Kurt Cobain: Satan Worshipper!
By Pastor Joe Schimmel
“Get stoned and worship
Satan.”—Kurt Cobain
"Cobain was "obsessed with Anton LaVey" (Mojo Magazine, Sept. 1999, p. 86). Anton LaVey was the founder of the Church of Satan and the author of the Satanic Bible. So obsessed was Cobain with Satanist Anton LaVey that he sought to enlist LaVey by having him play cello on Nirvana's Nevermind album!" -SOURCE
Nirvana
is considered by many to be the most influential band of the 1990’s. With
their multi-platinum success, they rocked their generation in more ways than
one. First with their music and finally with the suicide of their leader,
Kurt Cobain. In 1994, Rolling Stone magazine named Nirvana “artist of the
year.” Rolling Stone would also classify Nirvana’s Teen Spirit as the
“grunge national anthem” (Kurt Cobain: The Rolling Stone Interview, By David
Fricke, January 27, 1994). Spin magazine classified Nirvana at the very top
of the “ten that mattered most” bands in the decade of 1985-1995. Chuck
Crisafulli declares that, “It was Teen Spirit that rescued rock ‘n’ roll”
(Chuck Chrisfulli, Teen Spirit, Simon & Schuster, p. 6, 1966). The author
of a biography written about the life of Kurt Cobain, the notorious leader
and singer/guitarist for the group, declares regarding Nirvana’s album
Nevermind:
“Nevermind will be
a contender for the album of the decade…Nevermind dragged alternative rock
into the mainstream virtually overnight, one man stood aloof from the
outpouring of praise compared by The Times to Beatlemania” (Christopher
Sandford, Kurt Cobain, Carroll
&
Graff Publishers, Inc., New York, 1997, pp. 206-207).
Like Beatlemania in
the 60’s, Nirvana-mania had struck like an atom bomb upon the music scene of
the 90’s in both Europe and the United States, mostly owing to the creative
spirit of Kurt Cobain. Cobain is described as the “prince of grunge and
unwitting mouthpiece for a generation,” and the one responsible for
“inventing what became the grunge lifestyle” (Ibid. p16, 54). We believe
there is evidence that demonstrates that it was more than Kurt Cobain that
influenced the masses of youth in the 90’s to adopt the grunge/alternative
lifestyle. One does not have to look very deeply into the life of Kurt
Cobain to see that the spirit that inspired him was not the Sprit of God.
Let the reader be forewarned, examining the life of Kurt Cobain is like
lifting the lid off of a cesspool. Amidst all of the glamour and fame that
is associated with being a rock “star,” Cobain’s life was filled with utter
hopelessness and despair.
Cobain the
Devil Worshipper
As a true member of the lonely-hearts club band, Cobain’s powerful sense of rejection from his childhood would feed his insatiable desire to be accepted. Cobain has been described as “rather a sickly, underdeveloped figure of a young man who got picked on a lot” (Nick Kent, The Dark Stuff, Ca Capo Press, New York, 1994, p. 341). So strong was Cobain’s desire to be respected and accepted, that Cobain would sell his soul to the Devil for the price of fame. For starters, Kurt Cobain made no qualms about who he was serving when he made it known publicly that his stated goal was to “get stoned and worship Satan” (op. cit. Sandford, p. 42).
Cobain’s worship of Satan manifested
itself in a multiplicity of ways. Cobain, like other Satanists, also had a
penchant for the desecration of churches. Cobain, with his bass player
Chris Novoselic, spray-painted “GOD IS GAY” on a church building
(Ibid. pp. 57, 165). Cobain, according to Rolling Stone, would also
spray-paint “HOMO SEXUAL SEX RULES” on a bank. Rolling Stone further
reported that Other favorite graffiti included “GOD IS GAY” and “ABORT
CHRIST” (Rolling Stone, Inside the Heart
&
Mind of Nirvana, by Michael Azerrad, April 16, 1992). Beyond spray-painting
blasphemous statements about God on a church, Cobain would take song lyrics
he was dissatisfied with and set them on “fire and leave [them] burning
on the porch of the Open Bible Church” (op. cit. Cobain, Sandford,
p.68). Beyond this, Sandford writes:
“It was after
the destruction of not only a wooden notice-board but an expensive crucifix
and other artifacts that the police called at East 2nd with the
suggestion that Cobain’s presence in Aberdeen would be more sparingly
required in the future.“ (Ibid.)
