Courtney Love

Courtney Love
Love performing in Atlanta, Georgia; June 2010.
Background information
Birth name	Courtney Michelle Harrison
Also known as	Courtney Love
Born	July 9, 1964 (1964-07-09) (age 46) San Francisco, California, U.S.
Genres	Alternative rock, punk rock, grunge, post-grunge
Occupations	Singer-songwriter, musician, film producer, actress
Instruments	Vocals, Guitar, Bass, Keyboard
Years active	1985–present
Labels	Sympathy for the Record Industry Caroline DGC / Geffen Universal Music Virgin Mercury Records
Associated acts	Hole Babes in Toyland Pagan Babies Faith No More Nirvana Emilie Autumn

Courtney Michelle Love^[1] (born Courtney Michelle Harrison; July 9, 1964) is an American rock musician and actress.^[2][3] Love is primarily known as lead singer, guitarist and lyricist for alternative rock band Hole, as well as for her publicity-ridden marriage to the late Nirvana front man Kurt Cobain.

After a tumultuous upbringing, Love had made her debut into the entertainment industry with a supporting role in Alex Cox's 1986 biopic Sid and Nancy, and later transitioned into music, forming the band Hole in 1989. Hole released three studio albums throughout the 1990s, including the acclaimed Live Through This (1994) and the Grammy-nominated Celebrity Skin (1998). Love continued her position as lead singer for Hole in various incarnations until 2002, when the group disbanded. After releasing a commercially unsuccessful solo album in 2004, Love re-formed Hole with new members in 2009. ^[4][5]

She has also occasionally taken film roles throughout her career, including parts in Basquiat (1996), Trapped (2002), Man on the Moon (1999), as well as a major role in The People vs. Larry Flynt (1996), which garnered her a Golden Globe nomination for her portrayal of Althea Flynt.

Additionally, Love has attracted significant media attention over the years for her wild behavior and candid treatment of her grapples with drug addiction.^[6] Rolling Stone called Love "the most controversial woman in the history of rock."^[7]

Early life

Courtney Michelle Harrison was born in San Francisco, California, the daughter of Linda Carroll, a therapist, and Hank Harrison, a publisher.^[8][9][10] Love's mother, Linda, 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 children's author Paula Fox. Through Paula Fox, Love is related to actor Douglas Fairbanks (through Fairbanks' mother).^[11] According to Love, her mother named her after the alcoholic, fledgling debutante protagonist of a 1956 "dime-store novel" called Chocolates for Breakfast by Pamela Moore.^[12] Love's mother is also an heiress to the Bausch and Lomb eye care fortune, to which Love is also entitled.^[13]

Love's family separated soon after her birth. During a child custody case following her parents' divorce, her mother and one of her friends presented letters implying her father had given LSD to the three-year-old child.^[14] Harrison denies this allegation^[15] and has passed polygraph tests; however, these allegations led to full custody being awarded to Love's mother.

Love, under custody of her mother, spent a troubled childhood settled in countercultural hippie communes in Oregon.^[16] Love's mother re-married to a man named Frank Rodriguez soon after, but the couple divorced by the time Love was seven years old. During Love's childhood years, she began experiencing emotional and anger problems, which prompted her mother to send her to therapy, and later on, boarding schools.

In 1972, Love's mother re-married yet again, and relocated to New Zealand with her daughters, except for Love, who was left in the United States under the care of Shirley, a friend of her mother's. Eventually, custody of the ten-year-old Love was granted to her former stepfather, Rodriguez, whom she lived with in Portland, Oregon for a period of time. During her time in Portland, Love joined a Bay City Rollers fan club, and at age twelve, applied to join the Mickey Mouse Club;^[17] Love was rejected after reading the poem "Daddy" by Sylvia Plath for her audition.^[18] The same year, Love was arrested for shoplifting a KISS t-shirt and sent to Hillcrest Reformatory in Portland. After leaving the care of Rodriguez during the age of 14, Love reunited with her family in New Zealand, only to be sent to another boarding school soon after.^[14]

At age sixteen— after being juggled between the homes of her ex-stepfather, friends, and various reform schools— Love gained legal emancipation from her mother and traveled around the U.S., England and Ireland, living on a trust fund established for her by her mother's adoptive parents.^[19] While in Ireland, Love took two semesters at Trinity College in Dublin and worked as a photographer for Hotpress.^[20] Love was given 500 dollars each month^[21] and began taking jobs in strip clubs to make extra money.^[21] In England, she moved into the Toxteth, Liverpool, home of musician Julian Cope, of The Teardrop Explodes, and became a regular at rock shows. In his autobiography Head-On, Cope refers to her as "the adolescent" in place of her name.^[22][23] She also developed a friendship with Ian McCulloch of Echo and the Bunnymen.^[24]

