Kurt Cobain

I was a 90s kid, and for a brief time the music that was popular was also really, really good. Kurt Cobain eschewed traditional masculinity and led a counterculture that hadn't asked for a leader - whether he wanted to or not.

At 13, I had panhandled enough money to eat lunch with my friends at J. Pepe's in Arlington, Texas, right next door to Six Flags. We ate there because it was cheaper than the food in the park. Because we were perpetually broke and notoriously bad tippers, it got to the point where only a single waiter would wait on us. We had a system: we'd play a specific song on the jukebox, he'd hear it, and come out to take our order.

I was there the day Kurt Loader came on the TV and told us Kurt Cobain was dead.

Kurt Cobain is forever tied up in my memory with Six Flags, learning guitar, and J. Pepe's.

"Come as You Are" was the first song I learned to play. I had just gotten my guitar the Christmas before.