Istigkeit

Issue 1

Dead Rock Stars

Jan. 2025

“From the point of view of a human mind, our response to an internal representation of a ‘thing’ is similar to, and can be larger than, the response we have to the thing itself.”

As a woman, as a punk-rocker, as a long time resident of Seattle, I think a lot about dead rock stars. Mia Zapata, Kurt Cobain, Chester Bennington, Layne Staley, and most frequently, Kristen Pfaff.

Mia and Kristen are, without a doubt, the most underrated of not only the “Seattle grunge” scene deaths, but the most forgotten members of the “27 Club”. And why is that? Why are these two incredibly influential women still not given the spotlight they deserve? Why are they only footnotes? Why are they only being used in relation to men’s stories? Do these dead female rock stars not deserve their own stories? Their own lives? Their own influence in popular culture?

Don’t get me wrong, it’s fine to say “Kurt Cobain was a fan of The Gits and Mia Zapata,” or “Kurt Cobain had massive amounts of respect for Kristen, and they were close friends,” but that shouldn’t be their only claim to fame. That shouldn’t be the only reason their story is told. That shouldn’t be the only part of their stories that people care about. Especially considering they were, you know, people.

Steve Moriarity, the drummer of The Gits, wrote a book about Mia Zapata that was released in 2024 titled, “Mia Zapata and the Gits: A Story of Art, Rock, and Revolution”, which in and of itself, serves to appreciate Mia’s life and art. Steve even writes in the Prologue, “I refuse to sit back and allow the story of The Gits to be told by those who wish to promote or capitalize on something unrelated and unimportant and ultimately hurtful instead of the art Mia and we created.” Kurt was only mentioned five times in the entire book, and one of these times was in the “Special Thanks” section, three of them were related to a show their bands did together, and one of them is about when he heard on the news that Kurt and Courtney got married. Courtney Love is only mentioned once in the book. (In that same paragraph).

In contrast, “‘I Know How to Live’: The Life of Kristen Pfaff”, written by Guy Mankowski, Kurt is mentioned fourteen times in just the first two chapters and both introductions. Only one of those times is in a footnote. Courtney Love is mentioned seven times. To give Guy the benefit of the doubt, Kurt, Kristen and Courtney were heavily involved. Kristen was in Courtney’s band, Kurt was married to Courtney, and Kurt and Kristen were close. It makes sense. But to introduce someone who only knew these characters for a year, and didn’t even know them until around the age of twenty-six, to hinge her whole life, and her story, on her relationship to these people when writing a biography about her is weird. It makes sense to talk about them when the timeline lines up, but to mention in a footnote that, in summary states, “Kurt was possibly talking about Kristen and her scoliosis in this interview of him talking about his own scoliosis,” is completely irrelevant, unnecessary, and in no way benefits Kristen’s story. It’s also completely speculative.

In addition, the way both books have been marketed have stark and jarring differences. Both parties are, of course, not marketing people. None of these authors or “teams” have degrees in marketing or promotion, and Guy Mankowski specifically, usually has the publisher he’s working with handle the marketing. So both parties are a little bit out of their limit here. However, the marketing for “I Know How to Live”, headed by Jason Pfaff and Guy Mankowski is enough for people to question the intentions behind the book. The only interviews done to promote this book have been done on “Who Killed Kurt?” and “Matt Beall Limitless”, both of which are full-on Kurt Cobain conspiracy theory podcasts, or at least believe in the murder theory. When questioned about this, both Jason and Guy’s reasoning for this was a. “We’re not marketing geniuses”, and b. “We’re trying to cast a wide net”. We touched on Point A earlier in the paragraph, but Guy also has a literary agent, which you think would at least help him out with the marketing for this book.

To touch on Point B, doing one or two podcasts or interviews with one end of the spectrum can be beneficial, but neglecting to do any podcasts or interviews with the other side, or the neutral part of that spectrum, while claiming to cast a wide net, is just bullshit. Kristen Pfaff was a musician. Her biography should be promoted to musicians. Guy should be doing interviews on music podcasts, on punk podcasts. Kristen was a feminist and an activist. He should be promoting to feminist or activist podcasts or resources. That would be casting the widest net possible to tell her story.

Additionally, a point that is repeatedly echoed in both of their own “podcast” episodes on their Substack, is that they are not making any kind of money, so it “can’t be a cash grab”, but that “Kristen taught me to never work for free”. Which is a complete contradiction to what we know about her. What Jason has told us about her. What Guy has told us about her. Unless everything we’ve been told is wrong. Which, I suppose is the point of the biography.

