Neil Young began his musical career in the early 1960s, becoming part of a major revolution in rock and folk music. He never cared about following trends or being commercially popular. Young always remained true to his songwriting and kept an eye on what new bands were doing. In the 1990s, for example, he was quite aware of the grunge movement, which some even said he was the godfather of. Over the decades, he has spoken about many of those bands, including Nirvana and their late frontman Kurt Cobain. What is Neil Young's opinion on Nirvana and Kurt Cobain "He really, really inspired me. He was so great. Wonderful. One of the best, but more than that. Kurt was one of the absolute best of all time for me," Neil Young told Mojo in 1995. The last phrase of the final note left by the Nirvana frontman in 1994 was: “It’s better to burn out than to fade away,” a direct reference to Neil Young’s famous track “Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black).” As the Folk legend revealed in his autobiography "Waging Heavy Peace", he was devastated when he learned that the phrase was included in Cobain’s final message. "He had been taking a lot of heat for canceling some shows. I, coincidentally, had been trying to reach him through our offices to tell him that I thought he was great and he should do exactly what he thought he should do and fuck everybody else." He continued: "He was not just an entertainer; he was an artist and songwriter. There is a big difference. I knew him and recognized him for who he was. I wanted to talk to him. Tell him only to play when he felt like it. And that would be good enough. Be true. So when he died and left that note, it struck a deep chord inside of me. It fucked with me. I wrote some music for that feeling: 'Sleeps with Angels,' Neil Young said in his book. Kurt Cobain died at the age of 27 on April 5, 1994. The Neil Young album "Sleep With Angels" was released about three months later with the title-track which was inspired by Cobain's tragic end. "He sleeps with angels (Too soon), he's always on someone's mind. He sleeps with angels (Too late), He sleeps with angels (Too soon)", the lyrics say. Young related In 1995, Neil Young was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame by Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder. During the end of his speech, Young got emotional mentioning Cobain, saying: "There's a lot of great music out there today. I'm proud to be a part of it. I'm really happy there are so many great bands out there. I'd like to thank Kurt Cobain for giving me the inspiration to renew my commitments," he said. Neil Young said Kurt Cobain was a real artist https://youtu.be/cMmT6JN5Pqc?si=fJkZx2szQ2f84_q0&t=576 When promoting "Sleep With Angels", Neil talked with Spin magazine about the Nirvana leader and explained why he believed he was a real performer, something which he believes is rare. "I really could hear his music. There's not that many absolutely real performers. In that sense, he was a gem. He was bothered by the fact that he would end up following schedules. Have to go on when he didn't feel like it, and be faking, and that would be very hard for him because of his commitment." The paradox of music is that it's really meant to be played when you feel like playing it. It's not meant to be played like a job. The purest essence of music is an expression, it should be done like a painter. You don't paint when the audience comes in and pays their quarter. I don't think he did a good job of dealing with it. But it's understandable, considering how real he was," Neil Young said. Two decades earlier, Neil Young had lost someone in a similar way. His former Crazy Horse bandmate Danny Whitten, and he felt responsible for it for many years. Whitten had been a member of the band from 1968 until 1971, when he was fired by Talbot and Molina due to his addiction. In 1972, Neil Young invited him to join The Stray Gators, the band with whom he recorded Harvest. Whitten showed up for rehearsals in San Francisco, but he was not in sync with the rest of the group because he was still struggling with his addiction. So Young told him it was not working and sent him back to Los Angeles, where he tragically died later that same day at the age of 29. How the pressures of the modern Rock Scene caused tragedies tike this according to Young During his conversation with Mojo while promoting the "Sleeps with Angels" album, Young talked about how the pressures of the modern Rock and Roll scene led to tragedies like the one involving Kurt. In his view, during the 60s fame and success came more slowly, allowing artists to get used to it and deal with it more effectively. (...) Well, the problems with celebrity and Rock N' Roll start with the fact that nowadays it gets way too big too fast. Back in the '50s and '60s, rock'n'roll was 'big' but it was only 'big' to people who cared about it. Now it's big to people who don't care about it. So they can't begin to understand it." "They just make ill-informed judgements on performers without first comprehending why or what it was that made the person famous in the first place. In the '60s there was a bond between the artists and the audience. It's harder to see now because so much these days is simply down to image projection. But today's pessimistic bands have a vision and an attitude that's unified their generation just like the 'peace and love' groups helped unify the '60s generation," Neil Young said. Nirvana was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2014 by R.E.M's frontman Michael Stipe.The post Neil Young’s opinion on Nirvana and Kurt Cobain appeared first on Rock and Roll Garage.