Nirvana Members Urge Activision to Re-lock Kurt Cobain

It's not just Kurt Cobain's widow who is disappointed that her husband can be used as a musical puppet in Guitar Hero 5. Courtney Love's rabid distaste for the licensed use of Cobain's image has been joined by a rather more sedate response by former band members, Krist Novoselic and Dave Grohl who have issued the following statement:

"We want people to know that we are dismayed and very disappointed in the way a facsimile of Kurt is used in the Guitar Hero game. The name and likeness of Kurt Cobain are the sole property of his estate - we have no control whatsoever in that area.

"While we were aware of Kurt's image being used with two Nirvana songs, we didn't know players have the ability to unlock the character. This feature allows the character to be used with any kind of song the player wants. We urge Activision to do the right thing in "re-locking" Kurt's character so that this won't continue in the future.

"It's hard to watch an image of Kurt pantomiming other artists' music alongside cartoon characters. Kurt Cobain wrote songs that hold a lot of meaning to people all over the world. We feel he deserves better."

For its part, Activision has told Kotaku, "Guitar Hero secured the necessary licensing rights from the Cobain estate in a written agreement signed by Courtney Love to use Kurt Cobain's likeness as a fully playable character in Guitar Hero 5."