Credit: Far Out / YouTube Still / Nirvana

Helen Mirren is “sad” Kurt Cobain didn’t live to see GPS

Fri 25 October 2024 8:56, UK

Helen Mirren is an acting legend. Having started her career in the 1960s, she’s starred in classics such as The Long Good Friday and The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover, and over the years, she’s witnessed many other greats emerge. One of those was Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain, who she’s mentioned several times in the past. She’s now expressed her sadness that he didn’t live to see the benefits of GPS, but there’s more to it than it might at first seem.

While many fans might express their sadness for the late grunge star because of the way he died or the fact that he never got to see him and Courtney Love’s daughter, Frances Bean, grow up, Mirren’s reflections have taken her down a different route from the more expected ones.

Mirren revealed her thoughts on Cobain speaking to the Evening Standard in a new interview. She said it’s “sad” that the ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ songwriter didn’t live to experience the “magical” functionality of GPS; this follows from previous comments where she lamented him not living to see the ubiquitous roll-out of the internet.

“I always say, it’s so sad that Kurt Cobain died when he did, because he never saw GPS,” Mirren said. “GPS is the most wonderful thing, to watch my little blue spot walking down the street. I just find it completely magical and unbelievable.”

Mirren’s comment about Cobain arrived as part of a more general one about ageing, where she explained that people are “lucky” if they get to be older, but that like any age, it’s “not that brilliant.”

“If you’re lucky, you get to be older,” Mirren continued. “And then there you are. Oh my God, I’m 79! I never thought I’d be 79. And then you say, OK, well this is it. This is what 79 is. And it’s kind of OK. It’s not brilliant, but it was not that brilliant to be 25 either.”

Previously, Mirren made a similar comment about Cobain in 2014 to Oprah Winfrey, stating: “Look at Kurt Cobain — he hardly even saw a computer! The digital stuff that’s going on is so exciting. I’m just so curious about what happens next.”

How did Kurt Cobain die?

In early 1994, Cobain had been suffering from his addiction and mental health issues for some time, and in March, was hospitalised after what Love later described as his first attempt to die of suicide in Rome when he overdosed on a combination of Champagne and Rohypnol. After five days he was released and returned to Seattle.

Later that month, Love phoned the Seattle police, informing them that Cobain was suicidal and had locked himself in a room with a gun. They arrived and confiscated guns and pills from the musician, who maintained he wasn’t suicidal and was just hiding from his wife. An intervention was then organised with his close friends regarding his drug use on March 25th, when Cobain angrily reacted. However, he eventually agreed to undergo a detox program in Los Angeles.

However, the night after entering the facility on the 30th, he returned to Seattle. On April 8th, Cobain’s body was found at his home by an electrician. Following the investigation, it was ruled that he died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound on April 5th. He had turned 27 years old just two months earlier.