Serving the Servant: Remembering Kurt Cobain

by Danny Goldberg

At this point a boy who appeared to be in his late teens jumped onstage and tried to get Kurt’s attention. Kurt waved security guys off and let the obviously stoned fan talk into the microphone. FAN: Hey, man, I’m not sticking up for Axl or anything, and I’m not sticking up for Kurt. KRIST: You gotta take sides, man, you’re either Yes on 9 or No on 9, you gotta take sides, man. FAN: I’m No on 9 but I’m talking about Axl here. KRIST: You’re talking about an asshole. FAN: Man, I think you should let music be music, man. Let everyone express what they want, man, be it hard rock, be it Nirvana. I watched as Kurt carefully listened to the kid and then walked up to the mic, put his arm on the kid’s shoulder, and spoke to him like a big brother. “But you can’t like a rock star who obviously likes to beat up women and likes to control women and likes to tell women to shut up, who obviously is a racist and a homophobe. He does have the right to speak his mind—but so do we.”