Frances Bean Cobain is finally speaking out about her father.
The daughter of Nirvana singer-guitarist Kurt Cobain is now 22, and an executive producer of the new HBO documentary Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck. Frances was just a toddler when her father died from a gunshot wound in 1994, and told Rolling Stone what it was like getting to know him through the documentary.
Notably, she refers to her father as Kurt — and she's not a Nirvana fan.
"I was around 15 when I realized he was inescapable," she told the magazine. "Even if I was in a car and had the radio on, there's my dad. He's larger than life. and our culture is obsessed with dead musicians. We love to put them on a pedestal."
And guess what? "I don't really like Nirvana that much," she said with a grin. "Sorry, promotional people, Universal. I'm more into Mercury Rev, Oasis, Brian Jonestown Massacre [laughs]. The grunge scene is not what I'm interested in. But Territorial Pissings [on Nevermind] is a (expletive) great song. And Dumb [on In Utero] – I cry every time I hear that song. It's a stripped-down version of Kurt's perception of himself – of himself on drugs, off drugs, feeling inadequate to be titled the voice of a generation."
Frances says she's told she's a lot like Kurt, and can give off what she terms the "K.C. Jeebies."
"Dave [Grohl], Krist [Novoselic] and Pat [Smear] came over to a house where I was living. It was the first time [the ex-Nirvana members] had been together in a long time. And they had what I call the 'K. C. Jeebies,' which is when they see me, they see Kurt. They look at me, and you can see they're looking at a ghost. ... They were all talking amongst themselves, rehashing old stories I'd heard a million times. I was sitting in a chair, chain-smoking, looking down like this [affects total boredom]. And they went, 'You are doing exactly what your father would have done.' "
Frances says her father sacrificed his life for his art "because the world demanded it of him. I think that was one of the main triggers as to why he felt he didn't want to be here and everyone would be happier without him."
But "in reality, if he had lived," she goes on, "I would have had a dad. And that would have been an incredible experience."
Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck airs May 4 on HBO and in select theaters on April 24.
