Michael Stipe Tried To Prevent Kurt Cobain’s Suicide

06 April 2009

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R.E.M frontman Michael Stipe has revealed that he desperately tried to convince Kurt Cobain not to take his own life just days before his death.

The rocker claims to have spoken to the Nirvana frontman, who was one of his close friends, in early 1994, after realising that Cobain had plummeted into a pit of despair.

He tried to convince Cobain to join him in Georgia for a joint recording session in a frantic bid to save the Smells Like Teen Spirit hitmaker, but Cobain did not follow the offer through, and shot himself in the head at his Seattle, Washington home weeks later on April 5 1994 - 15 years ago today.

Stipe says, "We talked about collaborating. It was really in the last days of his life. In an attempt to pull him out of the headspace that he was in in Seattle, in his house, all alone - this is the last weeks - I created a project that he had to fly to Georgia to work with me on, and we had a deadline and blah blah blah.

"It was really just an attempt to pull him out of the headspace that he was in, and it didn't work. Sadly."

FemaleFirst - Ruth Harrison