Frances Bean On Kurt: Cobain Was Just A Man, So Forget The Mythology

When Frances Bean Cobain set out to work on a documentary about her famous father – Kurt Cobain – she demanded that his life story be told as it was. The mythology had to go.

The 22-year-old, now a visual artist, sat down with Rolling Stone to talk about the film, headed to HBO in May called Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck. In its recounting of the exclusive interview, Frances noted she’s often called a ghost of her dad — she has the same monotone voice, smoking habit, and bored expression

And that’s what Frances wants people to remember — her father was just another human being.

“Even though Kurt died in the most horrific way possible, there is this mythology and romanticism that surrounds him, because he’s 27 forever. Kurt has gotten to icon status because he will never age. He will always be that relevant in that time and always be beautiful.

“He’s larger than life, and our culture is obsessed with dead musicians. We love to put them on a pedestal.”

Montage looks at Cobain’s struggle “with being human” Frances told the magazine, and it’s perhaps the first time he’s told his own story. And who better to tell it than his daughter; the film, as a result of her insistence, gives a factual account of his childhood, teen years, and his roles as husband and artist. Those “tall tales” that over the years since his death have been, “misconstrued, misremembered, rehashed, retold 10 different ways” weren’t allowed in the film, Cobain said.

“He wanted his band to be successful. But he didn’t want to be the f*cking voice of a generation … (But) he inspired people to put him on a pedestal. He became even bigger after he died than he was when he was alive. You don’t think it could have gotten any bigger. But it did.”

Perhaps Frances is so well equipped to provide such a stripped-down, black and white narrative about the Nirvana frontman because she’s also an artist – and it’s well known that he was alienated by his fame. And that fame, Cobain explained, made him “sacrifice every bit of who he was to his art, because the world demanded it of him.”

And that, Frances theorized, may have led Cobain to take his own life at 27.

“In reality, if he had lived. I would have had a dad. And that would have been an incredible experience.”

Even though she never knew her father — a man she calls Kurt, not dad, and whose image and music she’s been dodging her whole life — Frances takes after her father in another way: She’s also an ambitious artist.

“I have this motivation and ambition that I didn’t have before: I want to go paint this painting. The hardest part of doing anything creatively is just getting up and doing. Once I get out of bed and get into my art room, I start painting. I’m there. And I’m doing it.”

Montage of Heck will appear in theaters later this month, and on HBO in May.

[Photo Courtesy YouTube Screengrab]