Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain died by suicide in 1994 at the height of his fame. Because he died at such a young age (he was just 27) and had such a sudden, dramatic rise from his status an obscure punk guitarist from the Pacific Northwest to a world-famous, seemingly reluctant rock star who inadvertently contributed to changing the entire music industry, the public’s interest in learning about “the real Kurt Cobain” has lingered on, nearly 27 years after his death. 

Of course, many people who worked with and had relationships with Cobain have opened up and shared their thoughts and experiences with the world, including R.E.M.’s Michael Stipe. Stipe was not only friends with Cobain and his wife, Hole’s Courtney Love, he was a mentor, inspiration, and very nearly collaborator. In an early 1994 interview with Rolling Stone, Cobain discussed his intention to put out a Nirvana album that would be “pretty ethereal, acoustic, like Automatic for the People,” R.E.M.’s 1992 album. He went on to gush, “If I could write just a couple of songs as good as what they’ve written … I don’t know how that band does what they do.” The inspiration went both ways. Per Rolling Stone, Stipe once told MTV News that the “yeah yeah yeah yeah” refrain in one of Automatic‘s singles, “Man On the Moon,” was a tribute to Cobain, noting, “I told Kurt [Cobain] that I was going to write a song that had more ‘yeahs’ in it than anything he’d written.”

Did Michael Stipe and Kurt Cobain ever collaborate?

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