Serving the Servant: Remembering Kurt Cobain

In early 1991, top music manager Danny Goldberg agreed to take on NIRVANA, a critically acclaimed new band from the underground music scene in Seattle. He had no idea that the band's leader, Kurt Cobain, would become a pop-culture icon with a legacy arguably at the level of John Lennon, Michael Jackson, or Elvis Presley. Danny worked with Kurt from 1990 to 1994, the most impactful period of Kurt's life. This key time saw the stratospheric success of NEVERMIND turn Nirvana into the most successful rock band in the world and make punk and grunge household names; Kurt met and married the brilliant but mercurial Courtney Love and their relationship became a lightning rod for critics; their daughter Frances Bean was born; and, finally, Kurt's public struggles with addiction ended in a devastating suicide that would alter the course of rock history. Throughout, Danny stood by Kurt's side as manager, and close friend.

Drawing on Danny's own memories of Kurt, files which previously have not been made public, and interviews with, among others, Kurt's close family, friends and former bandmates, SERVING THE SERVANT sheds an entirely new light on these critical years. Casting aside the common obsession with the angst and depression that seemingly drove Kurt, SERVING THE SERVANT is an exploration of his brilliance in every aspect of rock and roll, his compassion, his ambition, and the legacy he wrought - one that has lasted decades longer than his career did. Danny Goldberg explores what it is about Kurt Cobain that still resonates today, even with a generation who wasn't alive until after Kurt's death. In the process, he provides a portrait of an icon unlike any that have come before.

“Insightful, passionate and clear, Danny Goldberg's account of his personal and professional relationship with Kurt Cobain is required reading for, not only Nirvana enthusiasts, but anyone interested in how the corporate music industry engaged with the punk rock underground of the early 1990s...It is a contemplative requiem to losing someone you love who immeasurably touched the entire planet with a singular magic. - THURSTON MOORE, SONIC YOUTHAs a fan and onetime rock journalist, Danny Goldberg treasures Kurt Cobain as an artist. As Nirvana's manager, he witnessed the ambition and empathy that drove Cobain toward stardom. As an activist, he admires Cobain's courageously explicit politics. As Cobain's shrewd advisor and fond friend, he misses him even more acutely than the rest of us. - ROBERT CHRISTGAU, author of Is It Still Good to Ya?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”

Insightful, passionate and clear, Danny Goldberg's account of his personal and professional relationship with Kurt Cobain is required reading for, not only Nirvana enthusiasts, but anyone interested in how the corporate music industry engaged with the punk rock underground of the early 1990s...It is a contemplative requiem to losing someone you love who immeasurably touched the entire planet with a singular magic. - THURSTON MOORE, SONIC YOUTH

As a fan and onetime rock journalist, Danny Goldberg treasures Kurt Cobain as an artist. As Nirvana's manager, he witnessed the ambition and empathy that drove Cobain toward stardom. As an activist, he admires Cobain's courageously explicit politics. As Cobain's shrewd advisor and fond friend, he misses him even more acutely than the rest of us. - ROBERT CHRISTGAU, author of Is It Still Good to Ya?

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

Danny Goldberg is President and Owner of Gold Village Entertainment, an artist management company; former CEO and founder of Gold Mountain Entertainment; former Chairman and CEO of both Mercury Records and Artemis Records, former CEO of Air America; and frequent contributor to the Los Angeles Times, The Nation, Huffington Post, Dissent, Billboard and many other outlets. He is the author of In Search of the Lost Chord, Bumping Into Geniuses, How the Left Lost Teen Spirit, and coeditor of It's A Free Country. He lives in Pound Ridge, New York.

In early 1991, top music manager Danny Goldberg agreed to take on NIRVANA, a critically acclaimed new band from the underground music scene in Seattle. He had no idea that the band's leader, Kurt Cobain, would become a pop-culture icon with a legacy arguably at the level of John Lennon, Michael Jackson, or Elvis Presley. Danny worked with Kurt from 1990 to 1994, the most impactful period of Kurt's life. This key time saw the stratospheric success of NEVERMIND turn Nirvana into the most successful rock band in the world and make punk and grunge household names; Kurt met and married the brilliant but mercurial Courtney Love and their relationship became a lightning rod for critics; their daughter Frances Bean was born; and, finally, Kurt's public struggles with addiction ended in a devastating suicide that would alter the course of rock history. Throughout, Danny stood by Kurt's side as manager, and close friend.Drawing on Danny's own memories of Kurt, files which previously have not been made public, and interviews with, among others, Kurt's close family, friends and former bandmates, SERVING THE SERVANT sheds an entirely new light on these critical years. Casting aside the common obsession with the angst and depression that seemingly drove Kurt, SERVING THE SERVANT is an exploration of his brilliance in every aspect of rock and roll, his compassion, his ambition, and the legacy he wrought - one that has lasted decades longer than his career did. Danny Goldberg explores what it is about Kurt Cobain that still resonates today, even with a generation who wasn't alive until after Kurt's death. In the process, he provides a portrait of an icon unlike any that have come before.

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