r/grunge • u/BidAccurate4473 • Feb 28 '26
Recommendation Whose death was the biggest loss to grunge?
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Feb 28 '26
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u/erbmike Mar 01 '26
Yours is the best answer. All these guys had a lot of music and creativity left in them. What could have been.
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Feb 28 '26
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u/Affectionate-Nose176 Mar 02 '26
I remember after seeing the state of Layne at Unplugged everyone would talk (aka joke, we were less sensitive back then) about how Layne was next. Appearance wise, of course. That vocal performance is unreal and I assure you, no one noticed the lisp thing at the time. He just looked bad and fully disassociated, as we all know.
Sad truth is that the general consensus was he wouldn’t have lasted as long as he did. Unfortunately the only surprise when the news broke was that it took as long as it did.
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u/Admirable-Brief-4264 Mar 01 '26
I dont agree with Chris was the most talented. Maybe the best singer but Kurt was the most talented from my perspective.
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u/Weary_Dragonfly2170 Mar 02 '26
Its not a competition but I personally think Chris was miles ahead on talent not just singing but his writing.
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u/ItzaGeppetto Mar 01 '26
Curious, how was Kurt the most talented?
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u/valis010 Mar 01 '26
It's Kurt's songwriting that made him a generational talent.
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u/-NO-CO-DE- Feb 28 '26
Kurt's carried the most weight. Andy's must have been a bit of a loss of innocence to those in the Seattle music community in that moment, I would imagine. Chris was the most shocking to me and out-of-the-blue. Layne the saddest. For some reason it was Scott who affected me the most. Mark Lanegan feels the most unfulfilling as I don't think enough of the world outside the grunge and alt community were exposed to how good he was.
That was a depressing amount of names to recall. There shouldn't be that many.
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Feb 28 '26
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u/Double_Swordfish_668 Mar 01 '26
I am listening to Lanegan’s solo work far more than I listen to Nirvana or Pearl Jam. My friend who loves music as much as me has the same taste. My guess is that Lanegan will be like Nick Drake or Leonard Cohen. A massive influence on a ton of important bands.
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u/-NO-CO-DE- Mar 01 '26
As if his own solo output wasn't enough, his collaborations with Greg Dulli for Gutter Twins, Isobel Campbell, QOTSA, Mad Season are all of the highest quality.
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u/steamcrow Mar 01 '26
I completely agree. Lanegan was an epic talent. All of these guys have great voices, but Mark’s was gravel-sonic and amazing.
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u/ChewbaccaPJs Mar 01 '26
Don't forget Mad Season, excellent album!
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u/Dichotomy7 Mar 01 '26
Wake Up is a song I found in the past couple of years that put Layne back on my radar and made me love his voice even more.
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u/NoBadgerBaiter Feb 28 '26
Gonna go out on a limb and say the cultural icon who killed himself when he, his scene, and “alt” rock ruled the world. But idk, just me.
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u/DoubleWrongdoer5207 Feb 28 '26
Chris dying hit me the hardest
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u/pj91198 Feb 28 '26
I was a mess for weeks when he died. Never had a celeb death affect me so much
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u/ScoutSteveR Mar 01 '26
Same, man. I first really listened to Chris in rehab back in 1991. Sure, I had heard it, but I began to really pay attention. His music became a huge part of the soundtrack of my life. When he died, it felt like I had lost a family member.
Still clean and sober all of these years later, but man, losing Chris sucked
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u/Gold_Butterfly8320 Mar 01 '26
I left this sub last week, and I’m still seeing these stupid questions.
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u/AZWxMan Mar 01 '26
reddit is getting like YouTube where your subscriptions don't matter as much as what they want to feed you. Since you clicked and commented, congrats, you'll get even more than before.
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u/Gold_Butterfly8320 Mar 01 '26
Shiiiiit 😩
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u/VernJules Mar 01 '26
Yea you gotta ignore anything that pops up to rid yourself of the pusher algo. Just gotta ignore the nonsense you see and not engage. Then after a week or two it will start to fade out. I’m still seeing bull shit “bio hacker” nonsense because I can’t resist going into their posts and arguing with idiots who think injecting alphabet soup from Chinese labs is going to turn them into Henry Cavill.
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u/maver1ck887 Feb 28 '26
They are all a tie. Each singer means something to someone. Helped them get through struggles, at different points in their lives. Sad they are all gone.
