Where Are They Now? Nirvana

It’s amazing what lives on. As rocker and Hole frontwoman Courtney Love said in a recent interview on the WTF with Marc Maron podcast, Kurt Cobain only lived 27 years. And people, some 30 years since his passing, continue to talk about him.

For Cobain, who died on April 5, 1994, his combination of supreme songwriting, gravelly screaming voice, handsome looks, and bad boy vibes make him so.

But after Cobain died, what happened? Where did the remaining band members go and where are they now?

Let’s dive in.

Dave Grohl

After Cobain’s death, Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl looked to music for peace. Not long after Nirvana broke up, Grohl went through his own bad breakup. He’d married Jennifer Leigh Youngblood in 1994 and the two split in 1997. Needless to say, Grohl was in search of something.

[RELAATED: The Story Behind the Tragic Death of Kurt Cobain]

He looked for it and found it in music. Grohl started his Foo Fighters project around the time of his first marriage and around the time Cobain died. Foo Fighters was initially a solo project for Grohl, who put out the band’s first album in 1995. On it, he played all the instruments. But the project grew with the success of the self-titled record. And Grohl recruited a band.

Over the years, Foo Fighters, to Grohl’s surprise, became one of the biggest rock bands. But it all started from humble beginnings. Grohl, who was known as merely the drummer for Nirvana and completely in Cobain’s shadow (Grohl has even joked about thinking Cobain was going to fire him after the band’s breakout album, Nevermind), was not considered a frontman. It took a breathtaking appearance on Howard Stern’s radio show to help that.

It’s hard to believe now after so many years of Grohl in the spotlight with a guitar and microphone. But he was not that type in his early years. Born in Ohio in 1969, Grohl played in bands and traveled the country as a young person before landing a successful audition with Nirvana. And since the Foos have taken off, Grohl has become a voice of reason in pop culture and a best-selling author.

Sadly, his story more recently, includes more band tragedy. In the spring of 2022, Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins died of a drug overdose while the band was touring South America. Grohl and the Foos set up two prominent tribute shows for Hawkins, who was also the lead singer of the rock band, NHC. In the wake of his passing, the Foo Fighters have announced a new album for later this year.

Grohl keeps soldiering on.

Krist Novoselic

The tall bassist for Cobain, Krist Novoselic has enjoyed a lower profile life in the wake of Nirvana’s disbandment. Novoselic, who was a longtime friend of Cobain’s before they even cut a song in a recording studio, has been part of several musical projects since Nirvana but none as marquee-worthy as the Foo Fighters.

In recent years, Novoselic began recording and releasing songs with a new project, Giants in the Trees. That band released the self-titled album in 2017 and another, Volume 2, in 2019. He is also an environmentalist and has been politically active in Washington. Novoselic received backlash when he posted about Donald Trump on social media, applauding the former President in the wake of George Floyd’s murder.

[RELATED: Dave Grohl Was “Afraid” to Write About Kurt Cobain]

Over the years, Novoselic has enjoyed smaller roles in works like the movie World’s Greatest Dad, starring Robin Williams, in which Novoselic plays a newspaper vendor. He’s also performed on big stages with Grohl and collaborated with the former Nirvana drummer and Beatle Paul McCartney on the Grammy Award-winning song “Cut Me Some Slack.”

In 2022, new music sprouted up from Novoselic and Soundgarden members guitarist Kim Thayil and drummer Matt Cameron via a new band called 3rd Street, produced by The Grungefather Jack Endino.

These days, Novoselic said he is also working on an Environmental Justice degree.

Courtney Love and Frances Bean Cobain

While of course not in Nirvana, Cobain was survived by his wife Courtney Love, and daughter Frances Bean Cobain.

For more on Courtney and Frances Bean, read here and here.

Photo by Jason LaVeris/FilmMagic