In July 1993, Nirvana was the biggest band in the world, and Kurt Cobain was subject to an intense level of celebrity and public scrutiny. In New York City to play the famed Roseland Ballroom and promote their new album In Utero, Cobain and Nirvana were photographed by Jesse Frohman – and Cobain gave a candid interview to Jon Savage – for an article in the Observer. Only nine months later, Cobain killed himself. It was the last formal photo shoot Nirvana ever did, and one of the last major interviews Cobain ever gave. Twenty years after his death, they are published here together for the first time since the Observer article, including previously unpublished material, and accompanied by new commentary from Frohman and Savage about that day, and an essay by pop culture maven Glenn O’Brien on what it all might have meant. Frohman’s 100-plus photographs, including contact sheets, get to the heart of one of the most beloved bands of all time, at the height of their success – and the moment when everything was starting to unravel. We see Cobain as he was just months before his death, by turns feral and refined, posing on his own, goofing around with his band mates, engrossed in his music and always ambivalent about the spotlight. Savage’s interview reveals an optimistic side of Cobain seemingly at odds with his public image, and particularly poignant as we look back on his life. This book offers a powerful, moving portrait of Kurt Cobain and will be an important contribution to the literature of rock and roll.
