Eddie Vedder recalls events leading up to Kurt Cobain's death

Kurt Cobain tragically died April 5, 1994, but the Nirvana icon had a scare weeks prior that shook Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder to his core.

On March 4, 1994, Cobain was rushed to a Rome hospital in "a drug-induced coma" that lasted 20 hours after ingesting 50 Rohypnol pills. He had been found in his hotel room by wife Courtney Love.

"I think I went to get a pack of smokes at the gas station and in the paper was the thing about Kurt almost dying," Vedder, 56, recalled in his Audible Original "I Am Mine," exclusively relayed by People. "He was in Italy. He took too many pills or something, And by the time I got home, I had a freakout, like a crazy breakdown, just going like 'No, no, no.'"

Vedder added: "I couldn't imagine the planet without him on it. I was totally terrified, and I didn't even know him that well and we only had a few conversations or passing by here and there and a couple of voicemails or whatever. Man, I just thought like, 'Oh please don't let that be true. And please don't let that be true. And then he survived that. And I was so grateful."

Cobain, 27, died by suicide one month later. His body was discovered by an electrician installing a security system in Cobain's Seattle home. He had been missing for six days.

Cobain left behind Love, whom he married in 1992, and their daughter, Frances Bean, who is now 29 years old.