Frances Bean Cobain opens up about rocker dad Kurt Cobain - Action News
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Frances Bean Cobain opens up about rocker dad Kurt Cobain

Frances Bean Cobain opens up about her famous father, the late Nirvana rocker Kurt Cobain, and what it was like to make a film about his short but legendary life.

'I don't really like Nirvana,' admits the late singer's daughter, executive producer of Montage of Heck

Frances Bean Cobain, left, daughter of Kurt Cobain and executive producer of the documentary Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck, is the only child of the rocker and his widow, singer and actress Courtney Love, right. They're shown at the film premiere during the 2015 Sundance Film Festival on Jan. 24 in Utah. (Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP)

Frances Bean Cobainsays fame helped pushher rock star father, the lateKurt Cobain, into taking his own life at the height of his success asfrontmanof1990sgrunge outfit Nirvana.

"My dad was exceptionally ambitious. But he had a lot thrown on him," the 22-year-old artist told Rolling Stone magazine.

"He wanted his band to be successful. But he didn't want to be the f--king voice of a generation," said Cobain,who served as the executive producer of Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck, the first authorized documentary about the late rocker,who committed suicide 21years agoat age 27.

Montage of Heckmakes its Canadian premiere at Toronto's Hot Docs festival later this month,before airing onHBO on May 4.

Growing up in the glare

In the exclusive interview, published Wednesdayby Rolling Stone on the 21stanniversary ofCobain's death, Frances Bean Cobain describes growing up under the glare of her father's fame.

She was just 20 months old when he took a massive dose of heroin andshothimself with a 20-gauge shotgun on April 8, 1994.

Kurt Cobain was with wife Courtney Love, holding their daughter Frances Bean Cobain, at the MTV Music Awards show in September 1992 in Los Angeles. Frances Bean Cobain is executive producer of a documentary about her late father. (Reuters)
"I was around 15 when I realized he was inescapable," said Cobain,the only child of the rocker,and former Hole singer Courtney Love.

"Even if I was in a car and had the radio on, there's my dad. He's larger than lifeand our culture is obsessed with dead musicians. We love to put them on a pedestal."

"If Kurt had just been another guy who abandoned his family in the most awful way possible," Cobainsaid, hinting at the anger andheartbreak she must have felt growing up without him.

"But he wasn't," she continued."He inspired people to put him on a pedestal, to become St. Kurt."

Cobain saysMontage of Heck, written anddirected byBrettMorgen,will give the public a chance to get to know the man behind the ill-fated music legend, who died at the height of his career.

"It's the closest thing to having Kurt tell his own story in his own words by his own esthetic, his own perception of the world. It paints a portrait of a man attempting to cope with being a human."

Co-produced by HBO Documentary Films,Montage of Heckis the first documentary made with the co-operation of Cobain's family.

It draws on home movies, journals and other personal archives. It alsofeatures Nirvana songs and performances, and previously unheard Cobain originals.

Can't see the video? Watch it here.

Unofficial Gen-X spokesman

Led byKurt Cobain,bassist Krist Novoselic and drummerDave Grohl, Nirvana became one of the leading sounds coming out of Seattle's grunge rock scene in the late 1980s and '90s.

Kurt Cobain of Nirvana during the taping of MTV Unplugged.
Kurt Cobain of Nirvana during a 1993 taping of MTV Unplugged at Sony Studios in New York City. Cobain was at the height of his career when he committed suicide in 1994. (Frank Micelotta/Getty Images)
The band hit the mainstreamwith Smells Like TeenSpirit. The alternative,punk rock-inspired anthem was the lead single from the 1991 album Nevermind, and it propelled the Aberdeen, Wash., band to the top of the charts.

With his stringy blondlocks, ripped jeans withChuck Taylor sneakersand low-key demeanour,Kurtbecame the unofficialspokesman of Generation X.

Despite her father's indisputable influence on music,Frances Bean Cobain admits she's not really a fan.

"I don't really like Nirvana that much," Cobain said grinning. "Sorry, promotional people, Universal. I'm more into Mercury Rev, Oasis, Brian Jonestown Massacre."

With files from The Associated Press