I have never met Kurt Cobain, but I frankly did not have this image of him,… he was like Michael Jackson? This is however what Bruce Pavitt (Sub Pop Records cofounder) said when he was interviewed by Mark Yarm for his book ‘Everybody Loves Our Town: An Oral History of Grunge’.
Pavitt revealed that Cobain talked about starting his own petting zoo:
‘He was a sensitive guy who really liked kids and animals. I remember the first time I visited his apartment, he had like three different cages of gerbils. I got the impression he liked animals more than a lot of people.
He talked about maybe starting a petting zoo. He was just kind of musing. The energy I was getting was kind of magical: I can pretty much do anything I want. I'd like to start a petting zoo.
That week, Nirvana had knocked Michael Jackson off the charts. In a lot of ways, Kurt reminded me of Michael Jackson. Think about it: Neverland … having a passion for kids and animals. I found it somewhat ironic. If I'd heard those same words coming out of Michael Jackson, I wouldn't have been surprised at all.’
The book is full of interviews of other people about other things of course, but Kurt Cobain as a zookeeper? I would have never thought.