Cobain “decorated”
his apartment as he explained, “with baby dolls hanging by their necks with
blood all over them” (Ibid. p. 54). Rolling Stone would further report
that “Cobain made a satanic-looking doll and hung it from a noose in his
window” (Rolling Stone, Inside the Heart & Mind of Nirvana, by Michael
Azzerad, April 16, 1992). The fact that Cobain was considered some kind of
national or even international hero well illustrates the wicked depths of
depravity to which the human heart has sunk. While Cobain may have
influenced some for evil through graffiti on churches, it was through his
music that millions of people would be influenced by the satanic beings that
used him like a pawn in a much bigger game. Cobain’s involvement in black
magic and witchcraft would escalate to the point that Cobain would begin
casting spells in an effort to see his will done (op. cit. Sandford, p.
172). Cobain’s interest in the occult would eventually lead him into a
relationship with occultist William Burroughs. Stephen Davis, the
biographer of the Led Zeppelin saga “Hammer of the Gods”, compares Burroughs
to Satanist Aleister Crowley, stating:
“Like Crowley,
Burroughs was an urbane and genial human Lucifer, a modern magus, a
legendary addict, and an artist whose influence extended far beyond
literature to music, painting and film.”
(Stephen Davis, Hammer of the Gods, Ballantine Books, New York, 1985, p.
237).
Burroughs also
associated with Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page and, ironically, it was Burroughs who
first christened hard rock with the label “Heavy Metal” (Ibid. p. 104).
Burroughs claimed that he first became demon possessed after killing his
wife. Cobain would seek out Burroughs’ services seeking his collaboration on
a music project (Op. Cit. Sandford, p. 255). In a Rolling Stone interview,
Cobain would later underscore as one of the highlights of his life that of
“Meeting William Burroughs and doing a record with him” (Kurt Cobain: The
Rolling Stone Interview, By David Fricke, January 27, 1994). Such was
Burroughs’ influence on Cobain that, “William S. Burroughs received
‘special thanks’ on In Utero for being a cherished inspiration to Cobain
(op. cit. Teen Spirit, Chuck Crisafulli, p. 84).
Besides William Burroughs, Cobain was "obsessed with
Anton LaVey" (Mojo
Magazine, Sept. 1999, p. 86). Anton LaVey was the founder of the Church
of Satan and the author of the Satanic Bible. So obsessed was
Cobain with Satanist Anton LaVey that he sought to enlist LaVey by having
him play cello on Nirvana's Nevermind album! Cobain’s involvement in
witchcraft and Satanism is a fitting explanation as to the source of his
inspiration and the uncanny ability he had for coming up with alluring and
seductive hooks that so frantically enticed Nirvana’s fans. Cobain is
described as “stumbling on melodies by means he himself didn’t fully
understand.” (op. cit. Sanders, p. 70). In the occult, this is
referred to as automatic writing is a process wherein a demonic being
channels poetry or lyrics through a human being in an effort to negatively
effect society. This is surely what took place through Cobain, the willing
and twisted medium for satanic forces. Even the legendary guitarist Chuck
Berry would exclaim, “he had a touch most guitarists would kill for”
(Ibid., p. 71). While “kill for” might be a stretch, sell one’s soul for is
far more fitting.
Cobain the Drug
Addict
Cobain’s
infatuation with Burroughs probably transcended that of his occult
involvement and was in part due to Burroughs notoriety as an addict. Cobain
had a special love for drugs. Heroin was one of his drugs of choice.
BAM magazine noted that not only would Cobain nod off in “mid-sentence,”
but also “the pinned pupils, sunken cheeks, and scabbed, sallow skin suggest
something more serious than fatigue” (op. cit. Azzerad, Rolling Stone, p. 34
). Sadly, if Cobain hadn’t ended his life with a shotgun blast to the head,
it would have most likely still ended with a heroin overdose. After his
death, the toxicology report confirmed that:
“along with
traces of Valium, there were 1.52 milligrams of the drug [heroin] in his
blood, three times the normal fatal dose” (op. cit. Sandford p. 10).
