Cesar Lorca

He thought it was a compliment…

Tobi Vail played drums in Bikini Kill, and a local singer in Olympia was falling apart over her. Her bandmate Kathleen Hanna watched the whole thing up close.

One night Hanna and the singer got drunk, and it ended at his apartment with her writing on his bedroom wall in marker. One of the things she wrote was “Kurt smells like Teen Spirit.”

That Kurt was Kurt Cobain.

Teen Spirit was Vail’s deodorant, so the line meant he smelled like her. He’d never heard of the brand, and took it as a compliment.

Months later he called and asked to use it. She said sure, because she couldn’t picture anyone fitting it into a song.
He said he didn’t know the deodorant existed until months after the single came out, and that he’d never worn deodorant in his life.