Eventually, she returned to Portland, Oregon, still pursuing music, and then on to Los Angeles. She briefly attended Portland State University, but never graduated. Love worked as an erotic dancer in various venues, choosing the stage surname Love as a tribute to the motto "peace and love."^[25] While in Los Angeles in the mid-1980s, she met and married "Falling" James Moreland, lead singer of the band The Leaving Trains.^[26]

Early musical career

Love began her music career with a brief stint as lead singer of Faith No More. Bassist Billy Gould described the situation thus: "She's got to lead and tell people what's what. She was the dictator, and in our band things were democratic. ... At that time she couldn't sing too well, and she had a lot of personal problems, so she had to leave the band."[3] Although Love's dominating personality did not fit in, the two have remained friends, working together in 2005 on a track for the film Adam & Steve.

At 22, Love moved back to Portland, then to Los Angeles in 1987 with musician Kat Bjelland, beginning a period in which she formed bands with Bjelland only to be ousted from each. The pair first formed a band in Los Angeles, with Jennifer Finch, called Sugar Baby Doll (alternately Sugar Babylon).^[27] Love and Bjelland began to dress alike, wearing dirty babydoll dresses, plastic hair clips, ripped stockings and overdone, smeared makeup. An argument between the two raged over who had come up with their style, later dubbed "kinderwhore". Love claimed she took the style from Christina Amphlett of 1980s Australian rock group, Divinyls.^[28]

Love and Bjelland formed a band called The Pagan Babies in San Francisco, with Deidre Schletter on drums and Janis Tanaka on bass.^[29] The band recorded a demo of four tracks, then ejected Love and renamed themselves Italian Whorenuns. Lastly, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Bjelland started her longest-running band, Babes in Toyland. Love played bass in the band for a short time but was kicked out of this group as well.^[30]

Love then began pursuing an acting career at this time, garnering a small role as Gretchen, a friend of Nancy Spungen in Alex Cox's Sid Vicious biopic Sid and Nancy in 1986, and in Cox's spaghetti-western, Straight to Hell in 1987. Following the critical failure of Straight to Hell, Love, who had garnered a low-level of fame in the underground cinema scene, returned to Oregon and worked again as an exotic dancer in a strip-bar in McMinville before moving briefly to Alaska.^[21]

Pretty on the Inside (1991)

In 1989, Love taught herself to play guitar and set out to form her own band. She placed an ad in Flipside, to which Eric Erlandson replied. Love and Erlandson founded Hole and are the only two constant members through the band's history, leading up to their separation in 2002. The group played their first gig in November 1989, after three months of rehearsal, and made singles on the Long Beach, California, independent label Sympathy for the Record Industry. Their first single, titled "Retard Girl", was issued in spring 1990 solely on 7" vinyl, with B-sides "Phonebill Song" and "Johnnie's in the Bathroom". One year later, the band debuted their second single, "Dicknail"— a song which heavily alludes to rape— on 7" vinyl through Sub Pop Records.

Hole's debut album Pretty on the Inside was released in early 1991 on Caroline Records, produced by Sonic Youth's Kim Gordon and Gumball's Don Fleming. It sold well for an independent release and received favorable reviews in the British alternative music press,^[31] though it was slightly more abrasive and harsh in style than the sound that the band would later become known for. Upon the album's release in the UK, Q Magazine called it "loud, ugly and deliberately shocking."^[32] In retrospect, Love has commented that the album contains "nothing melodic"^[21], though she often opens her shows with the album's title track.

Pretty on the Inside spawned the band's third single, "Teenage Whore", which was released on vinyl and CD with B-sides of "Drown Soda" and "Burn Black", one month before the album's release date.

During this period, Love befriended many figures in the alternative rock scene, including Michael Stipe of R.E.M. and Billy Corgan of The Smashing Pumpkins (whom she briefly dated).^[33] In 1990, Love met Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain in Oregon after having become infatuated with him. In 1992, a year following the release of Pretty on the Inside, the couple were married, and gave birth to their daughter, Frances, in the summer of that year.

