Kurt & Courtney (1998) - full transcript

[Nick Broomfield]
At 8:40 a.m. on April 8th 1994,
Kurt Cobain's body was found.

He'd been killed by
a shotgun wound
to the head.

The verdict was suicide.

According to the police report,

there was a cigar box
to the right

containing narcotics
paraphernalia, syringes,
burnt spoons

and small pieces of black tar.

[Electrician] I noticed
something on the floor.

I thought it was a mannequin.

[TV Announcer] An
electrician arrived

at Kurt Cobain's luxurious home
early in the morning
to install security lighting.



What he discovered
in this apartment

above the home's garage
was horrible.

[Electrician] I looked closer
and I saw blood in the ear

and a weapon
laying on his chest.

[TV Announcer]
27-year-old Kurt Cobain,
an international music star

and lead singer of the
group Nirvana

had taken his own life,
shooting himself in the head.

Beside him lay a suicide note.

Sources close
to the Police investigation

say it was addressed to
family, friends and fans.

And describes how he was
"Riding a wave of success"

and dealing with
a lot of the difficulties
that go along with that.

[Nick Broomfield]
Kurt Cobain was icon
and inspiration to millions.

The news of his death
was devastating.



Traffic literally stopped
in his hometown, Seattle.

Thousands gathered
to pay homage and
to comfort one another.

There have been many
copycat suicides
throughout the world.

He died at the
peak of his career,

and many people have found it
hard to accept

that he could've
killed himself.

Various conspiracy theories
have grown up.

Kurt was like a folk hero,
a god in his own right.

He popularized punk rock
and experienced
incredible success.

People loved him
not only for his music.

Kurt also remained
true to his roots.

This is what he said about
his new-found wealth and money.

[Kurt Cobain]
Yeah, you can't buy happiness,

I mean that made me happy
for a little while,

but, I mean, I was just,
probably almost as happy
with I don't know...

I look back on going
to second-hand stores
and stuff like that

and finding a little treasure
like that.

And that actually meant
more to me because

it was a stab in the dark,
you know?

You didn't know if you were
going to be able to afford it.

You don't know what
you're really looking for.

When you find it,
it's more special to you.

Rather than having $1,000

and going into
a store like that and
just buying the whole store.

It's not as special.

[Nick Broomfield]
Kurt Cobain's story is the
story of a brilliant artist,

a tragic love story.

It's also a story that
some people
have not wanted told

and the various attempts
to control the journalists,
writers, film makers

that have tried to tell it.

This control I discovered
made even the financing
of this film very difficult.

We traveled up
to Seattle, Washington,

where Kurt spent
his last years,
to find out more.

He was seemingly
happily married
to Courtney Love,

with a young daughter.

In this street,
Kurt's Aunt Mary lives

who gave him his first guitar

and with whom he did
his first recordings.

[Aunt Mary] The first recording
that he did, it was on
a great big old board.

I had this great big
Peavey seven-channel mixer.

Eventually I ended up
selling it to him.

I sold him the old
Peavey mixer that I had

'cause he wanted it
for his band he was
getting into.

Gosh, I'm not even sure
exactly when that was.

[Nick Broomfield]
What kind of music
did he like then?

Punk.

[Nick Broomfield]
Once he got over the Monkees?

Yeah, Right.

Oh, you want to hear
some of that stuff?

[Nick Broomfield]
The Monkees work?

Oh yeah.
He used to sing
a lot of Beatles stuff.

[Nick Broomfield]
That'd be great.

I think I can get it on here

[Young Kurt Cobain]
Hey, we're the Monkees!

Hey... [babbles]

[Nick Broomfield]
How old is he here?

He's probably about two,
something like that.

[Young Kurt Cobain
babbles on tape]

"I'll do it by myself,"
he said.

[Young Kurt Cobain on tape]

He was a pretty loud
little guy.

He was the center of attention.

[Young Kurt Cobain] One, two,
three, four, five, six, seven,
eight, nine, ten.

Yeah! Go! Go!

Here we go.

[Young Kurt Cobain
heavy metal singing]

Early Nirvana.

[Nick Broomfield] Mary also
played Kurt's very first tracks

that she had helped
him record as a teenager.

He was like 15 years old
when he did this stuff,

and he was,
he was banging on a suitcase

because he-- I asked him,
I said--

I told him,
"Kurt, you're welcome to
use my computer drummer,

"that I have down here."

He said, "Oh yuck!
I don't want to use
a computer,

"I want to
keep my music pure."

So he wouldn't let me...
or he wouldn't take my offer.

[Nick Broomfield] Did he
record it on that machine?

Yeah, he did.

We can hear a little bit of it.
Do you want?

[Nick Broomfield]
No, just play it.

[Nick Broomfield]
Courtney Love threatened
legal action,

so I removed the song.

Instead this song is by
Kurt's best friend Dylan
and his band, Earth.

We traveled up to Aberdeen
where Kurt was born on
20th February 1967.

A small red-neck logging town
in upstate Washington,
that has become run-down.

Punk rock was an escape,
it offered Kurt his way out.

[Nick Broomfield] Kurt lived
in this house
with his parents and sister

but his life changed enormously
after the age of eight,

when his parents divorced.

[Nick Broomfield]
Kurt's childhood was
anything but glamorous.

We went to see Kurt's
old schoolmaster with whom
he'd lived for awhile.

Speak to me,
who are you?
What are you doing?

Fill me in since I'm not sure.

[Nick Broomfield]
We're from the BBC.

And we're doing probably
the same film
that everybody else does

who comes to Aberdeen,
a film about Kurt Cobain.

He'd been kicked out
of his own home.

My two eldest sons
brought him home one evening.

With the request:
"Dad, Kurt has been kicked out
of his house

"and needs a place
to sleep for tonight.

"Would it be okay if he spent
the night on our couch?"

And our response was, "Sure."

We have taken in a
number of kids
who needed a place to stay.

He spent the first night there,
and then...

that first morning
he got up

and asked what he could do
to help around the house.

What he could do to be
of service and fit in.

He asked if he could spend
a second night.

Then the second night
stretched to a week,

and the week stretched
to a month.

He kept his sleeping bag
behind the couch.

He was put into the rotation
of family chores.

He washed dishes
when it was his turn,

vacuumed when it was his turn.

[Nick Broomfield] Did you
have much contact with
either of his parents?

I don't believe that
we ever made
contact with the mother

or the father, stepfather
the whole time
he was there.

[Nick Broomfield] Really?
So they didn't come around
very much?

I don't think we ever made
contact with them once, no.

-In the whole year?
-Mmm-mmm.

[Nick Broomfield]
At other times Kurt would go
and live under the bridge

at the end of his street.

The bridge immortalized
by Kurt in his song
Something in the Way.

We were told by one
of the locals that
when MTV filmed here,

they repainted it
and removed all the syringes.

[Nick Broomfield] This is Kurt
at the family Christmas party
in 1987.

And there's his Aunt Mary.

Kurt was then currently
working on songs for
the Bleach album.

[Nick Broomfield]
The girl with Kurt
is Tracey Marander

his one and only real love
before he became famous.

[Tracey Marander] This is the
living room down here.

[Nick Broomfield] We went round
to visit Tracey who lived with
Kurt for about three years.

Kurt was also
a talented artist.

He gave Tracey these dolls
which he baked with plaster.

He also gave Tracey
this self portrait.

[Tracey Marander]
A very skinny skeleton at that.

[Nick Broomfield]
Did it reflect him at all?

[Tracey Marander] I think
somewhat in the way he felt
about his body size.

[Nick Broomfield] Did he? Why?
What did he sort of feel?

[Tracey Marander] He just felt
like he was too skinny.

[Nick Broomfield] He thought
he was too skinny?

Yeah, he tried to gain weight
and tried to work out
a little bit

but, uh, he just couldn't
really gain any weight.

He just sort of stayed,
I think 120,
is what he weighed.

[Nick Broomfield] Really?
Did he get teased about it?

Um, he got teased about it
in High School.

You know, guys would
think he was gay

because he looked
sort of feminine and small.

-Is that why he wore so many
layers of clothing?
-I think so, yeah.

There's no way you can wear
that many layers of clothing

and still be comfortable,
really.

It added extra padding.

[Nick Broomfield] So he used
to wear how many
layers of clothing?

Sometimes, he'd wear
a pair or two of long johns

and then wear a pair of jeans
with ripped-up jeans over it.

And then a couple of T-shirts
and a sweatshirt

and a flannel shirt
and a jacket.

-Really?
-Yeah.

So are there any other
paintings somewhere else?

Um, yes. In the bedroom.

[Nick Broomfield] Do you
mind if we go there?

No, do you want to go this way.

-[Nick Broomfield] Sure.
-[Tracey Marander] Okay,
More room.

