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Courtney Michelle Love (born Courtney Michelle Harrison on July 9, 1964) is an American rock musician and Golden Globe-nominated actress. Love is best known as lead singer, songwriter and lyricist for the now-defunct alternative rock band Hole and for her two-year marriage to late Nirvana lead singer Kurt Cobain. Rolling Stone has called Love "the most controversial woman in the history of rock". Love her or loathe her, the opinionated, brutally straightforward, and seemingly always controversial Courtney Love is one of the most notable figures in alternative rock. Born on July 9, 1964 in San Francisco, CA, Love was raised in Oregon. As a teen, Love began listening to new wave and punk, musical styles that would influence her band Hole. Courtney Michelle Harrison was born in San Francisco, California to a family of Irish/Pakistani and Jewish descent. Love's biological family broke apart rapidly while she was still very young. During a child custody case following Love's parents' divorce, both her mother and one of her girlfriends presented letters to the court implying her father had given the child, then three years old, LSD. Harrison denies this allegation and has passed polygraph tests; however, these allegations led to full custody being awarded to Love's mother. Love then spent a troubled childhood with her mother as she wandered through three husbands and as many hippie communes in Oregon, and various schools including Nelson College for Girls in New Zealand where she boarded. Before arriving in New Zealand, Love had been left in the United States with a therapist, while her mother, the new husband and her half-sisters went on ahead; when she was sent for, Love was sent to the boarding school in Nelson. While in boarding school, Love wrote poetry, joined a Bay City Rollers fan club, and, at the age of 12 (once back in the U.S., ostensibly), applied to join the Mickey Mouse Club; she was rejected after reading a poem by Sylvia Plath at the audition. Love claimed that she was also in a sexual relationship with Ted Nugent in the 1970s, giving oral sex to him when she was just 12 years old. At 16, Love emancipated herself from her family and traveled around the U.S., England and the Republic of Ireland, living on a trust fund established for her by her mother's adoptive parents. During her time in England, Love met, befriended, and moved into the Toxteth, Liverpool, home of musician Julian Cope of The Teardrop Explodes, and became a regular face at rock shows. In his autobiography Head-On, Cope doesn't use her name, but refers to her as "the adolescent". After traveling to countries like Ireland, Japan, and England, Love moved to Los Angeles, CA. In 1986, Love appeared as Nancy Spungen's best friend in Sid and Nancy, director Alex Cox's film about Sex Pistols bassist Sid Vicious and his lover Spungen. Love was also cast in Cox's Straight to Hell. Neither picture brought Love the stardom that she craved. Eventually, she headed back to the United States, ending up in Portland, Oregon, still avidly pursuing music. Love supported herself by working as a stripper. Love's first rock-musician boyfriend was Rozz Rezabek of the Portland band Theatre of Sheep, who had an affair with her while she was still underage. Though the two wrote each other copious love letters, Love has said in many interviews that he did not take her virginity; she claims her first sexual encounter was a one-night stand with Michael Mooney, a sometimes-guitarist for Echo & the Bunnymen and later to Spiritualized. Love began her professional music career with a brief stint as the lead singer of Faith No More. Keyboardist Roddy Bottum described the band at the time as "democratic", saying that Love's dominating personality did not fit in. The two artists have remained friends, working together recently in 2005 on a track for the film Adam & Steve. At age 22, Love moved back to Portland, then on to Los Angeles in 1987 with fellow musician Kat Bjelland, beginning a period in which Love would form bands with Bjelland only to be ousted by her from each. The pair first formed a band in L.A. with Jennifer Finch called Sugar Baby Doll (alternately Sugar Babylon). During this time Love and Bjelland began to dress alike, wearing dirty Babydoll dresses, plastic girl's hair clips, ripped stockings and overdone, often smeared makeup. An argument between the two raged over who had come up with their signature style, later dubbed Kinderwhore. Love claimed that she took the style from Christina Amphlett of 1980s Australian rock group, Divinyls, in an interview in the Los Angeles fanzine Ben Is Dead. Love and Bjelland later formed a band called The Pagan Babies in San Francisco, with Deidre Schletter on drums and Janis Tanaka on bass. The band recorded a demo of four tracks, then ejected Love and renamed themselves Italian Whorenuns. Lastly, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Bjelland started what ultimately would become her longest-running band, Babes in Toyland. Love briefly played bass, but was kicked out of this group as well. 