Kurt's Favorite Things
As was mentioned in his funeral pamphlet, Kurt was a huge fan of many things. A great way to feel closer to Kurt is to experience the things for ourselves. Listed below are some things he loved for you to enjoy.
Sports
If Kurt was passionate about anything, it was sports. He was a big supporter of his local teams, always making sure to celebrate the big victories of the Colorado Avalanche and the Denver Nuggets despite not being an active viewer. For the last few years, Kurt enjoyed watching Rugby with his son Brady and they both became big fans of the New Zealand All Blacks.
But more than anything, Kurt loved football. He held space in his heart for his home town teams, the Cleveland Browns and the Denver Broncos, but his favorite team of all time would be THE Ohio State Buckeyes. While he claimed watching football was relaxing, you could always tell the game was on when you could hear Kurt yelling throughout the house.
When we had to decide what clothing to have him cremated in, we knew more than anything, he'd want to leave this world representing his favorite teams. He was dressed in an All Blacks beanie, an Buckeyes t-shirt, a Browns hoodie, and Broncos crocs.
Movies
Kurt was a huge fan of movies. He most enjoyed watching comedies and comic book movies. From classic gut-busters like "Airplane" and "Blazing Saddles" to the modern day comic-book movie hits like "Captain America" and "Guardians of the Galaxy," Kurt loved to sit down with casual, feel-good films. But that doesn't mean he was against watching some dramatic films such as "The Hidden Kingdom" and his all time favorite film, "Twelve Angry Men." Kurt also had a taste for bad movies, whether that be over the top nightmares like "Suicide Squad" (which he always claimed to genuinely enjoy) to cheap "B-movies" like "Killer Piñata" and "Santa Clause Conquers the Martians." Kurt liked many movies and regularly watched them to raise his spirits during his difficult fight.
Wrestling
While he fell off at various points through his life, Kurt was a big fan of professional wrestling since he was a child. In the last few years, he used it to connect with his sons Logan and Brady. They would spend multiple hours every week watching wrestling matches, and together became such big fans that they went to local wrestling shows in town. Some of Kurt's favorite wrestlers are The Road Warriors, Kevin Owens, Bray Wyatt, Ricochet, and A. J. Styles. But his favorite wrestler of all time was Mick Foley and his various characters (Cactus Jack, Mankind, and Dude Love). If anyone wants to get into wrestling and feel closer to Kurt, a good place to start would be the 1998 King of the Ring match between Mankind and the Undertaker.
Music
Kurt was a huge fan of music. Kurt learned to play multiple instruments in his life, but the instrument he loved the most was the guitar. Kurt was a very accomplished guitarist, even working as a studio musician in college for a small studio in Las Vegas. He even recorded some original songs (which will be posted on this site at a later time).
Before the return of his cancer in 2022, Kurt and Brady set up a music room in their house with a dozen guitars and various other instruments. While Kurt loved to play guitar, due to the neuropathy from chemo, Kurt had to stop playing. As he started to adjust, he learned to play the ukulele, whose lighter strings were less painful on his fingertips.
Kurt spent a lot of his time listening to music. He had a wide range of tastes, from classic outlaw country like Johnny Cash, 80's hard rock like KISS, early 2000s pop punk like Bowling for Soup, and modern British folk rock like Frank Turner. Below are a series of playlists Kurt made on Spotify to listen to while he was going through treatment or getting an MRI.
Kurt's Spotify Playlists
Here are some links to Spotify Playlists that Kurt made and listened to throughout his cancer journey. Feel free to listen to them and think about Kurt and the music he loved.
(Warning: Playlists do include uncensored songs that may contain adult language and themes)