I don't think he could have written the same songs he wrote without the experience that he had throughout his life. Talent only goes so far. The music has to be real and resonate with people. Like when he sang "Where did you sleep last night". The end of that song could make the hair stand up on my arm.

I think often times people are very talented at something and they never get anywhere with it. Plenty of people on YouTube are great guitar players, but they end up working some regular job. They just don't have anything to say with their talent.

I think Kurt's talent for song writing did help him out a lot, but if he never listened to bands like the Beatles and the Pixies then his song writing would have been different. Also, if he never had gone through many of his struggle's the music would not have came out the same either. Every moment in his life and in our makes a difference. He just left his mark very loudly. Much louder than you or I so far.