Remembering Kurt Cobain 3 decades after his untimely death

Nirvana rose to meteoritic fame nearly instantaneously in the age of MTV, and Cobain's short career ended at its height.

In the shadow of Kurt Cobain's Seattle home, an unofficial memorial draws fans to pay their respects to the Washington-born Nirvana frontman. Two benches in the park have been adorned with letters, trinkets and graffiti, all in honor of Cobain. 

"When you listened to Kurt, you never were expecting the next lyric to be, and you were never expecting these chord progressions that don't exactly go together," said fan Erin Bucher, who drove to Seattle from Arizona to pay tribute to Cobain and mark the 30th anniversary of the singer's death. Bucher said he turned 13 the day Cobain died by suicide in 1994.

"It's amazing that something he never expected to grow into what it did, you know, and something he was always against the fame and the popularity," Bucher said. 

Across town under the Space Needle, Seattle's Museum of Pop Culture, or MoPOP, is home to the largest collection of Nirvana memorabilia in the world, covering Cobain's journey from a small logging town to immense fame in the band's seven-year history.

"He's an incredible songwriter writing these catchy songs. He has an amazing voice. His lyrics are nebulous enough that you can make up whatever narrative you want for them — and he's beautiful. There's a sort of tragic aspect to him that somehow draws people," said Jacob McMurray, the chief collections and exhibitions officer at MoPOP.