COURTNEY LOVE

'Courtney Love Cobain'^[1] (born July 9 1964) is an American rock musician and Golden Globe-nominated actress, best-known as lead singer for the now-defunct alternative rock band Hole and for her two-year marriage to Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain, who died in 1994.

Contents

Biography

Early life

Early musical career

Marriage

''Live Through This'' tour (1994)

''Celebrity Skin'' era (1996-2000)

Going solo (2001-2004)

Present day (2005-Present)

Family history

Awards

Discography

Filmography

References

External links

Biography

Early life

Courtney Love was born 'Courtney Michelle Harrison' on July 9, 1964, in San Francisco, California, where her parents first met and married.
Love then spent her childhood with her mother in Oregon, and attended various schools including a boarding school in Nelson, New Zealand.
At 15, Love travelled 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 musician Julian Cope's Toxteth, Liverpool home, 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."^[2][3]
Eventually, she would head back to the states, ending up in Portland, Oregon, still avidly pursuing music. 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.^[4]

Early musical career

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).^[5] 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''.^[6]
Love and Bjelland later formed a band called The Pagan Babies in San Francisco, with Diedre Schletter on drums and Janis Tanaka on bass.^[7] 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: Courtney briefly played bass, but was kicked out of this group as well.^[8]
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.
Love has also appeared in the music video for The Ramones' "I Wanna Be Sedated", dressed as a bride and being carried away by a man at the end of the song.
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.^[9] 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.)^[10]

Marriage

Love met Kurt Cobain at the Satyricon club in Portland in 1991, where the two reportedly became more intimately acquainted. British journalist Everett True states in the BBC documentary "The Last 48 Hours of Kurt Cobain" that it was during True's first interview with Courtney Love while drinking together that the two began wrestling on the ground and that Cobain wandered into the club, saw them, jumped on top and joined in. Love and Cobain were married on Waikiki Beach, Hawaii on February 24, 1992. On August 18 of that year, the couple's daughter, Frances Bean Cobain, was born.Azerrad, Michael. ''Come as You Are: The Story of Nirvana''. Doubleday, 1993. ISBN 0-385-47199-8
On April 8, 1994, four days before the release of Hole's breakthrough album ''Live Through This'', Kurt Cobain's body was found in his Seattle, Washington home, killed by a shotgun wound to his head. Cobain's death was officially ruled a suicide. Love read his suicide note to assembled, mourning fans at a memorial service in Seattle a few days after his body was found. She interrupted the note frequently to express her anger and extreme sorrow. Finally, Love implored Nirvana fans not to listen to Cobain's infamous final words, "It's better to burn out than fade away," a lyric from Neil Young's "Hey Hey, My My."

''Live Through This'' tour (1994)

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. ^[11]
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'':
Meanwhile, ''Live Through This'' was a commercial and critical success. ''Rolling Stone'', ''Spin'' and ''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. ^[12]

''Celebrity Skin'' era (1996-2000)

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. During this time she met and began dating Edward Norton, a relationship which 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."^[13] ''Celebrity Skin'' went on to go multi-platinum, and topped "Best of Year" lists at ''Spin'', the ''Village Voice'', and other periodicals.^[14] 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^[15] (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".^[16] 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.^[17] 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. ^[18]
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'', and was, at the time, their most popular article to date."Courtney Love does the math" "an unedited transcript of Courtney Love's speech to the Digital Hollywood online entertainment conference, given in New York on May 16, 2000." 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.^[19][20] On May 24, 2002, Hole announced their breakup amid continuing litigation with Universal Music Group.

