My Dad’s Suicide Isn’t ‘Cool’: Frances Cobain to Lana Del Rey

When Kurt Cobain killed himself in 1994, daughter Frances Bean Cobain was just a baby. So when she read an interview in The Guardian in which singer-songwriter Lana Del Rey seemed to be glorifying the early ends of the Nirvana frontman and singer Amy Winehouse—and then shared her own death wish—Cobain took to Twitter urging her not to glamorize them.

“I wish I was dead already,” Del Rey is quoted as saying. Cobain isn’t having it. “The death of young musicians isn’t something to romanticize,” she wrote. “I’ll never know my father because he died young & it becomes a desirable feat because ppl like u think it’s ‘cool.’”

“Well, it’s f–king not. Embrace life, because you only get one life. The ppl u mentioned wasted that life. Don’t be 1 of those ppl.”

Both Cobain and Winehouse died at 27, from suicide and alcohol poisoning, respectively—the same age as Del Rey.

While The Daily Beast may feel Del Ray’s statements are merely part of a ploy to sell her new album, Ultraviolence, and Rolling Stone reports that she expressed regret over the interview and claimed to have been misquoted, the damage may already be done. There are plenty of teens who pay attention to what high-profile entertainers say and are young enough to confuse marketing with meaning.

We hope Cobain’s strong response drowns out Del Rey’s casual fatalism, and that young people open their ears to the real effects of suicide and drug abuse andunderstand there is no glory in dying young.