Charles R Cross, the author of what many see as the definitive Kurt Cobain biography, 'Heavier Than Heaven', which is the source material for a film of the same name being made by Courtney Love, has revealed that he has compiled a new book of material taken from Cobain's secret archives. And he really does mean secret.
Cross told Rolling Stone: "[The archive collection is at] an undisclosed location. And it literally was at an underground bomb-proof bunker that Bill Gates stored his stuff in. When I first went to visit it, it was the first time I my life my retina was ever scanned. It was like James Bond. The week Kurt died, Courtney had the sense to tell someone 'put all this stuff away', and it had all been boxed up and never opened. I think I was the first person to open these boxes - and I cannot tell you how freaky that was, to open up a Rubbermaid container and inside were Kurt Cobain's board games that had been put away".
He added that Courtney Love had given him free reign over what he put into the book: "[Courtney] was very cooperative. Completely hands-off. Her only direction was 'make sure the material is in good taste, don't put things that are ghoulish, and don't put things that focus on the darkness'".
What he selected includes journal entries, childhood drawings, paintings and numerous photographs. Cross continues: "We were working on this book when we found out that there were undeveloped rolls of film that Kurt had shot at least 15 years ago - and they were still sitting around the archive collection, and no one had ever developed them".
'Cobain Unseen' is set to be published later this year.