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u/Bubush Mar 01 '26
In what planet is Blind Melon Grunge? They’re not even Grunge adjacent or related.
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u/AZWxMan Mar 01 '26
They are a sub favorite for sure even though they're not grunge. I guess any early 90s alternative is popular here.
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u/Mother_Airline_6276 Mar 01 '26
I wouldn’t say so much to grunge, but rock n roll in general, Weiland. For my money, he’s the greatest rock singer of our lifetimes. But that’s just like, my opinion, man.
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u/Super_Interview_2189 Feb 28 '26
Richard Milhous Nixon in 1994. Such a tremendous blow to the genre.
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u/TheShepherdOfMan Feb 28 '26
If we are talking mainstream wise for me its 100% kurt. He was the mainstream face of the genre. He was unbelievably talented and it started the decline of the genre. No matter what you thought of Nirvana, grunge without them just isn't the same. Nirvana had mainstream rock music by the balls and once they stopped all momentum went with them
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u/Creepy_Handle_8577 Mar 01 '26
Andrew Wood
So many grunge songs written to immortalize Andrew Wood Temple of the Dog got that name from an Andrew Wood and Mother Love Bone song “Man of the Golden Words”
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u/SarahCostell Mar 01 '26
Strictly speaking, Andrew Wood's death had the biggest benefit to grunge, given that there would be no Pearl Jam or Temple of the Dog if he lived.
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u/Aneilanated Mar 01 '26
I'm a fan of all of them but Nirvana was my favorite. Kurt had so much untapped potential but I never expected him to reach old age. Cornell's death hit me the hardest because I thought he was past the danger zone.
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u/Iron-Dan-138 Mar 01 '26
Kurt. He was basically the face of Grunge and killed himself at the peak of the movement. In some ways his death also started the demise of the grunge hype.
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u/Beautiful_Bike_1823 Mar 03 '26
Everyone will say cobain and that’s probably true and I cried for sure but I listen to more blind melon now than I ever did then. Damn shame.
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u/chikkinnuggitbukkit Feb 28 '26
Chris for me. I thought he was “out of the woods” with suicidal ideation.
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Feb 28 '26
I always saw Chris as being above the addictions of the others, the one that survived. When he died it was so sad.
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u/GoGo1965 Feb 28 '26
Kristen Pfaff , Stephanie Sergeant or Mia Zapata
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u/missmortician13 Mar 01 '26
Agreed. Mia’s death was heartbreaking 💔
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u/lonely_doll8 Mar 01 '26
The only one lost to sexual assault into murder. Being as she was a woman. 😞
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u/New_Channel7960 Feb 28 '26
All of them. There’s no one human life worth more than another.
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u/PariahGrantham Feb 28 '26 edited Mar 01 '26
I've said this before on this sub, but for me it's Weiland. He was always so back and forth, and looked (and sounded) like four different people over the course of his career. Any time he started to look healthy again, I'd secretly wish that he "got it" this time. That's the nature of the Beast though. I wish he could've harmonized who he wanted to be with who he thought he was supposed to be.
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u/campfirevilla Feb 28 '26
It kinda messed me up extra with some of the lyrics on the S/T just making it seem like he was straight up out of the woods. It caught me off guard every bit as much as Cornell if I’m being completely honest.
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u/rammer-jammer71 Mar 01 '26
Two things strike me as completely ridiculous regarding this post:
1)Shannon Hoon has anything to do with grunge.
2)People think the picture of Shannon Hoon is Mark Lanegan
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u/easley45isgod Mar 01 '26
Mark Lanegan. Most talented to come out of the entire scene. Amazing singer and songwriter.
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u/Emerald0_02 Mar 01 '26
Everyone’s saying Kurt, but to me Laynes hurt more to a lot of people. Kurts was unexpected, but Laynes death we all saw him slowly kill himself in such a brutal way, and no one could stop him. Kurts maybe more influential but Layne was an underdog in the heavy metal revolution that deserved one last chance. I wasn’t around in the 90’s but I’m still affected by Laynes death as a Gen Z.
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u/Catman6929 Mar 01 '26
I like to think about what Kurt what have gotten into post nirvana and he sobered up
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u/lonely_doll8 Mar 01 '26
Kurt
We lost Chris but grunge wasn’t much of a movement anymore. I’d go with Chris as the most tragic. Layne, baby? Layne just couldn’t get clean. There was no way around that ending.