[Nick Broomfield] There's
Elvis. Did he like Elvis?

Um, you know,
I'm not really sure
if he liked Elvis

or liked the whole idea
of Elvis and Graceland.

Um... This way.

He did this painting
right here.

[Nick Broomfield]
What's that?

[Tracey Marander] That looks
to me like a fetus or embryo.

[Nick Broomfield] An embryo

[Nick Broomfield] Was he sort
of fascinated with fetuses?

He didn't really seem to be,
except in his artwork.

Other than that, not really.

[Nick Broomfield] But wasn't
he somewhat fascinated

by the whole birth process?

To him, the whole thing
was kind of gross in a way.

I think he was sort of
fascinated by things
that were gross.

He found the birth
process gross or...?

Well, all the blood and mucus
and tissue.

It didn't really appeal to him.

He had made this
collage painting,
I mean I don't have it but...

It was a collage of diseased
vaginas and pieces of meat
pasted all together.

[Nick Broomfield] Really?
Diseased vaginas?

Yeah, he'd found that when
he worked in a
doctor's office as a janitor.

So what was
it like living with Kurt?

It was fun. I liked it.

He had a good sense of humor.

We had problems with him
not cleaning the house
and that kind of stuff

but he had a
good sense of humor
and liked to play jokes

and he liked to cook a lot.

[Nick Broomfield] Do you think
you mothered him quite a lot?

Probably yeah,
without really meaning to
but yes.

Do you think
he kind of looked for
a mother in a way?

Um... I think a little bit.

I think he
sort of missed that.

When I first started
going out with him,

he was just beginning to get
friendly with his mother again.

For quite a few years,
they were
not on good terms.

[Nick Broomfield] Is it true
that you at one point said,
"You've got to get a job"

and he said he'd
move into his car?

Yeah, then I said

"You don't have to live in
your car, you can stay here."

But that was good.
He wrote a lot of songs.

He was always playing.

[Nick Broomfield] So, in a way,
you were the patron of Nirvana.

Sort of, yeah,
I guess you could say.

I mean, I don't want to
say that for sure

but yeah, in a way.
Of Kurt, anyway.

That helped him I think get
successful a little faster

than if he'd had to work at a
real job and support himself.

[Nick Broomfield]
Is it true that he wrote
that song About a Girl...

He said
"I can't spend every night
with you for free".

He never told me directly
that song was about me.

Michael Azerrad said that
Kurt said that it was.

It's a beautiful song actually.
I love that song.

[Nick Broomfield] I had hoped
to play the song About a Girl
over these stills

that Tracey had taken
of Kurt, but the music
is tightly controlled.

I was told by the
record company

that Courtney now
owned the rights.

And unless she approved
of this film,

it would be impossible
to license the song.

[Nick Broomfield] Here's Kurt
standing outside the house he
shared with Tracey in Olympia.

It was said that he
particularly enjoyed
firing pellets

from his BB gun
across the street into the
Washington State Lottery.

-[Nick Broomfield] Hi.
-[man] Hello.

[Nick Broomfield] Hi,
I'm sorry to bother you.

I'm doing this film about
Kurt Cobain.

I heard that he used to fire
his rifle at this building.

I'm sorry, sir, but you're
not allowed to come in.

I'll have to call security.

Are you authorized to be in the
building with a camera?

No, it's just
a little question.

[alarm beeps]

-Good grief.
-Shut the camera off, please.

-We can go.
-Do you wanna turn
the camera off?

-We'll go.
-Just stay...

-Let's go. We're gonna go now.
-Stay here.

[Nick Broomfield] But the
fame really changed things.

Kurt grumbled about yuppies
in BMWs singing along
to his songs.

His privacy was invaded.

This is Alice Wheeler,
a friend of Kurt's.

After he got famous,
he was hard to hang out with.

[Nick Broomfield] Why?

Because you could never
just go walk up to him

and say, "Hey, dude, how's
it going?"

[Nick Broomfield]
Why couldn't you?

Because there
were a lot of bodyguards

and people in the way.

He had handlers,
that even when
you did see him,

and you started to
hang out with him, as soon
as he'd turned his back,

the handlers would try
to get rid of... Like,
that happened to me.

They tried to kick me out
a couple of times,

and then he'd turn
around and say,
"No, don't kick her out.

"She's my friend, it's okay."

And then as soon
as he went to the bathroom,
they'd kick me out.

[Nick Broomfield] I asked
why they isolated him.

I think that fame
is a process of isolation.

And I think that none of us
knew that's what it was.

I think when you're
a kid and you're growing up

and you see rock stars
you think, "Wouldn't it
be great to be famous?"

But the reality of
being famous is kinda
frightening, in a certain way.

Especially if you're
a kid that

was used to being picked on
by other people anyway.

It's almost the same feeling.
Kids chasing you in high
school to beat you up

because you're a geek

or fans chasing you to get
your autograph.

[Nick Broomfield] Did he
deal with that very badly?

I think he was
embarrassed by it.

That's the impression I got
from my direct experience.

[Nick Broomfield] He was
embarrassed by the fame?

By the fame
and by the trappings of fame.

Once I was riding in a limo
with him, and we were talking

and we were
having a really nice talk.

He was very embarrassed that
he was in a limo.

He said,
"Usually we take a van."

He made a big point
of telling me that,

you know, that usually
we take a van.

I said, "It's fun for me.
I've never ridden in
a limo before.

"I'm kind of excited."

[Nick Broomfield] Alice
Wheeler took these photos
of Kurt and Courtney.

By the time Kurt married
Courtney Love in 1992,

he'd become a serious
heroin user.

He said the heroin helped
his stomach pains

that often left him
doubled up for days on end

and which were caused by the
stresses of his life.

Courtney Love is quoted
as saying

they bonded pharmaceutically
over drugs,

like battery acid
and Evian water.

Courtney when she first met
Kurt had been on the periphery
of the music scene for years.

She'd recently formed
the band Hole,

who achieved
their first major success

with the album
Live Through This,

released the week Kurt died.

Kurt took the relationship
very seriously.

This is what he said when
asked whether
he'd changed his mind

about having a child.

Oh, yeah, absolutely.

I really can't describe
what changed

our attitude so fast.

I think, I really was
a lot more negative and angry

and everything else
a few years ago.

That had a lot to do with
not having a mate.

Not having a steady girlfriend,
and stuff like that.

That was one of the
main things that
was bothering me,

that I wouldn't admit
at the time.

Now that I've found that,
the world seems a lot better
for some reason, you know?

It really does change your
attitude about things.

Four years ago,
I would have said the
classic thing,

"How dare someone
bring a child into this life.

"It's completely
a terrible way to go

"and the world's going
to explode any day,"
and stuff like that.

Once you fall in
love, it's a bit different.

[Nick Broomfield] I wanted
to try and talk to Courtney,
but had no idea at this stage

how long it was gonna take
before I would eventually
meet her.

The thing that
most surprised me

was the strength of feeling
directed against her.

Even Courtney's own father,
Hank Harrison,

who lives on this
housing estate
outside Sacramento

has publicly come out
and criticized Courtney

for in some way possibly
being involved
in Kurt's death.

I didn't expect to believe
his allegations,

but I was interested in them.

He's written two books
about Kurt,

Kurt Cobain Beyond Nirvana

and Who Killed Kurt?

[rock music playing]

[Nick Broomfield] That's him.
Lean over in his direction.

There he is.

[Nick Broomfield]
Hi. How do you do?

[Hank Harrison] You're Nick?

Hank Harrison,
good to meet you.

Pleased to meet you, too.

We're on already, huh?

Yeah.

So, when did you last hear
from Courtney?

Her mother heard from her
last week and she said
she's getting married.

You're kidding?

But I don't' think
she's really going to
go through with it.

I think she's trying
to get into the...

Are you coming in the house?

Sure, who's she marrying?

Edward Norton.

This is the galley proof
of the book,

just to prove that it actually
is finished.

What does it say on the cover?

Kurt Cobain Beyond Nirvana.

You might get some gloss
off the sun

so maybe we should
shadow it a little bit.

What's your general feeling?

About Kurt?

I don't think
he killed himself.

I think that
somebody killed him.

I never said
Courtney killed him,

I don't know if that's
the case or not.

You think she might be
involved in
his death or even murder?

I can't say
one way or the other.
I mean, I have no idea.

I didn't say
I know who did it.

All I know is that the evidence
is so strong towards

the possibility
that he was murdered.

But in the thing l read
in your other book,

Who killed Kurt Cobain

you say something about the
fact he was going to leave...

They were definitely
going to get a divorce,
that's correct.

That's a well-established fact.

She was concerned
about the will?

He was going to change
his will, that is correct.

The will is only one
of the many, many points

that are in that book and
also in this book.

One of the things
I was interested in here
was this book you wrote here.

Who Killed Kurt Cobain.