Live Through This (1994)

The marriage between Love and Cobain lasted up until 1994, when a hounding press and mounting substance-abuse issues began to individually damage them; Cobain was experiencing immense success with his band Nirvana, and Love was in the studio recording Hole's sophomore album, Live Through This. In April 1994, Cobain was found dead in the couple's Seattle home of a self inflicted gunshot wound to the head. Both Love and Cobain had been staying in separate rehabilitation centers in California at the time due to heroin abuse; Cobain checked himself out of the center during treatment, and returned to Seattle where he later died. His body was found four days before the release of Hole's Live Through This.

Live Through This, recorded in the fall of 1993, would garner much attention, not only because of it being the group's first commercial album, but also because of its release date, just days after Cobain committed suicide.

Less than two months later, on June 16, bassist Kristen Pfaff died of an apparent heroin overdose.^[34] Love then 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. Spin and the Village Voice declared it "Album of the Year", and by November the record was certified gold. By April 1995, it went platinum. It later received much attention from the media, including promotion on MTV, as well as having five album singles which were fairly successful on the Billboard charts. Several other singles, b-sides, and compilations (including songs which did not make it onto the final album) were released prior, including several songs written by Love ("Beautiful Son", "Old Age") as well as covers of Carole King's "He Hit Me (It Felt Like a Kiss)", and "Pale Blue Eyes" by The Velvet Underground.

With the album's release and positive reaction, Hole embarked on a tour opening for Nine Inch Nails.^[36]

On the Fourth of July, 1995, while playing at the Lollapalooza Music Festival, Love punched Bikini Kill singer Kathleen Hanna in the face, after pelting her with candy and throwing a lit cigarette at her.^[37] Hanna had allegedly made a joke about Love's daughter shooting up in a closet.

Following the incident, Hanna pressed charges, and Love pled guilty and underwent anger management classes. Several years later, in 2004, whilst hosting her 24 Hours of Love special on MTV2, Love recounted the event, as well as Hanna's work in feminist zines, saying, "Even though I punched her [Hanna], I still think she is a genius".^[38]

Later musical career (1997-2005)

Love received 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 began a relationship with Edward Norton, which after four years would become her longest. The two became engaged but broke up.^[39] In 2001, Love came in second to Nicole Kidman for the role of Satine in Baz Lurhmann's Oscar winning musical Moulin Rouge. Most recently Courtney Love was up for a role in director Bennett Miller's forthcoming film Moneyball, starring Brad Pitt.

Celebrity Skin (1998)

In 1998, Hole released Celebrity Skin. Rolling Stone gave the album four out of 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."^[40] Celebrity Skin went on to go multi-platinum, and topped "Best of Year" lists at Spin, the Village Voice, and other periodicals.^[41] 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.^[42]

Love and Fender's low-price Squier brand created her line of guitars, Vista Venus^[43] (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".^[44] 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 the U.S. on a tour with Marilyn Manson. The two bands mocked each other on stage.^[45] Hole dropped off the tour, citing the obligation to pay 50% of Manson's staging costs as a reason. The singers of both bands told MTV there was no animosity and they were happy to end the tour. Hole finished the year's dates with Imperial Teen opening.^[46]

In May 2000, Love spoke in New York at the Digital Hollywood online entertainment conference, criticizing the major American record labels. The speech was reproduced on the news site Salon.com.^[47] Love accused the labels of a corrupt system of recording contracts to make the labels millions, while the band "may as well be working at a 7-Eleven."

Post-Hole era (2001–2003)

With Hole in disarray, Love began a "punk rock femme supergroup" called Bastard during autumn 2001, enlisting Schemel, Veruca Salt co-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, led to the group's demise.^[48][49] On May 24, 2002, Hole announced their breakup amid continuing litigation with Universal Music Group.

Courtney Love worked with photographer David LaChapelle, appearing on the cover of his book 'Heaven to Hell' depicting the pieta.^[50]

America's Sweetheart, solo album (2004)

Courtney Love released her first solo album, America's Sweetheart, in 2004 on Virgin Records. The album was a commercial flop. Spin called it a "jawdropping act of artistic will", while Rolling Stone suggested that, "for people who enjoy watching celebrities fall apart, America's Sweetheart should be more fun than an Osbournes marathon."

