How R.E.M.’s Michael Stipe Tried To Save Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain During ‘Dark’ Time Before Singer’s Death

It’s been nearly 45 years since R.E.M. broke the mold in the music scene, becoming one of America’s most famous and celebrated rock bands.

Formed in Athens, Georgia, in 1980 by college dropouts Bill Berry, Peter Buck, Mike Mills, and Michael Stipe, the group created the ever-loving hit songs “Shiny Happy People” (1991), “Losing My Religion” (1991), “Everybody Hurts” (1992), and countless others that forever changed the music industry.

Just days ago, their track “I Believe,” originally appearing on their 1986 album Lifes Rich Pageant, resurfaced on the Internet, as the band released a lyric video encouraging fans to vote in the 2024 Presidential Election. It drew thousands of likes on YouTube and comments from people boasting that they will “never get tired of listening to R.E.M.”

Despite amicably partying ways in 2011, the foursome has left a lasting legacy through their music and memoirs — like the latest publication about their story, titled The Name Of The Band Is R.E.M. by music journalist and New York Times bestselling author Peter Ames Carlin, which drops on Tuesday.

In the book, which was obtained in advance by Wealth of Geeks, Carlin details the remarkable rise of the music group’s unexpected formation, including their friendship with another incredible talent, Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain.

The book particularly highlights Stipe’s close bond with Cobain and how the pair leaned on each other while navigating fame and their lives as two of the world’s biggest rockstars.

According to Carlin, Cobain turned to Stipe in 1994 for emotional support as he battled through “dark” times and struggled with his mental state. In February 1994, Cobain’s doctor recommended he take a break from his European tour as his depression and mental health worsened. During that time off, the “Smells Like Teen Spirit” singer attempted suicide in his Rome hotel room, overdosing on 60 Rohypnol and leaving behind a suicide note.

After spending 20 hours in a coma and experiencing respiratory failure, Cobain was released from the hospital. However, concerns for his well-being lingered from his bandmates, wife Courtney Love, and Stipe.

Stipe tried to lift his friend’s spirits by encouraging Cobain to work with him on a soundtrack he was producing and even bought him a ticket to join him in Athens, Georgia, Carlin recounts in the memoir. However, Cobain never boarded the flight. In March 1994, the “All Apologies” singer entered a rehab facility for his heroin addiction, though shortly after, he checked himself out and went off the grid. He was found in his Seattle, Washington home, on April 5, 1994, dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Cobain was 27 years old.

Stipe, 64, has been open about his and Cobain’s “very special” bond. “I really wished that he had lived,” the musician told Dazed magazine in November 2017 while looking back on R.E.M.’s 1992 record, Automatic for the People, which Cobain had praised. “Kurt was a great songwriter, and he was also in a steady transition. As an artist, he had reached the end of one thing and was ready to explore the next phase. But he didn’t make it, sadly.”

In 2014, Stipe received the honor of inducting Nirvana into the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame, where he recalled the first moment he met Cobain.

“That voice, that voice. Kurt, we miss you. I miss you,” the Georgia native told the crowd at the ceremony. “He was late. It was in Krist’s basement in Seattle — he and Courtney had moved into the house next door to my former guitar player, Peter Buck… The first time I looked into his eyes, I just went, ‘I get it. He is all that. He is a very special person.'”