Photo courtesy of Activision

The ‘Guitar Hero’ series of games has always managed to stay in the videogame market by aggressively acquiring certain properties; the recent announcement of the likeness of post-punk icon and Nirvana front man Kurt Cobain appearing in Guitar Hero 5 is probably the most controversial decision in the series so far. The inclusion of Cobain in the Guitar Hero series was a Herculean task; according to Tim Riley, Activision’s Vice President of Music Affairs, it was a three-year process, but it wasn’t the legendary feud between Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl and Cobain’s wife and Hole front woman Courtney Love that delayed the Cobain avatar in the Guitar Hero series, it was all about timing:

But it was about timing, not an issue of resistance. We almost did it for World Tour, but we couldn’t get it together. Then after three years of working with the different parties, it was like the perfect storm.

The Kurt Cobain avatar (in action here) is set to appear alongside avatars of other artists, including Carlos Santana, Shirley Manson of Garbage, Matt Bellamy of Muse and the ‘man in black’ himself, Johnny Cash. Guitar Hero 5 is set to release on September 1.

If the Kurt Cobain avatar strumming along to ‘Lithium’ in Guitar Hero 5 is enough to encourage young Guitar Hero fans to put down the plastic guitars and enjoy the music of Nirvana, it will have served it’s purpose. One nagging concern I have about the  Kurt Cobain avatar is the outside chance that Cobain’s daughter Frances Bean will encounter the avatar at some point in the near future. It just seems that experiencing Nirvana’s music through Guitar Hero would end up becoming a surreal experience for the daughter of a music legend. Although it might not be as surreal as Natalie Cole’s duet with her father.