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. In 1989, Love taught herself to play guitar and set out to form her own band. To do so, she placed an ad in an issue of Flipside, to which Eric Erlandson replied. Love and Erlandson co-founded Hole and are the only two members to remain constant throughout the band's history. The group made their first gig in November 1989, after three months of rehearsal, and quickly started releasing singles on the Long Beach, California, independent label Sympathy for the Record Industry. The band's debut album Pretty on the Inside was released in early 1991 on Caroline Records and was produced by Sonic Youth's Kim Gordon and Don Fleming of the band Gumball. It sold well for an independent release and received ecstatic reviews in the influential British alternative music press. During this period, she befriended many influential figures in the alternative rock scene, including Michael Stipe of R.E.M. and Billy Corgan of Smashing Pumpkins (whom she briefly dated). Love met Kurt Cobain on January 12, 1990, in Portland, Oregon's Satyricon club before fame hit, when the two singers still led underground rock bands. Love made advances afterwards, but Cobain was evasive. Early in their courtship Cobain broke off dates and ignored Love's advances because he wasn't sure he wanted to consummate their relationship. Cobain noted, "I was determined to be a bachelor for a few months But I knew that I liked Courtney so much right away that it was a really hard struggle to stay away from her for so many months." Love lived a block away from the Los Angeles apartment complex where the band resided during the recording of their second album, Nevermind. Love would stop by often, later saying, "We bonded over pharmaceuticals." They would hook up again in May of 1991 at a Butthole Surfers concert. In November 1991, when Hole and Nirvana both happened to be touring Europe at the same time, they hooked up for good. Love and Cobain were married on Waikiki Beach in Honolulu, Hawaii, on February 24, 1992. Six months later, on August 18 of that year, the couple's daughter, Frances Bean Cobain, was born. On April 8, 1994, four days before the release of Hole's album Live Through This, Kurt Cobain's body was found in his Seattle, Washington home, killed by a self-inflicted shotgun wound to his head. Two days later, mourning fans assembled at a memorial service in Seattle. During the memorial, a recording was played of Love reading from Cobain's suicide note, as she felt portions were addressed to his fans. In the message, Love interrupted the note frequently to express her anger and extreme sorrow, telling Cobain that, if he hated it so much, he should just "quit being a rock star". At one point, Love asks everyone at the memorial to call Cobain an "asshole"; on the recording from that day, one can hear the crowd obey. Finally, Love implored Nirvana fans not to listen to Cobain's final words, "it's better to burn out than fade away," a lyric taken from Neil Young's "My My, Hey Hey". The band was struck by disaster again when bassist Kristen Pfaff died of an apparent heroin overdose on June 16, 1994, just two months after Cobain's death and the new album's release. A few months later, Love told MTV's Kurt Loder, "You know ... people go back to work. This is what I do. I gotta make a living." Hole recruited 22-year-old bassist Melissa Auf der Maur (on Corgan's recommendation) to fill in for Pfaff, and took Hole on the road, appearing at the Reading Festival in England. The band's performance was written up by broadcaster John Peel in The Guardian: “ Courtney's first appearance backstage certainly caught the attention. Swaying wildly and with lipstick smeared on her face, hands and, I think, her back, as well as on the collar of her dress, the singer would have drawn whistles of astonishment in Bedlam. After a brief word with supporters at the foot of the stage, she reeled away, knocking over a wastebin, and disappeared. Minutes later she was onstage giving a performance which verged on the heroic...Love steered her band through a set which dared you to pity either her recent history or that of the band...the band teetered on the edge of chaos, generating a tension which I cannot remember having felt before from any stage. ” Meanwhile, Live Through This was a commercial and critical success. Rolling Stone, Spin and the Village Voice all declared it "Album of the Year", and by November the record was certified gold. By April 1995, it went platinum. Hole next embarked on a tour opening for Nine Inch Nails. 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. She received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress in a Drama and a New York Film Critics Circle Award for best supporting actress. During this time she met and began dating Edward Norton, a relationship which after four years would become her longest yet. The two were engaged, but ultimately broke up. In 1998, Hole released Celebrity Skin. Rolling Stone gave the album four out of a possible five 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 multi-platinum, and topped "Best of Year" lists at Spin, the Village Voice, and other periodicals. Erlandson was still the lead guitarist, and now there were Melissa Auf der Maur's backup vocals and bass, but drummer Patty Schemel was replaced by a session drummer during the recording. Around this time, Love created with Fender's low-price sub-brand Squier her personal line of guitars, Vista Venus (as Cobain did in 1994, doing the design of his Fender Jag-Stang). The instrument featured a shape inspired by Mercury, Stratocaster and Rickenbacker's solidbodies and had a single-coil and a humbucker pickup. 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, "my Venus is better than the Jag-Stang". The Squier Vista Venus model is currently discontinued, as is the Jag-Stang as of 2006. Hole toured Australia in 1999 to support the album, then hit the U.S. on an ultimately failed co-headlining tour with Marilyn Manson. The two bands often mocked each other on stage. Hole eventually dropped off the tour, citing their obligation to pay 50% of Manson's staging costs as a major reason. The singers of both bands told MTV there was no personal animosity, and they were happy to end the tour. Hole finished off the year's dates with Imperial Teen opening. In May 2000, Love spoke in New York at the Digital Hollywood online entertainment conference, giving a speech criticizing the major American record labels. The speech was then reproduced on the news site Salon.com[36], and was, at the time, their most popular article to date. In the speech, Love accused the major labels of devising a corrupt system of recording contracts to make the labels millions, while the band itself "may as well be working at a 7-Eleven." With Hole fallen into disarray, Love attempted to begin a "punk rock femme supergroup" called Bastard during summer/autumn of 2001, enlisting Schemel, Veruca Salt frontwoman Louise Post, and bassist Gina Crosley, whom Post recommended. Though a demo was completed, the project never reached fruition: conflicts between Love and Crosley, then between Love and replacement bassist Corey Parks from Nashville Pussy, reportedly led to the group's demise. On May 24, 2002, Hole announced their breakup amid continuing litigation with Universal Music Group. Around this time, Love created with Fender's low-price sub-brand Squier her personal line of guitars, Vista Venus (as Cobain did in 1994, doing the design of his Fender Jag-Stang). The instrument featured a shape inspired by Mercury, Stratocaster and Rickenbacker's solidbodies and had a single-coil and a humbucker pickup. 