Courtney Love - Blender

ARTISTS

Courtney Love

Courtney Love has staked a claim as one of the more controversial and outrageous figures in modern rock. Born in San Francisco, Love spent time in Oregon, Ireland, Japan and England, before moving to Los Angeles, where she landed roles in the Alex Cox films Sid and Nancy and Straight to Hell. She then moved to Minneapolis where she formed the riot grrrl band Babes in Toyland with Kat Bjelland; she was eventually thrown out of the group. After a brief stint as a stripper in Alaska, Love returned to Los Angeles and started the band Hole in 1989 with guitarist Eric Erlandson, bassist Jill Emery and drummer Caroline Rue. Hole’s debut album, Pretty on the Inside, was released in 1991, and Love married Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain in 1992; later that same year, Love and Cobain’s daughter, Frances Bean Cobain, was born. For Hole’s next record, Love replaced Jill Emery and Caroline Rue with bassist Kristin Pfaff and drummer Patty Schemel. The resulting record, 1994’s Live Through This, proved to be one of the greatest albums of the grunge era, featuring the songs “Violet,” “Miss World” and “Doll Parts.” Just a week before Live Through This was released, Kurt Cobain committed suicide, and two months afterwards Kristin Pfaff died from a heroin overdose. Melissa Auf Der Maur took Pfaff’s place for the recording of 1998’s Celebrity Skin; Patty Schemel left shortly afterwards because of differences with the band and was replaced by Samantha Maloney. Love officially ended the band in 2002.

Throughout her time with Hole, Love continued to act, appearing in 1996’s The People vs. Larry Flynt and 1999’s Man on the Moon, among other films. She has also gained notoriety from a long-running legal feud with the surviving members of Nirvana over control of the band’s work. Despite increasingly bizarre behavior and allegations of drug abuse, which at one point resulted in her daughter being removed from her custody, Love released her first solo album, America’s Sweetheart, in 2004.

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