Nick Kent claimed
that those “strangely undiagnosable” stomach “Problems” that
Cobain claimed to experience were “almost certainly” a result of
Cobain’s years of drug abuse:
“… the years he
spent punishing his intestines with all manner of cheesy pain pills washed
down with most disgusting codeine—infected cough medicines available almost
certainly provided the direct reason why his poor old guts ached so
viscously” (Nick Kent, The Dark Stuff, DA Capo Press, New York, 1994, p.
341).
To support his drug
habits, it has been alleged that Cobain “sold to the deadbeats on Heron
Street, or at least engaged in a drugs-for sex traffic in order to support
his habits” (op. cit. Sandford, p. 51).
Cobain the
Homosexual
Cobain himself
admitted, “I’m definitely gay in spirit”, as well as “I probably
could be bisexual,” and admitted to a close friend that “he’d had sex
with three or four men’ (Ibid. pp.268-269). His widow, Courtney Love,
indicated that his homosexual escapades went well beyond that of three or
four men when she claimed that he'd “made out with half the guys in
Seattle” (Ibid. p. 359). Cobain would utilize his fame as a
platform to showcase his perversity and influence others thereby. Not
only would he publicly French kiss his bass player on Saturday night live,
but he would also publicly display his perverted penchant for
cross-dressing. Cobain carried with him perverted pornographic
pictures of women in various poses with animals and displayed behavior that
is too deviant and grotesque for this writer to further describe.
Cobain’s
Murderous Heart and the Occult
Cobain had an
enormous ego, even for a rock “star”. Sanford in his biography stated:
“Anyone in the
performing arts is prone to the accusation of egotism and vanity, but when
it comes to Cobain the stench overpowers anything that has gone before."
(Ibid. p. 15).
While Cobain at
times expressed discomfort with all the fame he had achieved, Nick Kent
stated:
“I mean, this
guy was planning on being a rock star from age two…He always professed to
hate all the attention with which fame presented him, yet the first thing he
did upon going platinum was to marry Courtney Love, a young women who
wantonly draws attention to herself like a magnet sucks up tiny ball
bearings.” (op. cit. Kent, p. 341).
Such was the
enormity of Cobain’s ego that he would lash out at those sources that would
question him. Cobain wanted to murder a female journalist named Lynn
Hirschberg who wrote of his wife unfavorably in Vanity Fair when
calling into question her alleged use of cocaine while pregnant. Cobain
breathed murderous threats:
“I’m going to
kill this women with my bare hands. I’m going to stab her to death. First
I’m going to take her dog and slit its guts out in front of her and then
[expletive deleted] all over her and stab her to death.” (op. cit.
Sandford., p. 172)
Cobain would not
end up killing Hirschberg with his “bare hands”, but would continue
to nurse his murderous hatred toward her until the end of his life. In
fact, rather than killing her with his “bare hands”, Cobain sought to
do her in by enlisting the forces of Satan to do his bidding by utilizing
his black magic. Sandford explains:
“At the very end of his life,
Cobain was engaged in elaborate calculations, with the aid of a book on
magic numbers, to determine a formula to ‘hex the [expletive deleted]’
(Ibid. p. 172).
Cobain the
Hater
Cobain’s murderous
thoughts went far beyond that of murdering Lynn Hirschberg, but extended to
his wife. At one point he had to be persuaded not to kill Courtney Love
(Ibid. p. 249). Cobain also had a fierce hatred for humanity in general.
The Word of God tells us that Satan is a murderer and was such from the
beginning. Cobain, like his father the devil, held such a deep-seated
hatred for humanity that he declared “ninety-nine per cent of humanity
could be shot if it was up to me”, he maintained that only “one or
two people” were worth saving (Ibid. p. 257). In his suicide note found
after his own self-murder, he wrote, “I’ve become hateful toward all
humans in general” (Ibid. p. 333). Cobain would demonstrate this hatred
toward even many of his fans with both spitting upon them at concerts, as
well as derogatory comments.
