Ten years ago today, Kurt Cobain shot his veins full of enough heroin to kill a horse, then pulled out a shotgun and killed himself violently instead.
His heroin addiction was a product of a severe problem with stomach pain that he had been fighting since youth, and the addiction deepened the severe depression he was already feeling.
As Casey points out, it’s somewhat interesting that a couple of other music-related people (I flatly refuse to call Kelly Osbourne a musician) checked into rehab today for addiction to painkillers.
Jeff Tweedy of Wilco is particularly sad, because his talent is Cobain-sized, even if his recognition isn’t. He’s a marvelous songwriter, and I’m glad he got help before his demons got Cobain-sized.
Maybe it took Kurt snapping and blowing his head off to convince people that they need to get help before things get completely out of hand, or maybe it’s just a weird coincidence.
In any case, RIP to Kurt Cobain and good luck to Jeff Tweedy and Kelly Osbourne, and everyone else fighting to control addictions.