One name that always comes up whenever I talk about the highly-questionable departures of Kurt Cobain and Jeff Buckley is Elliott Smith. His is a case I'd long been familiar with, but hadn't find any tangible links between it and the others.
Spoiler Alert: I have one now.
- Buckley was a virtuoso singer and guitarist who could sing or play literally anything, yet exuded an androgynous energy that a lot of rock fans found off-putting.
- Cobain went more for the snotty suburban punk vibe, so he downplayed his own considerable skills.
- Buckley was a player who struggled with writing, whereas Cobain was much stronger, song-wise.
- Smith was no slouch either as a guitarist or singer, but the strength and appeal came from his off-kilter yet hook-filled songwriting, similar to artists like Bob Dylan, Nick Drake, and well, Tim Buckley.
The same DreamWorks whose 2002 adaption of The Ring would place 12 year-old Daveigh in the path of a sociopathic sexpest at the 2003 MTV Movie Awards.
During his later years, Elliott Smith told friends that DreamWorks Records was out to get him. Specifically, he became fixated on the idea that the label was spying on his home studio and attempting to steal unreleased songs directly off his computer.
Back then, Smith's fears seemed a bit nuts. However, they sound entirely reasonable, sober, and fact-based in this far-less-naive age of ours:
These fears were largely rooted in the extreme pressure he felt from the label to produce a commercial hit after Figure 8 (2000) underperformed, which made him desperately want out of his DreamWorks contract.
Like Jeff Buckley looking for a day-job, Smith getting out of his recording contract might have seemed irrational back in a more innocent time, but considering DreamWorks was about to dissolve itself, drop most of its roster, and sell out to Universal in November 2003, Smith's ambition was, in fact, prescient.
And what would happen, not even a month before DreamWorks' dissolution?
Elliott Smith died on October 21, 2003, at age 34 from two stab wounds to the chest. At the time of the stabbing, he was at his home in Echo Park, where he lived with Chiba.
According to Chiba, the two were arguing, and she locked herself in the bathroom to take a shower. Chiba heard him scream and upon opening the door saw Smith standing with a knife in his chest. She pulled the knife out, after which he collapsed and she called 9-1-1.
Smith died in the hospital, with the time of death listed as 1:36 p.m. A possible suicide note, written on a sticky note, read: "I'm so sorry—love, Elliott. God forgive me."
I don't know enough to form an opinion on what became a roiling Internet controversy about what really went down that fateful day, though I have to admit that the apparent lack of hesitation wounds troubles me.
But I can say that in light of the Cobain thing, I'd like to take a closer look at that sticky note. And so it seems would the LA County coroner's office:
While Smith's death was reported as a suicide, the official autopsy report released in December 2003 left open the question of homicide.
Chiba's behavior apparently didn't dissuade folks of similar suspicions:
Chiba had declined all interview requests in the wake of Smith's death, but on January 9, four days after The Smoking Gun published the coroner's report, she made a statement to MTV News. She claimed that she had been "physically sick" when she discovered the report was online: "I felt Elliott's privacy and dignity in being able to die were violated."
She denied that she had refused to speak to detectives and said that although she had not been charged or questioned over the allegations, she felt she was now a suspect in the eyes of the public.
It happens.
And then there's the original sin that runs like the River Styx underneath all of this:
Chiba said that Smith's difficult childhood was partly why he needed to sedate himself with drugs as an adult.
Smith endured a difficult childhood and a troubled relationship with his stepfather Charlie Welch. Smith stated he may have been sexually abused by Welch at a young age—an allegation denied by Welch.
Two years prior to Smith's death came this memorable scene using one of his tunes in Wes Anderson's The Royal Tanenbaums.
And four years after Smith's death came this tribute from Kenneth Anger, of all possible people.
Apparently Smith and Anger were on friendly terms, being neighbors in Silver Lake. Which gets me wanting to rewatch Under the Silver Lake for any possible clues there.
Then a theme we'll see again:
Smith's remains were cremated, and his ashes were divided between his mother, father, and half-sister Ashley.
"PEOPLE PROCESS GRIEF DIFFERENTLY" DEPT.
A lot of wags saw Smith as a kind of heir to Kurt Cobain's throne, and reports have it that Cobain was planning to quit Nirvana and move towards similar alt.folk territory as Mr. Misery.
That certainly wouldn't have pleased his record company -- never mind his wife -- all that much.
Nirvana weren't signed to DreamWorks, but still flew in its immediate orbit: they'd been signed to Geffen's DGC label, and Hole were signed to Geffen Records proper.
Kurt Cobain was cremated on April 14, 1994, at Bleitz Funeral Home in Seattle. Some ashes were scattered by his family into McLane Creek in Olympia and the Wishkah River in Washington.
His widow, Courtney Love, took a portion to the Namgyal Buddhist Monastery in Ithaca, New York, to be blessed and mixed into clay for ceremonial figures. Some ashes were retained by his family and kept in containers such as a teddy bear.
Jeff Buckley was cremated following his tragic death by drowning in the Wolf River Harbor in Memphis, Tennessee, in May 1997. His family scattered his ashes at the Memphis Zoo, a place he frequently visited and where he had applied to volunteer as a butterfly keeper in the weeks before he died.
Chris Cornell was cremated on May 23, 2017, in Los Angeles, just days after his death. His ashes were laid to rest on May 26, 2017, during a private ceremony at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery, where his memorial site remains open to visitors.
Chester Bennington was cremated following his passing. His family held a private memorial service on July 29, 2017, at the South Coast Botanic Garden in Palos Verdes Estates, California.
Rather than having a traditional burial with a public headstone or gravesite, his ashes were given directly to his family and close friends.
Ashes to Ashes.
NOTE: Because this post got so huge and a bit sprawling, I split off the material on Daveigh Chase and DreamWorks' bizarre Buckley-fixation originally included here into a new post.
