Kurt Cobain at a Nirvana concert in Seattle, Washington in 1993.
Photo: FilmMagic, Jeff Kravitz. All rights reserved.
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On February 20, 2023 Kurt Cobain would have been 56 years old. On that day, Tony Hawk began selling skateboards with a Cobain-drawn design to honor the Nirvana singer’s legacy. The decks feature the cover art of Iron Maiden’s 1981 second studio album, Killers.
They are $420 replicas of an original piece the 54-year-old Hawk bought at auction in 2022. In addition to the connection to the Nirvana singer, it also hides a part of skateboard history. The board was modeled by Jeff Phillips, an influential American skater of the 80’s and 90’s. He took his own life in December 1993, three months before Kurt Cobain.
For these reasons, all proceeds from sales go equally to the Jed Foundation, a suicide prevention organization, and the Skatepark Project. Hawk created this himself with the aim of building public skate parks in structurally weak communities. In addition to a limited edition of boards, stickers and posters with the motif are also sold.
At the launch, the former professional skater posted a video on Twitter and Instagram showing himself and Cameron Ross, the board’s former owner. He says that in 1985 Cobain offered to sell art in a music center in his hometown of Aberdeen. For 20 dollars and a bit of marijuana he then painted the board of the student at the time. With the Iron Maiden cover at Ross’s suggestion.
Not only Hawk honors the legacy of Cobain and Nirvana. At this year’s Grammy Awards, the grunge band received a “Special Merit Award” for lifetime achievement.
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