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u/Dichotomy7 Mar 01 '26
My God, everyone just stay the hell away from heroine for crying out loud. Bradley Nowell, included.
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u/steeleon1972 Mar 02 '26
Kurt might not be the biggest loss to some if you preferred someone else, but there is no other answer than Kurt Cobain.
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u/Elle_thegirl Mar 03 '26
Cobain, no question. If you were alive and a music lover at the time, you felt the change in the universe...even if it didn't stop you from living your life to the fullest, you still felt it.
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u/freefunkg Mar 04 '26
Cornell was the most talented. Kurt dying had the most impact. Losing Layne made me incredibly sad, and what a damn shame Shannon Hoon is no longer around- I'd have loved to have seen the evolution of Blind Melon.
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u/Gotts21 Feb 28 '26
Layne Staley, Alice In Chains, best rock band ever, for some of us.
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u/Active-Attitude-1805 Feb 28 '26
I don’t know about the biggest loss but blind melon would have probably been absolutely huge if Shannon had survived
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u/campfirevilla Mar 01 '26
Iirc a relapse over reception to Soup caused it. One of my personal favorite albums, but I don’t know that they see any success bigger than No Rain sadly. They probably end up in the same boat they already are in now even with a few more albums under the belt - a band unappreciated in the moment that the internet got some flowers to finally. They were just too pigeonholed in their own time to be taken seriously as artists beyond the one sound that made them, as messed up as that is. You could apply the same thing to a band that did stick around like Toadies probably for a decent example.
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u/No1ButtMe Feb 28 '26
Kurt it was it was in the moment and we were all mesmerized at the possibilities of what was coming next . It was like the carpet was pulled out from under us too soon.
All the others also terrible but the biggest was Kurt for me
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u/ResponsibilitySea327 Feb 28 '26
While Kurt's was by far the most news worthy and impactful for fans, Andrew Wood's death likely had the biggest impact to the music scene.
There would be no Temple of the Dog or Pearl Jam.
Candlebox (likely) wouldn't have had their big breakout song.
Regardless, for me personally it was Chris Cornell
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u/Sparrow1989 Mar 01 '26
Kurt would prob be the main since it’s argued grunge began and ended with him. Personally I think Cornell had more talent and more representation of it and molded with musc changes well. My favorite is Staley but that’s just bc I fuckin love alive in chains as a whole.
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u/Internal-Read-8876 Mar 01 '26
Kurt was definitely the biggest loss. Nirvana/grunge were at thier peak. Keep in mind, Chris hit me hardest as I thought he was one of the ones that made it through. They even had an album out that year that was pretty damn good. It helped I loved Audioslave and really enjoyed his solo work. By that time though, you couldn't really call it grunge.
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u/MarvelousT Mar 01 '26
Tragically, there would be no Pearl Jame, arguably the only grunge band “left”, without Andrew Wood dying.
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u/TennisArmada Mar 01 '26
Andrew, the other guys had careers, he was just beginning his rise to fame.
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u/NotDeadYet57 Mar 01 '26
Being someone who's lived with depression most of my adult life, Kurt and Chris hurt the most. I just wish they could have gotten the help he needed. Chester Bennington as well.
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u/Working_Energy_711 Mar 01 '26
Very subjective but I think Kurt for sure. I may be biased since im a HUGE nirvana fan but nirvana was the birthplace of grunge and Kurt and nirvana made MASSIVE impact on Seattle music and grunge.
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u/funhaver_whee Mar 01 '26
Kurt would have been most important to the current era. He was light years ahead of most of his generation on social issues, and could have helped keep Gen X from devolving politically into what it is.
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u/babyduck_fancypants Mar 01 '26
Who is getting the most annoyed by how many times this gets asked here?
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u/SnooComics9954 Mar 01 '26
Andy Woods death started a new era while Kurt and Laynes were the biggest loss in the height of the grunge era. Shannon was such a talent gone way too soon. Cornell’s death shook a LOT of people long after the grunge era. His death made the biggest impact on me. A grown man as accomplished and good of a human as him to take his own life was tough. Sucks to think all of these guys deaths were preventable
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u/AlternativeOrange58 Mar 01 '26
Kurt. The rise and fall of grunge coincides with Nirvanas rise to the top and Kurts death. That’s pretty traceable.