Cobain, though, did
little harm to his fans through spitting and occasional comment. The real
harm came as he led so many of them down the same path of self-destruction
that he had chosen and exhibited in himself. Whether it was his utter
perversity on stage or the hopelessness and despair he communicated through
his music, the damage he did is incalculable and will only be understood in
its totality on judgement day when he stands before the Almighty God and
gives an account for his life. Cobain’s philosophy was truly Crowleyan:
“Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law.” Sandford, one of his
biographers, states that “Cobain lacked anything resembling an ethical
centre” (Ibid. p. 237). In the spirit of Crowley, Cobain rejected
biblical moral absolutes and rejected the authority of God over his life and
established Satan as his ultimate authority. Satan factored in because it
was through Satanism that Cobain could have the success he so craved.
Cobain’s alliance with wicked spiritual forces directed at the very people
he hated may have paid great dividends in his mind. On one hand he was able
to experience the acceptance he craved for so long, albeit artificial, and
on the other Cobain was able to unleash powerful destructive forces through
his music upon the very human race he so hated. Cobain was pivotal in
further undermining any residue of moral foundation that was left in many of
those who were initiated into his style of music. Sandford points out that
Nirvana used their music as a tool of “subversion of traditional values”:
“Nirvana and the
new fauna of Seattle rock shared a number of attitudes and taste, including
a form of exoticism centered on punk, a public display of apathy, a
disinterest in work, the cult of feminism, and the subversion of traditional
values via music” (Ibid. pp. 104-105).
Even Cobain’s posturing as some kind
of feminist was betrayed by his lack of sensitivity and the utter brutish
way he treated women. One woman describing her experience with Cobain
stated:
“Kurt rammed his hand hard between
my legs. It was terrifying…He was panting like a dog, and there was a froth
of spit around his lips. I yelled at him to stop and he laughed at me.
With one hand he backed me up against the wall and the other he pushed into
me. If [the other couple] hadn’t come back when they did, he would have
raped me.” (Ibid. p. 90).
This same woman
goes on to state that, “as far as I’m concerned, all the stories about
Kurt-the-feminist are a sick joke. He hated women. No one who does what he
did has a right to any respect” (Ibid. p. 91). Such reports of his
demeaning attitude and brutal treatment of women are not isolated, but
numerous. Cobain was a devilishly wicked person who would often even
torment his other band members. Many of those who knew Cobain claimed that
there was something incredibly evil about him that would sometimes manifest
physically. One of his peers who attended school with Cobain explained that
there was,
“a kind of
menace about him. When he gave you that blinkered look, it was straight out
of the exorcist or one of those Satanic-worship films.’’ (Ibid. p. 23).
Press Association
reporter Graham Wright has stated that “Kurt went from Dr. Jekyl to Mr.
Hyde in the space of a minute.” (Ibid. p. 246). This kind of
manifestation should have not been shocking, but expected from Cobain, who
himself admitted as documented earlier that he had set out to “worship
Satan.”
One of his band
members describes him as one who could be transformed from a ball of
indifference to a “little Hitler” in an instant. Yet another
described entertaining him as, “like living with the devil” (Ibid. p.
53). That all of Cobain’s antics were not simply a charade, but truly part
of a sad tragedy that was his life is evident from the fact that sometimes
these demonic manifestations would end in tears and even suicide attempts.
Bruce Pavitt, co-owner of Sub Pop Records (Nirvana’s early label),
stated that in Rome during a concert Cobain nearly committed suicide on
stage:
“After four or
five songs, he quit playing and climbed up the speaker column and was going
to jump off. The bouncers were freaking out, and everybody was just begging
him to come down. And he was saying, ‘No, no, I’m just going to dive.’ He
had really reached his limit. People literally saw a guy wig out in front
of them who could break his neck if he didn’t get it together” (op. cit.
Rolling Stone, Azzerad, April 16th 1992).
Sandford further
describes this rather bizarre incident wherein Cobain became like an animal
on stage:
“For a quarter
of an hour Cobain clambered through the rafters, clawed the curtains, swung
from a chandelier and ape like, prattled at the crowd. According to
Azerrad, ‘He wound up backstage, where someone from the venue was arguing
with their tour manager over whether Kurt had broken some microphones. Kurt
grabbed both mikes, flung them to the ground, and began stomping on them.
