I’m absolutely devastated by the news that Charles R. Cross passed away. From Variety:

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.” /

Charles was the dean of Seattle music journalists. According to his obituary in the Seattle Times, he bought the tremendously influential local music publication The Rocket in 1986. He was at its helm in the crucial years leading up to and during the grunge explosion.

Fun fact: The Rocket was the first publication to write a cover story about a little band from Aberdeen, Washington called Nirvana, which ran in the December 1989 issue. CNN’s Larry King famously called Charles after Kurt Cobain’s death and asked him to explain grunge.

As if that weren’t enough, he also wrote stellar biographies of Seattle music icons Jimi Hendrix and Kurt Cobain, both of which are well worth reading.

Anyone who has ever been a fan of grunge, or has written about the Seattle music scene or its personalities – Scot Barbour, Greg Prato, Corbin Reiff, Mark Yarm, myself, and so many others – owes Charles a great deal of respect and gratitude.

Isaac Newton – the genius who revolutionized our understanding of the universe and invented calculus – wrote in 1675, “If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.” Today, we all stand on the shoulders of Charles R. Cross.

Godspeed, Charles, and thanks for everything.