Courtney Love

Courtney Michelle Love (born July 91964) is an American rock musician and actress, best-known as lead singer for the now-defunct alternative rock band Hole. Rolling Stone has called her "the most controversial woman in the history of rock." Love is the widow of Kurt Cobain (1967–1994), lead singer of the band Nirvana. With him she has one daughter, Frances Bean Cobain.

Courtney Love

Biography

Early life

Courtney Love was born in San Francisco, California as Courtney Michelle Harrison, the daughter of Hank Harrison and therapist Linda Carroll (née Risi). Love's mother was born to writer Paula Fox but given up for adoption to an Italian American couple who raised the (Jewish-born) daughter Catholic . Love spent her childhood with her mother as she wandered through four husbands and as many hippie communes in Oregon and at boarding school in Nelson, New Zealand. During a child-custody case following her parents' divorce, both Courtney's mother Linda and one of her girlfriends presented letters to the court implying her father had given a 4-year-old Courtney LSD. He denies this allegation and has passed polygraph tests; however, these allegations led to full custody being awarded to Linda Carroll.

A troubled, angry child, Love was a veteran of reform schools and juvenile halls by the time she was a teenager. She broke away from her family and traveled around the US, United Kingdom and Ireland, living on a trust fund established for her by her mother's adoptive parents. Her first rock musician boyfriend was Rozz Rezabek, after a fling in Liverpool with Julian Cope, the founder of The Teardrop Explodes. In her late teens she worked in Japan, Taiwan, Guam and Alaska as a stripper, a job that she would return to at several points in her life before attaining fame. At age 22 she found herself back in Portland, Oregon, then moved to Los Angeles, California in 1987 along with the band Babes in Toyland. After being fired from the band by founding member Kat Bjelland, she took up in Los Angeles with Leaving Trains, band which she briefly married the lead singer, Falling James Moreland. Viewed by some as a social climber, she bedded and/or befriended many musicians who would later become alternative rock icons, among them Michael Stipe of R.E.M. and Billy Corgan of The Smashing Pumpkins.

Musical career and marriage

Love began her professional music career with a brief stint as the lead singer of Faith No More in the early 1980s. She was kicked out of the band for being overly controlling shortly after. About this time she also played in an all-female pop-rock band called Sugar Baby Doll with Kat Bjelland and Jennifer Finch. None of their Bangles-influenced material has ever been released. Love had more early success as an actress, appearing as the best friend of Nancy Spungen in Alex Cox's Sid Vicious biopic Sid and Nancy in 1986, and in Cox's Straight to Hell in 1987, as well as some small roles on television episodes.

Returning to music in her adopted hometown of Minneapolis, Minnesota, Love claims she co-founded Babes in Toyland with Kat Bjelland, but this is denied by others; either way, acrimony between Love and Bjelland led to Love's quick exit from the band. The band's biographer claims she stole house receipts to attend a Butthole Surfers concert.

In 1989 Love formed her own band, Hole. Hole released several singles on the Long Beach, California label Sympathy for the Record Industry. The band's abrasive debut Pretty on the Inside sold well for an independent release, and was celebrated in the influential British alternative music press.

File:Cobain Love Wedding.jpg

Cobain and Love are married in Hawaii

Love met her future husband Kurt Cobain at a concert in 1989; they began dating around 1991 and, a few days after the conclusion of Nirvana's Australian tour, on February 24, 1992, Love and Cobain were married on Waikiki Beach, Hawaii. On August 18 of that year, the couple's daughter, Frances Bean Cobain, was born.

Unpopular with some Nirvana fans (comparisons to Yoko Ono were made early on and persist to this day), Love's image was further tarnished by a 1992 article in Vanity Fair entitled "Strange Love", in which it was alleged that she had continued using heroin in the early stages of pregnancy. As a result, Child Welfare Services briefly investigated the Cobains' fitness as parents, removing Frances Bean from their custody for a short period. Love claims to this day that she was misquoted, saying she had told author Lynn Hirschberg that she had stopped using it once she learned she was pregnant.

Similarly to Axl Rose, she was often ridiculed in the press for her abrasive behavior, such as cursing at paparazzi and publicly harassing Cobain's former girlfriend, folksinger Mary Lou Lord.

