Frances Bean Cobain says America should overcome its mental health taboo
Frances Bean Cobain, daughter of late rocker Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love, says that the U.S. should get over its mental health and addiction taboo. She was speaking in Ireland on Tuesday during the launch of a new exhibition about her father. The Nirvana frontman died by suicide at age 27 in 1994 after struggling with heroin addiction.
Frances Bean Cobain says that part of the problem is society's unwillingness to talk openly about mental health. She told Reuters, "There is an association that is shameful and it shouldn't be."
She has also struggled with addiction herself. "It's taboo ... despite the fact that it is present in our society every single day. And I think that in Europe it is a little less taboo, I think in America it is very, very frowned upon," she said.
She also said that she believes her father would have taken a stand against the current political climate in the U.S. She said, "The violation of basic human rights that seems to be a prevalent them in our country right now ... I would like to believe that Kurt wouldn't have stood for that or accepted that."
Her father's sketches, items of clothing, a car and other personal belongings are currently featured in an exhibit at the Museum of Style Icons in Newbridge, Ireland, called "Growing Up Kurt Cobain." Kurt Cobain's sister, Kim, and mother, Wendy O'Connor, also attended the opening of the exhibition.
The exhibit includes the striped green sweater he wore in the 1991 video for "Smells Like Teen Spirit" and his MTV Video Music Award for the same song, as well as his childhood drawings and 1965 Dodge Dart car.