April 5 is a dark day in the history of a dark genre.
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Grunge music, which took over the world beginning in the late ’80s and into the mid-1990s, featuring bands like Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, and Alice in Chains, was born in the Pacific Northwest. The region, known for gloomy grey skies and precipitation, is also, sadly, home to a big portion of the opioid epidemic and has been for decades. So much so that Seattle rapper Macklemore often speaks about the woes of addiction.
But if you need further proof, heroin was a major reason why the grunge era ended so quickly and so tragically. From the death of Mother Love Bone’s Andrew Wood, just days before his band’s debut album, Apple, dropped, to the legends in his wake, like Chris Cornell, even decades later the Seattle area knows musical sadness.
But there is one day that stands out as a particularly bad day and that’s April 5.
Kurt Cobain
The legendary frontman for the band Nirvana was born on February 20, 1967. From all accounts, he had a troubled childhood, but for a time, he focused that energy on music and became one of the best songwriters, not only of his generation but of all time, writing buzzing rock songs with poeticism, simplicity, and power.
But after the success of the band’s sophomore album, Nevermind, Cobain began to spiral. He was already using drugs, but it got way worse, with the singer practically barricading himself into his apartment in Seattle as his mental and physical health wasted away. The band was able to record a third album, In Utero, in 1993. But Cobain wouldn’t have much longer to live.
On March 18, 1994, his wife, Courtney Love, called the police warning that he was suicidal. He had already nearly overdosed several days before. Later, he entered a rehab facility, but he bolted from there and got a taxi and then a flight home to Seattle. On the plane, he sat near Guns N’ Roses bassist Duff McKagan. Later, Duff said he knew from “all of my instincts that something was wrong.”
Love hired a private investigator on April 3 to find Cobain. Nirvana pulled out of Lollapalooza on April 7. On April 8, Cobain’s body was found in his Lake Washington Boulevard home by an electrician, there to install a security system.
His body had been there for days and the coroner said he’d died on April 5. He was 27.
Layne Staley
Layne Staley was the co-frontman for Alice in Chains, the band that has sold some 40 million albums and garnered 11 Grammy nominations.
His voice may be the peak of grunge stuff. Screechy and beautiful, desperate and supreme.
Staley was born on August 22, 1967. The singer also fronted the short-lived group Mad Season, singing its hit “River of Deceit.” The song, of course, is about Staley’s severe battles with drug addiction. Fans could see him waste away, growing gaunt. Alice in Chains’ performance on MTV Unplugged is one of the greatest of all time, but on it, Staley looks like a candle nearly out. He died of a drug overdose.
On April 5, 2002, just eight years after Cobain. He was 34.
Mike McCready
The only silver lining to the day April 5 in the city of Seattle and to the giant history of grunge is that the day is also, amazingly and likely sadly, the birthday of iconic Pearl Jam guitarist Mike McCready. Today, the guitar star turns 57 years old. Sadly, it will always likely be at least a bit bittersweet.
