Kurt Cobain’s Daughter Left A Comment On A Post About A Nirvana Song & What 'Could Have Been' Had Life Turned Out Differently
She wondered how her life might have been different, had her father lived.
Kathy Hutchins / shutterstock Kurt Cobain changed the social landscape in the 90s. So much has been written about the grunge era and Nirvana’s impact on music and beyond.
Cobain was 27 when he died, leaving behind a world that would consistently wonder about what the future would have looked like, had he survived.
Kurt Cobain’s daughter, Frances Bean, left a bittersweet comment on a post about a Nirvana song, considering the life she never had.
The Instagram account @velvetcoke curates its presence with late 90s and early 00s nostalgia, accompanied by quotes about the celebrities featured. The identity of the person running the account is unknown, yet the mysterious figure goes by Velvey and has amassed over one million followers.
She recently posted footage of Nirvana’s MTV Unplugged performance from 1993, asking fans to share their favorite song from the show. The post received over 3,000 comments, but a comment from one particular person stood out.
Frances Bean Cobain revealed which of her dad’s MTV Unplugged songs she treasures most, noting what could have been if their lives had turned out differently.
Frances Bean shared that “Something In The Way” is her favorite Nirvana song from their 1993 acoustic set.
She wrote, “I like to imagine that if we had been able to grow up together, he would’ve been gentle with me in the same way he was gentle singing that song.”
There’s no doubt that Frances Bean came of age knowing exactly what she lost in 1994: The chance to come into her own alongside her father.
Frances Bean, 31, was only one when her dad died. She most likely grew up amidst the shadowy promises of what would have been different if he'd lived.
She’s a visual artist who looks arrestingly like both her dad and her mom, Courtney Love. She’s also the one in control of the publicity rights to her father’s name and image. In these ways, she carries on a creative legacy, one that she and her father share.
But no amount of fame, money, social capital, or acclaim changes what must have been some form of truth in Frances Bean’s life. There was always something missing, a gap, a wondering of what could have been, had that one thing that happened not happened.
Grief is a monster, a beast, one that arrives and takes root in the strangest ways. Memory is carried through myth-making, through laughing about loss, and through sharing stories about those who have died. For Frances Bean to comment on her dad's performance keeps him alive.
Anyone who has experienced loss, which at some point, is all of us, plays that game. You know the one where we imagine any way the person we love could still be alive — maybe if the car had swerved, if cancer had any form of a cure, if he hadn't been so depressed — maybe, he would still be here.
There’s so much hope in those maybes and so much sadness, too.
We wonder what would have happened if something, anything, had been different. We map out alternate lives for the people we love who’ve died, wondering if there was any way to save them. And the hard truth is this: There is no way to save them.
There’s no way to save any of us when it comes down to that one hard truth. We’re here and then we’re not here, yet in that brief interim between those two things, we can breathe deeply, and look at the moon’s reflection off the ocean, and be grateful for air and light and being here, even if it’s brief.
Alexandra Blogier is a writer on YourTango's news and entertainment team. She covers celebrity gossip, pop culture analysis, and all things to do with the entertainment industry.