I was wondering if I could
get you to read,

there is poem
in here somewhere.

-Future Date.
-Yeah, this one.

I was wondering if you
could read that out?

The reason I did
this in Courtney's handwriting

is so people didn't think
I was making this up.

This is a poem that
Courtney wrote, probably
in Ireland in 1980,

when she lived with me
over there.

She's told a number of
people that she only lived
with me for three or four days.

The truth is,
it was about four
and a half months.

During that time,
she threw away
a lot of poetry

and I salvaged it out of the
garbage or the fireplace.

One of the things she
wrote was Future Date.

"I love you forever
I'm going to be your wife

"I'm gonna keep you around
for the rest of my life

"I finally got
all these flies off of me

"And now I can see
a future date

"A future date
right over the horizon

"Right on the
tip of your tongue"

Which is a reference
to LSD, I think,
but anyway.

"I'll destroy anyone in my way
I'll kill everyone
Every lousy lay"

"Cause I got my eye
on a future date"

It didn't make sense to me
when I read it years ago,

but after Kurt died
I read it again

and often wondered if she
didn't have that

extraordinary sense of
commitment and determination,

that nothing is gonna stand
in her way under any
circumstances,

nobody is ever going to
put her down.

She felt she had to have that
determination
to make it as a success

in the rock world
or in the movie industry.

Which I'm sure you do have to
have that kind of commitment.

But putting this in context
with a number
of other elements,

you start to see
an almost deranged
thinking process

underlying a lot of
this obsession she has.

It's almost
a compulsion to succeed
no matter what.

The means justify the end.

You're not exaggerating
the violence and so on?

No, not at all.
If anything,
I'm down-playing the violence.

Courtney's had a reputation
for being
extraordinarily violent

for a great many years.

After I lost track of her,

she was taken away from me
when she was
only five or six years old.

So, I have no idea
what went on.

But she's been
notoriously violent.

She's written me
a number of letters,

where she said
she stabbed a kid
on the schoolground.

She's been in juvenile hall
and had a number of fights.

It's all documented.

She's punched out
other rock stars,
like Kate Hanna.

She's had fights
with Tad Doyle's girlfriend.

She's had fights backstage
with a number of men and women.

Some of it is lightweight,
but when she was pregnant

with the baby in Ireland

a friend of mine called me
and said

Courtney got in a punch out
on Grafton Street in front
of Bewley's restaurant.

So, I know Courtney has
a well-documented
violent outburst pattern.

[Nick Broomfield]
For a father,
Hank appeared unsympathetic

to the life Courtney had led.

Born Courtney Love Michelle
Harrison on July 9th, 1965,

Courtney, like Kurt,
was from the age of five
shunted between

family members,
friends and foster parents.

She spent a brief spell
in New Zealand,

hippie communes in California,

a re-parenting center
in Montana.

She eventually ended up
in reform school,

where she wrote:
"I've been on my way
here all my life."

She then moved into
the world of Rock and roll

and got into the
glamour of drugs.

I contacted Courtney's
publicist, her manager
and lawyers

to try and arrange an interview
but without success.

Her current new image
is amazing,

but she doesn't like
talking about her past,

as she revealed in
a recent interview.

[TV Interviewer] You've
been a stripper, there is
the drug use, the heroin...

Where are you going with this?

You can't do this,
I'll walk off.

I mean, I really will.
I'm not going to do this
on the Today Show.

Well, you've been asked
a lot about it before...

Not on television.

What's the difference
with television?

I'm just not
gonna do this now.

I want to talk about the movie,

if you don't wanna talk
about the movie
it's fine.

I do want to talk
about the movie and

one of the things in the movie,
that's in every single article

and it would be odd
not to ask you about

is that I've read
you didn't want to do
the heroin scenes.

I'm not going to talk about it
on the Today Show.

It's not a demographic that
I feel like talking about.

Are you filming?

[TV Interviewer] For a moment
we thought the interview
was over.

In the past, Love has talked
openly about her heroin use,

but this is the
new Courtney Love.

The edgy rock queen
now looks and acts
more like a movie star.

[rock music]

[Nick Broomfield] We
travelled to Portland, Oregon.

I wanted to know more
about the music scene
Courtney had grown up in

before meeting Kurt.

And this is the music of
one of her earlier
main loves Rozz Rezabek,

the Theater of Sheep.

[instrumental rock music]

Courtney had
had high ambitions for Rozz.

She used to dress him
in other rock star's clothes.

He was the local teen idol
in Portland in the late 1980's.

[indistinct lyrics]

[Nick] Today Rozz lives
in this street with
his wife and child.

[Nick Broomfield] So, um...

So, how did you and
Courtney originally meet?

Uh, she came up and threw
a drink in my face
after we were playing a gig.

She came up and just...
Pshhh! A drink in my face

and stated screeching,
"Who do you think you are?
David Bowie?

"With all your
mock rock star poses

"and those atrocious
green checkered pants!

"if you ever want to make it,
you better lose
the green checkered pants

"and cut out the
Rod Stewart poses!" Blah blah.

She started giving me this
scathing review
and I'm like, "Who are you?"

But she did the whole thing
in an English accent

and she had this dyed black
hair, everything dyed black.

She was just back from England,

where she was groupie-ing
all the bands of that time.

[Nick Broomfield] Rozz, now
retired from the band,

keeps his Rock and roll
memories in the basement.

You can play music
so loud down here.

This is all solid concrete.

Every one of these
is filled with concrete.

This box here is just
general from the time.

This is the
me and Courtney stuff.

A lot of
this is the Courtney stuff.

She might want this back.

"Property of Courtney."
This is kind of odd.

She's got "Courtney L" on this.

That didn't really start
till about, I'd say, '87 or so.

But this is where she'd
always steal my...

These are my journals
she'd always go through them
when she'd break in.

These are
all just letters, crap.

I figured some day it'd be
worth something.

I don't know why I kept it.

I mean, these are my journals.

Here we go:
"Here's How Courtney
Will Make It."

"Gig locally, tons.
Stop working at jobs.

"Be financed. Get a deal.

"Using the new connections
and the old ones.

"Movie comes out.
Tour with Furs or REM."

I've got this one list,
it's so funny
where she says,

"Become friends with
Michael Stipe."

And what does she do?
She goes out and does it.

You've got to give her
credit for that,

I love Courtney.

You've got to love Courtney.
No, you don't.

[Nick Broomfield] I wondered
if there must have been

some inextricable glue
bonding them together

like they were
they great lovers?

She's going to hate me
for saying this, but no.

Because with her,
that's why I can say,

she probably really should
win an Academy Award.

She would find out
what your kink was or
what your peccadillo was

and she would expound on it.

But it was always just
like over-dramatic.

It wasn't sincere.
It wasn't felt.

You can see with my wife and I.

We fight,
it goes back and forth
but it's real.

With Courtney it was always,

"Rezabek, Rezabek,
it's Babydoll."

"I need a place
to lay and sleep.
I have champagne."

She'd jump out of a cab
and I'd be like...

For the first
two or three years

I didn't even sleep
with her for
the first eight months.

Maybe it was more than that,
a year.

I was like, "Go away.
Go away. Go away."

[Nick Broomfield] Rozz had
found out that day

that Courtney had belittled
him in the press.

No, Courtney,
you're not that good in bed.

None of us are.

Sex is mainly up here.

Mainly up here.

And a kinder, gentler
Charlie Manson is still
fucking Charlie Manson.

Don't fuck with me, Courtney.

I don't care if you are Jesus
and your lawyers are
the 12 disciples.

Don't fuck with me
If I have to strap on a guitar
and get up on stage

and take you down myself,
I will.

Because don't fuck with me.

I never crossed you
and you've crossed me now.

You didn't give me
what was due me.

You stole my career,
you made me run away from it.

You'll get yours,
You'll get yours.

You'll either be Frances Farmer
or you'll be June Cleaver.

But I don't care.
Just stay away.

I don't know.
I'm getting worked up here.

[Nick Broomfield] Rozz blamed
Courtney's ambitions for him

as the reason
he gave up his career.

He said she wanted him to be
what Kurt later became.

She at that time had thought
it was a male-dominated world.

She thought the only way she
could achieve stardom was
through a man.

And she had all the ideas.

She started dressing me in
Julian Cope's clothes,

Ian McCulloch's clothes.

Everybody's clothes.

Finally, I got her to agree
to this thing of like,
you'll lay off.

Let me do my band
and become famous on my own.

She had an agenda
for me and that was what
was in most of those letters.

She wanted to make me
into a rock star
to the point where

I stopped wanting to
be a rock star.

I wanted to do anything
to get away from it, because
I'd have ended up like Kurt.

I would have ended up
fucking shoving a
gun down my throat. You know?

What else could you do?

Hello?

