Dead Famous: Kurt Cobain

Kurt Cobain in his home, April 8th 1994. His official date of death was given as April 5th.

Why are we so obsessed with dead celebrities? More specifically, why do so many people want to pore over photographs of famous corpses?

Death is the great leveller – it comes to all of us whether rich and famous or a poor nonentity. Maybe we view celebrity death through a veil of schadenfreude, satisfied that for all a person’s wealth or fame  they still end up like the rest of us.
The photo at the top of the page is of Kurt Cobain, taken after his suicide in April 1994. I was 24 at the time and a massive Nirvana fan, so I really felt the loss personally. I find this picture so touching, with the sneaker’d foot slumped over like a teenage boy who’s fallen asleep drunk. It’s more tragic than any graphic picture would be – I’ve seen the head shot from the medical reports and it means nothing (apart from a faint sense of nausea) because it is so far removed from life.
But that photo of the boy lying on the floor of his home? Gets me every time.