Ongoing History Daily: Babysitting Kurt Cobain

By the time Nirvana took off with the Nevermind album, Kurt Cobain was deep into a heroin addiction and people were worried. The goal became to manage Kurt and to make sure he didn’t overdose. When the band toured through Australia, a local music entrepreneur named Pav Pavolic made friends with the band.

At one point, Kurt was going to be left to his own devices for about a week. That’s when Pav was asked to look after Kurt 24/7 to make sure he didn’t overdose—and he was paid for his troubles. He stayed with Kurt the whole time. Weirdly, though, he never got any instructions on what he should do if Kurt DID overdose—which would have been helpful.

Fortunately, Pav was successful and got his money.