[Nick Broomfield] I went to
see Amy, who claimed to
have known Kurt and Courtney.

[Amy] Hi. You guys weren't
intending to come upstairs
were you?

Yeah.

Oh no, no, no,
my boyfriend's sleeping.

So, how did you know
Kurt and Courtney?

They used to...

I met them
through my ex-husband.

When we were living
up in Seattle.

We had the same
drug connection.

It was just down the
street from us,

so they used to come over
and use our apartment,
to fix.

He's very nice, very well
mannered or he was...

Well-mannered, very
nice, very courteous
and she's a harpy.

What do you think
they drew from each other?

He just was really quiet.

I'm trying to think of
the right adjective for
his personality.

Um...

She's like a little
ball of energy.
A name-dropper, you know?

Just gets off
on talking so much.

Kinda like sucking the
spotlight from everybody else

and he was happy to kind of
sit there and not have anybody
pay attention to him.

I think he enjoyed that in her.

It was something
that he couldn't do.

To be like a vampire,
of sorts, the way she
was with people.

[Nick Broomfield]
Have some coffee.

Amy said she'd send me
photos of her shooting up
with Kurt and Courtney.

Later that night,
Amy took us to some clubs
where Nirvana had played.

Zeke, who were
playing that night,

were one of the many bands
inspired by Nirvana's music.

-[punk rock plays]
-[indistinct lyrics]

[crowd cheers]

[Nick Broomfield] The bands
all hang out in a funny little
room up these stairs.

[Amy] Nick, this is
where Nirvana,

when Bleach was still out,

it was New Year's Eve,
there were 50 people here

and we came up here to do
big lines of coke
on this table,

for New Year's Eve.

[man] Many a party up here.

But there were only 50 people.
It was a New Years Eve show.

Nobody even knew who
Nirvana was.

This is a cartoon that
Kurt did when he was up here.

He was so personable
and so fucking cool.

There's not many people
that I can actually say,

I was talking about that
earlier to someone,

Kurt was totally a listener.

So many people wait
for the chance to talk when
you talk to them.

He's one of the few people
who I've ever met who

actually listened to what you
had to say.

[rock music]

[Nick Broomfield] Also playing
were The Dwarves, one
of the more violent bands

who used to headline
for Nirvana.

[punk rock]

[guitarist] Play the pussy,
get fucked.

That's what I always say.

[Nick Broomfield] It was around
this stage, the financing began
to drop out of the film.

My co-funders started to get
pressure from Courtney's
people to pull out.

I'd been required
to fax my intentions

particularly with regard to the
various conspiracy theories.

[co-funder] I got the
thing you faxed me last week.

Oh, good.

[co-funder] Which I've
forwarded on to the
appropriate parties.

Hopefully we'll have a chance
to talk about it tomorrow.

-Okay.
-Okay.

So who were the
appropriate parties?

[co-funder] Just our
internal attorneys

and business affairs people.

-Right.
-Make them feel comfortable

with what your angle on the
documentary is going to be.

Right.

[co-funder] So hopefully
we'll have a discussion
about that tomorrow.

-Okay
-Okay.

And was it roughly okay?

[co-funder] Yeah, it was
exactly what we needed to

have down on paper.

Was it actually Courtney
herself who called MTV?

[co-funder] No, no.
I have no idea.

I don't know if she called MTV,

I know she has in the past
and I hear you know,

kind of raised holy hell...

Holy hell.

[co-funder] I'm not sure
exactly who called.

But they clearly are
very sensitive to this issue.

To the point where the
head of MTV is calling.

It clearly
is a sensitive subject.

But as of today,
we're still alive.

[Nick Broomfield] I didn't
have an angle on the story.

I was just trying to find
my way through it.

It was from this hotel in
Los Angeles

that the Courtney
conspiracy theory started.

On Easter Sunday,
April the 3rd 1994,

Courtney called
a private detective.

The previous day on Saturday,
April the 2nd,

Kurt had climbed over the wall

of the Exodus rehab clinic
in Los Angeles

and flown back to Seattle.

Five days later,
on April the 8th,

Kurt's body would be found
at their Seattle residence

having lain undiscovered
for four days.

The month previously
Kurt had overdosed

and possibly attempted
suicide in Rome.

May I help you, sir?

-Sorry?
-May I help you?

We wanted to just try
and get a room here.

[Nick Broomfield] The private
detective that Courtney called

on April the 3rd
was Tom Grant.

Courtney found his name
in the Yellow Pages.

Tom Grant is an
ex-LA County sheriff

of eight years standing.

We went with him to the cheaper
Ramada Inn, around the corner.

Tom Grant is convinced that
Kurt was murdered.

However, much of his evidence
could not be substantiated.

And under British libel laws,

I was forced to remove them
from this cut of the film.

Tom Grant also asserts that
Kurt and Courtney

were having problems
with their relationship
when he died.

And were talking about divorce.

[Tom Grant] As soon as
the body ended up dead.

Courtney Love did
everything she could,
hires a private investigator...

[Nick Broomfield] I wanted
to ask you what do you think

the overall scheme
of the murder was,

and how do you think
you fitted into that scheme?

First of all,
I think this was

in Courtney's mind,
for a long time.

I think even the word suicide
entered Kurt's life

a whole lot more
after Courtney came into it.

That word was bantered around.

She was constantly saying
things to him like,

"What are you going to
go do? Kill yourself? You
gonna commit suicide?"

I think Courtney used Kurt
from the beginning.

I think she married him

for the sole purpose
of furthering her career

and obtaining some wealth.

And I think that there was
a plan that was formulated

quite a while back about
how this was going
to end up someday.

The day arose when
Kurt finally made up his mind

he was getting out of this
marriage and was leaving her.

[Nick Broomfield] He was
going to divorce her?

I don't think an exact date
was ever set

for this to happen,

but when the time came

and everything came to a head,
it had to happen.

[Nick Broomfield] Did he plan
to leave the house?

Yeah, he was
going to leave Seattle.

[Nick Broomfield] Tom Grant
searched for Kurt

at their Lake Washington house
in Seattle

on April the 7th
at 2:45 a.m. and 9:45 p.m.

but failed to find Kurt's body

which was in the greenhouse
above the garage.

This is Dylan Carlson,
Kurt's best friend,

who helped Tom Grant
search for Kurt.

I asked if Dylan had said
anything about why the
marriage went wrong.

We didn't talk about that
a whole lot,

other than the fact that
they were always fighting,

they didn't get along.

Courtney had bought
a Lexus, apparently,

and Kurt was really angry
about that.

He didn't want to be seen
in a big fancy car.

He finally forced Courtney
to take it back.

It was embarrassing to him.

They were constantly fighting
over things like that.

Which goes back to
what Dylan was saying

about them being
total opposites.

Courtney wanted the mansion.

Kurt was embarrassed
about the mansion.

Courtney wanted
a big fancy car.

Kurt was embarrassed
about the big fancy car.

They were in constant turmoil
over these things.

They had different
priorities in life.

It was money issues,
and that kind of thing...

Sure.

-...between them?
-Mmm-hmm.

And you basically think
that the motive obviously

in his possible murder
was money too?

Yeah, I think that's
pretty obvious,

and it's a motive that's as
old as time.

This was a great deal of money.

Kurt was worth
millions of dollars.

If there's a divorce
in the works,

Courtney's going to get
half of everything at best.

If he ends up
committing suicide,

Courtney ends up
with everything.

She only knew him for a little
over two years at the time.

So here's a woman that
came into this man's life

and in less than a
three-year period

owned everything
that he had accumulated

through his own talents.

[Nick Broomfield] Tom Grant
worked for Courtney Love

for seven months.

He's convinced
Kurt was murdered.

He's written about
these theories

and has an extensive website
on the Internet.

He recorded many
hours of phone calls,

both with Courtney
and her lawyers.

He built his case
on the following basis.

There were no fingerprints
on the gun or bullets,

suggesting someone wiped them.

The police work was shoddy

and they had made up their
minds Kurt killed himself.

They even wrote that
this stool was used by
Kurt to block a door,

that in fact had no access
from the outside.

He also argues the
suicide note refers to

Kurt wanting to leave Nirvana,
not to kill himself.

And he thinks,
the last four lines

were added by someone else.

Hank, Courtney's dad, had
various theories of his own.

I asked him to explain
his own murder theory,

in light of the
Rome suicide attempt.

But he would try
to kill himself...

It was a fake suicide.
He didn't really...

He was just trying
to get attention.

Somebody used that
to make it look like.

[Nick Broomfield] Why
was he trying to get attention?

Because Courtney didn't
love him anymore

and Courtney was
cheating on him,

and he had a big
problem with Courtney

going out with Billy Corgan
from Smashing Pumpkins

and Evan Dando from Lemonheads,

and he had a number
of other people.

