Thank you all from the pit of my burning, nauseous stomach

Sixteen years ago today the world learned of Kurt Cobain’s suicide. It was – and still remains – a massive loss to music and to an entire generation. It has all been said before, by people much more capable to capture this, so I won’t try to do that here.

For people who were not born when JFK was killed or when man first walked on the moon, Cobain’s death became the first “where were you when” moment. I was in eighth grade, biology class, a little before 2:00 in the afternoon. My friend Ken, appropriately dressed in a flannel shirt, walked into class, tossed down his bag and said “Kurt’s dead.” It was one of those moments.

MTV’s blog has a great post today about Cobain’s death - it seems appropriate to read it from MTV (remember MTV?) as I remember that day, sixteen years ago, going home and sitting in front of Kurt Loder on MTV for hours on end with news updates, tribute messages, videos and a few days later when Courtney Love talked about Kurt for the first time after his death and read parts of Cobain’s suicide note where he thanks his fans from the pit of his burning, nausous stomach and quotes Neil Young “its better to burn out than to fade away.”

The irony lies in the fact that by killing himself so young, at 27, he ensured that Kurt Cobain will never fade away.