The daughter of Kurt Cobain admits she's not much of a grunge kinda person.
Frances Bean Cobain serves as the executive producer of upcoming documentary Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck. The 22-year-old has given a rare interview to Rolling Stone in light of the release, where she has some choice words about the cult of celebrity—and the father she never truly got to know.
While Frances remains entirely respectful of her father's memory, that doesn't mean she necessarily loves everything he's ever done either (...what normal kid does, really?). In fact, she seems to have achieved an admirably healthy relationship with the legacy he's left behind. When asked about her favorite Nirvana tracks, Frances responds:
"I don't really like Nirvana that much [grins]. Sorry, promotional people, Universal. I'm more into Mercury Rev, Oasis, Brian Jonestown Massacre [laughs]. The grunge scene is not what I'm interested in. But 'Territorial Pissings' [on Nevermind] is a fucking great song. And 'Dumb' [on In Utero]—I cry every time I hear that song. It's a stripped-down version of Kurt's perception of himself—of himself on drugs, off drugs, feeling inadequate to be titled the voice of a generation."
...Not that she feels guilty at all about not feeling a natural connection to her father's music:
"I would have felt more awkward if I’d been a fan. I was around 15 when I realized he was inescapable. Even if I was in a car and had the radio on, there’s my dad. He’s larger than life. and our culture is obsessed with dead musicians. We love to put them on a pedestal. If Kurt had just been another guy who abandoned his family in the most awful way possible… But he wasn’t. He inspired people to put him on a pedestal, to become St. Kurt. 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."
As for her father's bandmates, Frances recalls for Rolling Stone a nice, feel-good story about that one time they came to visit her at home:
"It's very weird how genes are. Dave [Grohl], Krist [Novoselic] and Pat [Smear] came over to a house where I was living. It was the first time [the ex-Nirvana members] had been together in a long time. And they had what I call the 'K. C. Jeebies,' which is when they see me, they see Kurt. They look at me, and you can see they're looking at a ghost. They were all getting the K. C. Jeebies hardcore. Dave said, 'She is so much like Kurt.' They were all talking amongst themselves, rehashing old stories I'd heard a million times. I was sitting in a chair, chain-smoking, looking down like this [affects total boredom]. And they went, 'You are doing exactly what your father would have done.'
But I was glad they came over [smiles]. It was a cool experience, like having a Nirvana reunion minus one. Except for his spawn."
