Kurt Cobain: A Rock Icon by the Numbers

Kurt Cobain was a true rock star for three years, and 18 trips through the calendar after his death, we remember the shocking news and still feel his ground-shifting impact on music. Those are perhaps the two most important, telling numbers, but here are some more facts and figures that help put his career and legacy in context.

Cobain at 45: Looking Back at the Frontman’s Life and Legacy

2/20/1967: Cobain’s birthday.

9: Cobain’s age when his parents divorced, setting in motion a depression and isolation that would mark the rest of his life.

1987: The year Nirvana formed in Washington state.

12: The number of people at Nirvana’s first show.

10: The number of times their seminal album Nevermind went platinum, equaling 10 million albums sold.

75 million: Number of albums sold worldwide.

9: Number of times Cobain shouts “A denial!” at the end of “Smells Like Teen Spirit.”

4: Number of Nirvana’s chart-topping albums in the U.S.: Nevermind, In Utero, MTV Unplugged in New York and From the Muddy Banks of the Wishkah.

253: Weeks Nevermind spent on the Billboard 200.

6: Grammy nominations for the band.

0: Grammys won by Nirvana while Cobain was alive; they won best live album for Unplugged in New York in 1996, nearly two years after his death.

1/12/1990: Cobain meets Courtney Love.

1991: Cobain and Love began dating.

8/18/1992: Frances Bean, Cobain’s daughter with Love, is born.

9/25/1993: Nirvana appears as the musical guest on Saturday Night Live.

$50 million: The estimated annual income of his estate, as of 2007.

2005: Year Nevermind was added to the Library of Congress.

4/5/1994: Estimated date Cobain committed suicide.