CBA    You played Little League baseball in Washington State right?

Cobain    Yup. Around the time my parents split up I remember my father wanted me to play Little League. I didn't really want to but I did meet Matt Lukin who also played Little League with me, and a couple of other kids who shared and even inspired my interest in music. Matt was the bassist for The Melvins, a group I admired a lot.

CBA    When you played cosmic baseball for the Dharma Beats you were pretty competent with a bat in your hand.

Cobain    I didn't learn anything about batting in Little League. I got some experience with a bat in 1989 when the band [Nirvana] was on tour. We weren't a superstar band at that point and I remember staying at a place in Texas that had signs on the grass, "Beware of Alligators." So me and the boys slept with baseball bats at our sides and I remember taking a lot of practice cuts just in case I had an encounter.

CBA    Your fellow-band member Kurt Novoselic referred to those days as "Kerouwacky." Were you a fan of the Beat writer Jack Kerouac?

Cobain    Yes. The Beats were important to me. I especially grooved on the work of William Burroughs who I got to know pretty well when I played for the Dharma Beats. Allen Ginsberg and I both died on April 5. I feel spiritually connected to a lot of the Beat philosophy.

CBA    In a salon.com article David Gates wrote, "From Bob Dylan through Kurt Cobain, popular music has been essentially post-Beat poetry with electric guitars."

Cobain    The Beats were originally outsiders, not part of the system. After my parents' divorce I gravitated to the outside. Some said I became anti-social but by nature I'm a rather diffident sort of person. The Beats were most definitely outsiders. Maybe it's hard to understand that now, because the Beats are more popular, more inside then outside, at least the Beat promoters and marketers have seen to that. As my friend Burroughs said, "Kerouac opened a million coffee bars and sold a million pairs of Levis to both sexes."

CBA    Your song "Beans" was a tribute to Kerouac, right?

Cobain    Right. "Beans, beans, beans/ Jackie ate some beans/ And he was happy and naked in the woods'". The song was inspired by Kerouac's The Dharma Bums.

CBA    How did you get picked to manage the Pisces?

Cobain    On Sunday, before the Fourth of July [2000] I was contacted by Chelsea Clinton, the team's G.M. She asked if I would be interested in managing? I told her I was but that I didn't have any experience. That didn't matter. Chelsea told me the then-current manager [Anaïs Nin] was getting axed and to get on a plane to Paradise right away. I don't know what put the thought in her head that I could manage. Maybe it's because we are both February Pisces.

CBA    So it was a surprise?

Cobain    Yes, very much so. I had been waiting for someone from the Beats to call me, and maybe get a job coaching or assisting Beat manager Robert Kelly, who, by the way, is an extremely good poet.

CBA    Your wife, Courtney Love pitches for the Vestal Virgins. The Pisces are scheduled to play the Virgins next week. How is your relationship with Courtney?

Cobain    I've got to be careful here. Last week I would have spoken openly about my feelings for her. But since she will be the starting pitcher in the first game of the series I don't want to give her or her team any more motivation to beat us.

CBA    Well, it sounds like you don't have very positive feelings towards her. Do you think she played a role in your death?

Cobain    Look it, my death was not a suicide, so let me put a stop to that rumor. Obviously I know who killed me, and yes, it was murder. That private investigator, what's his name--

CBA    Tom Grant--

Cobain    --Right, Tom Grant, he's pieced together a pretty good account, but listen I don't want to get deep into this right now.

CBA    Okay. Understood. Well, thanks for your time and good luck managing the Pisces.

Cobain    Thanks man, I appreciate it.