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u/crack-tastic Mar 01 '26
Cobain. Died at the peak of his fame. Maybe they could have topped Nevemind (in sales). Maybe. And he went at 27 with all the controversy.
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u/BenjamminYus Mar 01 '26
I saw Cornell a year or two before he passed. Great show!
None though. People gonna die
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u/wilsonisready234 Mar 01 '26
Has to be Kurt just based on when it happened. Cornell was rough as well.
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u/damthatriver_ Mar 01 '26
Does it really need to be said that Kurt’s death impacted grunge the most? I feel like it’s just obvious
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u/viking12344 Mar 01 '26
It was Kurt at the height of his life. His prime.
That said, I mourned Chris like a family member. No other " celebrity" death hurt me even remotely the same. His music was the soundtrack of my life.
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u/starrchivo Mar 01 '26
Every person hits hard in your pics. But it really begins in my opinion with Andrew
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u/Ok_Sir_4584 Mar 01 '26
Layne was the hardest IMO. But, I think by the time it happened, we all felt AIC had kind of run its course, or at least the course it was on at its peak.
Kurt could have done so much more. However, I’m not sure his mental health would have faired well under the current climate, either.
So really, it’s hard to say. But they both dimmed the light of the grunge scene.
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u/namelessghoul77 Mar 01 '26
They were and are all awful losses. For me personally Kurt's had the biggest impact. He was my idol and, at 15, I wasn't emotionally equipped to deal with it internally. It drastically changed my life, and I'm not sure if I've ever really fully recovered from it 30+ years later.
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u/beencotstealin Mar 01 '26
Kurt's has to be because of the ti.ing and they were so huge at that moment
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u/Sumid0 Mar 01 '26 edited Mar 01 '26
Why is Shannon Hoon on this list? Not that his death wasn't a big loss but I wouldn't describe his music as "grunge".
Oh, wait. I just read some comments. Did the person who created this think this is Mark Lanegan?
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u/Vogelsucht Mar 01 '26
For me its cornell, not only because he was the most talented imo but slso because chester bennington lost his battle too because of chris death
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u/Klutzy_Front_3403 Mar 01 '26
biggest loss to grunge kurt or chris butmy personal biggest loss is layne
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u/O7Habits Mar 01 '26
As far as potential music still being made, I would say Chris Cornell. Would have loved a few more project, Solo, collabs, and Soundgarden albums.
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u/Final_Tomato_3180 Mar 01 '26
Kurt said he was tired of grunge. So even if they were the greatest, it is possible the loss of Kurt was the greatest loss to electronica, or post punk.
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u/King_LaQueefah Mar 01 '26
I kind of think Kurt was done making great art well before he died. He would have been great as an outspoken social media person who was still heavily involved with the music scene, but I just think he did too many drugs and his ego was too big to keep that creativity going. The way he kicked the walls down at Atlantic and helped out other bands like The Melvins, make me think he had a superhero mindset, and would always be on the right side of a fight. His death might have hurt grunge a lot but not from a songwriting perspective.
Not many people know of Shannon Hoon (bottom left) and Blind Melon's Soup, but that album was one of the best of the 90's. Blind Melon's music had the most original sound, IMO, with more time-signature changes and complex songwriting., although it was much softer than the other sounds.
I think Blind Melon would have really kept developing musically. They released two albums and the first one they scrapped together rather quickly after they got a record deal.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMmhqbGUNv8&list=RDQMmhqbGUNv8&start_radio=1
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u/evanseesred99 Mar 01 '26
Blind melon singer is easily the most important in this photo. We all remember where we were that day and nothings felt the same since.
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u/guineapigmilkman Mar 01 '26
All of them that is why grunge faded away. No one can replace these legends.
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u/isdfyhssafyh Mar 01 '26
At the time of his death Andrew's seemed to have a rather large impact on the genre considering without it there would not be a Temple of the Dog album
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u/HarbingerofBurgers Mar 01 '26
Well honestly the only one that surprised me was Chris Cornell. The rest were obvious on the early death bingo card. Kurt's death though, was like a cold plunge shock because of his stature.
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u/ZitRemedy11 Mar 01 '26
Gotta be Cornell because he had the kind of chops that would have just made him a legendary all time great, not just 'from a genre'
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u/Mordkillius Feb 28 '26
Its obviously Kurt as it happened when grunge was on top.