I wrote the below profile of local music journalist Charles R. Cross for the University of Washington Daily. It was originally published on July 14, 2004. Charles Cross passed away Aug. 9, 2024. He was 67. This profile is being republished in his honor.
Rocketman on the life of the press
The UW campus is rich in musical tradition and has spawned many of the key players who helped Seattle make its mark on the musical landscape in the 1990s. The countless notable alumni are like a laundry list of well-known names from the grunge era.
There’s Mudhoney vocalist Mark Arm, former Soundgarden guitarist Kim Thayil, Kurt Danielson (better known as TAD), Ken Springfellow, Posies vocalist, Jonathan Poneman, CEO of indie label Sup Pop, and then there’s Charles R. Cross.
Since leaving UW, Cross, an alumnus who graduated with a B.A. in English in 1981, has become one of the most prolific rock journalists to come out of Seattle. He has been published in the pages of Rolling Stone, Esquire, Revolver, Playboy, Q Magazine and many other national, regional and international publications.
Cross has also written and co-authored four books and served as editor and publisher of The Rocket, the now-defunct biweekly music and entertainment magazine that was a staple of the Northwest music scene in the 1980s and ’90s.
His mastery of the written word has earned him critical praise outside the world of journalism. His most recent book, a biography of Kurt Cobain titled Heavier Than Heaven, is considered one of the definitive rock biographies of all time.
The book was given the Timothy White Award for outstanding musical biography by the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers. He has also written books about Bruce Springsteen and Led Zeppelin and is working on a biography of another Seattle rock icon, Jimi Hendrix. The biography-in-progress will be titled Room Full of Mirrors.
Cross spent five years at the UW while earning his degree in creative writing; five years he described as “the best years of my life.” Most of Cross’ time on campus was spent in the Communications Building. He served as editor of The Daily in winter of 1979. This also meant, like many aspiring Husky journalists, putting together a newspaper often took priority over going to class.
“For me going to college was more of a rite of passage where I met some of my best friends and occasionally went to class,” Cross said.
Cross has good memories of the time he spent away from his journalistic duties attending class. He still fondly remembers a literature class taught by professor Willis Konick in which he read War and Peace and other classics.
“It made me look at Stendahl’s The Red and the Black entirely differently,” he said of the class, which is still offered and taught by Konick.
When not engaged in high-brow literature, Cross spent hours in Suzzallo Library reading works by French existentialists, new journalists such as Hunter S. Thompson and articles in Seattle Magazine, a local magazine which is no longer published. All of these sources have had an influence on Cross’ writing style.
“[Seattle Magazine] gave me the idea that there was quality journalism to be found in Seattle,” he said.
Through those readings, he discovered a maxim he still uses today.
“Great journalism is made by people who represent something,” Cross said.
That ideal was something he carried over to The Rocket, where he and the staff of the magazine were able to promote local music in a burgeoning Northwest scene.
The magazine was one of the major forces responsible for breaking local bands that went on to become platinum-selling groups. It was the first publication to put Nirvana on its cover and Nirvana’s logo was produced on The Rocket’s typesetting machine.
“We were encouraging local bands to create original music during a time when no one else in Seattle was,” Cross said. “Our reputation was such as we were talking with integrity.”
When he attended the release party for Nevermind, Nirvana’s major-label debut, Cross predicted the album would sell 100,000 copies. For those in attendance this was a wildly exaggerated number and Cross was laughed at for his bold prediction.
After leaving The Rocket, Cross put the finishing touches on Heavier Than Heaven, which was released in 2001 and almost immediately found a spot on The New York Times bestseller list. His work for the book involved more than 400 interviews spread across a four-year period.
As part of his research for the book, he was given permission to rummage through a duffle bag of Cobain’s personal belongings. Inside that duffle bag were Cobain’s journals, which have now been published in book form. He called having access to the unseen material a “journalistic coup,” and reading Cobain’s private thoughts years before they were made public was an emotional experience for Cross.
“At times I was moved to tears by reading his pleas to his God, asking to be able to kick drugs,” Cross said. “There’s no way any human being can read that and not break down. It was heartbreaking to realize how sad he was.”
Because it would be difficult to write a biography about Cobain without exploring subjects such as depression, suicide and drug use, Cross addressed these issues in a candid manner in Heavier Than Heaven.
Cobain’s popularity drew many young readers to the book, and Cross has since received hundreds of letters from parents thanking him for how he handled the topics. Many of the parents wrote to let Cross know because of his book they were able to have open discussions with their kids about drugs and suicide. Cross said the response has been one of the most personal rewards of his career.
“The great thing about being a journalist is that the work you do matters, it makes a difference in people’s lives,” he said. “Or, at the very least, it entertains people.”
