Fender Stratocaster Electric Guitar Body Fragments Smashed by Kurt Cobain at the Bosnian Rape Relief Concert, at Cow Palace, San Francisco, CA, April 9, 1992

This is the remains of a Fender Stratocaster electric guitar body that was played and smashed by Kurt Cobain (1967 – 1994) of the musical band Nirvana between June 26 and June 30, 1992, likely first during the recording of the album Nevermind, then rebuilt by Earnie Bailey in early 1992, and smashed one last time in late June 1992. 

With the release of their sophomore album, Nevermind, on September 24, 1991, and the constant MTV rotation of the single “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” Nirvana became the face of the once underground genre of Grunge and suddenly made Seattle and the Pacific Northwest the epicenter of popular music culture in the early 1990s. By the end of 1991, Nevermind was selling over 400,000 copies per week and by January 1992, the album was number one on the Billboard 200 Top Albums chart. Nirvana’s success paved the way for bands like Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains, Screaming Trees, and others who soon followed. By all accounts, 1992 was the year of Grunge, and that year Nirvana undertook two tours; Cobain married Courtney Love (b.1964) of the band Hole; Cobain’s and Love’s daughter, Frances Bean, was born; and the band headlined the Reading Festival. Despite difficulties with drug use, Cobain continued to perform throughout 1993 and the beginning of 1994, when Nirvana had to cut their European tour short due to his overdose in Rome, Italy. On April 8, 1994, Kurt Cobain was found in his Seattle home, dead by suicide. He was 27 years old.  

Despite his tragic death which lead to Nirvana disbanding, Nirvana and the Grunge genre have made an indelible mark on popular music that resonates to this day.