FBI Releases Long-Withheld File on Kurt Cobain

In the past month, Kurt Cobain and Nirvana have snuck back into the headlines. April 5th marked the 27th anniversary of Cobain’s death, an NFT of Cobain’s last photo shoot was put on the market, and Nirvana as a group were hit with a copyright-infringement lawsuit for alleged unauthorized use of a 1949 illustration on their merch. As announced this week, six strands of Cobain’s hair, cut in 1989, will be part of a rock-memorabilia auction.

And now comes Cobain’s FBI file.

Periodically, the Federal Bureau of Investigation makes public some of its archives on politicians, entertainers, and other boldface names. And quietly last month — for reasons the Bureau has not commented on — the FBI plucked out its file on Cobain and made it available for the first time, shortly after it had done the same with paperwork on late mob boss Vito Genovese.