‘now they’re broken,’ he said. Then Cobain announced he was leaving the
group, ‘shrieked like a beast’ at Channing, and burst into tears” (op.
cit. Sandford, p. 134).
His widow, after his suicide, would state
that “Kurt had a lot of personal inner [expletive deleted] demons, a lot of
frailties and physical ailments.” Sandford would state in his biography,
“He was a diffident, yet aggressive personality who struggled with demons
that drove and tormented him” (Ibid. p. 97). The sad irony is that the
demonic forces he had opened his life up to more and more in his pursuit for
fame and success were the very demonic forces that would later inspire him
to take his own life. Goldberg claims that “Kurt saw innumerable Doctors
and therapists” (Cobain, A Rolling Stone Press Book, 1994, p. 87). No
amount of secular psychologizing could exorcise the demonic forces. Had
Cobain not been a rock “star” he probably would have long ago been committed
to a mental institution. Being the commodity that he was for his record
label, he was used by them, as he was by the devil himself. This, though,
was a two way street as Cobain profited from both the devil and his record
company, or so he thought. Perhaps Cobain was deceived into believing that
the only way he could escape the demonic world that so tormented him was by
blowing his brains out. Sadly, though, perhaps the only one he hated more
than humanity itself was God, and he was not about to turn to the Lord.
Cobain had a supreme hatred for all authority, especially that of God’s.
This was demonstrated at the beginning of this article.
The Destiny of
the Damned
Many would view it
as a sad irony that the leader of a band called Nirvana would end his life
with a horrific suicide. But as Gina Arnold, author of Route 666: The
Roads to Nirvana, admitted, “People talk about Kurt Cobain’s wonderful
sense of irony. There isn’t any irony.” I would take it a step further and
say there never was any Nirvana. Nirvana was never really heaven in
the first place.
Nirvana is the
Hindu name for heaven. It is a counterfeit heaven designed to bind people
to the millions of Hindu demon gods which are worshipped in India to this
very day. Cobain and his music had its share of eastern influences. From
beguiling eastern melodies to Cobain’s references in interviews to karma,
reincarnation, etc. Even as these illusionary concepts have cursed India
and zapped the very life out of hundreds of millions of Hindus through the
centuries, Cobain, like so many of the rock “stars” before him, continued to
introduce these concepts to the Western world. Truly, there is no irony.
Cobain’s concept of Nirvana from the get go was actually a hell. Crisafulli
comments on Cobain’s concept of Nirvana in his song “Paper Cuts”,
“The subject
seems to sing that he has found his “nirvana” and is in a contented state in
a place where all needs are met and there are no outside worries. But to
any outside observer, the subject has simply gone insane in a filthy, one
room prison” (op. Cit., Crisfulli, Teen Spirit, p. 23).
Although the
subject of Cobain’s song had no choice as to his or her condition (the song
was partly based on children who were tormented and confined to a closet),
Cobain chose to live a hellish Christ rejecting existence filled with drugs,
hatred, vandalism, blasphemy and devil worship. Cobain was only too aware
that his life was only a Hindu Nirvana, an illusion after all. This perhaps
more than anything else contributed to his state of utter emptiness and the
far away look of hopelessness and despair that was only too evident in his
eyes and on his face. A face he would soon blow off with a shotgun blast
to escape the person he’d become. This too was not ironic, you see, the
concept of Nirvana includes the termination of existence. Webster’s New
Twentieth Century Dictionary submits this definition of Nirvana:
“1. In Hinduism, a
blowing out, or extinction, of the flame of life; reunion with Brama.”
(Webster’s New Twentieth Century Dictionary, p. 1214)
Cobain simply
wanted to “Cease to Exist”, to use the title of a Charles Manson tune which
the Beach Boys decided to put on an album. This was part of the New Age
teaching which was imported to the West by so many of the rock bands since
the 60’s. While so many of them have promised enlightenment and a New Age,
the gig is up, the fruit of such teaching has only led to destruction and
eternal damnation. Even as Cobain saw Nirvana as a living hell on earth, he
must have understood that the spiritual concept had to do with the
termination of existence. Cobain’s Nirvana was no path to eternal bliss or
even absolute cessation of existence, but a road that leads through the very
gates of hell. For, as Christ taught, man is only able to destroy the body,
but God is able to destroy the body and soul in Hell (Matthew 10). If the
truth be known, Cobain only wanted to be a rock “star”, he declared “I
would prefer to be in a coma and just be woken up and wheeled out on stage
and play and then put back in my own little world” (Azzerad, Come As You
Are). Cobain claimed that he had no interest in “simple pleasures”
and “inane things” that people discuss and would “rather just be
asleep” (op. cit. Kent, 342).