In early 2004, as she had completed her first batch of songs, and after drummer Patty Schemel departed for the second time, Love asked Hole ex-drummer Samantha Maloney to fly to France and add drums to Love's solo debut, America's Sweetheart. Returning to the States, Maloney was put in charge of assembling Love's live band. After auditions, Maloney reconnected with guitarist Radio Sloan and found guitarist Lisa Leveridge and bassist Dvin Kirakosian,^[51] and the four women formed the core of Love's backing band. Violinist Emilie Autumn later joined the band.^[52]

Love at a book signing, November 2006

Mono was the first single released from America's Sweetheart. The music video was directed by Chris Milk. The song peaked at #19 on Billboard's Modern Rock Tracks chart, now known as Alternative Songs chart.

The album sold about 86,000 copies in its first three months, according to Nielsen Soundscan.

It was apparent during the promotion for America's Sweetheart that Love was not clean and sober as she had claimed in interviews. Courtney appeared on The Late Show with David Letterman on March 17, 2004, performing the song "Hold on to Me", followed by a disastrous interview to follow, which included Love standing on Letterman's desk and flashing her breasts.

"Hold on to Me" was the second and final single to be released from America's Sweetheart. The song peaked at #39 on Billboard's Modern Rock Tracks chart.

Princess Ai, manga (2004)

In July of 2004, Tokyopop released the first of a three-volume, Love-inspired manga called Princess_Ai. The titular character was a princess torn from her homeland and deposited in Tokyo, but struck with amnesia and in possession of a heart-shaped box as her only clue to her past. She survived by becoming a local rock star, and then she became pursued by gun-toting Japanese talent agents and demons from her homeland. The character was meant to be a fantasy alter ego to Love. The story was conceived by Love and D.J. Milky (aka Tokyopop founder, CEO and Chief Creative Officer Stuart Levy). It was written and illustrated by Misaho Kujiradou and featured character designs by Ai Yazawa.^[53] The third volume was released in February 2006.

Dirty Blonde: The Diaries of Courtney Love

In October 2006 Courtney Love published a 304-page memoir titled Dirty Blonde. The book, published by Faber & Faber and released in October 2006, contains journal entries, letters, poetry, handwritten song lyrics, collages, school and juvenile hall entries, show fliers, photographs, and notes.

Nobody's Daughter and Hole reunion (2009–2010)

In June 2005, three months after her release from a lengthy drug rehabilitation sentence (see: Health, drug abuse and legal issues), Love started recording what was going to be her second solo LP, Nobody's Daughter.^[54] An anti-cocaine song entitled "Loser Dust", as well as other new songs ("My Bedroom Walls", "Pacific Coast Highway", "Sunset Marquis"), were written during her time in rehab.^[55] Former 4 Non Blondes singer Linda Perry started as the producer of the record with the writing and recording collaboration of Billy Corgan.

Love performing at Carnegie Hall, 2009.

Some tracks and demos from the album (initially planned for release in 2008^[56]) were put on the internet in 2006. The Return of Courtney Love, a documentary about the making of Nobody's Daughter, was filmed, written, and produced by Will Yapp and aired on the British television network More4 on September 27, 2006. This resulted in distribution of clips of some of its songs. The first entire song available for downloading was a rough acoustic version of "Never Go Hungry Again", recorded during an interview for The Times in November.^[57] Incomplete audio clips of the song "Samantha", originating from an interview with NPR.org, were also distributed on the Internet in May 2007.^[58]

On June 1, 2007, Love made her stage comeback at a Linda Perry show at House of Blues in Los Angeles. With Perry and the producer's backup band, she performed "Nobody's Daughter", "Sunset Marquis", "Pacific Coast Highway" and "Letter to God". On July 23, 2007, Love added the first song, "Dirty Girls", to her MySpace page, followed by a piano-and-vocal demo of "Sunset Marquis", and in July 2008 with "Letter to God".

On June 17, 2009, NME reported that Hole would be reuniting. Former Hole guitarist Eric Erlandson stated in Spin magazine that contractually no reunion can take place without his involvement; therefore Nobody's Daughter would remain Love's solo record, as opposed to a "Hole" record. Love responded to Erlandson's comments in a Twitter post, claiming that "he's out of his MIND, Hole is MY band, MY name, and MY Trademark". Shortly after this quarrel, Love began posting new Hole logos, stage ideas, and guitar pick ideas on her Facebook page, implying, though not confirming, that Hole had reformed.

On April 27, 2010, Nobody's Daughter was released worldwide as a Hole album. Hole now consists of Courtney Love (guitar, vocals), Micko Larkin (guitar), Shawn Dailey (bass guitar), and Stu Fisher (drums, percussion). Some songs from the sessions with Linda Perry and Billy Corgan are on the album, including "Pacific Coast Highway", "Letter to God", "Samantha", and "Never Go Hungry", although they have been re-produced with Micko Larkin.