Going solo (2001-2004)

"I need to be saved," Love told ''Rolling Stone'' magazine writer Neil Strauss during an interview in May, 2004. "I need to be fucking saved." ^[21]
On October 2, 2003, Love was arrested in Los Angeles while breaking several windows to enter her then-boyfriend, manager and producer Jim Barber's home. Barber did not press charges (Love says she had paid for the home), but the police charged her with being under the influence of a controlled substance. ^[22] Released on bail, just four hours later Love was rushed to a hospital to be treated for an accidental overdose of Oxycontin.^[23] Eight days later, on October 10, Frances Bean was taken by the L.A. County Department of Children and Family Services and placed with Wendy O'Connor, Cobain's mother.^[24]
Authorities then ordered a 72-hour hospital evaluation of Love's health, but she walked from the facility, claiming she was ready to head directly to rehab. When Love didn't attend, her lawyer issued a statement that they may move to have the police department's toxicology reports re-examined. In public appearances, Love protested her arrest, denying all charges, describing the drugs found on her as "one expired Percocet and one Ambien". The police report, however, alleged possession of Oxycontin and Hydrocodone without prescription.^[25]
In 2003, Love pleaded not guilty to felony drug charges related to possession of painkillers. In February 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. The album was a commercial flop and received a mixed reaction from critics. ''Spin'' called it a "jawdropping act of artistic will", while ''Rolling Stone'' proclaimed "For people who enjoy watching celebrities fall apart, ''America's Sweetheart'' should be more fun than an Osbournes marathon." The record was re-recorded and finished while Love was either fresh from or still undergoing drug rehab, and in its first three months the album sold about 86,000 copies, according to Nielsen Soundscan.^[26]
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, and the four women formed the core of Love's backing 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 January 2005, Love regained the custody of her daughter that she had lost in October 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.^[27][28]
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.^[29]

Present day (2005-Present)

In June 2005, three months after being released from court-ordered drug rehabilitation, Love started recording her second solo LP, titled ''Nobody's Daughter''.^[30] She began writing the new material during rehab. Song titles include "My Bedroom Walls", "Pacific Coast Highway", "Sunset Marquis", and an anti-cocaine song named "Loser Dust", among others. Former 4 Non Blondes singer Linda Perry is producing the record. Billy Corgan has also assisted Love in writing and recording some tracks. A documentary about the making of the record, entitled ''The Return of Courtney Love'', was filmed, written and produced by Will Yapp and aired on British TV network More4 on September 27, which resulted in leaking of sound clips of some of the songs off of ''Nobody's Daughter''. The first entire song to be available for downloading was "Never Go Hungry Again", recorded in a rough acoustic version during an interview for ''The Times'' in November.^[31] Audio clips from the recording of the song "Samantha" also were made available on Internet in May 2007, through an interview to NPR.org, though not in its entirety. ^[32] More recently the complete track "How Dirty Girls Get Clean" began streaming on her website.
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."^[33] On July 2, 2007 she is off to Europe, with her band.
Love has released a memoir/diary collection book, ''Dirty Blonde'', in October 2006, and her second solo album is slated for an autumn release.^[34] 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".
In recent interviews Christopher Scott, a noted Art and Fashion Photographer, has referred to Love as one of his muses. She was once the muse to the late designer Gianni Versace, another noted figure in the fashion industry. Love currently lives in L.A. with her daughter. She also has an official MySpace page and blogs at her official website www.courtneylove.com.

Family history

Love's mother Linda Carroll was adopted by an Italian-American couple at birth, retaining no contact with her birth father or her birth mother, whom she later discovered was the well-known children's writer Paula Fox (herself also adopted). Carroll penned an autobiography titled ''Her Mother's Daughter'', released in 2006, about her relationship with both adoptive mother and elder daughter.^[35]
Conflicting news stories began to appear in August 2003 regarding Love's family tree, some of them remarking that Love's mother had taken DNA tests, and that the results proved that Carroll's father was actor Marlon Brando. The news reports implied this disclosure 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." ^[36][37]

Awards

★ L.A. Outfest: Grand Jury Award - Outstanding Actress in a Feature Film, Julie Johnson, 2001

★ Chicago Film Critics Association Awards: Most Promising Actress, The People Vs. Larry Flynt, 1997

★ Golden Satellite Awards: Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture - Drama, The People Vs. Larry Flynt, 1997

