Kurt Cobain was 'desperate' for fame, says Courtney Love

Kurt Cobain was so eager for fame that he wrote to every major record label asking to be signed, Courtney Love says in a new TV show. "He was desperate to to be the biggest rock star in the world," Love says in the new National Geographic miniseries The '90s: The Last Great Decade.

The Nirvana frontman always portrayed himself as someone uninterested in fame – and, indeed, when Nirvana became worldwide stars in the wake of Smells Like Teen Spirit, he found his sudden celebrity impossible to deal with, eventually killing himself in April 1994.

In the programme, footage shows Cobain saying: "I'm too stubborn to allow myself to ever compromise our music or turn us into big rock stars. I just don't feel like that."

Even after Nirvana signed to Geffen Records, Cobain was keen to distance the band from the mainstream, and to mock their status. The classic Nirvana T-shirt slogan was changed from "Fufge Packin Crack Smokin Devil Worshippin Mother Fucker" to "Flower Sniffin Kitty Pettin Baby Kissin Corporate Rock Whores". Cobain made a point of championing little known indie groups, frequently taking them on tour or talking about them in interviews.

However, Love says, he took a less purist line in private. "He wrote to every major [and] minor label, 'We’ll pay. Let us be on your label.' He was desperate to be the biggest rock star in the world. But he made it look like it was thrust upon him," she says in the National Geographic series.