courtney love: Queen of NoiSe
Courtney Love was born with the name Love Michelle
Harrison on July 9th, 1964 in San Francisco, CA. Her parents
were Linda Risi, and Hank Harrsion a roadie for the Greatful
Dead. Love's god father was the bass player for the Greatful
Dead because of her father's strong ties with the band.
Before Courtney was even one year old, her parents
separated and she lived with her mother. From then on, Courtney
never really saw her father much again. Shortly after that, her
mother re-christened the baby as Courtney Michelle.
In 1972 when Courtney was in Junior High, they moved
to New Zealand, then to Australia, and then back to the states
where she was sent to stay with friends of the
family in Portland, Oregon. In school, Courtney was often picked
on because of her apperance and shyness. She was always getting
into trouble at school and was sent to a reform school of
sorts.It was at this time that Courtney got very interested
in music, she bought the Sex Pistols, "Nevermind the Bollocks,
It's The Sex Pistols". When she was 16 she started a band called
Sugar Babylon, but that didn't take off and was soon forgotten.
Shortly after, because of Courtney's unmanageablity, the family
asked her to leave their home.
When Courtney was 17, she decided to travel the world
with a large amount of money that was left to her by a rich dead
relative. Soon that money ran out and Courtney supported
herself by becoming a stripper. She travelled to Ireland
and Japan before coming back to San Francisco where she became
the singer for Faith No More. That didn't last long though,
so when Faith No More kicked her out she moved back to Portland.
Once in Portland, Courtney started a band with Jennifer
Finch and Kat Bjelland called Sugar Baby Doll. Jennifer Finch
decided to go her own way, she eventually founded the band L7.
that is when Bjelland and Love found Lori Barbero and formed
Babes in Toyland. Later, Bjelland kicked Love out of the band
because of her lack of talent in playing the bass.
Love's lack of success discouraged her interest in music,
so Courtney turned to acting. In 1985, Courtney auditioned for
the part of Nancy Spungen, in Alex Cox's film based on the long
term relationship of Sid Vicious and Nancy Spungen; it was
called, "Sid and Nancy". Courtney lost the part to Chloe Webb,
but instead got the role as one of Nancy's friends, Gretchen.
In 1987, Love was given a bigger role as Velma, in Cox's follow
up, "Straight To Hell". After being fed up with bit parts in movies,
Courtney turned back to music, and decided to start her own band.
Courtney went to see the Dharma Bums at a club called the
Satyricon in Portland in 1989. It was then that she first met
Kurt Cobain. His band Nirvana was opening up for the Dharma Bums.
Kurt was walking by Courtney's table when he just sat down and
drank some of the beer from her pitcher. They glared at each
other for a while and started to talk. Courtney left, but before
she did, Kurt gave her some Nirvana stickers with the Chim Chim
logo, and ever since Courtney had a crush on Kurt.
Courtney met Eric Erlandson, a guitar player in 1990
and they instantly hit it off. Soon after, Jill Emery and
Caroline Rue joined the other two to form the band Hole.
Courtney met Kurt for the second time in May of 1991 at
a Butthole Surfers/ Red Kross/ L7 concert, they were instantly
attracted to each other. They started hanging out together often.
In August of 1991, Hole put out their first album,
entitled "Pretty On The Inside", on and independent record
label called Caroline Records. With the released of POTI,
Hole became very popular in the UK underground indie scene.
After the release of POTI, Rue and Emery left HOLE to persue
other musical careers. This is when Hole recruited drummer Patty
Schemel and bassist Leslie Hardy. Hole then went on tour to promote
their new album.
