I was 28; Thurston was 23, I think. I’d never really gone out with anyone younger than me, but I thought, “Well, why not? Nothing else has worked.

- Kim Gordon

The Moore family for Marc Jacobs © Juergen Teller 2003

There’s no secret. We’ve never sold each other out on anything. I can easily follow the allure of wanting to go out and be with the boys, and play industrial noise and smoke pot and drink, but nothing replaces the reality of our relationship. I can’t trade that for anything. I can’t think of how or where I’d be without Kim’s influence. And we’re like any couple that’s been together for close to 30 years. There’s a genuine psychophysical connection. Sometimes I feel things happening in me, and I know that something’s going on with her. When you’re married and you have that kind of connection, you become really spiritually, psychologically connected. We grew up together, in a way.

- Thurston Moore, Spin, 2008

Kim Gordon and Thurston Moore illustration for New York Magazine © Martin Ansin

I didn’t think anything of it, ‘cause I’d been set up on a couple of dates before and they’d, like, have the lights low and cheese and wine, but they knew nothing about the Ramones, and I would just be like, “l gotta get the fuck outta here.” But l do remember meeting her at this little No Wave hangout, and I remember immediately thinking that she was cool. We were talking about music and art, but I didn’t really think there was any future there, and then I saw her again in the next few days and I was attracted to her but was a little too immature and shy to make any kind of move. And she had a dog, too, that was really kind of fascinating

- Thurston Moore

Kim Gordon, Thurston Moore in Coco's bedroom at their home in Massachusetts © Aliya Naumoff

When asked in a 2007 interview with Rolling Stone, who was the coolest famous person he’d ever met, Moore answered:

It would have to be Kim G! For sure. Believe me, she was unbelievable when I first met her. She wore this sort of hip prison-stripe outfit and flip-up shades on her glasses. She had a ponytail, a little ponytail that was sort of center at the back of her head and I thought, ‘That’s the coolest fucking person I’ve ever met.’

Kim Gordon and Thurston Moore in November 1995, © John Zich/TIME LIFE

Thurston had this charismatic vibe that he put out… he has a golden glow about him, and he was cute.

- Kim Gordon

Kim Gordon & Thurston Moore, Sonic Youth at CBGB © Stephanie Chernikowski, 1983, Courtesy The Museum of Modern Art

Kim wore glasses with flip-up shades and had an Australian sheepdog named Egan. She had an off-center ponytail and wore a blue-and-white-striped shirt and pants outfit. She had beautiful eyes and the most beautiful smile and was very intelligent and seemed to have a sensitive/spiritual intellect.

She seemed to really like me. I definitely liked her, but was scared, as always, to make a move. I was afraid to kiss her. We walked around a couple of times. One night, it got late and we were eating at Leshko’s, and I think she wanted me to ask her over. I only lived up the street. So we parted. She would take the subway, staying at gallery owner Anina Nosei’s place. Before she split, she actually touched my arm (!) and said, “See you later.”

She moved into a raw railway apartment on Eldridge Street, below Grand Street. The artist Dan
Graham lived upstairs and had acquired the place for her. She invited me over one evening and I played this beat-up guitar she had. I knew the guitar because it belonged to an associate of the Coachmen gang, who left it at Jenny Holzer’s loft, where Kim had stayed, and somehow it was passed on to her. All she had was the guitar and a foam-rubber cushion for sleeping. That night was the first time we kissed.

- Thurston Moore

Kim, Coco Hayley, Thurston, photographer unknown