Shortly before the release of Hole's breakthrough album Live Through This in April 1994, Cobain was found dead, allegedly by suicide (though this has been disputed), at their home while Love was in Los Angeles promoting the album. Love read his alleged suicide note at a memorial a few days later. Clearly crying, she interrupted the note frequently to express her anger and sorrow ("Kurt, the worst crime I can think of is for you to just continue being a rock star when you fucking hate it, just fucking stop."), even inciting the crowd to call him an "asshole" for leaving everyone behind. On the audio recording that day you can hear the crowd obey. Finally, Love implored Nirvana fans not to listen to Cobain's infamous final words, "it's better to burn out than fade away" (which he cited from Neil Young's tribute to Johnny Rotten 'My My, Hey Hey').

Hole bassist Kristen Pfaff died of an apparent drug overdose two months later. She was replaced by Melissa Auf Der Maur later that year.

Life after Cobain

Love received considerable acclaim for her role as Larry Flynt's wife, Althea, in Miloš Forman's 1996 film The People vs. Larry Flynt, opposite Woody Harrelson as Flynt, and received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress. She was also praised for her supporting role in the 1998 Andy Kaufman biopic Man on the Moon, which starred Jim Carrey as Kaufman. Other notable film credits include Basquiat, 200 Cigarettes, and Feeling Minnesota.

In 1998, four years after their second album, Hole released Celebrity Skin. Rolling Stone gave the album four stars, saying "the album teems with sonic knockouts that make you see all sorts of stars. It's accessible, fiery and intimate – often at the same time. Here is a basic guitar record that's anything but basic." Celebrity Skin went on to go multiplatinum, and topped Best Of Year lists at Spin magazine, the Village Voice, and other periodicals. Erlandson was still the lead guitarist, and now there were Melissa Auf Der Maur's backup vocals, but drummer Patty Schemel was replaced by a session drummer during the recording. There have been conflicting reports from the band members over whether this was due to drug problems or enmity between Schemel and the album's producer, Michael Beinhorn.

With Hole having fallen into disarray, Love attempted to begin a "punk rock femme supergroup" called Bastard during summer/autumn of 2001, though this project never reached fruition. Hole broke up that year amid continuing litigation. In October 2001, Love performed in some solo shows as an opening act, but just almost three years later she released her first album, America's Sweetheart, which became a big flop on charts and somewhat to critics.

She is set to release her sophomore solo album, How Dirty Girls Get Clean, and the book Dirty Blonde: The Diaries of Courtney Love in late 2006.

Controversy

Since Cobain's death, conspiracy theories have circulated, alleging that he was in fact murdered at Love's instigation. This theory gained the most media attention with the release of Nick Broomfield's documentary Kurt & Courtney in 1998, which featured interviews with among others, Love's father (who accused her of being a Psychopath) and private investigator Tom Grant, who said they believed Love ordered her husband murdered, and punk singer El Duce, who claimed that Love offered him $50,000 to kill Cobain. Most of the various conspiracy theories are cogently appraised in the book "Love & Death: The Murder of Kurt Cobain" which is written by Max Wallace and Ian Halperin.

Love has been a strong critic of the music industry, especially the RIAA. In 2000, she publicly announced her admiration for Napster which, at the time, was being accused of fostering illegal file-sharing. She became known for her criticism of unfair record contracts and mistreatment of artists.

Conflicting news stories began to appear in August of 2003 regarding Love's family tree, some of them remarking that Love's mother, Linda Carroll, had taken DNA tests revealing her father to be Marlon Brando, and that these facts would appear in Carroll's then-forthcoming memoir. Later that month, however, a spokeswoman for Carroll's publisher, Doubleday, told the New York Daily News, "There was nothing in Linda Carroll's book proposal about Marlon Brando, nor will there be anything in the book about him. I've spoken to her and she has told me that there is no truth to the suggestion that she is related to Marlon Brando." The story bears a significant possibility of truth: Carroll's mother Paula Fox did, by most accounts, have an affair with Brando, but since that time the truth has yet to be confirmed by law or any of the parties involved.

File:CourtneyLoveQMagMarch2003.jpg

Cover of the March 2003 edition of Q magazine, in which Courtney Love posed nude

In 2003, Love pleaded not guilty to felony drug charges related to possession of painkillers. In February of 2004, an arrest warrant was issued for Love after she failed to appear at a preliminary hearing; the warrant was subsequently rescinded when she appeared in court on February 18. She released her first solo album, America's Sweetheart, just eight days earlier, on February 10.

