DENIAL CAN KILL โ
March 30, 2023 – As he watched Nirvanaโs meteoric rise in the early โ90s, Steven Tyler says he recognised the โpainโ in Kurt Cobainโs eyes and later discovered that Nirvanaโs frontman was using heroin. In a bid to try to help the younger musician avoid pitfalls of which he had personal experience, Aeromithโs frontman went as far as contacting Nirvanaโs management in 1992 to enquire about getting Cobainโs phone number to set up a heart-to-heart chat with the vocalist/guitarist.
In Everybody Loves Our Town(opens in new tab), the definitive oral history of grunge, Gold Mountain Entertainmentโs Janet Billig, recalled, โRight when It started coming out that Kurt was doing drugs, I remember Steven Tyler called and wanted to help. I told Kurt, Holy shit, Steven Tyler called my office and he wants to help you. Can I give him your number?โ And he was like, โSteven Tyler got to be a junkie for 18 f**kinโ years. Iโve only been doing drugs for an hourโ.โ
Like many drug users, Cobain was somewhat in denial about the extent of his drug use.
โItโs not my f**king fault that anyone knows that I did heroin,โ he told Details magazine writer Gavin Edwards in July 1993. โIโve never talked about it. When Iโm high, itโs really obvious. Thatโs why Iโve never gone out in public on it. I tried as hard as I could to keep it from everyone.
โI just hope to God nobody is influenced to do drugs because of me,โ Cobain continued. โI definitely have a responsibility to talk negatively about heroin. Itโs a really, really evil drugโI think opiates are directly linked to Satan.โ