Love performing at Bumbershoot in Seattle, Washington; September 2010.

The first single from Nobody's Daughter is "Skinny Little Bitch", which was the most added song on alternative rock radio in early March 2010.^[59] Hole performed on The Late Show with David Letterman on April 27, 2010, and Courtney Love was interviewed. Hole also performed on Jimmy Kimmel Live! on April 29, 2010, on the outdoor stage.

In April 2010, the NME reported that Love was retiring the name and persona of Courtney Love, preferring to be referred to as Courtney Michelle.^[60] Love's spokesperson later denied this, saying "the NME took it out of context."^[61]

Personal life

Relationships

Love met Kurt Cobain, on January 12, 1990, in Portland's Satyricon nightclub^[62] when the two still led underground rock bands.^[63] Love made advances but Cobain was evasive. Early in their courtship Cobain broke off dates and ignored Love's advances because he wasn't sure he wanted a 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."^[64]

In an interview with The Guardian, Love revealed the opposition to their marriage from various people: "Kim Gordon [of Sonic Youth] sits me down and says, 'If you marry him your life is not going to happen, it will destroy your life.' But I said, 'Whatever, I love him, and I want to be with him!'... It wasn't his fault. He wasn't trying to do that."^[7]

Love and Cobain married on Waikiki Beach in Honolulu, Hawaii, on February 24, 1992. Love wore a satin and lace dress once owned by the actress Frances Farmer, and Cobain wore green pajamas, because he'd been "too lazy to put on a tux". Six months later, on August 18, the couple's only child, a daughter named Frances Bean Cobain, was born.

On April 8, 1994, four days before the release of Hole's first major-label album, Live Through This, Cobain was found in his Seattle, Washington home killed by a self-inflicted shotgun wound to his head. Two days later, fans assembled at a memorial service in Seattle. During the memorial, a recording was played of Love reading his suicide note, excluding several last lines addressed to wife and daughter.^[65]

Following husband Kurt Cobain's suicide in 1994, Love dated many high-profile men, including Smashing Pumpkins front man Billy Corgan; Love was also briefly spotted with the late Jeff Buckley in 1997;^[66] Love dedicated several song performances to Buckley after his death that year.

Most notably, Love had an on-and-off partnership with actor Edward Norton, beginning in 1996 and ending in late 1998.^[67] The two met while filming The People vs. Larry Flynt in 1995.

Personal beliefs

Love is a practicing Buddhist, and credits it as having "saved her life" following a lengthy rehab stint in February 2006, which was predated by countless legal and health issues:^[68][21]

"When I was 24 I was a Buddhist and that was responsible for the success of Hole in the first place and [helped] after Kurt died. Right around the time I did The People vs. Larry Flynt I started chanting and then I stopped. This is the third time I've really committed myself. I really got pushed to the wall and I realised I have to rediscover this tract of Buddhism to rediscover myself."^[69] Love has been quoted saying that she began practicing the religion as early as 1991.^[21]

Love has often identified with politically liberal causes; in 1998, she presented a speech at the American Civil Liberties Union conference in California, which was crashed by filmmaker Nick Broomfield, who was directing his documentary, Kurt & Courtney (1998), which leant to theories that Love was involved in Cobain's death.^[70]

Additionally, in May 2000, Love gave a lengthy speech on music piracy to the Digital Hollywood Entertainment conference, equating piracy with the domination of record labels and their control over their artists and their music. Love addressed issues of corporate filtering of music, equity for musicians, and the potential of the digital revolution to overthrow corporate music companies:^[71]

In November 2008, Love made an erratic post on her Myspace blog [4], ranting about the confusing language on California's Proposition 8 ballot, which was working toward illegalizing same-sex marriage.^[72] Several gossip websites took the posting as if Love had potentially voted yes on the ballot, in favor of illegalizing gay marriage, but Love soon after made another post on the blog, stating "I voted against Proposition 8. I want there to be gay marriage rights passionately. Clear?" [5]

Love is notorious for making use of social networking websites such as Twitter, Myspace, and Facebook, often posting confusing, stream of consciousness-like statements in her personal blogs and tweets.^[73]

