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Courtney Michelle Love (born Courtney Michelle Harrison on July 9, 1964– January 21 2008) 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 front man Kurt Cobain. Rolling Stone has called Love "the most controversial woman in the history of rock".

Life and career

Early life

Courtney Michelle Harrison was born on July 9, 1964, in San Francisco, California, where her parents first met and married. Love spent her childhood traveling with her mother to various locales, including New Zealand, Australia, and Oregon. As a teenager, Love listened mostly to punk rock and new wave.

Eventually, she would head 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 continued to travel on her own, leaving Portland for Japan and then Ireland. Love made her way to England in the early 1980s where she spent her time hanging out in the Liverpool post-punk scene. While there Love befriended musician Julian Cope of The Teardrop Explodes and moved into his Toxteth, Liverpool home. In his autobiography Head-On, Cope doesn't use her name, but refers to her as "the adolescent."

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). 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).

Marriage

Love met Kurt Cobain of the grunge band Nirvana at the Satyricon club in Portland in 1989. Love developed a crush on the singer, explaining, "I just thought he was really beautiful." Love lived a block away from the Los Angeles apartment complex where the band resided during the recording of their second album, Nevermind, in 1991. Love would stop by often and in Cobain's words, they "bonded over pharmaceuticals." However, early in their courtship Cobain broke off dates and ignored Love's advances because he wasn't sure he wanted to consumate 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 was friends with Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl and would call him in order to talk to Cobain while Nirvana was touring behind Nevermind in 1991. Later that year Hole toured Europe the same time as Nirvana, and the two became a couple. 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.

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 "My My, Hey Hey."

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. 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.

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 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, 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.

America's Sweetheart (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."

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. Released on bail, just four hours later Love was rushed to a hospital to be treated for an accidental overdose of Oxycontin. 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.

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.

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 that, "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.

During this same period, an estimated $20 million of money belonging to Love and her daughter was apparently siphoned off in a case that is still being investigated by the FBI. "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 Period."

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 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.

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.

Present day (2005-2008)

In June 2005, three months after being released from court-ordered drug rehabilitation, Love started recording her second solo LP, titled Nobody's Daughter. 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. 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.

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... 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 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.

Courtney's new band consists of:

• Patricia "Pato" Vidal (Bass)
• Liam Angelick (Guitar, and can also be seen in the A/W 07 Burberry Campaign shot by Mario Testino)
• Stu Fisher (Drums)
• Micko Larkin (Guitar, formerly of Larrikin Love)
• Bethia Beadman (Keyboards and Background Vocals)

Love has released a memoir/diary collection book, Dirty Blonde, in October 2006, and her second solo album is slated for an autumn release. 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, the book by Charles R. Cross detailing her late husband's life.

Love currently lives in L.A. with her daughter. She also has an official MySpace page and blogs at her official website 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.

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."

Awards

Discography

Studio albums

• America's Sweetheart (2004)
• Nobody's Daughter (expected 2008)

Filmography

• Sid and Nancy (1986)
• Straight to Hell (1987)
• Tapeheads (1988)
• 1991: The Year Punk Broke (1992/Documentary)
• Tank Girl (1995/Executive Music Producer)
• Basquiat (1996)
• Feeling Minnesota (1996)
• The People vs. Larry Flynt (1996)
• Not Bad for a Girl (1996/Documentary/Co-Producer)
• Off the Menu: The Last Days of Chasen's (1997/Documentary)
• Kurt & Courtney (1998/Documentary)
• Clara Bow: Discovering the It Girl (1999/Documentary/Narrator)
• 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 has 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. http://music.guardian.co.uk/rock/story/0,,1969245,00.html
3. ^ Azerrad, Michael. Come as You Are: The Story of Nirvana. Doubleday, 1994. ISBN 0-385-47199-8, p. 170
4. Sutton, Michael; Torreano, Bradley. "Courtney Love > Biography". All Music Guide. Retrieved 2007-09-21. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
5. "MM: Hole 2.19.94". Melody Maker. 1994-02-19. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
6. Cope, Julian (2000). Head-On/Repossessed. Thorsons Publishers. ISBN 0-7225-3882-0.
7. Cope, Julian. "Julian Cope Presents Head Heritage: Drudical Q&A Miscellaneous". HeadHeritage.co.uk. Retrieved 2007-09-21.
8. Interview with Kat Bjelland. Edited by Liz Evans. Women, Sex and Rock'N'Roll: In Their Own Words. Rivers Orum Press/Pandora List, 1994.
9. Ben Is Dead
10. Pagan Babies
11. Babes in Toyland Biography
12. Hole is a Band; Courtney Love is a Soap Opera
13. http://www.nyrock.com/features/courtneylove.htm
14. Azerrad, p. 172
15. Azerrad, p. 172-173
16. Azerrad, p. 197
17. History of Women in Forest Lawn Lawn Cemetery: Kristen Pfaff
18. London Guardian, August 30, 1994
19. Nine Inch Nails Database: H
20. Moran, Caitlin (2006-11-09). "Love, actually". Times Online. Retrieved 2007-12-16.
21. James Hunter reviews Celebrity Skin
22. Entry for Celebrity Skin at Acclaimed Music
23. Drown Soda: Fender Squier Vista Venus
24. Hole Tones: The Secrets Of Celebrity Skin's Smooth Sound
25. Hole / Marilyn Manson - Live Review
26. MTV.com: "/ MTV news March 22, 1999". URL accessed June 18 2007.
27. "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."
28. Sort The 'Bastard' Out
29. COREY PARKS
30. Strauss, Neil. Rolling Stone: "Queen of the Damned". May 13th, 2004.
31. Rocker Courtney Love Arrested, Hospitalized in LA
32. Donegan, Lawrence. Sunday Magazine: "LIVE THROUGH THIS". December 2003. http://www.moonwashedrose.com/media/sundaymag03.html
33. Courtney Love Arrested After Allegedly Striking Fan With Mic Stand
34. Rock star Love arrested aftergig
35. FOX News — Did Virgin Records Use Her?
36. The Times Online
37. http://www.beautyandthedirt.co.uk/show.asp?ID=1341
38. http://www.armeniapedia.org/index.php?title=Dvin_L._Kirakosian
39. http://music.ign.com/articles/555/555116p1.html
40. Courtney Love Fighting For Custody Of Daughter Frances Bean
41. Courtney Love Regains Custody Of Frances Bean Cobain
42. Teary-Eyed Courtney Love Ordered Back To Rehab By Judge
43. Courtney Love Is 'Nobody's Daughter'
44. ^ Courtney Is Cleared, Ready To Rock
45. TheTimes.co.uk: Podcasts
46. Rebuilding Courtney Love, One Song at a Time
48. http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&VideoID=18761737
50. http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&VideoID=18761737
51. Blood On The Tracks — Moonwashedrose's September 2006 Interview with Courtney Love
55. The Guardian: Sins of the mothers
56. Brando Shocks Courtney Love
57. Courtney Love Not Brando's Granddaughter

External links

• Official Courtney Love Site
• Official Courtney Love Myspace
• Courtney Love at IMDb
• Courtney Love Interview (2006) on her book Dirty Blonde by AOL Books
• Court TV Coverage

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