The journalist Laurent-David Samama presents Monday in the program "Musique!"

his new book, "Kurt", dedicated to the singer of Nirvana who died in 1994. He reminds Emilie Mazoyer of the commitment, sometimes forgotten today, of the figurehead of grunge music in favor of minority rights .

INTERVIEW

"God is gay" tags on the walls of the small American town of Aberdeen.

This is the first trace of the commitment Kurt Cobain left, long before he became a world teen star in the early 1990s and the face of grunge music.

Journalist Laurent-David Samama recalls the commitment of the singer of Nirvana, on the occasion of his invitation to Emilie Mazoyer 

Musique's program!

to present his book titled Kurt.

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In this well-documented fiction, the author imagines the video message that Kurt Cobain could have left before committing suicide on April 5, 1994. But it is a very real political commitment that Laurent-David Samama recounts.

According to him, it is born in the thought of the singer of Nirvana in opposition to his background of origin.

"He was fascinated by David Bowie, Kiss and Marc Bolan"

"Kurt Cobain had a difficult childhood. He had a complicated relationship with his father. He had a question very early on about the genre, on what he was, on whom he liked and who he didn't like" , explains the journalist.

"He tagged 'God is gay' on the walls of his hometown in the northwestern United States."

A corner of "white trash" America which was then taking the full brunt of the economic and social crisis.

Kurt Cobain's questions and egalitarian commitment are also born thanks to his musical icons.

"He was fascinated by David Bowie, John Lennon, Kiss, Marc Bolan ... All these rock stars who played with their image, who also sometimes disguised themselves, and who had this a little fun thing of confusing the tracks, in their art and in their being ", analyzes Laurent-David Samama.

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"Open your ears, it's Kurt": the forgotten interview with the leader of Nirvana

Support for the group of musicians

Rather silent in an interview, Kurt Cobain never hesitates, as soon as he has the opportunity, to castigate homophobes and sexists.

He also helps the "riot grrrl" music scene to emerge with the general public.

"He helped Hole, because it is the group of his dear and tender Courtney Love, but also the Breeders, or even L7, which is a rather incredible group," recalls the journalist.

For him, grunge music and riot grrl groups come from "the counterculture of an America on the fringes" which was built in opposition to the conservative United States of George Bush Sr..

"It's a kind of slap in the face of Puritan America, as we see it a little too much," he adds.

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1994, disappearance of Kurt Cobain

"Nirvana's music was really political music" summarizes Laurent-David Samama, for whom Kurt Cobain's commitment sometimes disappears behind the raw image sent back by grunge.

"We are rediscovering it through the struggles and fights we are waging now. But Kurt Cobain was someone who was in favor of gay rights, who was in favor of women's rights and who fought firmly", supports the journalist.

"He wasn't giving in to that."