TightWind is written by Kyle Baxter. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

In January 1994, Rolling Stone interviewed Kurt Cobain. The entire thing is fascinating, but I found what he had to say about where he saw Nirvana going the most interesting:

That’s what I’ve been kind of hinting at in this whole interview. That we’re almost exhausted. We’ve gone to the point where things are becoming repetitious. There’s not something you can move up toward, there’s not something you can look forward to.

The best times that we ever had were right when Nevermind was coming out and we went on that American tour where we were playing clubs. They were totally sold out, and the record was breaking big, and there was this massive feeling in the air, this vibe of energy. Something really special was happening.

I hate to actually even say it, but I can’t see this band lasting more than a couple more albums, unless we really work hard on experimenting. I mean, let’s face it. When the same people are together doing the same job, they’re limited. I’m really interested in studying different things, and I know Krist and Dave are as well. But I don’t know if we are capable of doing it together. I don’t want to put out another record that sounds like the last three records.

I know we’re gonna put out one more record, at least, and I have a pretty good idea what it’s going to sound like: pretty ethereal, acoustic, like R.E.M.’s last album. If I could write just a couple of songs as good as what they’ve written . . . I don’t know how that band does what they do. God, they’re the greatest. They’ve dealt with their success like saints, and they keep delivering great music.

Cobain was one of those people that was never satisfied with anything he did. That’s simultaneously a blessing and a curse; it meant that he was always pushing to do something new, something better, something real, but also that whatever he did would never be enough. I wonder how prevalent that tension—the push to continually improve what you’re doing and to never, ever be satisfied with it or to think what you’re doing is “good”—is in creatively successful people of all types. I tend to think that it is indeed quite prevalent, that the people we look up to for the work they’ve done actually, in their gut, feel like their work is some kind of failure.

It makes me wonder, too, what Cobain would have created if he didn’t die a little more than two months after the interview.