Serving The Servant: Remembering Kurt Cobain

In early 1991, seasoned music manager Danny Goldberg took on Nirvana, a critically acclaimed new band emerging from Seattle's underground music scene. Little did he know that the band's frontman, Kurt Cobain, would soon become a pop-culture icon with a legacy arguably on par with John Lennon, Michael Jackson, or Elvis Presley. Danny worked closely with Kurt from 1990 to 1994, a period that proved to be the most impactful of Kurt's life.

This pivotal time saw the stratospheric success of Nevermind propel Nirvana into the world's most successful rock band, simultaneously making punk and grunge household names. Kurt met and married the brilliant but volatile Courtney Love, their relationship swiftly becoming a magnet for critics. Their daughter, Frances Bean, was born, and tragically, Kurt's very public battles with addiction culminated in a devastating suicide that profoundly altered the course of rock history. Throughout this tumultuous period, Danny remained by Kurt's side as both manager and close friend.

Drawing on Danny's personal recollections of Kurt, previously unreleased files, and exclusive interviews with, among others, Kurt's close family, friends, and former bandmates, Serving the Servant casts an entirely new light on these crucial years. Moving beyond the common obsession with the angst and depression that seemingly defined Kurt, this book explores his undeniable brilliance in every facet of rock and roll, his inherent compassion, his fierce ambition, and the enduring legacy he created – one that has resonated for decades longer than his career itself. Danny Goldberg delves into what it is about Kurt Cobain that continues to connect with audiences today, even a generation who weren't alive until after his death. In doing so, he provides a portrait of an icon unlike any that has come before.

Insightful, passionate, and clear-eyed, Goldberg's account of his personal and professional relationship with Kurt Cobain is required reading. It is essentially the story of two men, a generation apart, who became unexpected friends and a contemplative requiem to losing someone you love who immeasurably touched the entire planet with a singular magic. ― THURSTON MOORE, SONIC YOUTH

As soon as I started reading , I got sucked in, and I couldn't put it down... any music fan should want this book. Any Nirvana fan "must" have this book. ― JOAN JETT

Serving The Servant is a clear, straightforward look into a gifted artist's struggle to balance integrity with ambition. Danny Goldberg shows us how Cobain dealt with sudden, massive acclaim while continuing to hone his unique creative vision. There has been a lot of mythologizing and deification of Cobain, but Goldberg humanizes him. ― JULIANA HATFIELD

There have been many portraits of Kurt Cobain, but none as warm and clear-eyed as this one. Danny Goldberg has always been one of my favorite observer/journalist/architects of popular culture. It's no surprise that his deeply personal memoir does what Cobain's best work does. It burrows in deep, and sticks around. Add this to the rich sonic legacy of Nirvana - Goldberg's soulful account of Cobain as a close friend, gone way too soon, yet vividly alive on every page of this remarkable book. ― CAMERON CROWE

People always ask, "What was Kurt really like?" That's probably not a question that any one person can answer about anybody, but anyone who knew Kurt will tell you that this book sends you vividly back to that person, in that time, at those places. Serving the Servant contributes an invaluable piece to a complicated collage. ― MICHAEL AZERRAD, author of Come as You Are

A deeply honest book that provides crucial insight into a brilliant life and a death that broke all of our hearts. ― ANN POWERS, author of Good Booty

Goldberg's portrait of Cobain is loving, intimate, and three-dimensional. We feel the pain of Cobain's loss anew, palpably - as we do the indelible power of the great gift of his music. ― ANTHONY DECURTIS, author of Lou Reed