Frances Bean Cobain, the daughter of the late grunge icon Kurt Cobain, has shared a moving post on the 30th anniversary of the musician’s death.
She took to her Instagram page earlier today (April 5) to share a series of images of her father, and write a lengthy caption about how his death has impacted her throughout her life.
The musician rose to prominence at the end of the ‘80s as the frontman and guitarist of Nirvana – alongside Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic – and went on to become one of the most iconic figures in rock, particularly in the ‘90s grunge scene. He died by suicide on April 5, 1994, when his daughter, whom he had with Courtney Love, was only one year old.
Now, exactly three decades since his tragic death, Frances Bean – now aged 31 – has shared an emotive tribute to her late parent, and discussed how she wishes she “could have known” him.
“30 years ago my dad’s life ended,” she wrote, sharing an image of the musician’s hands, taken by R.E.M frontman (and her godfather) Michael Stipe, followed by a couple of photos of them together. “The 2nd & 3rd photo capture the last time we were together while he was still alive. His mom Wendy would often press my hands to her cheeks & say, with a lulling sadness, ‘You have his hands’. She would breathe them in as if it were her only chance to hold him just a little bit closer, frozen in time. I hope she’s holding his hands wherever they are.”
She continued: “In the last 30 years my ideas around loss have been in a continuous state of metamorphosing. The biggest lesson learned through grieving for almost as long as I’ve been conscious, is that it serves a purpose. The duality of life & death, pain & joy, yin & yang, need to exist alongside each other or none of this would have any meaning. It is the impermanent nature of human existence which throws us into the depths of our most authentic lives. As It turns out, there is no greater motivation for leaning into loving awareness than knowing everything ends.
A collection of programmes dedicated to Kurt Cobain will also be available on BBC Sounds from Friday 5th April, including: the Kurt Cobain Forever Playlist; Nirvana Live, featuring recorded live tracks performed in Seattle, Reading and New York (first broadcast in 2023); The First Time With…Dave Grohl, in which the former Nirvana drummer and Foo Fighters frontman shares his musical milestones with 6 Music’s Matt Everitt (first broadcast in 2015); Nirvana at the BBC, featuring Dave Grohl, Krist Novoselic and Butch Vig in conversation from the BBC archives (first broadcast in 2023)
