Frances Bean Cobain Blasts Lana Del Rey for Glamorizing Death
When self-described sad girl Lana Del Rey recently told The Guardian, "I wish I was dead already," she envisioned joining the ranks of her gone-too-soon heroes like Amy Winehouse and Kurt Cobain. Tropes, tropes, tropes: the girl's got 'em.
Frances Bean Cobain, who was a 1-year-old when her father Kurt killed himself, did not like this at all, and responded to Del Rey on Twitter last night:
@LanaDelRey the death of young musicians isn't something to romanticize (cont)
— Frances Bean Cobain (@alka_seltzer666) June 23, 2014
@LanaDelRey I'll never know my father because he died young & it becomes a desirable feat because ppl like u think it's "cool"(cont)
— Frances Bean Cobain (@alka_seltzer666) June 23, 2014
@LanaDelRey Well, it's fucking not. Embrace life, because u only get one life. The ppl u mentioned wasted that life.Don't be 1 of those ppl
— Frances Bean Cobain (@alka_seltzer666) June 23, 2014
@LanaDelRey ur too talented to waste it away.
— Frances Bean Cobain (@alka_seltzer666) June 23, 2014
After feeling apparent heat from Lana Del Rey's fans, who don't seem to have a cute pet name like "lambs" or "KatyCats," but absolutely should not be referred to as "suicide girls," Cobain clarified:
I'm not attacking anyone. I have no animosity towards Lana, I was just trying to put things in perspective from personal experience.
— Frances Bean Cobain (@alka_seltzer666) June 23, 2014
Pretty classy, as Twitter blasts go. Cobain didn't even resort to, "Keep my father's name outcha mouth," or anything. Del Rey responded a few minutes ago:
@alka_seltzer666 it's all good. He was asking me a lot a out your dad I said I liked him because he was talented not because he died young-
— Lana Del Rey (@LanaDelRey) June 23, 2014
@alka_seltzer666 the other half of what I said wasn't really related to the people he mentioned/ I don't find that part of music glam either
— Lana Del Rey (@LanaDelRey) June 23, 2014
Hmmm, ok then. Clearly, Cobain was working from personal experience to make a greater point about public figures' attitudes toward death, but whatever. You judge for yourself and listen to exactly what Del Rey said because, as Pitchfork points out, Guardian writer Tim Jonze posted audio of his interview with Del Rey after she attacked his journalistic integrity in a series of now-deleted tweets that read:
I regret trusting The Guardian—I didn't want to do an interview but the journalist was persistent. Alexis was masked as a fan, but was hiding sinister ambitions and angles. Maybe he's actually the boring one looking for something interesting to write about. His leading questions about death and persona were calculated.
(By "Alexis," she's referring to Alexis Petridis, who reviewed her new album, Ultraviolence, for The Guardian, not the actual human being that she met with and spoke to for over an hour. Whoops.)
Not that there's anything wrong with being calculated when conducting an interview, but the answer sounds at least as calculated, if not more so, to shock.
The exchange went:
Jonze: Is it something that you would see as glamorous in yourself? That's quite a dark question to ask, but like, is there like a fantasy of dying young yourself that you could subscribe to?
Del Rey: Um, yeah. I mean, you know, I wish I was dead already.
Jonze: Don't say that.
Del Rey: I do!
Jonze: Aw you don't.
Del Rey: I do, yeah, I do, I, you know, I don't want to have to, like, keep doing this. You know, but I am.
Jonze: The music side...
Del Rey: Everything.
Jonze: ...being a pop star or just being alive?
Del Rey: Everything. I mean, that's just how I feel. You know, if it wasn't that way, I wouldn't say it...
Not accepting accountability for your ill-advised interview answers...hey, why, that's a trope, too!
[Images via Getty]