In this essay, I will compare the lives of two valuable musicians in the entertainment industry, Brad Nowell and Kurt Cobain. Bradley James Nowell was born to Nancy and James Nowell on February 22, 1968. The family resided in Long Beach, California. Growing up, Brad was a bright and intelligent boy, but he didn't like school. In fact, he hated it so much that he asked his younger sister to do his homework for him. His parents had concluded that it was simply a lack of attention to one subject at a time. At the age of nine, Brad was diagnosed with attention deficit disorder and prescribed Ritalin to help control it. Kurt Donald Cobain was also diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and prescribed Ritalin. Kurt was born to Donald and Wendy Cobain on February 20, 1967 in Seattle, Washington. Kurt was also a smart boy with high hopes but also a dislike for school. Kurt's parents divorced when he was six. His mother had taken him and moved a few towns away from Seattle. He had a hard time dealing with the divorce, with the back and forth between parents and aunts and uncles. Kurt eventually started to become rebellious, unlike Brad, who actually enjoyed the alone time with each parent after their divorce. When Brad was eleven years old, his father took him on a trip to the Virgin Islands where Brad was exposed to reggae music culture. This is where most of his influences developed. He began teaching himself to play guitar and practicing reggae and punk-rock music all day, which later made him famous. Kurt, on the other hand, had discovered his influences in a different way. Growing up near Seattle, the Pacific Northwest had more of a hardcore punk-rock scene. He began smoking marijuana and taking other drugs like LSD and painkillers. Like Brad, he had started teaching himself guitar chords and starting local bands in Seattle. Kurt had also spent a lot of time reading at the local library to get more information that he knew he wouldn't learn in school. For example, he read books about American society and cultures, which influenced many of the songs he wrote that led to his fame. In 1988, Brad Nowell and bassist Eric Wilson founded the group Sublime..