Roger "Buzz" Osborne (born March 25, 1964), also known as King Buzzo, is the guitarist/vocalist/songwriter and the only remaining founding member of the Melvins. Osborne is also a founding member/guitarist for both Fantômas and Venomous Concept. He was also a high school friend of Kurt Cobain and the bassist for Cobain's first band, Fecal Matter, in 1986. His large, frizzy, afro-like hair lends him a distinctive appearance.

Osborne resides in Hollywood with his wife Mackie.

In the early 1980s Osborne founded the Melvins with Matt Lukin and Mike Dillard who all attended Montesano High School (Wheeler Building) in Montesano, Washington, where he graduated in 1983. In the beginning the Melvins played The Who and Jimi Hendrix covers but began playing fast hardcore punk after Osborne was introduced to bands such as Black Flag, Flipper, and Millions of Dead Cops by a friend from out of state. When Dillard left the band in 1984, Dale Crover was recruited out of an Iron Maiden-cover band, and the band's rehearsals moved to a back room of Crover's parents house in Aberdeen, Washington. They began to play slower and "heavier" songs.

Kurt Donald Cobain (February 20, 1967 – April 5, 1994) was an American singer-songwriter, musician and artist, best known as the lead singer and guitarist of the grunge band Nirvana. Cobain formed Nirvana with Krist Novoselic in Aberdeen, Washington in 1985 and established it as part of the Seattle music scene, having its debut album Bleach released on the independent record label Sub Pop in 1989.

After signing with major label DGC Records, the band found breakthrough success with "Smells Like Teen Spirit" from its second album Nevermind (1991). Following the success of Nevermind, Nirvana was labeled "the flagship band" of Generation X, and Cobain hailed as "the spokesman of a generation". Cobain, however, was often uncomfortable and frustrated, believing his message and artistic vision to have been misinterpreted by the public, with his personal issues often subject to media attention. He challenged Nirvana's audience with its final studio album In Utero (1993).

During the last years of his life, Cobain struggled with heroin addiction, illness and depression. He also had difficulty coping with his fame and public image, and the professional and lifelong personal pressures surrounding himself and his wife, musician Courtney Love. On April 8, 1994, Cobain was found dead at his home in Seattle, the victim of what was officially ruled a suicide by a self-inflicted shotgun wound to the head. The circumstances of his death at age 27 have become a topic of public fascination and debate. Since their debut, Nirvana, with Cobain as a songwriter, has sold over 25 million albums in the U.S. alone, and over 50 million worldwide.