[Nick Broomfield]
But is all that proved?

It's well-established that
she was having an affair

with Billy Corgan in London,

when she was supposed
to be meeting him

for his birthday in Rome.

[rock music]

[Nick Broomfield] We wanted
to find out more about

Kurt's last days
from Dylan Carlson

who had bought the gun
that killed Kurt.

This is the pop promo
for Dylan's band, Earth.

[music by Earth]

[Nick Broomfield] This is
Crooked Axis for String Quartet

from Dylan's new album.

We eventually arranged
to meet Dylan.

We were told he was living
with a dealer who had an Uzi

and we should wait
on the street.

Dylan himself was immortalized
in Kurt's song In Bloom.

I found Dylan to be evasive

and in a very
defensive position.

As Kurt's best friend,
it was crazy for him

to have bought the gun if
he thought Kurt was suicidal.

And yet at the same time
he didn't want to appear

to be supporting Tom Grant's
murder theory.

[Nick Broomfield] What about
his relationship with Courtney?

Obviously, it was going
through some turbulence.

Whether it was
going to end or not,

we don't know,
I don't think we ever will.

But I mean all marriages go
through their ups and downs.

[Nick Broomfield] Did he ever
say anything to you about...

I mean, he seemed to say it
to plenty of other people.

Said what?

That he was going to
finish the relationship.

Divorce?

He never flat out
said anything like that

or any implications
about it to me.

He didn't even make any hints
as far as I know

about any divorce or
anything like that.

[Nick Broomfield] If you were
his best friend,

and he didn't say anything

about being depressed
or being suicidal.

He just wanted the gun
for prowlers

and that Rome
was just an accident.

Maybe you think also he could
have been murdered?

Why? I mean, it's like...

[Nick Broomfield] If you
were his best friend

and he never said anything
about anything being wrong

and he'd seen you just before,
maybe Tom Grant's right.

He doesn't have to say
anything about it being wrong.

It's like... I mean...
It's like...

When you're friends
with someone, there
are subtler forms

of information transfer
than just flat out, you know...

[Nick Broomfield] So what did
he subtly communicate to you?

I'm just saying, it's like...

[Nick Broomfield] I'm just
trying to get a sense of

what he did communicate to you,
what you understood.

The thing is, the time he
would have been communicating

any sort of sense that he
wanted to kill himself

was when he came back
from Exodus,

when I didn't see him.

[Nick Broomfield] But if you
bought the gun before he went

and you think
he was now suicidal...

I don't think he was
necessarily

planning to kill himself
at that point necessarily.

I mean, I don't know, though.

-I mean...
-It was just a coincidence?

I mean, it's like...

If he had been totally
suicidal from the outset,

he would have used the gun
that day probably or something,

you know what I mean?

Why did he go down and
try to go through treatment?

[Nick Broomfield]
Why do you think?

Because there was
all the fucking pressure

on him to go through treatment.

His wife's telling him he needs
to go through treatment,

his record company,
his management.

They're all like,
"You have to get off drugs."

You know? So he goes
and tries to get off drugs

and he can't
or doesn't want to.

It's basically
he doesn't want to.

There's no reason for him
to get off drugs.

It's not like
he's poverty-stricken

and robbing grocery stores
to supply his habit.

[Nick Broomfield] But how
was Courtney telling him
to be off drugs

when she was on them anyway?

I don't know, 'cause she was
all gung-ho for him to quit.

I mean, they were both
constantly like... I mean...

trying to hide it
from one another.

The most ridiculous
example was,

one time, Kurt called me
up to get him some speed

and then the other line rang
and I answered the other line

and it was Courtney
asking me to get her dope.

And both of them were like,
"Don't let the other one know."

[Tom Grant] Here we go.

[Nick Broomfield]
This is the
actual recording

of Dylan and Tom Grant
searching for Kurt

on April 7th
in the middle of the night.

[Tom Grant] If you could
open the door for me.

[Dylan Carlson] Kurt?
[Tom Grant] Kurt?

[Dylan Carlson] Kurt?
[Tom Grant] Kurt?

[Tom Grant] Hello?

[Tom Grant] Hello? Kurt?

[Tom Grant] I'm going to
follow you through here

because you know
where everything is.

[Dylan Carlson] Kurt!

[Tom Grant] Does this
go up another story?

[Dylan Carlson] Yeah,
there's an annex.

[Nick Broomfield] Kurt's body
was in the greenhouse
above the garage.

Tom Grant believes Dylan
deliberately avoided

showing him the greenhouse.

I don't know what I think about
the whole murder conspiracy.

[Dylan Carlson]
Put it this way,

if I seriously thought Kurt
had been murdered,

the people, if I thought
Courtney was involved,

or if I thought...
They would be dead now,
flat out.

I would kill them, if I thought
that was the case.

You know?

But don't you think it's
curious that if Courtney,

as you said,
loved Kurt so much,

and she was so worried
about him,

she knew he had a gun
and thought he was suicidal

that she didn't come up
to Seattle to look for him?

[car alarm blares in distance]

[Nick Broomfield] We were
still trying to get in touch

with Courtney Love.

We returned to Los Angeles
to see Al and Jack.

Al and Jack call
themselves "stalkarazzis".

They work for the tabloids

and live under the main
LAX flight path.

What do you see
yourselves doing?

Well, as far as
you're concerned

you want to find Courtney Love,

and she is in a
lock-out with her band

at a rehearsal facility
in Hollywood

for the next several weeks

preparing for Hole's
upcoming tour.

So, it would be quite
easy for you to get this

question into her.

[Nick Broomfield]
By stalking her?

Well, we have a specific
studio where she is at,

where you will be
able to find her.

[Jack] We'll have to
be like stalkarazzis,

I like to call these people.

We'll have to sit there,
wait until she comes
out one morning.

They're there for
six hours a day

so we'll have to be out there
probably with a smaller camera
than the one you have here

just in case
something does happen,

we whisk it away.

We could always go
covert too, you know.

Don't forget... I could
dress as an electrician
in a jump suit

and a work belt and mosey on
in, under the guise of

some other reason
for being there.

[Nick Broomfield] Al and
Jack also wanted to put me

in touch with this man,

whom they claim was offered
$50,000 to kill Kurt.

I think what we should do

is go and visit El Duce
out in Riverside.

[Jack] Yeah, we've got to find
him out in Riverside

because that's where he's at.

Do you know where he is?

[Jack] Yeah,
we know his location.

He's not afraid of Courtney,

but he doesn't like to come
into Los Angeles that much,

he likes to have his little
hang out.

[Nick Broomfield] Why doesn't
he like coming into to...

Because a lot of times
he has been hassled by
the authorities.

A lot of people
know him out here.

[Nick Broomfield] The police?
[Jack] Yes.

You've got to consider
parents of young children

who like the Mentors,
absolutely hate this man.

Because he is a
debaucherous sort of fellow...

[Nick Broomfield]
"Debaucherous"?

Debaucherous, very.

He wears an executioner's mask.

He, uh...

Hasn't he had
sex acts on stage?

[Jack] Yeah. And there's no
doubt, knowing him well,

would know, hey, if I wanted to
hire somebody to kill somebody

El Duce would be the man.
He'd be liable to do it
like that.

[Nick Broomfield] This is
the promo for El Duce's
band, the Mentors.

♪ Lady on the street,
your ass looks so sweet ♪

♪ You don't have to live
outside anymore ♪

♪ You body looks so fine
I wanna make it mine ♪

♪ You are my personal whore ♪

♪ You are my sex slave ♪

♪ You do whatever I crave ♪

♪ Your ass I love to beat ♪

♪ You're another
piece of meat... ♪

[Nick Broomfield] The following
day we drove out to Riverside

with Divine Brown's pimp,

a close personal friend
of El Duce's,

who said he could
put us in touch.

-Want me to give... Okay.
-[dogs barking]

Back, Vixen. Looks like him
right there, actually.

That's the one.
There he is, El Duce.

[Nick Broomfield] Where?

There he is right there.
So he's, uh...

Hey, I got some...
Courtney Love there...

This is him, El Duce.
This is, uh...

-Argghh! Where's the booze?
-Tell you, he's...

[pimp] You're sure the dog
won't get out and attack us?

[Nick Broomfield]
Is your dog an angry dog?

He's just a perverted...

Yep, a warped...

Intoxicated, most of the time.

[Nick Broomfield] But you did
some deal with Courtney, right?

Yeah.

It was impossible unfortunately
to substantiate

any of El Duce's
extreme allegations.

And we were unable to
reprint them here

without being able to
authenticate them.

That's a fact, is it?

People might think you're
not the most reliable witness.

Well, that's too bad.

You may not be a reliable
witness your own self.
[chuckles]

Now think about that one.

Yeah.

You know.
When she offered me money...

God dang! I wish
I would have taken it, man.

