Cobain mulled quitting before suicide

1.00pm

LONDON - Kurt Cobain was considering quitting his band Nirvana to work with his wife, singer Courtney Love, in the months before he shot himself, according to a previously unseen interview published to mark the 10th anniversary of his death today.

Nirvana's tragic frontman said he had a stronger musical affinity with Love's own band Hole than he had found with any other musicians, according to "Uncut" magazine, which published the interview.

"I'd like to (collaborate with Love)," he said in the interview eight months before his suicide. "But to tell you the truth, I would rather just quit my band and join Hole.

"When I have played music with them, there's a level of connection that's a little bit higher than with anyone else I ever played with," he added.

Nirvana's surviving founders, Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic, have had a turbulent relationship with Cobain's widow, clashing with her in court over the band's musical legacy.

Cobain, 27, killed himself with a shotgun in April 1994 in his Seattle home, where he was recovering from a drug and alcohol overdose.

With punk-influenced music and angst-ridden lyrics, Nirvana led the grunge movement that emerged from Seattle to become one of the most powerful forces in 1990s rock.

Cobain said in the interview, which was originally intended for French television, that he was thinking of moving away from his grunge roots towards acoustic music.

"It might be nice to start playing acoustic guitar and be thought of as a singer and a songwriter, rather than a grunge rocker," he said. "I could sit down on a chair and play acoustic guitar like Johnny Cash or something, and it won't be a big joke."