VHS recently recognized Suicide Prevention Awareness Month.  For some people this brought to mind one of music’s most famous tragic endings – the story of Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain.

What does a death from over 20 years ago have to do with  kids growing up today? Well music like Kurt Cobain’s transcends generations and the problems people had decades ago still relate to today’s teens and young adults.

Nirvana was conceived in Aberdeen Washington where the band’s members were from at the time. They rose quickly in the music industry and had an even quicker fall.

The band consisted of three members Kurt Cobain, Krist Novoselic, and Dave Grohl.  Cobain and Novoselic started the band in 1987 creating what would becomes known on the Seattle scene and then nationally as “Grunge.”

Nirvana appealed to a lot of teens when they first rose to fame with their three studio albums: Bleach, In Utero,and Nevermind.and even now their music still resonates with teens.

Fans would come to find out that Cobain, the lead singer and creative driving force of Nirvana, was battling both substance abuse and crippling depression over the course of the band’s continued rise in popularity.  Cobain was married to Courtney Love, a singer and songwriter herself, and they had a daughter, Francis Bean.

Many stints in rehab were ultimately unsuccessful; Cobain killed himself at his home’s greenhouse in Seattle. Cobain, who appeared to have it all – fame, money, and success doing what he loved to do – didn’t have the one thing he needed: happiness

The overall hopelessness that one feels when depressed is unimaginable and I cannot imagine what he mentally must have gone through.  I think the saddest part of all of this is that Francis Bean, who was not yet two years old when he died, will never know her father.

Many people will say “Oh there was something I could’ve done” or question themselves with a lot of “What if’s” when a tragedy such as this one happens, but in the end we can hope that recognizing the kind of pain and hopelessness that leads one to suicide at least teaches people to be more empathetic to one another.

Nirvana and Cobain will live on in their music and hopefully many more generations will realize it’s okay to “Come As You Are” in this lifetime.