El Duce, I found out,
was well-known
in the LA music scene.

A wild man
with a strong following.

He claims to have known
Courtney over the years.

And that she came to the
Rock Shop and
made him an offer.

Unfortunately, it's this offer
we were unable to substantiate.

An offer that El Duce claims
was very extreme.

And there was no way
it could be reproduced

without hard evidence
that it was true

under the British libel laws
as they stand today.

Unfortunately, El Duce was
just a bit too wild
and brilliant

for the English libel laws.

[El Duce]
"Make it look like a suicide."

[Nick Broomfield] If you blew
his brains out, like you said,

it wouldn't look
like a suicide.

It would look like
you blew his brains out.

But I told Alan, my friend...

[chuckles]

I'll let the FBI catch him.

That's just the way it's done.

End of story.

Hey, 50 grand does
a lot of talking.

Buy me a beer,
I might do some more talking.

Aaargh!

[chuckles]

[Nick Broomfield] And that
seemed to be the end
of the interview.

I didn't know quite
what to think.

El Duce had passed
a polygraph test

even though his main witness

had nodded off before
its completion.

This is Al and Jack rehearsing
questions for Courtney.

[Al] Courtney!
[Jack] Watch it, muthafucker!

[Jack] Just like that, be ready
because she's gonna fucking try

to grab that camera.

The first thing she's going
to see is that camera.

The old Sony Handycam.
We know this will do the job.

[Nick Broomfield] This is Al
shooting at Courtney's
rehearsal studio

where they're posing
as record producers.

[Al] I like that stage,
that's killer, that's perfect.

A good size. Okay.

[Nick Broomfield] Here's
Courtney's studio door.

[man] Do you have
a business card?

[Al] I can hear her in there,
I can hear her in there
talking now.

[Nick Broomfield] Here's
Jack buying soda pop,

trying to pluck up courage.

And here's Al making his way
over to join him.

Unfortunately,
the battery ran out.

I found the closest we
could get was to watch
her at the Oscars.

[reporter] Have you been
embraced by the Hollywood
community in the last year?

If you mean
treated really nicely

and not having
to dive into mosh pits?

Oh, my God.
So nice. So nice.

And to that end, there are
so many fans of Hole

and of your musical work.
What about that?

Are you going
to give it up for movies?

In three days I have to start,
and I'm excited.

But it's another...
See these?

These symbolize that
I'm not playing guitar.

I'm taking meetings.
When these come off,

it's about the grunge.

I was going to wear
flannel tonight.

Well, maybe next time,

maybe when we
see you next year.

Courtney schmoozing
with directors.

We have more to schmooze with
you as we continue.

-Live stars are here.
-I'm just jumping all over it.

Here we are live from the
Academy Awards.

[Nick Broomfield] I wasn't
convinced by the
various conspiracy theories

but I found the more
I went into the details of them

the closer I got
to what actually went on.

We went back to see
Kurt's Aunt Mary.

[Nick Broomfield] Did you feel
that Kurt was quite unstable?

Yes, I did. I do feel that Kurt
was an unstable person

before he ever got into
the music business.

When he was here recording
in this very room

when he was 17 years old.

He and his friend, the drummer
that he'd brought along

took off for lunch
or something.

And I kind of sneaked in here
and was looking at his lyrics.

There was a song that
was in amongst his lyrics

that he never did record
on that particular tape

that I remember.

It was called Seaside Suicide.

And I remember that
it left me with the impression

that he had possibly tried
suicide before.

[Nick Broomfield] Really?

[Aunt Mary] I can't remember
the words, but I do remember

that impression
that it left with me.

And I was like, "Whoa,"
you know?

-Seaside Suicide?
-Yeah. So...

Anyway, I just don't believe
in the conspiracy theory

that he was murdered.
I don't believe in it.

His suicide note
from what I understand

was written to his
imaginary childhood friend,

named Bada.

-Bada?
-Bada.

That was his little imaginary
friend that he had

and we used to do these
recordings in my bedroom
at home,

my brother had a tape deck
and he brought it over

and it had this thing called
"sound on sound"

and it had this
reverb unit in it.

He would go "Bada", and
it would go "Bada, Bada, Bada.

You know? In reverb.

[Young Kurt Cobain]
Where's Bada?

He did it.

Where's Bada?

He did it again.

Where's Bada?

He did it again.

Where's Bada?

He said it again.

All this stuff on this earth
isn't all that great.

There's a lot
of great things,

I watched the Academy Awards
last night, you know?

It's so full of
glamour and all that stuff,

but it's so phony.

I could have never seen Kurt
sitting at something like that.

It's just too phony.

Maybe that was what really...

what he was really feeling
in his life too,
is that it's so phony.

It's not real,
that's not truth.

It's all put up there,
it's a big...

Like a...

I can't even
think of the word...

A mirage.

[Nick Broomfield] Towards the
end, Kurt's life had become

one of endlessly touring.

He particularly resented
having to sing

Smells Like Teen Spirit
at every performance.

Mary, Kurt's Aunt,
felt that the patterns

of his childhood had been
recreated in his adult life.

As Kurt's relationship
with Courtney floundered,

all the worst horrors
of his childhood resurfaced.

The loneliness, the betrayal

and the sense of abandonment.

Tom Grant told me that
two fans of Kurt,

aged 12 and 14

had committed
suicide in France that day.

He sincerely believes that
if he can prove

Kurt was murdered,
there will be fewer suicides.

The case has bankrupted
Tom Grant and

he has had to
give up his office.

We arranged to meet him at the
Westwood Golf Club.

-Hi. How are you?
-Pretty good.

[Nick Broomfield] I told him
that a lot of people

disagreed with his theories.

When you talk about a man that
had 1.52 milligrams of heroin

in his system when the
body was found,

and the fact that
that has never happened

in any other recorded case
that we've been able to find

after researching
thousands of cases

in several countries around
the world...

[Nick Broomfield]
Isn't that an indication

that he could be suicidal too?

There's no proof
somebody else did it.

No, no, no. We're
talking about evidence

indicating it would have been
impossible for him

to pick up the shotgun.

Now, for anybody
to continually say,

"Well, he had a high
tolerance level.

"It's possible
he was suicidal."

You're just denying and
ignoring some real basic
facts here.

If it was possible,
there would certainly be some

other cases to be found where
this has happened before.

[Nick Broomfield] But he also
had a gigantic habit,
didn't he?

Again, you can say that
until you're blue in the face.

Show me another case
where it's ever happened.

You'd have to believe
that Kurt Cobain was the

biggest heroin user
that had ever existed.

[Nick Broomfield]
He was pretty big.

He was just a typical
heroin user.

[Nick Broomfield]
But it's possible
that he managed still

to operate the shotgun?

Well, it's possible
if you believe

that it's possible
to stand on a rooftop

and flap your arms and fly.

Show me a case where
it's ever happened before

and I'll believe it's possible.

[Nick Broomfield] I'm not a
specialist on the amount

of heroin one can take.

All I know is,
in making the film,

time and time again

people who knew him very well
said that he was suicidal.

He was extremely depressed,

his career was at a crossroads,

his relationship with Courtney
was at a crossroads.

He was withdrawn and
he felt he had nowhere to go.

Let's just assume for a second
Kurt Cobain was suicidal, okay?

Strictly based
on that premise alone,

this man was suicidal,

you tell me what difference
that makes

in light of the
real evidence of this case.

It doesn't matter.

Just because a
person's suicidal,

doesn't give somebody
the right to kill them.

Just because a person
may be suicidal,

which I don't believe he was,

but if he was,
that doesn't mean

the police don't have
to do a thorough investigation

once his body is found.

[Nick Broomfield] Tom Grant's
assertion that 1.52 milligrams

of heroin per liter of blood

would have incapacitated Kurt,

were discounted
by Dr Colin Brewer,

formerly director
at Westminster Hospital.

He gave us this color slide
of a patient

balancing easily on one leg who
had taken the equivalent of

over twice the amount
taken by Kurt.

In any event,
Dr Brewer said it

would take 30 seconds to
one minute for the heroin

to circulate and take effect,
leaving ample time

to fire a gun.

I no longer believed
in the conspiracy theories,

but Tom Grant, despite our
medical evidence, remains
convinced to this day.

The other news was
that El Duce had been killed

by a train, near
where he lived.

We learnt his real name
was Eldon Hoke.

He was 35 years old.

The official version
was accidental death.

But people had other ideas.

We too had also become
part of the conspiracy theory.

I was beginning
to doubt everything.

We went back to see Amy.

The photos of her
with Kurt and Courtney

which she'd been promising
had never arrived.

[door entry alert buzzes]

[gasps] Sorry, I've come
to the wrong apartment. Sorry.

Hello? Hi, how you doing?

Is Amy in there?

Hey, how are you?

