As many of you know, famed singer and actress Courtney Love has had highly publicized battles with drugs and alcohol. She now appears to be sober. She continues to make music and work as an actress. As you probably also know, her late husband, singer and songwriter Kurt Cobain, didn’t have such a happy ending.

That’s one of the most frustrating aspects of substance use disorder: it’s treatable. With the proper treatment, maybe Cobain could have still been performing and recording with his band Nirvana or as a solo artist. Either way, Cobain could have been around to celebrate his fiftieth birthday next year.

Cobain and Love both battled drug addiction at the same time. Not surprisingly, this led to a rocky relationship. If you have one person in a relationship who is grappling with substance use disorder, it can damage the relationship greatly. If both members of the relationship are struggling with addiction, well, you do the math.

The rockiness of the Cobain-Love relationship has led to allegations that Cobain didn’t commit suicide but that Love murdered him. There are rumors that if the couple divorced, Love wouldn’t have received much money in the divorce settlement.

Whatever really happened, it appears that drugs played a large part in their relationship troubles. Child protective services investigated Love and Cobain after their daughter was born. And regardless of how it happened, Kurt did die in 1994.

Again, though, this didn’t have to happen. Yes, a lot of rock stars and actors go to rehab, so many that some people see the phenomenon as a cliché. Would Kurt have been one of these people? Maybe. But maybe it could’ve helped him. Maybe he’d still be around.