What If Kurt Cobain Didn't Die?

 

In SPIN's April 2004 tribute issue to  Kurt Cobain, then senior writer Chuck Klosterman posed a compelling and unique question: "What would have happened if Cobain lived?" Below, read Klosterman's theory about what the rock god's future could have held, had he not died 16 years ago.
April 5, 1994:  Kurt Cobain is admitted to the University of Washington Medical Center after surviving a massive heroin overdose. Discovered in a coma by private investigator Tom Grant, Cobain's near-lifeless body lay alongside a loaded shotgun and (what appeared to be) a suicide note. When Cobain regains consciousness four days later, he says that the gun was "for protection" and that the letter was "personal." He is released from the hospital after nine days of observation.
June 1, 1994: Geffen Records faxes a press release stating "Nirvana are not breaking up, but going on hiatus." In an interview with Goldmine, bassist Krist Novoselic claims to be working on a politically charged solo album. Dave Grohl tells MTV News that he is unsure of his immediate future but hopes to work with Mercyful Fate frontman King Diamond. Cobain gives no interviews.
August 20, 1994: Cobain files for divorce from his wife of two and a half years, Courtney Love.
October 31, 1994: The Atlanta Constitution reports that Cobain has begun work on Kurdt Kobain, a solo project written with (and produced by) R.E.M. vocalist Michael Stipe. There are conflicting reports on what the album will sound like. Cobain initially says the record will be entirely acoustic, but 20 minutes later in the same interview, he suggests that the songs will be similar to Chicago art-punk band Shellac's recently released At Action Park.
January 15, 1995: Work on Kurdt Kobain grinds to a halt, presumably due to the growing complexity of the Cobain-Love divorce proceedings. Love publicly attacks Cobain and claims to have written "most of the fucking lyrics on In Utero." Cobain does not respond.
March 12, 1995: The U.K.'s New Musical Express reports that demos of Kurdt Kobain sound like Oasis and that Kurdt Kobain will be the greatest solo record in rock history. It is later discovered that Kurdt Kobain demos do not exist.
June 1, 1995: Encouraged by Cobain's attempts at rehabilitation, an Olympia, Washington, judge decrees that the singer is "more, you know, together" than Love, granting Cobain primary custody of daughter Frances Bean.
December 24, 1995: A semiconscious Cobain is revived from the front seat of his car, which is discovered running inside a sealed garage. He later says that he fell asleep after an extremely long drive from Missoula, Montana, after seeing the band Codeine.
April 1, 1996: Kurdt Kobain is released to massive critical adoration and lukewarm sales. In an interview with SPIN's Charles Aaron, Cobain calls the gentle, emotive album "not bad, but certainly not as good as any Vaselines record." He also implies that Nirvana will never reunite.
May 20, 1996: Cobain scraps a scheduled 18-city club tour just two days before the opening show at First Avenue in Minneapolis.
September 13, 1996: A disguised Cobain serves as the uncredited tour guitarist for three Jesus Lizard concerts before being "outed" by Jim DeRogatis in the Chicago Sun-Times.