Kurt Cobain was found dead in his home in early 1994. It casted a dark shroud over the entire cultural landscape. After becoming one of the biggest names in music overnight, the spokesman for the next generation was removed. He leaved the grunge movement to collapse around him. Although Cobain became a recluse in his final months, one of the biggest names in the hard rock scene was among the few who saw him in the hours before his death.
Prior to his death, Cobain was already on the path to addiction. After joining In Utero’s worldwide tour, the frontman began to gradually disassociate from reality. He culminate in a devastating stop in Rome where he overdosed on sleeping pills and champagne.
“After waking up, they took Cobain off the road for a few weeks and intervened before settling him into a rehab facility in California.” As his wife Courtney Love began her rehabilitation, Cobain would escape from the facility after only a few days. He scaled the building’s wall before returning to Seattle.
Though it is unclear what he intended to do once he arrived, Cobain had a chance meeting with another musician while sitting in first class on the flight. Rather than the typical grunge rockers from the local scene, Cobain met Guns N’ Roses’ Duff McKagan. McKagan was just finishing up the band’s final tour stop for Use Your Illusion.
While McKagan had lived in Seattle before moving to Los Angeles, Cobain had a strained relationship with the other members of the LA rock band. After years of feuding with Axl Rose, the Nirvana icon described the band as exemplifying everything he disliked about rock music at the time. When McKagan saw him, he knew that the frontman was in a bad way.
In the documentary The Last 48 Hours of Kurt Cobain, McKagan discussed how he believed Cobain needed someone to talk to after dealing with addiction himself. Unfortunately for McKagan, he would miss Cobain by inches once they arrived at the airport.
McKagan recalled, “When I met him, he was very down. And my friend Eddie picked me up. Kurt and Eddie went outside to smoke, and I suggested that we take him back to the house for a little while. I didn’t foresee anything, but he was down and on his own. Eddie went back out to get Kurt, and his car had picked him up, and he was gone.”
Looking back, McKagan had the opportunity to say his piece to Dave Grohl. He recalled in Sonic Highways, “Fu*k, I didn’t call you guys. And I was one of the last people to ever see him. So I just wanted to say I apologise for not calling.” Despite the fact that the bands did not always agree, Cobain’s death was not due to differences in trends. This was a death in the musical family, and the wounds are always the most difficult to heal.