Cobain, the leader
of the Grunge movement, would sit down to write his suicide note in his
home, wherein unlike prior times nobody would be around to coax him out of
it. He addressed the suicide note to “Boddah”, his invisible “friend”
(op. cit. Sanders, p. 328). One of the reasons it seems that he committed
suicide was that the devil was no longer delivering the goods in regard to
musical inspiration. In his suicide note he would write, “I haven’t felt
the excitement of listening to as well as creating music, along with really
writing, for too many years now.” Sandford has stated, “In his
suicide note, Cobain despaired that his muse had flown south…” (Ibid. p.
361). This has been Satan’s Modus Operandi from the beginning and certainly
through the history of Rock ‘n’ Roll. Satan seeks out those lonely hearts
who are seeking fame, recognition, acceptance, affluence, power, or all of
the above and uses such a one to his own perverse glory and then spits them
and discards them for eternity.
God, through his
Holy Word, has demonstrated to us that demonic beings are often associated
with the instigation of suicide. After Satan had possessed Judas and used
him to betray Christ, Judas was only left with despair and his new found
fortune only became a reminder as to the magnitude of his betrayal. Judas
ended up hanging himself and falling headlong to the ground wherein his
bowels gushed out. Wicked King Saul was also possessed by an “evil spirit”
and he was incredibly tormented. Saul also ended up committing suicide.
We see in the gospels that Satan not only sought unsuccessfully to get Jesus
to commit suicide, but Jesus delivered a young man with an evil spirit that
was inspiring the young man to throw himself in the fire to destroy
himself. Satan not only inspires suicides, but self-mutilation. The false
prophets of Baal were inspired by their demon gods on Mount Carmel to
repeatedly cut themselves until the evil spirits would respond to their
spells. But as in the case with Cobain, there came a time when they no
longer did and the false prophets were left powerless in performing their
evil deeds. Now they had to face God. The Lord God responded by consuming
every last one of them with fire.
Jesus also
delivered a demoniac at the tombs of the Gaderenes. This man was also
inspired by the demons that possessed him to repeatedly cut himself. After
Jesus delivered the demoniac of the Gaderenes at the tombs, the legion of
demonic spirits drove a herd of pigs to their death by drowning them in the
sea after plunging them off a cliff. Satan hates all of humanity, including
those who foolishly become his slaves. Thankfully, Jesus Christ delivered
this man by casting the evil spirits out of him and restoring him to a sound
mind. Sadly, Cobain would not accept Christ’s deliverance from his deep
seated satanic bondage. As we can see, Satan has been on the scene
inspiring self-mutilation and suicide long before Cobain, Iggy Pop, The
Sex Pistols or Marilyn Manson came upon the scene. Sadly, it
just so happens that through mass media and rock music, Satan has been able
to inspire millions of impressionable young people to the same destructive
ends. Satan also understands that he often gets more mileage out of a dead
rock “star” than a living one by indelibly leaving his mark on an era. Jimi
Hendrix, who admitted demon possession, also was deceived by the satanic lie
that it is better to burn out than to fade away. Hendrix said before his
premature death, “It’s funny the way most people love the dead…Once
you’re dead you are made for life.”
Cobain’s decision
to “Abort Christ” and “worship Satan” resulted in temporary
success, but now rings eternally hollow compared to the bigger picture.
Cobain’s life was less than a blip of time relative to eternity. Now Cobain
has to pay the Piper. Worse, Cobain must face the eternal wrath of God who
will not be mocked (Gal 6:8). Cobain was aware how dramatically his life
had paralleled another left-handed guitarist from Seattle, Jimi Hendrix.
