. Though I may try to avoid it, celebrity exploitation constantly surrounds us. Many believe the recent release of Harper Lee’s long-buried novel, _Go Set a Watchman_, is an example of such, a financially motivated manipulation of an 89-year-old mentally fragile recluse. Dead celebrity exploitation – like what’s happening with Kurt — also is everywhere. We’ve even given dead celebrities a name, “delebs,” and they are a [multi-billion-dollar business](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/9056455/Selling-the-dead.html). The _Montage of Heck_ product line, which includes the HBO documentary and the forthcoming soundtrack/Kurt Cobain “solo album,” is the latest release in the posthumous Kurt Cobain machine. The film is sanctioned by Kurt’s estate — most notably his daughter, Frances, who was the executive producer of the documentary — and I’ve heard it’s a quality film, even if its script follows the convoluted myth-making tact so many other biographers, myself once included, have followed. “Unfortunately, it matters very little what the facts are; what matters is what people believe,” Kurt’s good friend and mentor Buzz Osborne recently [said](http://thetalkhouse.com/music/talks/buzz-osborne-the-melvins-talks/) in a review of the film. “And when it comes to Cobain, most of what they believe is fabricated nonsense.” Those who knew Kurt know that he was a shy self-doubter who never would have allowed the public to view his drafts or his discards. The Kurt I knew practiced incessantly because he wanted his work to be as good as it could be before it was released for public consumption. The audio tapes being used for Kurt’s new solo album may have been made available, but that doesn’t mean we should listen to them. Again, from _Journals_: “The most violating thing I’ve felt this year is not the media exaggerations or the catty gossip, but the rape of my personal thoughts ripped out of pages from my stay in hospitals and aeroplane rides hotel stays etc.” That’s the quote I’m citing — and basing my actions on — these days. ### See Art Kane’s Most Memorable Music Portraits  The Who, 1968. courtesy Art Kane Archive  Jefferson Airplane, 1968. courtesy Art Kane Archive  Bob Dylan, 1966. courtesy Art Kane Archive  Country Joe and The Fish, 1968. courtesy Art Kane Archive  Janis Joplin, 1968. courtesy Art Kane Archive  The Rolling Stones, 1966. courtesy Art Kane Archive  Jim Morrison, 1968. courtesy Art Kane Archive  Louis Armstrong, 1958. courtesy Art Kane Archive  Harlem, 1958. courtesy Art Kane Archive  Photographer Art Kane at Keith Moon's drum set, 1968. courtesy Art Kane Archive _Read next:_ [_Teen Tweets Never-Before-Seen Photos of Nirvana’s First Ever Show_](http://time.com/3967312/teen-first-nirvana-photos/?iid=time%5Freadnext) [_Download TIME’s mobile app for iOS to have your world explained wherever you go_](https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/time-mobile/id328218429) ## Transcript Every time I crash the internet it's like, this little drop of truth. Every time I say something that's extremely truthful out loud, it literally breaks the internet. So what are we getting all of the rest of the time? [ MUSIC ] I don't care about having a legacy. I don't care about. Being remembered. Cuz the most important thing to me is like, while I'm here, while we're having fun, while we're going to sleep and breathing oxygen and living life, and falling in love, and having pain, and having joy, is like what can I do? What can I do with my voice? What can we do for each other to make life easier? To make life doper for our kids, you know, as they grow? You know, we were. Born into a broken world and we're like the clean- up crew, you know? [ MUSIC ] My mother made me believe in me. When I was growing up, I wanted to make video games. My mom got this Amiga computer when I was in seventh grade and had. 4, 096 colors. I found myself running home to use this sound program that allowed me to play a note. It would stay. Plays another note, it would stay. It plays another note, it would stay. And that's how I learned how to produce in seventh grade. And I was just really making the music to make video. Dreams. They just let me dream. They supported me. They pushed me. They didn't set me up to be inside of a, a box. What's the main thing that makes magic magic. The fact that no one believes it's possible. [ MUSIC ] When I entered the fashion world and I encountered a lot of elitism and all that, it just made me happy. It was something fun, we had the entire world against us. It was like absolutely no allies whatsoever, you know what I mean? It was like the world was against us. The pressure of that was like crazy. It was like a Superbowl. I remember sitting there with my fashion publicist Deborah, and we were supposed to do the Reese's. This is the thing with the editors after the show. They come back to see it and see if they like the collection. And we had, like, two or three people that came to see it and take a picture with Kanye and blah blah, all this type of stuff. I said, do we have any more editors coming? And Debra just looked and says, no. No one else is coming. And I looked at her and said. This is great! Remember this moment cuz it won't always be like this. Embrace this moment where no one came to see the collection. I take, you know, things that people look at as a negative as an inspiration to do. Something better. [ MUSIC ] [ NOISE ] I think there's school teachers that are the, the exact same mission as, as me. I think there's police officers with the exact same mission. As me. Just help. Just do everything you got. Give everything you got. And, you know, our focus needs to be less about what our le -. Legacy is gonna be or how we're gonna control each other. But more how can we can give to each other. 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