★ Boston Society of Film Critics Awards: Best Supporting Actress, The People Vs. Larry Flynt, 1996

★ New York Film Critics Circle Awards: Best Supporting Actress, The People Vs. Larry Flynt, 1996

Discography

Main articles: Courtney Love Discography

Filmography

★ ''Sid and Nancy'' (1986)

★ ''Straight to Hell'' (1987)

★ ''Tapeheads'' (1988)

★ '' (1992) (documentary)

★ ''Tank Girl'' (1995) (as executive music producer)

★ ''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)

★ ''Trailer for a Remake of Gore Vidal's Caligula'' (2005) (short film)

★ ''Lovelace'' (2008)

References

1. Although some sources give Love's birth name as "Love Michelle Harrison", her listing on the ''California Birth Index'' from the Center for Health Statistics gives a birth name of "Courtney Michelle Harrison". Between adoptions from several stepfathers, she also gone by the names "Courtney Michelle Rodriguez" and "Courtney Michelle Menely". The name change to "Courtney Michelle Love" happened in early 1990s, in the beginning of her musical career and after the end of her first marriage (of which the legal records still feature the name "Courtney Michelle Menely"). According to the same statistics list above, the birth status of Courtney's 1992 born daughter, Frances Bean Cobain, already include "Love" as the mother's maiden surname.
2. Head-On/Repossessed, , Julian, Cope, Thorsons Publishers, 2000, ISBN 0-7225-3882-0
3. Julian Cope Presents Head Heritage: Drudical Q&A Miscellaneous
4. HOLE In One
5. Interview with Kat Bjelland. Edited by Liz Evans. ''Women, Sex and Rock'N'Roll: In Their Own Words''. Rivers Orum Press/Pandora List, 1994.
6. Ben Is Dead
7. Pagan Babies
8. Babes in Toyland Biography
9. Hole is a Band; Courtney Love is a Soap Opera
10. http://www.nyrock.com/features/courtneylove.htm
11. History of Women in Forest Lawn Lawn Cemetery: Kristen Pfaff
12. Nine Inch Nails Database: H
13. James Hunter reviews Celebrity Skin
14. Entry for Celebrity Skin at Acclaimed Music
15. Drown Soda: Fender Squier Vista Venus
16. Hole Tones: The Secrets Of Celebrity Skin's Smooth Sound
17. Hole / Marilyn Manson - Live Review
18. ''MTV.com'': "/ MTV news March 22, 1999". URL accessed June 18 2007.
19. Sort The 'Bastard' Out
20. COREY PARKS
21. Strauss, Neil. ''Rolling Stone'': "Queen of the Damned". May 13th, 2004. http://www.moonwashedrose.com/media/04rs3.html
22. Rocker Courtney Love Arrested, Hospitalized in LA
23. Donegan, Lawrence. ''Sunday Magazine'': "LIVE THROUGH THIS". December 2003. http://www.moonwashedrose.com/media/sundaymag03.html
24. Courtney Love Arrested After Allegedly Striking Fan With Mic Stand
25. Rock star Love arrested after gig
26. FOX News — Did Virgin Records Use Her?

27. Courtney Love Fighting For Custody Of Daughter Frances Bean
28. Courtney Love Regains Custody Of Frances Bean Cobain
29. Teary-Eyed Courtney Love Ordered Back To Rehab By Judge
30. Courtney Love Is 'Nobody's Daughter'
31. TheTimes.co.uk: Podcasts
32. Rebuilding Courtney Love, One Song at a Time
33. Courtney Is Cleared, Ready To Rock
34. Blood On The Tracks — Moonwashedrose's September 2006 Interview with Courtney Love
35. The Guardian: Sins of the mothers
36. Brando Shocks Courtney Love
37. Courtney Love Not Brando's Granddaughter

External links

★ Courtney Love's Official homepage

★ Courtney Love's Myspace

★

★ Full coverage of Courtney Love's legal troubles, from Court TV

★ Courtney Love Interview (2006) on her book ''Dirty Blonde'' by AOL Books