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FORGOTTEN HISTORY: 5 - The Untold Story

What’s cooler than sex, drugs and pashing models? I found out from 3 rock memoirs

At the height of his success, Evan Dando was notorious for his good looks, heavy drug use and flaky personality. As his memoir, Rumours of My Demise, effectively attests, the Lemonheads frontman was also a shameless rock’n’roll caricature whose addictions and puerile hedonism repeatedly sabotaged his friendships and relationships, along…

The Conversation

Why the mad artistic genius trope doesn’t stand up to scientific scrutiny

Vincent van Gogh sliced off his ear with a knife during a psychotic episode. Ballet dancer Vaslav Nijinsky developed schizophrenia and spent the last 30 years of his life in hospital. Virginia Woolf lived with bipolar disorder, eventually taking her own life as she felt another deep depression beginning.

The Conversation

“Jim Irsay was an incredible collector with an eye for rare treasures”: Details emerge of the historic guitars in the Jim Irsay Collection auction – including David Gilmour’s Black Strat and Kurt Cobain’s Smells Like Teen Spirit Mustang

Compiled over decades by the late billionaire businessman and Indianapolis Colts owner/CEO, the Jim Irsay Collection has achieved a mythical status for its rich trove of historic guitars

Guitar World

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read the most diverse news in one place.

“I hope they get sued. It’s a shameless ripoff. They should be slapped on the wrist for that”: How Tool attracted mainstream attention – and the ire of one of rock’s greatest frontmen

Sober, the seminal single from 1993’s Undertow, made Maynard James Keenan and co. a quick success story, but not everybody was a fan

Metal Hammer

“I told Kurt Cobain that I was going to write a song that had more 'yeahs' in it than anything he’d written.” How a joke between R.E.M. and Nirvana's mercurial frontmen resulted in a 90s classic

Stipe had writer’s block on this Automatic For The People standout until a stroll round Seattle opened the floodgates for one of his band’s biggest anthems

Louder

“Icontend that I was the first person to actually have a Super Fuzz Big Muff – before the rest of the boys”: How Courtney Love created the grunge classic that was released during her darkest hour

Hole’s song Violet came out just a week after Kurt Cobain’s suicide

MusicRadar

How a disintegrating relationship and a Beatles obsession inspired Kurt Cobain to write his first love song, and to plot Nirvana's escape from punk rock prison

Nirvana's first love song offered the world the first real glimpse of Kurt Cobain's songwriting genius

Louder

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“In the ’80s,MTVbuttered our bread. But after Kurt Cobain wore his grandfather’s sweater in the video forSmells Like Teen Spirit, there was no place on MTV for bands like us and Mötley Crüe”: The life and death of the thinking person’s hair metal band

Two top 10 hits and two million album sales couldn't save them

MusicRadar

“We hadn’t rehearsed. We weren’t used to playing acoustic. We did a few rehearsals and they were terrible”: Why everyone involved in Nirvana's MTV Unplugged appearance was expecting a disaster

We look back on the broadcast, 32 years after it first aired.

MusicRadar

“I wanted to write the most ridiculous pop song I had ever written”: the Nirvana B-side that paved the way for Nevermind’s all-conquering success

Embarking on a little pop experiment, Kurt Cobain emerged with one of the most enjoyably silly songs of Nirvana’s career

Louder

Courtney Love to tell her life story for first time in revealing new documentary

Influential rock star frontwoman of Hole, who was married to Kurt Cobain until his death in 1994, had previously been teasing a memoir

The Independent UK

“One of the most significant artefacts in rock music history”: Kurt Cobain’s MTV Unplugged Martin D-18E – the world’s most expensive guitar – has been donated to the Royal College of Music London

Plans are being made for the guitar to embark on a 2026 tour

Guitar World

Smells like tenor spirit: Jake Dunn on the Kurt Cobain opera

Last Days is based on Gus Van Sant’s film, which fictionalised the final week of Kurt Cobain. Jake Dunn, the silent actor at the centre of the show London can’t stop talking about, reveals all

Evening Standard

Last Days review – Leith’s opera imagining the final moments of Kurt Cobain is truly disturbing

An alter ego of the Nirvana frontman is hounded by a stream of fans, friends, Jehovah’s Witnesses, deliveries and even a private investigator

The Guardian - UK

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Evening Standard

Last Days at Royal Opera: 'One of the most original operas this century'

5/5 Loosely based on Gus Van Sant’s film, which itself is loosely based on the final days of Kurt Cobain, this opera has its own special atmosphere

Louder

"It's a celebration of the common man and his extraordinary potential." The story behind the Foo Fighters classic that everyone assumed was about Kurt Cobain - but was actually about something a lot more simple

People misinterpreted this song's meaning for years, but it made it no less poignant

Louder

"She was like, ‘This is what happens when you die young’. I thought it was this cool gesture, but it wasn’t a fun gift." Courtney Love gave this indie frontman a lock of Kurt Cobain's hair after he punctured a kidney on broken glass at an awards ceremony

A present given to The Cribs' Ryan Jarmen at the height of his debauchery showed him what happens when you fly too close to the sun

Bored Panda

43 Infamous Celebrity Mugshots And Reasons What Caused Them To Get Arrested

Some celebrity mugshots live on as the stuff of legends. David Bowie's and Frank Sinatra's are great examples, as people even hang them up as art pieces in their living rooms or in bars. Others are more humorous, with celebrities cracking a smile and sporting an intoxicated, wide-eyed look. Still,…

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Benzinga

Nirvana's Rarest Record Sold – You Won't Believe What Someone Just Paid

A rare test pressing of Nirvana's cover of "Love Buzz," produced three years before the band's iconic "Nevermind" album, just sold for a staggering amount.

Guitar World

“I wanted to learn a Nirvana song. The teacher was like, ‘Kurt Cobain is one of the worst guitarists in the world’”: Sub Pop-backed alt-rockers SPRINTS on guitar trolls, setting amps on fire – and the tonal benefits of olive oil

Second record All That Is Over sees the Irish group adding new sounds, avoiding scales, and continuing to confuse sound techs with their eccentric approach to gear

Cinemablend

6 Iconic Albums I'd Love To See Get The Biopic Treatment Next

Like the albums, these biopics would be instant hits!

The Independent UK

‘My parents had what we call a shotgun wedding. They were just kids doing the best they could’: Stephen Wilson Jr on grief, hymns and resilience

NEW SENSATIONS: After quitting his gig as a research scientist and releasing his first song aged 40, Stephen Wilson Jr has established himself as one of the most intriguing, and talented, country music newcomers in years. He speaks with Roisin O’Connor about the loss that inspired his astonishing debut album‘søn…

Guitar World

“A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to own a piece of history”: Jim Irsay’s billion-dollar guitar collection is going to auction, with legendary instruments from Kurt Cobain, Eric Clapton and David Gilmour up for grabs

With a wealth of record-breaking guitars among the collection, it promises to be the biggest guitar auction event of all time

Guitar World

“It’s fun to have shreddiness, but even my dad would say the best solos are the ones you can sing”: Wolfgang Van Halen reveals the Mammoth guitar solo that was inspired by Smells Like Teen Spirit

The Nirvana classic embodies some soloing advice that Wolfgang once got from his dad, the late, great Eddie Van Halen

Plunged in Debt

10 Songs That Made Their Writers Millionaires

Most people recognize the singers behind the world’s biggest hits, but few realize that the real money often flows to the writers. A well-written song can outlive its performer, generating royalties from radio play, movies, ads, and streaming for decades. Many of these writers never step into the spotlight, yet…

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