Hendrix, like Cobain, died at the age of 27. Cobain must have felt his
death was unstoppable, that there was no way out, and his time was up.
While the demonic forces Cobain had aligned himself with were no longer
giving him the powerful musical hooks which became his stock and trade and
brought the masses of teeny-boppers to worship at his feet as a god, they
were only too happy now to finish him off. Cobain was definitely
tormented. Sandford imagined the scene just before the suicide:
“a millionaire drug
addict sitting alone in his room confronted by the demons and vestiges of
his youth, and no way to exorcise them but with a gun”
(Ibid. p. 11).
Cobain’s suicide is
not only explicable by factors of his own admission, like a sense of
desperation due to lack of musical inspiration, but other sinister factors
as well. Cobain’s suicide was a result of dying by the very sword he
wielded so irresponsibly in his lyrics. Cobain often glamorized and exposed
young impressionable minds to the idea of suicide through his music. Cobain
would write a song on his last album called, “I Hate Myself and I Want to
Die.” On his album In Utero, Cobain would sing, “look on the
bright side is suicide.” Cobain would also sing, “Monkey see monkey
do/I don’t know why I’d rather be dead than cool” (“Stay Away”). The
same demonic forces that inspired Cobain to take his life channeled lyrics
through him to encourage impressionable and depressed youth to take their
lives as well. In Cobain’s suicide note, Cobain would echo the sentiments
of another rock “star”, Neil Young, stating, “so remember—it’s better
to burn out than to fade away.” Are we so blind as to claim that
lyrics do not influence fans? In this case, a rock star died after penning
lyrics glorifying early death by another rock star. The first song Cobain
would learn on guitar was Back in Black by the overtly satanic
AC/DC. Cobain would end his life and career with words from Into the
Black by Neil Young. Sadly, after Cobain's suicide, many would remember
Cobain’s words. Just as he wrote, “Monkey see monkey do/ I don’t know
why I’d rather be dead than cool”, a rash of copycat suicides
followed as the youth he had long deceived followed in his foot steps.
Nirvana fan Daniel Casper, upon returning from Cobain’s vigil, ended his
life with a bullet to the head. Another 16-year-old fan locked herself in
her room, and while she listened to Nirvana’s music, put a bullet into her
head. Sadly, such examples could be multiplied. Andy Rooney, formerly of
60 Minutes, said succinctly, “When the spokesman for his
generation blows his head off, what is the generation supposed to think?”(Andy
Rooney, 60 Minutes, April, 1994). Donna Gaines admits in Cobain, a
book produced by the editors of Rolling Stone:
“Teenage suicide
was a virtually nonexistent category before 1960, but between 1950 and 1980
it nearly tripled. While America as a whole became less suicidal during the
1980s, people under 30 became dramatically more suicidal. While adolescents
have the more frequent attempts of suicide – an estimated 400,000 a year –
the actual rates of suicide are actually higher once people enter there 20’s”
(op. cit. Cobain, A Rolling Stone Press Book, 1994, p. 128).
Rolling Stone should get a clue, or
at least admit the obvious. Suicide rates began to soar with the advent of
Rock Music in the 50’s and 60’s. It is no coincidence that while suicide
among older people dropped slightly in the 80’s, it soared astronomically in
the 80’s among younger people who had immersed themselves in heavy metal
bands and/or punk rock bands which extolled the demonic virtues of
self-murder. The evidence is starring Rolling Stone in the face. In fact,
the title of this section of their book on Cobain is called, Suicidal
Tendencies, taken from the name of a once popular punk rock band of the
same name. Yet Rolling Stone has built their fortune on their promotion of
many of the very groups who have inspired God only knows how many thousands
of suicides. Cobain allowed the very demonic spirits that were tormenting
him to influence the masses through him as a medium. One commentator wrote,
“this is just a sad little tale
about a guy who never felt good about being alive, who channeled that
screaming unease into a remarkable body of rock ‘n’ roll performances, and
who then ended it all by shooting his face off” (op. cit. Kent. P. 343).
