nirvana_slash_archive | Entries tagged with topic:school

Jon Savage: Did you have problems in high school?

Kurt Cobain: Yeah. You know I felt so different and so crazy that people just left me alone. I always felt that they would vote me "Most likely to kill everyone at a high school dance." You know?

(22 July 1993)

Archivist's note: Thank god he picked up a guitar instead of a gun!!

"Novoselic and Cobain come from rural Aberdeen, Washington. [...] One of the more popular bars in town is actually called the Pourhouse, which is where two young men about Cobain's age, Joe and James, sit down for a pitcher of beer--each. [...]

"Yeah, I know the Cobain kid," says James, "Faggot."
He's a faggot?" asks Joe, taken aback. Recovering quickly, he declares, "We deal with faggots here. We run 'em out of town."

This is where Cobain and Novoselic grew up. That's why they kissed each other full on the lips as the Saturday Night Live credits rolled. They knew it would piss off the folks back home--and everybody like them.

"I definitely have a problem with the average macho man--the strong-oxen, working-class type," Cobain says wearily, "because they have always been a threat to me. I've had to deal with them most of my life--being taunted and beaten up by them in school, just having to be around them and be expected to be that kind of person when you grow up.

"I definitely feel closer to the feminine side of the human being than I do the male--or the American idea of what a male is supposed to be," Cobain continues. "Just watch a beer commercial and you'll see what I mean."

Of course, Cobain was miserable in high school. [...] [He] was a sensitive sort, small for his age, and uninterested in sports. "He was terrified of jocks and moron dudes," recalls Cobain's old friend, Mudhoney bassist Matt Lukin.

"As I got older," says Cobain, a fan of Beckett, Burroughs, and Bukowski, "I felt more and more alienated--I couldn't find friends whom I felt compatible with at all. Everyone was going to become a logger, and I knew I wanted to do something different. I wanted to be some kind of artist.""

-16 Apr 1992, Rolling Stone magazine article by Michael Azerrad

"Luckily, I found a gay friend, who basically saved me from wanting to kill myself half the time. Apparently everyone in high school knew he was gay, they just didn't bother to tell me, or I just didn't bother to notice, you know, until he decided to make a pass at me one night. And I just flatly told him that I wasn't gay, but I'd still be his friend. After that I started to realise that people were looking at me even more peculiarly than usual. And then I started to get harrassed by some of the people, especially in gym class. They felt threatened because they were naked and I was supposedly gay, so they'd either better cover up their penises or punch me. [laugh] Or both.

But then after that I started being proud of the fact that I was gay even though I wasn't. I really enjoyed the conflict. Pretty exciting. Because I almost found my identity. I was a special geek, you know? It wasn't quite the punk rocker that I was looking for, but at least it was better than being the average geek."

-Kurt (About A Son, audio recorded 1992, film released 2006)

"I've had the reputation of being a homosexual every since I was 14. It was really cool, because I found a couple of gay friends in Aberdeen-which is almost impossible. How I could ever come across a gay person in Aberdeen is amazing! But I had some really good friends that way. I got beat up a lot, of course, because of my association with them.

People just thought I was weird at first, just some fucked-up kid. But once I got the gay tag, it gave me the freedom to be able to be a freak and let people know that they should just stay away from me. Instead of having to explain to someone that they should just stay the fuck away from me-I'm gay, so I can't even be touched. It made for quite a few scary experiences in alleys walking home from school, though."

-Kurt, The Advocate, 9 Feb 1993

"I remember seeing him in high school a few times and thinking he was definitely somebody I wanted to meet. But I never saw him other than at pep assemblies. He would usually participate in some kind of a skit, or something. And I remember thinking, God, he was this really clever, funny, loudmouth person.

"I kept, you know, always making it obvious that I wanted to be in a band, I wanted someone to play with, but still Chris never wanted to. Until I made the Fecal Matter tape with Dale and always making it available for Chris to hear, and he just never bothered to listen to it until one day he just came over and said, "I finally listened to that tape you made. It's pretty good. You know, we should start a band." Ok! Finally! [laughs]"

-Kurt (1992) on his attempts to make senpai notice him in high school--he spent a whole year doing this! (from About A Son)

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NIRVANA SLASH ARCHIVE

homo sex rules

Entries tagged with topic:school

Quote: Kurt the School Shooter (1993)

Quote: The Cobain kid is a faggot (1992)

Quote: Not gay, but proud (1992)

Quote: Kurt on hanging with the gay crowd in high school (1993)

Quote: Kurt pursuing Krist (1992)

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January 2024