Kurt Cobain‘s suicide note has been printed on t-shirts and are available for purchase online. Some people have called the t-shirts “tasteless” and “disrespectful,” while others viewed the shirts as a way to honor the Cobain legacy. Etsy also sold the controversial shirts online, until complaints from consumers forced the website to remove the shirts from its online store.
Cobain was the frontman of the grunge band, Nirvana. Cobain formed and selected the band name “Nirvana.” The name was taken from the Buddhist concept, for which Cobain described as “freedom from pain, suffering, and the external world.” The band didn’t receive mainstream success until it released the album, Nevermind. The album’s first single, “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” helped put alternative rock, also referred to as grunge music, at the forefront of the music industry. In the mid 1990s, alternative rock became the dominant genre on radio and music television. Nirvana was widely considered the flagship band of Generation X, and Cobain became the spokesman of this movement.
Nirvana has sold over seventy-five million albums worldwide, but Cobain struggled with the band’s massive success and notoriety. He also had a difficult time coping with his own fame and public image. Cobain battled heroin addiction, illness, and depression during the last years of his life. On April 8, 1994, Cobain committed suicide in his Seattle home. His wife Courtney Love, read portions of his suicide note at a public vigil held for Cobain. Kurt Cobain is remembered as one of rock music’s most iconic musicians.
In honor of his legacy, a sign was put up in his hometown of Aberdeen, Washington, that reads, “Welcome to Aberdeen – Come As You Are.” The sign is in reference to Nirvana’s song “Come As You Are.” The song was written by Cobain, and it was the band’s second American Top 40 hit. In 2003, Rolling Stone’s David Fricke ranked Cobain the twelfth greatest guitarist of all time. MTV ranked him Number 7 on its 22 Greatest Voices in Music list. Hit Parader placed Cobain at Number 20 on their 100 Greatest Metal Singers of All Time list. In 2014, Nirvana was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.