by Shanna Campbell

Created on: March 10, 2009

Trying to Hide the Pain... Something in The Way

Kurt Donald Cobain has gone down in history as a defining character of a generation. The early 1990's saw a long awaited change in the rock and roll scene, and their icon was Kurt Cobain and his band Nirvana.

There is a very big difference between Kurt as an individual and Nirvana as a band that most people and critics fail to see. It is very hard to discuss one without the other, especially when discussing Kurt's death. There's a guy on the radio station broadcasting out of Toronto I listen to on my commute. This guy that comes on the weekends though is someone I cannot stand. He loves to trash Kurt Cobain. He seems to think that hype over Nirvana, which is what he is actually playing and endorsing and NOT the biography of Kurt as an individual, means that Kurt himself is over-rated. His words exactly "Kurt Cobain is over-rated". He had people call in and do a tally of some kind to prove his opinion. First of all, doing this is immature and totally flies in the face of the definition of the very word opinion. Secondly, and my point stated before, I think you mean to say Nirvana is over-rated. Lastly, Kurt would be more than happy to hear you say that and would whole-heartedly agree.

I have watched probably every biography on Nirvana and Kurt that have been available on cable t.v. I own and have read Heavier Than Heaven (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heavier_Than_Heaven) and have spent probably one tenth of my life Googling and You Tubing him. I'm no expert, but like my radio host friend, I have gathered my own opinion regarding this icon's life and death.

Kurt was born in Aberdeen, outside of Seattle. His town was based on basically one lumber factory and sort of captured the Great Depression, only in the 1970's. Kurt's parents had him young and divorced when he was about 5. He always pin pointed that as a defining moment in his life.

As a child, he loved music, art and poetry. He was funny and outgoing and loved instruments. He was also seen as hyper and suffering from A.D.D in school and was put on Ritalin. (http://www.biopsychiatry.com/methylphenidate/ritali n.html) There is a theory that Ritalin can lead to drug abuse later in life due to chemical changes occuring in the brain. This would explain one of his reasons for his intense heroin addiction while in Nirvana and the preceding years.

As Kurt got older, he become akward and shy. He did not feel attractive, talented or accepted. He was sexually frustrated and

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