Most people know of Courtney Love on the basis of 3 identities—the widowed wife of legendary Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain, the electrifying frontwoman of alt-rock band Hole, or mother of Frances Bean Cobain—but not many know how the stubborn, gritty woman built up her 40-year career and all her fame. And many don’t know that Love isn’t even Courtney’s biological last name—it’s Harrison!
Opinions of Love range from “she’s a mentally insane weirdo” to “I would die for her,” and personally, I’m more on the dying-for-her side. Let’s rewind through all the lawsuits and music videos back to the 60s-70s. During her childhood, tumultuous and scattered, expelled from nearly every school she attended for misbehavior, and thrust into foster care until she turned 18. Love’s parents, Carroll and Hank Harrison, divorced in 1970 under the testimony of one of Hank’s girlfriends that he had dosed Love with LSD as a toddler. Love lived in Oregon with Carroll and her second stepfather, then later lived in New Zealand with her third stepfather before returning to Oregon and sinking her teeth into various industries. Talk about a crazy upbringing!
Love knew she wanted more than mini-roles in movies and short-lived music videos—she craved fame and wanted to stand out, and was displeased with the indifferent reactions acting had brought her. When she moved to Los Angeles, Love placed a search ad and met Eric Erlandson, Hole’s guitarist; Lisa Roberts, Hole’s bassist; and Caroline Rue, Hole’s drummer. In 1991, they smashed their way onto the music charts with their noisy debut album Pretty on the Inside. The viscerality of their album received positive feedback from underground critics, and “Teenage Whore,” a song on the track dedicated to Love’s adolescence, hit #1 on the UK Indie Chart. Stripping was a job Love had done as a teen and found her way back into in later years, and Pretty on the Inside was an ode to her rage, conceptualized impurity, and suffering in the sex work industry. In 1994, Hole’s anguished-but-not-as-crazy second album, Live Through This, was released and garnered significant attention because of Cobain’s passing, and turned the public’s eyes to Love’s grieving. Live Through This earned the album a spot on Times Top 100 Albums of All Time.
Finally, in 1998, their experience-worn third album, Celebrity Skin, hit the scene, received praise from top music magazine Rolling Stone, and peaked at #9 on the Billboard 200. This album used a power pop sound, as opposed to the noisier grunge-y sounds in their previous albums, and took on the symbolism of drowning throughout Celebrity Skin. Love and Erlandson began having problems throughout the releases of Hole’s albums and officially disbanded Hole in 2002. The stress became too much, as with so many musicians, and Love fell into a deep hole with the authorities due to illegal drug use and childcare problems.
While in rehab, Love wrote two solo albums—rough, abrasive America’s Sweetheart, released in 2004, and heavy, melancholic Nobody’s Daughter, released in 2010, which Love carried with her raw vocals, under Hole but without the band lineup. Love’s journey speaks volumes about the anchoring, raging inner turmoil that grunge emulates and showcases her talent of turning pain into passion, which I admire. Hole helped define an entire era of music through unpolished perfection, chaotic melodies, and sick riffs. We love you, Courtney!