Singer and bandleader, born Kurt Donald Cobain, on February 20, 1967, in Hoquaim, Washington, to a cocktail waitress and auto mechanic. Has a younger sister, Kim. When Cobain was very young, the family moved to Aberdeen, Washington, a small logging town. After his parents divorced when he was seven, Cobain became anti-social and withdrawn, and suffered from chronic respiratory problems. As an adolescent he became enthralled by the punk movement and by certain heavy metal bands, including The Sex Pistols, Joy Division, and The Melvins. After high school, Cobain and his friend Krist Novoselic moved to Olympia and in 1986 formed a rock band they called Nirvana, which featured Cobain, Novoselic, and drummer Chad Channing. By 1988 Nirvana was performing their signature punkish music, soon dubbed “grunge,” throughout the region. They recorded their first album Bleach on the Seattle independent label Sub Pop in 1989. Dave Grohl replaced Channing on drums in late 1990. In 1991 Nirvana signed with Geffen Records, releasing Nevermind, which contained the single “Smells Like Teen Spirit”—Nirvana's breakthrough hit and ultimately its best-known song. Nevermind sold ten million copies and earned a reported $550 million in the U.S. alone. Nirvana's overnight success put pressure on the talented and sensitive twenty-four year old Cobain, who began to worry about how his music was being received and how to regain control of a seemingly uncontrollable future. He started using heroin in the early 1990s to deal with a nagging stomach ulcer and an irritable colon. In February 1992, he married rock singer/musician Courtney Love, who was pregnant with their daughter, Francis Bean Cobain (b. August 18, 1992). Later in 1992 Nirvana released Incesticide and in August 1992, Cobain was hospitalized for heroin abuse. Nirvana's highly acclaimed album In Utero was released in 1993, full of highly personal lyrics by Cobain about his many life struggles. The band completed a MTV “Unplugged” performance in November 1993 and embarked on a European tour in the winter of 1993-94, cancelled after twenty concerts when Cobain developed respiratory problems. On March 4, 1994, while in his hotel room in Rome, Italy, Cobain washed down about fifty prescription painkillers with champagne and was rushed to the hospital in a coma. The incident, ruled an accident, was kept out of the media. Directly afterwards, he was checked into a chemical dependency clinic in Los Angeles but left after a few days. On April 5, 1994, in the guest house behind his Seattle home, Cobain placed a shotgun into his mouth and fired, killing himself instantly. He left a lengthy suicide note in which he addressed his many fans as well as his wife and young daughter. In September 2002, Love announced that she and the surviving members of Nirvana had finally resolved their years' long legal battle over unreleased material. The long-awaited release could come by December 2002.