Cobain Journals Due in November

Riverhead Books, an imprint of the Penguin Putnam Publishing Group, has purchased the rights to publish Kurt Cobain's notebook journals in a reported multi-million dollar deal. The hardcover volume will reach bookstore shelves in November.

The collection of twenty-three notebooks includes more than 800 pages of lyrics, other writings, lists of favorite musicians and drawings, made its first rounds among book publishers last week, before landing with Riverhead.

"The journals are an intimate, unadulterated portrait of an artist of great influence," said Julie Grau, co-editorial director of Riverhead. "They reveal Cobain's vision and design, they document his creative and personal struggles. They are insightful, provocative, moving, funny and show him to be very smart and very aware."

The Riverhead book won't be the first peek at the late-Nirvana frontman's journals. Cobain's widow, Courtney Love, granted writer Charles R. Cross full access to the notebooks for his biography, Heavier Than Heaven, which was released last year.

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Song Stories

“Oh Sherrie”

Steve Perry | 1984

Steve Perry's girlfriend Sherrie Swafford was actually in the studio when Perry began writing this song--his lone Top Ten hit as a solo act--with two co-writers. The trio began at midnight one night with just "Oh, Sherrie!" and "hold on, hold on." Three hours later, they had a complete song. Swafford, however, had to wait until the next day to hear it. "Sherrie actually got tired and went to bed," Perry said. She also appeared in the video, but their relationship did not hold on for long.

More Song Stories entries »

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