Cobain lamented in his suicide note
that he was turning into a “miserable, self-destructive death rocker.” Not
only this, Cobain also “expressed his terror that Frances Bean’s [his
daughter] life would turn out like his own” (op. cit. Cobain, A Rolling
Stone Book, p. 86). Prayerfully she will not, but Cobain’s suicide was
certainly not the example to leave her if this was his fear. Certainly the
words, “so remember it’s better to burn out than to fade away” were
unconscionable and inexcusable if he was concerned about how his legacy
would effect his daughter. What about all the millions of sons and
daughters of other parents who because of him and other rock “stars” have to
endure watching their children grow up into Cobain’s evil image? Cobain, if
he had any conscience left, must have despaired as to the reprehensible
damage and satanic influence he had on his fans. While drugs and sleep can
allow one to escape the pangs of conscience for a small season, death only
brings the conscience into full focus as every mouth will be stopped before
God and will give an account for our lives.
Like so many rock
“stars” before him, Cobain ended what was already ending and was the
culmination of a life hell bent on destruction. One fan trying to make
sense of what seems so senseless to those who are in the dark regarding
spiritual reality stated, “It makes you wonder if our icons are
genetically programmed to self destruct in their late twenties” (op.
cit. Sandford, p. 338).
Cobain’s mother,
Wendy O’Connor was a little closer to the truth when she lamented, “Now
he’s gone and joined that stupid club. I told him not to join that stupid
club” (Newsweek magazine, April 18, 1994). The “stupid club”, as
Cobain’s mother refers to it, is in reference to Brian Jones, Jimi Hendrix,
Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison and other dead rock “stars” who died at the early
age of 27. Even the Luciferean, William Burroughs, would declare that
Cobain “let down his family” and “demoralized the fans” (op.
cit. Sandford, p. 338). Burroughs would further state:
“The thing I remember about him
is the deathly grey complexion of his cheeks. It wasn’t an act of the will
for Kurt to kill himself. As far as I was concerned, he was already dead.”
(Ibid)
Sadly, his fans were deceived from
the get go, they were actually worshipping the living dead and, as much as
they were influenced or glorified Kurt Cobain to that selfsame degree, they
sped up the very atrophied of their own demise.
Sadly, Christ’s
words concerning Judas Iscariot, who like Cobain committed suicide after
betraying him, are a fitting epitaph for Kurt Cobain -- “It would have been
better that he was never born.” But that declaration would be fitting for
everyone who rejects the sovereign of the universe and stands before Him for
eternal judgement and perishes in a Christless eternity in the lake of
fire. If you have been influenced by the depressing music of Kurt Cobain or
other so-called rock-stars of his ilk, I would encourage the reader to
realize that the same satanic forces that inspired his damnation are using
the music they channeled through him to get you to give up on life. Jesus
warned:
“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they
may have life, and have it to the full.”
(John 10:10)
Jesus came to give
you eternal life. He died for your sins so that you would not have to go to
hell. He rose on the third day and through His gospel defeated Satan who
had the power of death. Jesus now has the keys of death and hell. Kurt
Cobain sang about the “lake of fire” and said it would be like the fourth of
July. This is a lie. God’s word describes it as unending torment where the
wrath of God is justly poured out on the wicked that have died in rebellion
against Him. The lake of fire is the eternal residence of all those who
refuse to turn to Jesus and have their names entered into the book of life:
“Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. Earth and sky
fled from his presence, and there was no place for them. And I saw the dead,
great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another
book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according
to what they had done as recorded in the books. The sea gave up the dead
that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and
each person was judged according to what he had done. Then death and Hades
were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death.
If anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was
thrown into the lake of fire.”
(Revelation 20:11-15)
If you are not
following Jesus Christ, you are against Christ and on your way to the lake
of fire. Jesus said:
“He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me
scatters.”
(Matthew 12:30)
The Scriptures
declare that those who go to the lake of fire have no rest day and night
forever and ever! Friend, Kurt Cobain also sang that Jesus didn’t want him
as a sunbeam. The truth is that Jesus does not will that any go to hell,
but desires that you would embrace His knock upon your heart and let Him
in. He wills to save you, but will not save you against your will:
“Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and
opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.”
(Revelation 3:20)
"We were doing witchcraft, trying to make witchcraft music." -- Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys, quoted in Nick Kent's The Dark Stuff (pg.27.)
"For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers..." -Ephesians 6:12
