Kurt Cobain’s little brother to sell £1.7MILLION guitar that rockstar’s widow Courtney Love gave him

Music icon Kurt Cobain’s younger brother Chad has revealed the personal story behind a guitar that was featured in Co. last week. Kildare and is expected to fetch up to €2 million (£1.7 million) when auctioned.

The Fender Skystang, which the Nirvana frontman played for most of the group’s last tour, including their last ever show, was on display at the Newbridge Silverware Museum of Style Icons, along with a pair of jeans, a vest and more from Cobain’s assets. will be sold next month by Julien’s Auctions in Nashville.

The guitar – worth between £1million and £2million – was gifted to a 14-year-old Chad by Kurt’s wife, Courtney Love, after his brother’s death in April 1994.

“The memory I’ll always have of Kurt on stage, or just Kurt in general, is him at the MTV Live and Loud concert in Seattle (in December 1993),” Chad said. “I was at that show and he was holding that particular guitar and even before I got this guitar from Courtney, it was always in my memory. And when she handed it to me, I thought, ‘I know that guitar.’ ‘

GUITAR PRIZE: Chad with Martin Nolan and Nirvana’s guitar tech Earnie Bailey. The guitar is expected to fetch $2 million when it is auctioned in Nashville next month

Martin Nolan, executive director of Julien’s Auctions, who is originally from Athlone, met Chad in Seattle three weeks ago and described him as a “super cool, shy guy.”

Mr Nolan told the Irish Mail on Sunday: ‘Chad said he wasn’t going to see his brother (to Nirvana concerts) but it was just an excuse to go to a rock concert. He didn’t see it as his brother up there, but as this great band.”

The guitar was stored in a closet in his “tiny one-bed apartment” before Chad got married and loaned it to Seattle’s Museum of Pop Culture in 2007.

Love dictated that her young brother-in-law learn to play the guitar if she gave it to him.

“He learned to play, but not as well as his brother – as he himself would admit,” Mr Nolan said.

The guitar – which has a striking yellow V on the pickguard – comes with the original strings and strap. “Kurt hated anything to do with corporate or branding, so he put black masking tape over the Fender logo on the guitar strap and it’s still there,” Mr. Nolan explained.

Also seen in Co. Kildare last week, and on sale next month, are a pair of Cobain jeans, a vest, a pack of cigarettes and a few handwritten notes and scribbles, all of which were left behind when the singer left rehab in March 1994.

Mr Nolan told the MoS: ‘The person who was with him in rehab has kept them all these years and has now decided to let them go. Kurt was a great artist. Some of the doodles are brilliant and when you read the things he wrote it’s really incredible where his mind was at.”

Julien authenticated the items and Mr. Nolan said the jeans, Levis 501s adorned by his friend Lori Barbero and seen in several iconic photo shoots, will go for “a lot of money.”

FAMILY MAN: Kurt with daughter Frances Bean and wife Courtney Love, who gave the guitar to his brother Chad

The green vest Cobain wore during the band’s famous MTV: Unplugged concert raised €340,000. The cigarettes are expected to fetch between €800 and €1,200.

Julien’s sold the acoustic guitar from the 2020 MTV concert for just over $6 million, while the Fender Mustang from the Smells Like Teen Spirit video sold for more than $4.7 million last year.

In honor of Julien’s 20th anniversary, Mr Nolan said they have “turned up the volume” at the auction, which will take place from November 16 to 18 at the Hard Rock Cafe, Nashville.

‘There are over a thousand items up for auction, including Paul McCartney’s bus from the 1972 -1973 Wings Over Europe tour, which is also very cool.’

The auctioneer also sold the iconic dress worn by Marilyn Monroe when she serenaded President Kennedy for €4.8 million and was recently embroiled in further controversy when Kim Kardashian wore it to the Met Gala. “Kim is a customer of Julien’s and also a friend, so she asked if we could put her in touch with the owners of the dress,” he recalls. ‘That was a hugely successful project for everyone, despite the negative reactions from some people.’