Love Courtney 

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On March 14^th, 1995, my friend Josh Kaye and I grabbed tickets to go see Hole at The Edge in Orlando, Florida.  It was one of the first shows that Courtney Love and her band played after the death of her husband, Kurt Cobain, nearly one year earlier.  This was the closest I could get to seeing Kurt and Nirvana and I was super excited to see the show.  To see Courtney, and no, I don’t think she had anything to do with his death.  I think that conspiracy makes people feel better about the untimely death of our John Lennon. Like, he didn’t leave us, he was taken away. 

I wrote about the show for my Community College newspaper called “The Paper”.  We were super creative or mostly high or just lazy. I wrote about Love that night, “she stood unabashed at the precipice of anticipation”.  I was super creative or mostly high or just lazy.  After the first song she asked a kid in the front row to turn his shirt inside out.  He was just in front of Josh and I, standing stage right.  His shirt had a picture of Cobain on it.  She screamed at him, “I don’t wanna stare at my dead husbands face all night!”  Eventually he obliged but Love was clearly agitated from that moment on.  She implored that the crowd get more females up front.  A few young men refused to budge and Courtney ended up leaning off the stage and an altercation ensued.  The teens claimed Love punched them but I never saw that occur and she was exonerated of any charges.  She earned my respect that night and the band played an incredible set. 

Now, Courtney Love is readying her long-awaited second solo album, and by own admission, it’s shaping up to be an eclectic release. Last fall, Courtney Love teased her Tik Tok audience with a new album possibility, saying it was “the longest record that’s ever been written in the history of rock, so it better fuckin’ be good, no filler.” This would be the first since 2010’s Nobody’s Daughter, however it has yet to matriculate. But now the former Hole frontwoman is talking about a new LP once again. 

Having released America’s Sweetheart in February 2004 following the breakup of Hole two years prior, Love’s debut record didn’t exactly turn heads, only hitting No. 53 on the Billboard 200 upon its arrival. However, in the ensuing decades, she’s experienced something of a career renaissance, with that aforementioned Hole release and the promise of her forthcoming memoir, Girl with the Most Cake, after a decade of writing.  In a new interview with The Standard, however, Love has opened up about her new record and speaking about the artists who will be joining her along the way – just don’t call anything made with another artist a ‘collab’. Love strongly steers away from that word. 

“I don’t do ‘collabs’ – man, I hate that word! However, I have co-written songs with some people on this album,” she explained. “[R.E.M.’s Michael] Stipe mentioned our collaboration to The New York Times, so I can say it’s gorgeous.” For reference, Love and Stipe have been friends for decades.  “I fell down weeping hearing his voice – it’s better than ever! I thought I knew the outcome, but I’m still the grasshopper while Michael is the sensei. There are others I can’t mention; I didn’t intend for any collaborations.”  Love also confirmed that Echo & the Bunnymen’s Will Sergeant has contributed to her new record, calling his involvement a “miracle”. 

“Will Sergeant, my favorite guitarist on earth, from my favorite band agreed to work with me!” she enthused. “My goodness, when he returned from LA for our first song together, I nearly fainted—he’s such an icon! If you lined up Jimmy Page, Jonny Greenwood, and Will Sergeant, I’d pick Sergeant every time; it’s insane! He’s on this album and elevating songs beyond description.” 

Sergeant subsequently wrote on social media, “Evening all my old friend Courtney Love has spilled the beans, so I think I can now. Been working on her amazing new record. Been a trip, she gave me complete artistic freedom. Loved every minute, autoharp, electric mandolin, Bulbul Tarang, baritone guitar plus layers of 12 & 6 string guitars.”  

Elsewhere, Love also namechecked several contemporary artists she is fond of, citing a desire to work with Kendrick Lamar (“I have a mad crush on him,” she admits), and a love of Stormzy and Doja Cat.  “I’d love to co-write a song with Lana Del Rey – I’d like to be ‘Paul’ and go hard on choruses while going back to Norman and go hard on choruses, or whatever,” Love explained. “She’s currently on her honeymoon; I’m very happy for her.” 

“But every time some kid asks me to ‘collab’ with Lana – I mean come on!” she added. “Can you stop saying ‘collab’ to someone who straddles Gen X and boomer? We don’t do that! Call it ‘writing a song together,’ not ‘featuring.’ It makes me lose my temper and makes it the last thing I want to do. I love Lorde too.” 

However, one artist who has apparently fallen out of favor with Love is English musician PJ Harvey. In an interview in April with The Standard, Love spelled out Harvey as a female artist she’s fond of, alongside Nina Simone, Patti Smith, Julie London, and early Joni Mitchell.  While noting in the same interview she’d begun growing tired of Lana Del Rey, Love cited Harvey’s “first four albums” as her favorite period of the musician’s discography. Now, Love has apparently turned a cold shoulder to Harvey.  “I did ask PJ Harvey to come back – I wanted just one of her great iconic Stones guitar riffs,” she told The Standard. “We have a relationship; I’ve endorsed her over the decades, but she chose not to respond to me. So, I wrote her about how f***ing rude that was. ” She went on to say, “Her manager tried to smooth things over, but it’s not okay – she hasn’t played rock music in 100 years!”

She’s still that rockstar I saw play almost thirty years ago.  Love her or hate her (pun intended).