Charles R. Cross, Music Journalist Who Wrote Heralded Kurt Cobain Biography and Edited Seattle’s Alt-Weekly the Rocket, Dies at 67
variety.comChris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Charles R. Cross, a Seattle-based music journalist who edited the city’s preeminent alt-weekly, the Rocket, and penned bestselling biographies of Kurt Cobain, Jimi Hendrix and other major rock figures, died Friday at age 67. “We are sorry to share that Charles Cross has passed,” the writer’s family said in a statement. “He died peacefully of natural causes in his sleep on August 9, 2024.
We are all grief-stricken and trying to get through this difficult process of dealing with the next steps.” Among those mourning Cross was veteran Los Angeles Times rock critic and biographer Robert Hilburn, who wrote on the X platform that Cross’ heralded book “Heavier Than Heaven: A Biography of Kurt Cobain” was “high on my short-list of best music biographies ever.” Said Hilburn, “He was as warm and gracious as he was a passionate and compelling writer.” Said his longtime agent, Sarah Lazin, “I’m stunned and devastated.
We worked together — and were friends — for 30 years, starting with ‘Heavier Than Heaven,’ which is still in print all over the world 20-plus years later.
We did many books together, and most recently sold, with Laura Nolan, a co-agent at Aevitas Creative Management, his next project, a memoir featuring his beloved Seattle.
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