Charles R. Cross, the beloved Seattle music writer, died on Friday, August 9 at the age of 67. Cross is best known for writing one of the definitive books on Kurt Cobain and Nirvana, Heavier Than Heaven: The Biography of Kurt Cobain, which was a New York Times bestseller when it was published in 2001, and went on to win 2002 ASCAP Award for outstanding biography. In 2005, Cross wrote his Jimi Hendrix biography, Room Full of Mirrors, which also became a bestseller and is praised for being one of the best books written about the guitar legend.

Cross was also the founding editor of Backstreets, the Bruce Springsteen fanzine, as well as serving as the editor of the celebrated Pacific Northwest music zine, The Rocket. “We are sorry to share that Charles Cross has passed,” read a statement from the author’s 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.” (Billboard)