You guys can't do things like
that without letting me know.

-Your hair's changed color.
-Yeah, I colored it.

Nice to see you.

Where's your girlfriend?

My girlfriend?
You mean Alex?

Yeah. Hi, honey.
You've cut your hair.

Are you guys all
feeling better now?

Yeah. What about you?

[Nick Broomfield] I was at the
stage where I wondered

how much of anything anybody
had been telling me was true.

And I wanted to get
the photos of Amy

with Kurt and Courtney
as a kind of proof

that she really knew them.

Did you manage
to get those photos?

I'm picking them
up on Sunday from my parents.

They're out of town.

My little brother
has come to visit from school.

He's on his spring break.

So I'm going over there
for Easter Sunday.

And do they know that they've
actually got the photos?

Yeah. My mom says the box says
"Amy Photos" on them, so...

They're mine. I just made her
promise not to look in them.

-Oh, really?
-Yeah.

I didn't want her to see
what was in there.

She might not be too happy.

Unfortunately, the photos
never arrived.

But the person I had the
biggest problem understanding

was Hank, Courtney's father.

I wondered why he hadn't
tried to support

and defend his daughter.

Here we are again,
cinema verite.

[Nick Broomfield]
How are you?

No time to talk, just filming.

-Fine, how are you?
-Good.

You've got a nice car
this time.

The BBC does its best.

Well, I didn't get any of it,
but that's okay.

I asked him if it was true
he'd got rottweilers

to discipline Courtney
as a child?

No, pit bulls.
This was way back in 1982.

When I first got the pit bulls,

it was primarily to put
some peace into our house.

I got the dogs,
because I like that

particular kind of dog,

and then when
Courtney came around

she wouldn't play
with the dogs anymore

and she never came back
after that.

So it did the job
that it was supposed to do

in that it was designed so that
Courtney would have to learn

to deal with these
kind of dogs and me

because they say that people
are like their dogs.

-You're kind of a pit bull?
-Yeah.

But then maybe it's not
surprising that you

and Courtney don't have
such a great relationship.

I told her what the rules were.
Tough love rules.

She was a minor, she couldn't
smoke in the house,

she couldn't do heroin,
she couldn't turn tricks,

or bring her weird
heroin buddies around anymore.

Those were the rules I laid
down, but she was welcome
there any time,

and she broke every one
of those rules right away.

That's when she was
only 16, 17.

So the reason she's
alienated from me

is because of the "tough love"
we tried to use on her.

She's hardly going
to like you any more,

with all the theories that she
might somehow be involved
in Kurt's death.

I'm not in the business of
getting Courtney to love me,
or even like me.

I'm in the business of trying
to look out

for my grand-daughter
and myself.

I mean, I don't know,
it just seems strange

that with one's own daughter,
that you don't want to have...

Well, I do, I mean
I would like to have a
relationship with Courtney...

It seems you're going about it
in just a strange way.

It is, it's very strange,
I admit that it's very strange.

And most people don't
understand it.

-But what course have I got?
-I don't understand it either.

What course have I got?
Ask yourself.

What course is open to me?
There is no other course.

She has made it
the escalated battle,

I have not.

But the two of you
are kind of at war.

Yeah, it's a great war and
I hope the public watches it.

But what's the point?
She's your daughter.

Well, but husbands
and daughter...

You saw
The War of the Roses?

You've seen husbands
and wives fighting,

you've seen daughters
and fathers and sons
and daughters...

Families fight all the time.

Why isn't our feud
as interesting

as the Hatfields
and the McCoys?

It's a family feud.

It happens to be
a public family feud.

It's a fairly incredible
state of play

when someone's own father

is saying that maybe
his daughter is a murderer

-or a murderess.
-That's correct.

Instead of saying,
"Look, if you've got a
problem, maybe I can help you."

I have done that.
That's all been done.

Those are exhausted remedies
that have been taken care of

or exhausted long, long ago.

Those are remedies that were
exhausted long, long ago.

And there's no
chance in the world that those

are going to be patched up.

But is this the best way
of telling her you love her?

No, I'm not telling her
I love her.

That's not
what I'm trying to say.

What are you trying to say?

I've got her number, hanging.

I've got her figured out,
she can't get away.

I've got her nailed,
that's what I'm trying to say.

It's still tough love and
I'm still the father.

Period.

Cop out to me, maybe we
can work something out.

But keep bad rapping me,
I'll keep kicking your ass.

I told her that from
the beginning. I'll keep
kicking your ass.

Don't take me on.
I'll kick your ass.

I don't care how
big a show it is.

I don't care if you got
$177 million.

I'll kick your ass because of
one Achilles heel that she has.

I know how she thinks.
I know how she works inside.

I've got an inside track on
her mind, her mindset.

You can take all the LSD
and do all the cosmetic
surgery you want,

you can't fool me.

I know what her next thought's
going to be.

[Nick Broomfield] But the
information that I regarded as

being closest to the
reality of the situation

came to us
completely by chance.

Someone stuck this note on
our windscreen.

Twenty six. Park behind
that red car if you will.

[Nick Broomfield] We arranged
to meet a woman called Chelsea

late at night at this house.

She lived
in a room in the basement.

Chelsea knew the nanny who had
been with Kurt and Courtney
in the last months.

I asked about Kurt.

He loved her unconditionally,

but I think they had
a very sick love, you know.

I don't think it was
a very productive love.

It was based on,
from what I hear, again...

Based on drugs.

And then once that
perhaps got old

Courtney was infatuated
with the idea of Sid and Nancy.

They often checked into
hotels as Sid and Nancy.

She told the nanny,
who's a friend of mine,

that they were going to be
Bonnie and Clyde,
Sid and Nancy.

And I think
once that wore thin,

I think that the only thing
that Kurt had left...

Again, this is all conjecture,
but I believe that

Kurt's only interest at
that point was Frances.

I know of one incident,
when Kurt had been gone
for a long time, and um...

He came back and
the nanny was holding...

She was outside with
Eric Erlandson and some
other people and...

Kurt came back to
the house,

he'd been gone
for a while, and...

Frances had always been,
"Daddy, Daddy, Daddy."

Everything was daddy. And...

She, upon his arrival,
she didn't react that way.

She turned and
hung onto the nanny.

This was probably a week
before Kurt committed suicide.

He said, "My own
daughter doesn't even
know me anymore."

He looked really sad
and went into the house. So...

[Nick Broomfield] Her friend
the nanny had never
been interviewed before.

She might come here.

She's really scared.

She's always been afraid
to talk about this.

[Nick Broomfield] How
long was she the nanny?

Uh...

Four or five months.

They go through nannies like
people go through Kleenex.

-Really?
-Yeah.

[Nick Broomfield] And
she's really frightened?

-What's she frightened of?
-Courtney.

[Nick Broomfield] She'd become
very depressed and withdrawn

following her time at the house
just before Kurt died.

I asked her what was so
strange in those last weeks.

There was just way
too much "will" talk.

A few different times,
major "will" talk.

Just talking about his will.

[Nick Broomfield]
What kind of points?

Courtney talking
about his will, and...

I mean, what a thing
to talk about.

Was this just prior to his...

Yeah, the month I was
up there it was...

I came home for a week,
and then he died.

I had quit for, like, a week.

[Nick Broomfield]
Why did you quit?

Because I couldn't stand it
up there.

[Nick Broomfield] What
did you think of Kurt himself?

[Nick Broomfield] I heard
he was a very caring father.

Yeah.

More caring than
he was let to be.

[Chelsea]
What do you mean?

She just totally
controlled him.

Every second that she could.

[Nick Broomfield] What
do you think he wanted?

To get away.

-From Courtney.
-Really?

I think he just didn't
have a way, because she...

[Nick Broomfield]
Why do you think,

if he loved Frances so much,

why do you think
he killed himself?

Not sure
that he killed himself.

-[chuckles]
-[Chelsea] There you go.

[Nick Broomfield] Do you
think someone else might
have killed him?

No, I don't know. I think
if he wasn't murdered,

he was driven
to murdering himself.

[co-funder, over phone]
Well, unfortunately...

[Nick Broomfield]
As I suspected, under pressure
from Courtney's people,

our co-funders pulled out.

It didn't pan out?

[co-funder] Trying to keep
this project moving,

the subtle
internal pressures...

We were forced to bend to them.

It's not easy for
me to tell you that...

My head of programming
basically asked

me to bow out of the project.

What kind of...?

[co-funder] As I mentioned,
it was concerns from our
colleagues at MTV.

Because of their relationship
with Courtney and Nirvana

and everything else.

So, I think we're
gonna have to bow out.

And I'm... I'm extremely...

I extremely regret
having to tell you this,

but there's nothing I can do.
I tried.

[Nick Broomfield]
It is this control,
or attempts to control,

that for me has
dominated the whole story.

