R.E.M.'s Michael Stipe Tried to Save Kurt Cobain's Life With Collaboration

R.E.M. singer Michael Stipe has spoken of his efforts to help save doomed Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain from his heroin addiction by attempting to record with the troubled star.

Speaking to Interview magazine, Stipe said, "I knew him and his daughter. And Courtney [Love] came and stayed at my house. R.E.M. worked on two records in Seattle and Peter Buck lived next door to Kurt and Courtney. So we all knew each other. I reached out to him with that project as an attempt to prevent what was going to happen. I was doing that to try to save his life."

Despite Stipe's best efforts, Cobain chose not to go through with the project.

"I sent him a plane ticket and a driver, and he tacked the plane ticket to the wall in the bedroom and the driver sat outside the house for 10 hours," he explained. "Kurt wouldn't come out and wouldn't answer the phone."

Stripe revealed that he not only did feel that he'd done all he could to help under the circumstances, Cobain's ongoing addiction to heroin made the R.E.M. singer very uncomfortable.

"I'm not great with heroin addicts," he said. "I tried heroin, but it was by accident. I'm not great with that level of substance abuse."

Watch R.E.M. Perform 'Drive' in Madrid