Tony Hawk had no idea what was ahead when he first heard Nirvana’s biggest hit — before the rest of the world did.
Appearing in NBC’s My Generation‘s look back at Generation X, the former pro skateboarder recalls a moment in the early 1990s when he was introduced to an underground band’s latest single.
“I was actually in New York interviewing a band for Thrasher Magazine. Someone from the label said, ‘Hey we have this new Nirvana,’ and put it on in the room,” he recalls.
The room was filled with the punchy yet ethereal beginning to the grunge band’s biggest hit, “Smells Like Teen Spirit.”
“Everyone stopped what they were doing and everyone looked around,” Hawk, 56, recalls. “And you just knew. You knew this was it.”
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While he knew the song would be a hit, what Hawk couldn’t have known about were the ties he’d come to share with Kurt Cobain. Today, Cobain’s daughter with Hole frontwoman Courtney Love, Frances Bean Cobain, is married to Hawk’s son, Riley Hawk.
On Sept. 17, the couple welcomed their first baby, son Ronin Walker Cobain Hawk.
Frances first revealed her romance with Riley in 2022, sharing photos of him on Instagram at the time. The pair tied the knot on Oct. 7, 2023, in an intimate, Victorian-inspired ceremony officiated by R.E.M. frontman Michael Stipe, who is Frances’ godfather.
In April, Frances penned an emotional tribute to her late father on the 30th anniversary of his death, along with sharing a carousel of photos of Kurt on Instagram.
“30 years ago my dad’s life ended,” Frances Bean’s post began. “The 2nd & 3rd photo capture the last time we were together while he was still alive.”
She continued, “His mom Wendy would often press my hands to her cheeks & say, with a lulling sadness, ‘you have his hands’. She would breathe them in as if it were her only chance to hold him just a little bit closer, frozen in time. I hope she’s holding his hands wherever they are.”
Later, she added, “I wish I could’ve known my Dad. I wish I knew the cadence of his voice, how he liked his coffee or the way it felt to be tucked in after a bedtime story. I always wondered if he would’ve caught tadpoles with me during the muggy Washington summers, or if he smelled of Camel Lights & strawberry nesquik (his favorites, I’ve been told).”
“But there is also deep wisdom being on an expedited path to understanding how precious life is,” Frances Bean added. “He gifted me a lesson in death that can only come through the LIVED experience of losing someone. It’s the gift of knowing for certain, when we love ourselves & those around us with compassion, with openness, with grace, the more meaningful our time here inherently becomes.”
Learn more about the moments that made Generation X, as narrated by Ethan Hawke, on My Generation.
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