Howard Stern discussed what Chris Cornell told him about Kurt Cobain in a new ABC interview to promote his new book, Howard Stern Comes Again. Cornell and Cobain died by suicide in 2017 and 1994 respectively. Alternative Nation transcribed Stern’s comments.
“If you’ve ever wondered what it’s like to get in the head of Steve Martin, or Ellen DeGenerous, or so many of these people, there’s over 140 people in this book. There’s touching moments from guys like Chris Cornell. Before he committed suicide, he was talking to me about Kurt Cobain from Nirvana. He said, ‘Why didn’t Kurt just wait six more months? If he could have held on, maybe his whole world would have changed.’ I mean crazy stuff.”
In a new Hollywood Reporter interview, Stern also discussed another celebrity who died by suicide, Robin Williams, who took his own life in 2014.
“I’ve had regrets. Early on in my career, I was so crazy. I couldn’t allow anybody to shine in an interview. I felt the ratings pressure,” he said.
“Robin Williams was actually one of my great regrets. He came in. I’m such a huge fan, but I couldn’t allow him to talk, and I was so caught up in being outrageous that right away I just started hammering him with questions about his nanny and that he married his nanny. He got very insulted,” he said.
Stern said he realized what he did was wrong when he went through psychotherapy. “I started thinking about people. I could only think about Robin Williams and how it went so wrong,” he said. “I woke up one morning. I said to my wife, ‘I’m calling him. I want to apologize.’ Not for him to come on the show again but just to say ‘I was a jerk.’ And he committed suicide that day and I was just like, ‘Oh, wow. I wish I could’ve just told him how much I appreciated him and loved him.'”
You can call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255.
