Did Kurt Cobain quote Neil Young in his suicide note?
Apparently, Neil Young had been trying to reach Cobain by telephone in the days before his suicide to no avail. But yes, Kurt Cobain quoted “It’s better to burn out, than to fade away” in his suicide note, citing Young’s lyric as artistic justification for ending his inconsolable anguish. Young was shaken to the bone. Always an advocate of allowing the listener his or her own individual path through a record, he was so devastated by Cobain’s personal reaction to a song that was basically written as a celebration of Punk that he was impelled to record the ‘Sleeps With Angels’ album in lament.” During Neil Young’s induction speech into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame on January 13, 1995, Young choked up and concluded by thanking Cobain for “all of the inspiration”.
