As could be said for most anyone whom has ever picked up an instrument or microphone. The Pixies were influenced and included elements from all sorts of previous genre and artists. They were not making something out of thin air from scratch.
When you consider one of the attributes of grunge was the heavy distortion and contrasting sound dynamics being made, it could be said that Jimi Hendrix was the grunge of his time in that regard. Not the first, but the one that made others take further notice and by doing so the approach gained popularity and others followed. Was he a great tactician on the strings absolutely, but was it over blown comparatively as well like Cobain? I mean without the newly created (few years) wah-wah pedal (heck pedals in general were pretty much new at the time), would he even had stood out as much? Surely someone else would have came along and created the same or quite similar sound via just simple experimentation with the new technologies and what they allowed as they came about. This coupled with a confidence to move forward in divination from the norm of others at the time, surely there would have been someone else. He was certainly not the first even to mess with distortion, people were fucking with amplifiers and poking holes in speakers along with all manner of techniques for distortion 20 years before Hendrix broke out.
Hendrix, like Cobain came along at the right time with the right mix of attributes and became the influence in a moment in time. And like Cobain upon death, the persona gained even further when coupled with the drugs and counterculture attitudes, each took on a myth and legend of their own.
Similar to Cobain also. He didn't have a mainstream look (hair colors, etc), not attractive to most, certainly had passion and soul, championed a cause at the time with his songs and was socially relevant even though he didn't care to be.
For the vast majority of people across the world, this holds true. The songs the record companies push and the radio stations play (movies use, etc) is the only encounter most will have with any band, group, music. This is not unique to nirvana, its common with any music or artist for the majority of people.
