Video Explores the Source of Kurt Cobain’s Punk Rock Ethic

It is no secret that the late rock musician Kurt Cobain felt alienated growing up. But a recently released animated video, which illustrates a lost interview he gave in 1993, reveals surprising insights about the rage he felt as a teenager and how he came to express it in punk rock. 

In the video below, Cobain explores his ancestry, his upbringing, and his attitude toward women and even homosexuality. Cobain, it turns out, did not even know the origin of his name (it’s Irish) and longed to have a normal family growing up. He found solace in music, but soon came to realize that songs of his favorite bands such as Aerosmith and Led Zeppelin were grounded in sexism.

Cobain, who didn’t have many male friends growing up, said he realized that women are “totally oppressed” and not treated with respect. In his last few years in high school, Cobain says he came to realize that this is what “was pissing me off so much.”

Cobain also mentions that part of his alienation was due to his mother forbidding him from hanging out with a gay friend. “It was really devastating,” Cobain says, “because finally I found a male friend who I actually hugged and was affectionate to.”  

Watch the video here, courtesy of the multimedia nonprofitBlank on Blank: