Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain opened up about his teenage flirtation with homosexuality in a lost interview unearthed by Pbs bosses.

The troubled grunge icon, who died from a gunshot wound in 1994, spoke with music journalist Jon Savage in 1993 and discussed issues of identity, including his sexuality.

Savage and Cobain discussed his problems during high school and his feelings of alienation, and at one point the writer asked if he the rocker had problems with people thinking he was gay.

Cobain replies, "Yeah. Yeah. Even I thought I was gay, I thought that might be the solutions to my problem. Although I never experimented with it, I had a gay friend, and then my mother wouldn't allow me to be friends with him anymore because... well, she's homophobic.

"It was real devastating because I finally found a male friend who I actually hugged and was affectionate to, and we talked about a lot of things... I couldn't hang out with him anymore."

The 20-year-old audio tape of the interview has been posted on YouTube by Pbs as the latest in its Blank on Blank series.