Courtney Love, the wife of late Nirvana singer Kurt Cobain, talked about how Kurt didn’t like being good-looking. She talked about it in a podcast interview with Bella Freud.
Courtney said Kurt didn’t know he was handsome. When he finally saw how he looked in a magazine photo, it made him upset.
She said, “People online share pictures of Kurt and say things like, ‘This is why I have high standards for men.’ But they didn’t really know him.”
Courtney said Kurt had rare beauty, like singer Debbie Harry. But because he grew up poor, he didn’t realize it.
She explained that after seeing a Rolling Stone cover of Nirvana, Kurt said, “I think I’m kind of cute.” But instead of being happy, he got angry. He picked at his face, dyed his hair red, and wore strange glasses to look different.
“I told him, ‘If I looked like you, I’d rule the world,’ but he didn’t want to hear it,” Courtney said.
Even though he tried to hide his looks, Kurt became a style icon. His clothes—like big sweaters and cool sunglassesn became part of the “grunge” fashion in the 1990s.
Kurt didn’t like being famous or being called the voice of his generation. He just wanted to be himself.
His childhood home is now a historic place, showing how much people still care about him. But Courtney’s words remind us that even though he was a rock star, Kurt had a hard time with fame and how he saw himself.
