Frances Bean , daughter of Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love , was not even two years old when she lost her father, which implies a lack of personal memories of the man who became one of the greatest voices of his generation.
Despite possessing an extensive archive of photos and videos with her father, Frances was too young to retain her own memories, and she commented on this fact in an interview, comparing her relationship with Kurt to what a relationship with Nirvana fans would likely be like, characterized by a certain distance and impersonality.
“I think my dynamic with him is probably more like that of a fan. It’s something almost untouchable, and all the information I have about him comes from other people, they’re stories,” he said.
Contrary to what one might think, Frances was named not after the actress Frances Farmer , mentioned in one of the tracks on In Utero (1993), but rather after Frances McKee , vocalist of The Vaselines . Her middle name, "Bean," means "bean" in English because when Courtney Love was pregnant, she and Cobain would look at the ultrasound and call him "little bean."
Frances speaks about her father's absence with smiles and in a lighthearted way, but she makes it clear that, on certain days, it's not easy to cope with the grief of losing someone who is so actively remembered.
“It’s hard to walk down the street and not see a Nirvana t-shirt every single day, so it’s around me every day of my life, whether I want it to or not. I remember it, whether I want to or not,” he says. “It’s powerful because it ennobles you to see the enormous reach, but at the same time, sometimes it’s kind of frustrating. On certain days I’m in a coffee shop, for example, and I’m going through a difficult time and [Nirvana] starts playing and my reaction is ‘I can’t handle you right now!’ [laughs]. I’ve definitely had emotional breakdowns in Ubers because a song starts playing and I think ‘I needed you so badly right now.’”
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