Early on the morning of March 192004 Love was arrested in New York City for allegedly throwing a microphone stand and hitting a man on the head. Earlier in the night, she appeared on The Late Show with David Letterman, stepped up on the talk show host's desk saying "oh, Drew [Barrymore], you've had it," and flashed her breasts at Letterman.

On her fortieth birthday, July 92004, she missed a scheduled court appearance relating to an attempted break-in at a boyfriend's house and was found in contempt of court. Her attorney later said she missed the appearance due to medical problems; later in the month she appeared in court and was sentenced to an 18-month probation and drug rehabilitation program.

In January of 2005, Love regained the custody of her daughter that she'd lost in October of 2003, after completing a state-enforced rehabilitation program and enduring a probational period. Child welfare authorities alluded to drug addiction when responding to the press on the matter, though they didn't comment directly.

On August 192005, Love admitted using drugs in violation of her probation terms. She was ordered into a 28-day drug treatment program by a judge who initially said "my belief was that you need to go to the county jail." This program was also violated, and on September 21 she was sentenced to 6 months in lock down rehab.

In August 2005, tabloid papers such as News of the World began reporting that Love became pregnant during an affair with British actor and comedian Steve Coogan. Coogan's spokeswoman, alongside Love's publicists, have discredited the story as "nonsense."

Life After Rehab

After her release from house arrest, Love issued this statement: "I would just like to thank the court for allowing me these ninety days . . . [It] helped me deal with a very gnarly drug problem, which is behind me . . . I've just been playing guitar and taking care of my daughter. I want to [take this opportunity] to let the community know I'm doing great...I've been really inspired and have remained inspired."

Love is currently recording her second solo LP, tentatively titled How Dirty Girls Get Clean. She began writing the new material during her stay in rehab; "make no mistake, I've written these songs by myself. It's great to have good musicians, but this is me and a guitar." Song titles include "How Dirty Girls Get Clean", "Sunset Marquis", and the anti-cocaine rant "Loser Dust", among others. Those who have heard the songs say that they sound "gritty - very Janis Joplin. They are amazing".

Linda Perry has expressed interest in producing the record, and has told the media that her dedication is to "bring back the queen of rock and roll, and that's Courtney Love". Perry said of Love's post rehab progress: "[she] looks great, sounds great, [has] really great ideas [and] great songs that she's written. My job now is to make that [Courtney Love] rock and roll record that everybody's gonna love."

Rick Rubin is also attached to the project.

In May 1st, Love officially returned to stage, playing at the Gay and Lesbian Community Centre benefit at the Henry Fonda Theatre in Los Angeles. With the help of Billy Corgan and Linda Perry, she performed two of the new songs acoustically: 'Sunset Marquis' and 'Pacific Coast Highway'.

Courtney told NME that Moby would have a hand in producing the album, with Linda Perry busy with [Joss Stone]. She described the four-day recording session she had planned with him as: "In Utero style - lo-fi, no pro-tools, all old gear". This has brought relief to many fans who considered her previous effort America's Sweetheart over-produced. After showing NME some of the demos (some on CD, some in an intimate acoustic performance), they showed great enthusiasm for the new material, stating that it was "all brilliant".

Trivia

Love was named #95 in the Bernard Goldberg book 100 People Who Are Screwing Up America. Her entry simply states "HO."

Love was a fashion trendsetter. In her early career, she modelled a "kinderwhore" look, which she was accused of having imitated after Kat Bjelland. Love stated that the look was inspired by Christina Amphlett of 1980s rock group The Divinyls, most famously in a lengthy phone message recorded and subsequently released by The Muffs, who had ironically titled their album Blonder and Blonder after a sarcastic quote by Love regarding lead singer Kim Shattuck. Love's style has since evolved, and she has modelled for more sophisticated designer labels.

A fan of A Streetcar Named Desire, Love used to check into hotels under the name 'Blanche DuBois'.

Courtney is a fan of soft rock legend Stevie Nicks, and has stated she has been influenced by her, even covering Nicks' song 'Gold Dust Woman'. In fact Stevie Nicks is the second person Love mentions on her thanks list in the sleeve of 'Celebrity Skin'. Love has publicly stated that Nicks and Fleetwood Mac were an inspiration for the Californian-rock theme that she had in mind for 'Celebrity Skin'.

