Revelation of the Day: Kurt Cobain's family was from Cork

Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain revealed that his ancestors came from Cork and described his visit to the city as a 'spiritual' experience in an 1993 interview with Guitar World magazine, which was spotted by the good folks over at Rare Irish Stuff today. 

The iconic grunge singer, who took his own life a year later aged just 27, spoke to the journalist about uncovering his ties to Ireland, after conducting some research into his family name.

He said, 'I never really knew about my ancestors until this year,when I learned that the name Cobain was Irish. My parents had never bothered to find that stuff out.' 

'I found out by looking through phone books throughout America for names that were similar to mine', he continued, 'I couldn’t find any Cobains at all, so I started calling Coburns. I found this one lady in San Francisco who had been researching our family history for years.'

When quizzed about whether is was Cobain or Coburn, Kurt revealed that his ancestors changed their surname when they reached North America:

'Actually it was Cobain, but the Coburns screwed it up when they came over. They came from County Cork, which is a really weird coincidence, because when we toured Ireland, we played in Cork and the entire day I walked around in a daze.'

'I’d never felt more spiritual in my life. It was the weirdest feeling and I have a friend who was with me who could testify to this I was almost in tears the whole day.'

'Since that tour, which was about two years ago, I’ve had a sense that I was from Ireland.'

Check out the full interview here, where he also speaks about his musical influences and rumours about his sexuality. 

(h/t Her.ie and Rare Irish Stuff)

Categories: Music, Nirvana, Irish