Believe it or not, it’s been 24 years since Kurt Cobain took his own life at the height of his fame.
The iconic Nirvana frontman would have turned 51 today.
Millions of fans and the wife and daughter he left behind took to social media today to pay tribute to one of the most influential musicians in recent decades.
Frances Bean Cobain marked the occasion by posting the above photo of herself and her father.
Sadly, it’s one of very few of them together, as Kurt died when Frances was just 18 months old.
Frances honored her father last year, on what would have been Kurt’s 50th birthday.
She kept the tradition going today with a caption that spoke to her father’s snarky sense of humor:
“I hope they don’t have the internet wherever you are. I feel like that would be counterproductive. Regardless, Happy Birthday to an angel,” she wrote.
Last week, Frances revealed that she’s sober following a several-year battle substance abuse.
As the daughter of two parents who struggled with addiction, the odds were stacked against Frances in terms of falling prey to the disease herself.
So the fact that she was able to not only get clean but to share her story with fans is all the more impressive.
Kurt’s widow, Courtney Love, also paid tribute to the late rock star on social media.
“Happy birthday baby god I miss you,” she captioned the photo below.
The years since her husband’s death have often been tumultuous for Love, and she endured their own well-publicized battles with addiction.
Love has admitted to using heroin while pregnant and has been harshly criticized for some of her public behavior over the years, but against all odds, she seems to have turned things around recently.
She remains a popular cultural figure and has happily assisted in keeping Kurt’s legacy alive for a generation of new music fans.
As another birthday passes for a legend who would likely still have many years of touring and recording ahead of him if he’d only survived his youth, it’s hard not to dwell on what might have been.
But as teens who weren’t yet born when Cobain died continue to sport Nirvana t-shirts, and artists like Post Malone cover songs like “All Apologies” one can only be grateful for the tremendous body of work this troubled soul left behind.