Health, drug use and legal issues

On October 2, 2003, Love was arrested in Los Angeles while breaking windows to enter the home of her boyfriend, manager and producer Jim Barber. 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.^[74] Released on bail, four hours later Love was treated for an accidental overdose of oxycodone.^[75] Eight days later, on October 10, Frances Bean was taken by the L. A. County Department of Children and Family Services and placed with Cobain's mother, Wendy O'Connor.^[76] Authorities ordered a 72-hour hospital evaluation of Love's health, but she walked from the facility, claiming she was ready to head to rehab. When Love didn't attend, her lawyer said he may move to have the police department's toxicology reports re-examined. In public appearances, Love protested her arrest, denying charges and describing the drugs found on her as "one expired Percocet and one Ambien". ^[77] The police, however, alleged possession of oxycodone and hydrocodone without prescription.^[78] She had released her first solo album, America's Sweetheart, eight days earlier.

During this period, an estimated $20 million belonging to Love and her daughter was apparently siphoned off in a case still being investigated by the FBI.^[79] "It was my hell time. I was doing cocaine and had incredible financial trouble. $20 million was stolen from us and at the time I couldn't do the math very well. So I took this drug to help me. It turned out the crazy math was real. The FBI looked at the paperwork and saw $1.2 million to the UK, $180,000 to Nice. It was the former boyfriend and the two assistants. They had power of attorney and they purchased property. They started in about 2000 without me knowing and I got more out of it. I think they thought she will die. In fact I should not be alive after what I went through in the Letterman period."^[80][81]

British artist Stella Vine has frequently painted Courtney Love in works such as Courtney black cab (2004).^[82] Vine publicly defended Love and has said that her paintings depicting Love such as Courtney guilty were made during Love's trial when Vine felt Love was under attack by the media.^[83] Identifying with Love's life story, Vine said: "She's one of those people who are prepared to put the truth out, warts and all, even though you will be attacked for it.^[83]

Love performing in London, England on her 43rd birthday.

After a state-enforced rehabilitation program and probation, Love regained custody of her daughter in January 2005. Child welfare authorities alluded to drug addiction when responding to the press, although they didn't comment directly.^[84][85]

On August 19, 2005, Love admitted using drugs in violation of her probation. She was ordered into a 28-day treatment program by a judge who 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.^[86]

Love was released from house arrest on February 3, 2006, and said: "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."^[55] On July 2, 2007 she traveled to Europe with her band.

In early June 2007, pre-op nodules were found in Love's throat, which would require surgery, and she was given doctor's orders to stop smoking.^[87] As of 2010, Love, a longtime, heavy smoker, is still struggling to quit her smoking habit.^[88] Pictures of an emaciated Love raised concern for her health in August 2007. Love claimed she "had to take care of my eating disorder."^[89] When more photos of Love appearing to be in ill health emerged in June 2008,^[90] a U.S. website wrote an "Open Letter to Courtney Love," pleading with the mother of Frances Bean to "wake up."^[91] Love admitted being suicidal following the theft of Cobain's ashes in her possession.^[92] On October 2, 2008, Love's publicist told Gigwise.com that Cobain's ashes "were never taken" and that the story had been "erroneously reported ".^[93]

In 2006, Love reportedly sold 25% of Nirvana's catalog for $50 million. Love claims $20 million was embezzled from her by members of her entourage, leaving her "on the verge of applying for food stamps."^[94][95]

Love said in April 2007 that "I'm going to have a Christie's auction," to hock the bulk of Cobain's belongings with a portion going to charity.^[96]

London & Co. filed a lawsuit against Love on July 22, 2008, claiming she sold Nirvana's publishing catalog without paying a share of the profits. The catalog was sold for $19.5 million and, according to an oral contract with Love, she had to share the 5% of her company The End of Music's earnings. London & Co. is seeking $975,000, which would have been its share of the sale.^[97][98]

Additionally, Love has admitted to having extensive plastic surgery procedures done to her face and body over the years.^[99] Love has always maintained a very open attitude about having the procedures done, which began with a nose job she received during the release of Pretty on the Inside in 1991.^[21] Love has discussed several of the procedures, and even made statements of regret toward some of them,^[100] as well as having reverse procedures done.^[101]

Discography

Hole

• Pretty on the Inside (1991)
• Live Through This (1994)
• Celebrity Skin (1998)
• Nobody's Daughter (2010)

Solo

• America's Sweetheart (2004)

Filmography

As herself

Notes

External links

• Official Courtney Love Myspace
• Courtney Love at the Internet Movie Database
• Courtney Love Interview (2006) on her book Dirty Blonde by AOL Books
• Court TV Coverage