Mike Huber, an ex-boyfriend of Kristen's, claims that when they moved in together, Kristen suggested they both volunteer. Volunteering is the definition of working for free. You are legally not allowed to be paid in a volunteer position. It does pay in fulfillment, in ego checking, in “worldliness”. But it is working for free. Jason himself mentioned that Kristen would spend time creating posters for her band on an early iMac computer. Graphic design is a skill that takes a long time to hone, and should, by no means, be done for free. But when it is volunteered, as it was in this situation, it is once again, working for free.

In contrast, Steve Moriarty has only ever been on music-related podcasts to promote Mia’s biography. Because Mia was a musician and an artist. It’s appropriate. He doesn’t go on true crime podcasts to “widen the audience”. He knows where the audience for her is. The people who were genuinely fans of Mia and The Gits and genuinely want to know about her life and her art and her. One can only assume that he doesn’t want the true-crime obsessed people to take the book and use it to fit their commercialized industry. He even says in the prologue, “Nor am I motivated by monetary gain, because there is no money to be made writing books about cool bands than there is in being in one… There are no hobbits or vampires or whatever is trending in pop culture at the moment on which to capitalize. I don’t have dreams of literary prizes or fame, but I do have a story to tell.”

There is this intense culture, a fandom, if you will, around dead rock stars. But why is it? Why is there this cultural obsession with dead rock stars? It could be a myriad of things. A parasocial relationship with the deceased, a sense of justice, a case of “if this was me, I would want people to do the same”, a subconscious want to go out in a blaze of glory and have the same cultural impact, groups of lonely, mentally unwell people seeking community. I’m not a psychologist, nor do I have any background in sociology, so I can’t say for sure. What I can say is that the internet culture surrounding dead rock stars does more harm than good to the deceased, and their life, and their art, and their impact.

And the proof is stated by Steve Moriary. He explains in his prologue, “...the true crime documentary and dramatization industry has seized on the circumstances of Mia’s passing as a salacious story. This reality media obsession with violence against women, stalking, and even the murder of women has become entertainment for consumers. The topic has become debased to the point of fetishization of the victims. It is disgusting and an indictment of the television industry and the media at large.” and “If one does an Internet search today for The Gits or Mia Zapata, information about her murder, the investigation to find her murderer, and the conviction of him ten years later predominate the results. The music, the lyrics, the people involved in creating the music are secondary or absent altogether.”

And it’s true. The fetishization of dead rock stars is a problem. The “Kurt Cobain was obsessed with Jimi Hendricks! How prophetic is that?” and “in this weird sense of irony, Kristen was a huge fan of Jim Morrison!” implies that their lives and decisions were not their own. It infantilizes the dead, and leaves their lives up to “fate”. That their death was pre-determined and meant to end up in the way it did. It refuses to acknowledge any other factors.

The fact of the matter is that rock stars, and celebrities in general, tend to live more high-risk lifestyles. The exception to this is obviously Mia, who was stalked and murdered.

But in only focusing on a dead rock star’s death, we overlook the fact that being a rock star is a high-risk lifestyle. Drug abuse, alcoholism and severe mental health issues are incredibly rampant in the music scene, especially in the alternative rock scene. And these high-risk lifestyles tend to lead to early deaths. And it’s even worse when it comes to alternative artists with larger cultural impacts, as there suddenly becomes a large amount of pressure and obligation to their fans. Of course their deaths are impactful. Of course they make us feel something. Most deaths make us feel something.

But in our own lives, when a loved one dies, rarely do we reflect around the circumstances around their death. We tell anecdotes about their lives. We remember the good times we had with them. We remember their impact on our own lives. So why can we not treat dead rock stars the same? If we love them as much as we claim to, why can we not treat them the same way we would treat our own loved ones? Why must dead female rock stars be footnotes in their own stories? Why can we not remember Kristen Pfaff’s life, and her early years without mentioning Kurt Cobain once? Why can we not mention Mia Zapata without talking about her murderer?

And we do the same thing with dead male rock stars! Why can we not talk about Kurt Cobain’s life without mentioning Courtney Love and the theories that surround them? Why can we not mention Elliot Smith without bringing up Jennifer Chiba?

Why can we not let the dead rock stars rest easy? Why must dead rock stars continue to be infantilized and exploited, even in their death? Even in their peace? Why can we not let them rest in peace?

This publication is dedicated to Steve Moriarty, Mia Zapata, and Kristen Pfaff.

Guy Mankowski, I hope you read this. Go fuck yourself.