The Church of Kurt Cobain was a Christian church founded in 1996 in

Portland, Oregon Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the list of cities in Oregon, largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette River, Willamette and Columbia River, Columbia rivers, Portland is ...

, and whose patron was Kurt Cobain, the lead singer and guitarist of American rock band

Nirvana ( , , ; sa, निर्वाण} ''nirvāṇa'' ; Pali: ''nibbāna''; Prakrit: ''ṇivvāṇa''; literally, "blown out", as in an oil lampRichard Gombrich, ''Theravada Buddhism: A Social History from Ancient Benāres to Modern Colombo.' ...

, who committed suicide in April 1994.

History

The church was founded by Jim Dillon, in Portland, Oregon. Dillon stated that he got the idea for the church from a similar church in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

that paid tribute to jazz musician

John Coltrane John William Coltrane (September 23, 1926 – July 17, 1967) was an American jazz saxophonist, bandleader and composer. He is among the most influential and acclaimed figures in the history of jazz and 20th-century music. Born and raise ...

and that his church aimed to find meaning in the life of Kurt Cobain who committed suicide in 1994. He also stated that Cobain's music has a deeper spiritual message. Instead of playing "

Amazing Grace "Amazing Grace" is a Christian hymn published in 1779 with words written in 1772 by English Anglican clergyman and poet John Newton (1725–1807). It is an immensely popular hymn, particularly in the United States, where it is used for both ...

" on an organ, the church would play the Nirvana song "

Smells Like Teen Spirit "Smells Like Teen Spirit" is a song by the American rock band Nirvana. It is the opening track and lead single from the band's second album, ''Nevermind'' (1991), released on DGC Records. The unexpected success of the song propelled ''Neve ...

". Dillon also stated of another Nirvana song, "

Rape Me "Rape Me" is a song by the American rock band Nirvana, written by vocalist and guitarist Kurt Cobain. It is the fourth song on the band's third and final studio album, ''In Utero'', released in September 1993. "Rape Me" was released as the alb ...

", that "In essence, the real message is one of a Christian theme - treat me the way you want me to treat you". The church held a rally on May 28, 1996, to inaugurate their place of worship and the founders claimed that their purpose was to pay homage to Cobain who they referred to as a " Saint" and also to the

Generation X Generation X (or Gen X for short) is the Western demographic cohort following the baby boomers and preceding the millennials. Researchers and popular media use the mid-to-late 1960s as starting birth years and the late 1970s to early 1980s a ...

who they felt had been ignored by the

Baby boomer Baby boomers, often shortened to boomers, are the Western demographic cohort following the Silent Generation and preceding Generation X. The generation is often defined as people born from 1946 to 1964, during the mid-20th century baby boom. ...

focused-world. A September 1996 article by '' Spin'' stated that the Kurt Cobain Church had been a media hoax. In a July 2021 article by

Alan Cross Alan Cross is a Canadian radio broadcaster and a writer on music.

in '' A Journal of Musical Things'', he claimed that the Church of Kurt Cobain while having Dillon as its reverend and having a big recruitment drive in 1996, was in fact a stunt created by an art director named Jerry Ketel and that the purpose of it was to make a statement against

celebrity culture Celebrity culture is a high-volume exposure to celebrities' personal lives on a global scale. It is inherently tied to consumer interests where celebrities transform their fame to become product brands. Whereas a culture can usually be physically ...

and society's fascination with drug abuse and suicide. Cross believed that Ketel had fooled some big media outlets into thinking that it was real.

References

{{Nirvana, state=collapsed Church of Kurt Cobain Church of Kurt Cobain