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, "my Venus is better than the Jag-Stang". The Squier Vista Venus model is currently discontinued, as is the Jag-Stang as of 2006. Hole toured Australia in 1999 to support the album, then hit the U.S. on an ultimately failed co-headlining tour with Marilyn Manson. The two bands often mocked each other on stage. Hole eventually dropped off the tour, citing their obligation to pay 50% of Manson's staging costs as a major reason. The singers of both bands told MTV there was no personal animosity, and they were happy to end the tour. Hole finished off the year's dates with Imperial Teen opening. In May 2000, Love spoke in New York at the Digital Hollywood online entertainment conference, giving a speech criticizing the major American record labels. The speech was then reproduced on the news site Salon.com[36], and was, at the time, their most popular article to date.[citation needed] In the speech, Love accused the major labels of devising a corrupt system of recording contracts to make the labels millions, while the band itself "may as well be working at a 7-Eleven." With Hole fallen into disarray, Love attempted to begin a "punk rock femme supergroup" called Bastard during summer/autumn of 2001, enlisting Schemel, Veruca Salt frontwoman Louise Post, and bassist Gina Crosley, whom Post recommended. Though a demo was completed, the project never reached fruition: conflicts between Love and Crosley, then between Love and replacement bassist Corey Parks from Nashville Pussy, reportedly led to the group's demise. On May 24, 2002, Hole announced their breakup amid continuing litigation with Universal Music Group. On August 19, 2005, Love admitted using drugs in violation of her probation. 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 six months in lock down rehab. On February 3, 2006, Love was released from house arrest and issued the following statement: "I would just like to thank the court for allowing me these 90 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." On July 2, 2007 she is off to Europe, with her band. In early 2004, just as she had completed her first batch of songs, Love contacted ex-Hole drummer Samantha Maloney asking her to fly to France (after drummer Patty Schemel departed for the second time) and add drums to Love's otherwise complete solo debut, America's Sweetheart. Returning to the States, Maloney was put in charge of assembling Love's live band. After a world wide search and countless auditions Maloney reconnected with guitarist Radio Sloan, found guitarist Lisa Leveridge, bassist Dvin Kirakosian, and the four women formed the core of Love's backing band. Violinist Emilie Autumn later joined the band. After playing with the band for only a few weeks Love decided to call her new band "The Chelsea” after Maloney's previous endeavour. In early 2004, just as she had completed her first batch of songs, Love contacted ex-Hole drummer Samantha Maloney asking her to fly to France (after drummer Patty Schemel departed for the second time) and add drums to Love's otherwise complete solo debut, America's Sweetheart. Returning to the States, Maloney was put in charge of assembling Love's live band. After a world wide search and countless auditions Maloney reconnected with guitarist Radio Sloan, found guitarist Lisa Leveridge, bassist Dvin Kirakosian, and the four women formed the core of Love's backing band. Violinist Emilie Autumn later joined the band. After playing with the band for only a few weeks Love decided to call her new band "The Chelsea” after Maloney's previous endeavour. Love has released a memoir/diary collection book, Dirty Blonde, in October 2006, and her second solo album is slated for release sometime in 2008. She also collaborated with DJ Milky and Ai Yazawa to make the manga Princess Ai. On June 1, 2007, Love made her stage comeback in a not-so-secret gig, by the end of a Linda Perry show at House of Blues in Los Angeles. With Perry and the producer's backup band, she performed the songs "Nobody's Daughter", "Sunset Marquis", "Pacific Coast Highway" and "Letter to God". On July 23, 2007, Love added the first song to her MySpace page, titled "Dirty Girls", followed by a piano and vocal only demo of "Sunset Marquis". Also in 2006, she reportedly sold 25% of Nirvana’s catalogue for fifty million dollars. Love claims that twenty million dollars was embezzled from her by members of her entourage leaving her on the verge of applying for food stamps. In recent interviews Christopher Scott, a noted Art and Fashion Photographer, has referred to Love as one of his muses. Also, she has worked with photographer David LaChapelle, appearing on the cover of his book 'Heaven to Hell' depicting the pieta. Love announced in April 2007 that "I'm going to have a Christie's auction," to hock the bulk of late husband Kurt Cobain’s belongings with a portion going to charity. In October 2007 it was announced that Love will be executive producer for the upcoming Universal Pictures film version of Heavier Than Heaven, a biography by Charles R. Cross detailing her late husband's life. |
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