Frances Bean Cobain spoke exclusively with Rolling Stone in her first public interview about her father, Nirvana's Kurt Cobain, opening up about her quest to discover who her dad was, her rocky (but recovering) relationship with her mother Courtney Love, and the film that brought them all back together — director Brett Morgen's new Cobain documentary “Montage of Heck”.

 “What really surprised me was watching my parents' love story,” Frances, now 22 years old, says of the film. “Because they were so close to my age now. It was like friends falling in love — I did not expect that.”

The interview is part of a three-hour conversation with Rolling Stone's David Fricke — who profiled Cobain for Rolling Stone's January 1994 issue and spoke with him several times — for the magazine's new cover story about the making of “Montage of Heck”.

Frances, who was barely two years old when her father died in April 1994, serves as executive producer and had a big impact on the shape of the film.

“For 20 years, my dad has been like Santa Claus, this mythical figure,” Frances was quoted as saying; “People come up to me and say, 'Your dad's so cool,' and I don't know him. I want to present Kurt the man,“ she said. 

The film, which airs May 4 on HBO, is an intimate exploration of the musician through his personal recordings, an archive of collected ephemera provided by friends and family, and interviews with those who knew him.  

The film was also a way to bring her closer to her mother, who attended a private screening with Frances days before the film's Sundance premiere. After watching a powerful scene where Kurt was visibly intoxicated while holding his daughter, Love was moved to tears.

“My mother held me, cried on me and just said, 'I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry',” Frances tells Rolling Stone. “Just kept saying it over and over. But then she said, 'Do you realize how much your father loved you?' And I said, 'Yeah, I do.'”

Even though Frances is aware of all the similarities she shares with her famous father, she never really found herself drawn to his music.

“I don't really like Nirvana that much,” she tells Fricke with a grin. “The grunge scene is not what I'm interested in.”

Still, she cites “Territorial Pissings” and “Dumb” as her favorite Nirvana songs, and says her musical leanings tend more towards bands like the Brian Jonestown Massacre and Mercury Rev.

Source: Rolling Stone