As Kurt Cobain did in 1994, creating the design of Fender Jag-Stang, Love also had a personal line of guitars. Through Fender's low-price sub-brand Squier, she co-designed Vista Venus, an electric guitar with shape inspired on Mercury, Stratocaster and Rickenbacker's solidbodies and which had a single and a humbucker pickups. In an early 1999 interview, Love said about the Venus: "I wanted a guitar that sounded really warm and pop, but which required just one box to go dirty (...) And something that could also be your first band guitar. I didn't want it all teched out. I wanted it real simple, with just one pickup switch. Because I think that cultural revolutions are in the hands of guitar players". She also declared thinking "my Venus is better than the Jag-Stang". The Squier Vista Venus model is currently discontinued.

At age 24, Love committed herself to Buddhism through Nichiren Shoshu lineage, and started chanting the mantra nam-myoho-renge-kyo allegedly for dropping out of heroin, finding a band and a husband. She stopped practicing by the time Hole was rising to fame, but returned to the religion after Kurt Cobain's death. Love, this time practicing Tibetan Buddhism, spent two weeks in Namgyal temple in Ithaca, New York and left part of her husband's ashes for making deity statues named tsatsas. Some time later, Love returned to Nichiren Shoshu and introduced Hole's guitar player, Eric Erlandson, to Buddhism. After shooting the movie The People vs. Larry Flynt and doing the tour of the third album of her band, Love dropped out of the religion for the second time. By the time America's Sweetheart was released, she declared using to go to a Baptist church in New York. In late 2005, while in rehab, Love told journalist Jolie Lash in an interview that she is a Buddhist again, and the religion is helping her to focus on her career and overcome her drug problem.

Love is a rival of Inger Lorre, singer/founder of the seminal Los Angeles band, The Nymphs, who were also signed to Geffen Records in the early 90s.

Has had numerous public disputes with Madonna.

Was engaged to Edward Norton in the late nineties. Courtney told Spin that she would have been "happier if I married Edward. I'll regret that to my dying day".

According to Neil Strauss's book The Game, at some point before 2005, Courtney Love spent a good amount of time staying at the mansion called "Project Hollywood" where Pick-Up Artists such as the famous "Mystery" resided.

Love was cast to star as legendary cowgirl Texas Guinan in the story of her life, called Hello Sucker!. The film was never made.

There was a late 80s/early 90s Olympia band named Courtney Love that existed before Love's own music career took off. The band released three records on the Kill Rock Stars record label. They named themselves after her based on the strength of her early acting roles and general persona.

Discography

File:CourtneyLove-album-americassweetheart.jpg

Cover of Courtney Love's solo album, America's Sweetheart.

Albums

With Hole

• Pretty on the Inside (1991)
• Live Through This (1994)
• Ask for It (EP) (1995)
• My Body, the Hand Grenade (1997)
• The First Session (EP) (1997)
• Celebrity Skin (1998)

Solo

• America's Sweetheart (2004)
• How Dirty Girls Get Clean (set to late 2006)

Singles

With Hole

• "Dicknail" (1991)
• "Retard Girl" (1991)
• "Teenage Whore" (1991)
• "Beautiful Son" (1993)
• "Miss World" (1994)
• "Doll Parts" (1995)
• "Violet" (1995)
• "Softer, Softest" (1995)
• "Gold Dust Woman" (1996)
• "Celebrity Skin" (1998)
• "Malibu" (1998)
• "Awful" (1999)
• "Be a Man" (2000)

Solo

• "Mono" (2004)
• "Hold on to Me" (2004)

Filmography

• Sid and Nancy (1986)
• Straight to Hell (1987)
• Tapeheads (1988)
• 1991: The Year Punk Broke (1992) (documentary)
• Basquiat (1996)
• Feeling Minnesota (1996)
• The People vs. Larry Flynt (1996)
• Not Bad for a Girl (1996) (documentary) (also co-producer)
• Off the Menu: The Last Days of Chasen's (1997) (documentary)
• Kurt & Courtney (1998) (documentary)
• 200 Cigarettes (1999)
• Man on the Moon (1999)
• Beat (2000)
• Bounce: Behind the Velvet Rope (2000) (documentary)
• Julie Johnson (2001)
• Last Party 2000 (2001) (documentary)
• Trapped (2002)
• Mayor of the Sunset Strip (2003) (documentary)
• (This Is Known As) The Blues Scale (2004) (documentary)
• Darling , I Hate Money (2006) (currently in production)
• Lovelace (2007) (currently in production)

External links

• FILM: Courtney , The Dominator
• Courtney Love's Official homepage
• Courtney Love All Music Guide Page
• Courtney Love at IMDb