"Come as You Are" is a song by American rock band Nirvana, written by frontman and guitarist Kurt Cobain.

[4] Killing Joke guitarist Geordie Walker was said to be upset about the whole situation, and he felt that Nirvana handled the matter poorly.

[5] The group recorded the song with Vig during album sessions at Sound City Studios in Van Nuys, California, in early 1991.

During the harmony overdub session, Cobain accidentally sang the phrase "And I don't have a gun" too early, appearing the fourth time he sings the word "memoria" after the guitar solo.

[2] "Come as You Are" is composed in the key of E minor, while Kurt Cobain's vocal range spans one octave and one note, from a low of E3 to a high of F♯4.

[12][13][16] After Cobain's death, Sub Pop records approached G. Alan Marlatt at the University of Washington to set up a memorial fund to establish an addiction treatment center titled the "Come as You Are" center, but the funding fell through after the record label was sold to Warner Music Group.

"[6][13] Pointing to the line "Take your time, hurry up, choice is yours, don't be late," essayist Catherine J. Creswell writes that in Cobain's lyrics, "[p]hrases clump into strings of empty clichés whose own ostensible meaning is forced into contradictions or simple rhyme sound.

Danny Goldberg, head of Nirvana's management Gold Mountain, later revealed that "[w]e couldn't decide between 'Come as You Are' and 'In Bloom.'

"[21][22] Nirvana biographer Everett True writes that "Come as You Are" was eventually chosen for release as a single because "Goldberg favoured the more obviously commercial song".

[23] It was anticipated that the first single from Nevermind, "Smells Like Teen Spirit", would be a "base-building alternative cut", while "Come as You Are" would be able to cross over into other radio formats.

[21] However, conflicting reports state that Killing Joke did file a lawsuit but that it was either thrown out of court,[32] or that it was dropped following Cobain's death.

[37] According to Nielsen Music's year-end report for 2019, "Come as You Are" was the third most-played song of the decade on mainstream rock radio with 134,000 spins.

After the unsatisfactory experience filming the "Smells Like Teen Spirit" video with Samuel Bayer, Cobain selected Kerslake due to his impressionistic style.

Cobain was unable to formulate any ideas beyond homaging the Nevermind album cover and including "a lot of purples and reds", so he let Kerslake conceptualize the video.

[40] The band shot outdoor footage in a park in Hollywood Hills a few days prior to the main video shoot.

[39] Throughout the video, clips such as cells multiplying at an incredible rate and an unborn organism in its embryonic stages are shown.

The video also features Kurt Cobain swinging violently on a chandelier as water begins to flow into the room as well as a dog wearing a cone collar trying to go down stairs, a baby swimming underwater (a reference to the cover of Nevermind), and a pistol sinking.

"[49] A cover of the song, performed by Civil Twilight, appears in the end scene of the Defiance episode Down in the Ground Where the Dead Men Go.

"[55] The song was also featured in the closing credits of the Season 2 finale of the Apple TV+ alternative history series For All Mankind.

[57][58] The song was used in the Luca Guadagnino film Queer, during the introduction of the character Eugene Allerton (played by Drew Starkey).