And the control
extended to the media.

I might have lost a bit
of funding,

but a lot worse has
happened to other journalists.

Lynn Hirschberg, the respected
and esteemed writer,

received death threats
and threats to cut her dog up

after writing an article
in Vanity Fair

which mentioned Courtney's
heroin use while pregnant.

Things reached
a crazed dimension

at the 1995 Oscars ceremonies

when Courtney tried to bludgeon
Lynn Hirschberg

with Quentin Tarantino's Oscar.

I asked Lynn Hirschberg to be
interviewed for this film

but she said she had been
terrified for her life,

and wouldn't go there again.

Alice Wheeler, the
photographer, likewise felt
intimidated by Courtney.

She has, like I said before,
kind of punched out
a couple of my friends, and...

After that book from England
came out,

in England but not
in the States yet,

she hired private detectives
to interview at length

Kurt's old friends.
Which was very intimidating.

[Nick Broomfield] But it's
amazing they went
to that trouble.

And they had a list
of about 70 people

that they were looking
to interview.

So it was costing quite
a bit of money.

I just perceived
the whole idea

of the private detective
calling all Kurt's old friends

as a veiled threat not to
talk to anyone.

I don't know what
will happen as a result

of doing this interview
with you.

I mean, I'll let you know.
[chuckles]

[Nick Broomfield]
Other journalists have
received similar treatment.

This is a phone call from
Courtney to Victoria Clarke,

who was writing a book
on Nirvana.

[Courtney Love] I will never
fucking forgive you

as a matter of fact,

I'll haunt you two fucking
cunts for the rest of
your goddamn life.

Going and interviewing
Lynn Hirschberg is called rape.

That's what that's
fucking called.

That's called rape,
you fucking bitch.

Only somebody on the Bush
Family Values Administration

would think
that Lynn Hirschberg

had any kind of fucking
hot interview at all.

Or you two goddamn idiots
who don't even

fucking know about punk rock.

I don't even know
what your fucking problem is

or why you've got
this wild hair up your ass

but you're going to pay
and pay and pay

and pay out your ass.
And that's a fact.

Your fucking list of enemies
is going to be longer

than you can wrap your
fucking finger around

and you're gonna be so fucking
humiliated this time next week,

you're gonna wish you'd
never been born.

[Nick Broomfield]
Courtney later physically
attacked Victoria in a bar.

I was in a club in Hollywood
and Courtney appeared.

This is before I'd finished
writing the book.

And she appeared and had a go
at me basically, physically.

[Nick Broomfield] How do you
mean, had a go at you?

She sort of grabbed me and
attacked me with something.

I think it was
a glass or something.

I ended up covered in beer
and on the ground.

She pulled me along
the floor by my hair,

and tried to get me outside.

[Nick Broomfield]
What, some distance?

Quite a long way.
It was quite a scary thing.

[Nick Broomfield]
But what I found
most disturbing

was that Kurt, sounding
psychotic and crazed,

joined in all of this, in an
attempt to protect Courtney.

[Kurt Cobain]
This is Kurt Cobain.

If anything comes out
in this book

that hurts my wife,
I'll fucking hurt you.

I don't care
if this is a recorded threat.

I'm at the end of my rope.

You'll understand
when you see me in person.

I never been more
fucking serious in my life.

[message tone beeps]

I suppose I could throw out
a few thousand dollars

to have you snuffed.

But maybe I'll try it
the legal way first.

I was scared enough
to leave the house I lived in

and move 3,000 miles away.

-[Nick Broomfield] Seriously?
-Yeah. I left there and then.

The minute I heard
the messages, I left.

I packed my bag and left.

I called the police from LA,
I didn't call them from
Seattle. And, erm...

[Nick Broomfield] At that time
you were living in Seattle?

Yeah, but I was living alone
in Seattle at that time.

-And you were really,
really frightened?
-Oh, absolutely. Terrified.

Because I knew that
they weren't joking,

it was like serious.

[Nick Broomfield]
I'm traveling to the
ACLU awards dinner.

The American Council
of Civil Liberties

which protects first
amendment rights such as

freedom of speech
and freedom of the press.

And at which Courtney Love
will be the special guest

presenting the
Torch of Freedom award.

It's being held at the
Century Plaza Hotel,

in Century City, Los Angeles.

It was a huge Hollywood event,
everyone was there.

Al and Jack were there too.

Here's Al shaking hands
with Larry Flynt.

They had prepared a whole
list of special questions
for Courtney.

Being somewhat taken aback
by the whole occasion,

I let Al go first.

[Al] I caught your rehearsal at
S.I.R. It sounded really good.

How did you catch
my rehearsal at S.I.R.?

What were you doing there?
You're not supposed to do that.

Some other business. But
what I want to know is I heard

you do Let the Sun Shine In.
Did I hear that?

No, but did it have
a lyric about sun?

We're doing this whole
California record.

It's a song called Malibu
that was probably
what you heard.

Do you like a lot of the new
members in your band?

I've had the same members
for years.

So, it's not a new band?

I got some bad
information. I'm sorry.

I love my band, they're great.

[Nick Broomfield] Al's nerve
had obviously failed him too.

-I was just so overwhelmed.
-...El Duce or killing Kurt?

This was your big chance.

You didn't want me
to do that, did you?

I was overwhelmed
by the moment.

I had her there,
and she got pissed
about the Ed Norton thing.

I thought, jeez...

[Nick Broomfield] I thought you
were going to ask her finally

-about El Duce, or about...
-What's that?

Now I'm the guy on the spot.

[Nick Broomfield] I thought you
were going to ask her.

I was overwhelmed
by her beauty.

[Nick Broomfield] Courtney,
what does the ACLU mean to you?

It's a lot like my parents,
very liberal.

It's very good that it's
around. It protects everybody.

It keeps the American ideal
very much alive.

It's really important.
It's not very glamorous

political organization,
which I like about it.

It's very liberal about
everything,

from anti death penalty...

It favors stuff sometimes
we don't all like.

Courtney, why
have you personally
threatened journalists?

Have I threatened them?
Because that's my right.

It's not against the law.

It doesn't mean I'm going
to take them to court,
unless they lie. Don't lie.

When I was really young,
I didn't know that like...

I was weird, I grew up
with hippies,

so I never knew like you know,
that I was bugging anybody.

So when I got crap for it,
it freaked me out.

I don't want to talk about it
because I'm so happy.

But what about
the death threats?

[Nick Broomfield] I wanted
to pursue the question further,

but the next thing I knew
Courtney was on stage.

There are so many people
in this room tonight

that have really taught me
a lot about integrity.

We live in a time when the
Bill of Rights

is being attacked a lot.

And precious few people,
especially from my generation,

are standing up to say stop.

All forms of media,
the lowest and the highest

have their absolute right

to their First Amendment
right as well.

[Nick Broomfield] I couldn't
actually quite believe

what I was hearing,

but I decided to do something
I'd never done before.

To ask a question in public

that I considered
well worth asking.

Unfortunately Al started
having a panic attack
behind the camera.

I don't want to appear
to be a party poop,

but in the interests
of free speech,

I wanted to ask
a couple of questions.

I think Hollywood always has
a problem distinguishing

reality from myth or image.

And unless it is considered
appropriate behavior

to threaten or cajole
or manipulate journalists,

esteemed journalists who have
written unflattering reviews,

I find it a strange decision
on the part of the ACLU

to choose Courtney Love as
a special guest here tonight.

To Courtney Love,

I would like to just ask
what you feel...

[man]
Get off the fucking stage!

[Nick Broomfield] That's the
President of the ACLU

you can hear shouting.

You were not invited. You're
not part of the program.
Get the fuck out.

[Nick Broomfield] He's a
good friend of Courtney's.

This clearly wasn't gonna
be my entree into the world
of after-dinner speakers.

But I also wondered
what kinds of things

might be done to try
and control this film
in the future,

and thought maybe I'd record
as a kind of epilogue
any such attempts.

But the person who
has used all this

so positively was Mary,
Kurt's Aunt.

We went to meet her
at Kurt's old primary school

in Aberdeen.

Is there anybody here
who does not know
who Kurt Cobain was?

Okay, I just have to ask.

[Nick Broomfield] Mary, using
Kurt's life as an example,

has devoted herself to
teaching in schools

about drugs and addiction.

She introduces herself with a
song dedicated to Kurt.

[Aunt Mary] There's a
message of life in this song.

It's a lot like you and me

when we're going through hard
things in our lives.

Losing Kurt was one
of the hardest things

I've ever been through
in my life.

I'm still going
through it, I still cry.

I still hurt from
time to time.

I miss him.

And all of us go through
painful things in our lives,

it's just a part of life.

Nobody is exempt from pain.

[Nick Broomfield]
I remembered this footage

that Mary had given me of Kurt.

[music playing]