Kurt Cobain, the troubled but influential leader of grunge legend Nirvana took his own life 17 years ago Tuesday in his home in Seattle. He was 27 years old.

Found by an electrician several days after the suicide, Cobain is survived by his flamboyant rocker wife Courtney Love and their pair's young daughter Frances Bean.
"The fact is, I can’t fool you, any one of you. It simply isn’t fair to you or me," Cobain wrote in the handwritten suicide note that was found near his body. "The worst crime I can think of would be to rip people off by faking it and pretending as if I’m having 100% fun."

Nirvana only had three studio albums before Cobain died. The trio's debut, "Bleach," was released through the influential Seattle indie label Subpop in 1989, in what would be the dawn of the grunge era.

After the New York City art-punk group Sonic Youth was signed to Geffen in 1990, the band encouraged the major label to sign Nirvana. "Nevermind" was released in 1991 with new drummer Dave Grohl providing the punishing foundation for the loud-quiet-loud style of Cobain's haunting arrangements, epitomized in their biggest hit, "Smells Like Teen Spirit" which topped the Billboard charts in January 1992.

Cobain, unfortunately, was never comfortable in the spotlight, and definitely ill-at-ease with the MTV-fueled fame. In his collected diary entries titled "Journals" released in 2002, the depressed heroin addict shed a light on his self-loathing and success. "I made about 5 million dollars last year," Cobain wrote, "ill [sic] be able to sell my untalented, very ungenious ass for years based on my cult status."

Although Cobain never really cashed in on his cult status, in 2006 his widow Courtney Love Cobain sold a 25% stake in Nirvana's song catalog to a New York publishing company in a deal that helped his estate reap approximately $50 million from October 2005 through October 2006.
Drugs were prevalent in Cobain's life and lyrics, but just a few years before his death the rock star sat down with longtime Times music critic Robert Hilburn in the singer's Hollywood Hills home and said that being a father trumped being high.

"I knew that when I had a child, I'd be overwhelmed and it's true," a 25-year-old Cobain told Hilburn in 1992 about Frances. "I can't tell you how much my attitude has changed since we've got Frances. Holding my baby is the best drug in the world."

Unfortunately Cobain's demons, which stemmed from an unhappy childhood and a lifelong struggle with stomach pains, got the best of him and he shot himself in his home. The Seattle Times ran a photo of the bloody scene and later explained why they published the gory image.

In the column titled "Photo Of Death Showed Grim Reality Of Choice Cobain Made On Life," Seattle Times editor Michael R. Fancher explained that although some fans objected to the use of the newspaper's sad photo, it was important to publish.

"In some ways the official conversation about whether to run the photo might have been secondary to the testimonial that had taken place around the photo desk," Francher wrote in 1994. "The picture has an arresting quality that says, 'This is the truth. It isn't pleasant, but this is what happened.'"

Cobain would have been 44 years old this year.