Charles Cross, Seattle Author Who Wrote Books on Nirvana and Jimi Hendrix, Dies at 67

Charles Cross, the celebrated Seattle music writer who penned books on Nirvana and Jimi Hendrix, and was editor of influential Pacific Northwest magazine The Rocket, died Friday, Aug. 9. He was 67.

“We are sorry to share that Charles Cross has passed,” reads a statement from his family. “He died peacefully of natural causes in his sleep on August 9th, 2024. We are all grief-stricken and trying to get through this difficult process of dealing with the next steps.”

Cross wrote nine books including Heavier Than Heaven: The Biography of Kurt Cobain, which won the 2002 ASCAP Award for outstanding biography and was one of his three New York Times bestsellers. Three years later, Cross published his 2005 bestselling Hendrix biography Room Full of Mirrors, lauded by Vibe magazine as one of the greatest-ever books on music.

His works include the 2012 book with Ann and Nancy Wilson of Rock And Roll Hall of Famers Heart, Kicking & Dreaming, also a NY Times bestseller.

A prolific writer for magazines, Cross was founding editor of Backstreets, the Bruce Springsteen fanzine, plus “a couple other short-lived leftist Northwest magazines,” he quips in his biog.

Cross climbed the ranks in the ‘80s, becoming a senior editor of The Rocket in 1982, the editor in 1986, and the publisher in the same year.

Fellow music journalist Chris Morris remembers Cross as one of the best in the business. “I am hard pressed to think of a journalist more central to the music scene in the Pacific Northwest during its most glittering era,” he writes on social media. “I’m sure many I know are as stunned by this news as I am.”

The late author’s other published works include Cobain Unseen; Here We Are Now: The Lasting Impact of Kurt Cobain; Backstreets: Springsteen The Man and His Music; Led Zeppelin: Heaven and Hell; Led Zeppelin: Shadows Taller Than Our Souls; and Nirvana: Nevermind.

Earlier this year, Cross was a guest on Charles Brownstein’s Records in My Life podcast, for which he discussed the albums that influenced him. Albums by Hendrix and Neil Young were among them. The birthplace of grunge is a place he held dear. “I can’t get away from Seattle,” he remarked.