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Kurt Cobain: Addiction and death
Throughout most of his adolescent life, Cobain had battled depression and pain due to a chronic stomach condition. Because of stomach problems he blamed on the stresses of performing, he self-medicated by use of heroin. This use developed into an addiction, which he battled until he committed suicide on April 5, 1994 at the age of 27. Cobain used a shotgun his best friend Dylan Carlson bought for him. Dylan Carlson was rumored to be the inspiration for the song "In Bloom". His body was discovered three days later in his home by an electrician who he had commissioned to install security lighting. Toxicology experts have stated that even though Cobain's tolerance level was extremely high, the amount of heroin injected into his body would have been enough to kill him (225 mg, three times the lethal dosage for an addict, 75 times the lethal dosage for a non-user). His death triggered several copycat suicides, and the unclear circumstances surrounding it inspired a multitude of conspiracy theories stemming from the investigations of detective Tom Grant.
Grant was hired by
Courtney Love following Cobain's disappearance from a hospital in which he was recovering from an apparent suicide attempt, and is now certain Cobain was murdered by Love. Filmmaker Nick Broomfield made a documentary film on this theory entitled Kurt and Courtney.
In his suicide note, Cobain quoted a lyric from
Neil Young's song "My My, Hey Hey": "It's better to burn out than to fade away." Cobain's use of the lyric had a profound impact on Young, who recorded portions of the
Sleeps With Angels album in Cobain's memory. The conspiracy theories allege that the suicide note was actually a letter he was writing about his intent to leave Nirvana, and the authenticity of the last four lines has been questioned by many handwriting experts. Ironically, Kurt made a film entitled Kurt Commits Bloody Suicide at age 15. Kurt also wrote another suicide note for his fans and his imaginary friend from childhood, "Boddah". His mother told Kurt that Boddah was drafted to Vietnam along with Kurt's uncle in order to help Kurt's imagination. Kurt didn't buy it and thought he heard Boddah speaking to him through a tape recorder.
Kurt Cobain was cremated, with one third of his ashes scattered in a Buddhist temple in New York, another third in the Wishkah River, Washington State, and the rest in the possession of
Courtney Love.
Many attribute some of Cobain's extraordinary abilities (and his suicide) to his being affected by bipolar disorder, commonly known as manic depression.
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