Upon hanging out with Kurt, Courtney began to develop
a mild drug habit. They had started to use heroin together,
which turned out to be a horrible mistake. While Courtney only
had about a $20.oo a day habit, Kurt had a much more expensive
habit, one that would one day almost cost him his life. In
December of 1991, Courtney found out that she was pregnant,
and immediately stopped using heroin. She and Kurt went to the
doctor to see if their baby would have birth defects and the
doctor told them that her heroin use was virtually harmless to
the fetus and that there was only a slight chance of the baby
having a mild learning disability later on in life. So Courtney
and Kurt decided against abortion and kept the baby.
On February 24th, 1992, Courtney Love became Courtney
Love-Cobain, when she married Kurt Cobain, of the band Nirvana
in Waikiki, HI. Kurt wore blue flannel pajamas and Courtney wore
a white antique lace dress that once had belonged to Seattle's
famous Frances Farmer. Later that year their baby was born.
Frances Bean Cobain was born on August 18th, 1992. They named
the baby Frances after Frances Kelly, Eugene Kelly of the Vaselines's sister..
and Bean because Kurt said that when he saw the Ultra Sound of
the baby, she looked like a bean. The Cobain family moved to
the Seattle area.
Courtney pretty much took a year off of the band to
regain custody of Frances Bean, but not completely. Hole had to find a
new bassist to replace Leslie Hardy, who they had only used for
their POTI tour. While in Minnesota, Eric and Courtney had
attended a Janitor Joe concert and immediately took notice of
their bassist Kristen Pfaff. Erlandson and Love-Cobain asked Pfaff
if she would consider becoming the full-time bassist for their band
Hole. Pfaff said that she would love to and moved to Seattle
right away.
Hole was signed to Geffen, a major record label in 1993.
Courtney, Eric, Patty and Kristen started to write their new album
"Live Through This".
April/June of 1994 was a very big month for Courtney and her band.
Kurt Cobain went missing, and was finally found, dead in the room
above the garage in their home on Lake Washington. Cobain died
of an apparent suicide-- a gun shot wound in his head. The
bullet did not leave his head but rather lodged itself in his
brain.. their was no physical damage to his body except for the
decomposition of his body lying their for a few days. Attending
the memorials all over Seattle for her husband, a distraught,
angered and saddened Courtney read parts of the suicide note to
the crowd that had gathered to mourn the death of Cobain. Two
weeks after his death, Hole's second LP "Live Through This" was
released.
In early June, Kristen Pfaff's body was found dead
in a hotel bathroom by Eric Erlandson.. she had died from an
apparent heroin overdose. As Courtney and Patty and Eric grieved
for both Kurt and Kristen, their new album was selling at a very
fast rate. To date, it has sold over 5 Million copies.
HOLE needed to find a new bassist and fast. Canadian,
Melissa Auf Der Maur of the band Tinker was chosen to become the new bassist. After
Kurt's death Courtney lived in a drug-induced fog, touring to
promote LTT. This was until late 1995, when she decided to get
her act together. She went into re-hab and is now completely off
of drugs and alcohol. She started to take up acting again, giving
the members of Hole a break after the recording of their cover
of the Fleetwood Mac song, "Gold Dust Woman" for the Crow: COA
soundtrack. Courtney gave herself a change of look by dying her
hair back her normal brown color, and started acting in bit parts of
the 1996 films, "Basquiat" and "Feeling Minnesota".
Then, came Courtney's big break. She landed the starring
role of Althea Leasure, in the 1996 film, "The People Vs. Larry Flynt".
Upon landing this role, Courtney had to suffer from her previous
"bad grrrl" rep, by peeing in a cup everyday
for drug tests as well as signing the contract that she would
not do drugs during the making of the film.
Well, she didn't do drugs.
And she delievered a shockingly honest, and real performance as
the AIDS stricken, stripper/wife of Larry Flynt.
She was nominated
for an Oscar, and a Golden Globe Award. This called for a
completely new appearance.
ENTER the New Courtney Love. Good-bye bleached hair.
Good-bye kinder-whore look. Good-bye Babydoll dresses and
barrettes.. bye-bye punk rock chick. Hello, Versace-wearing,
dyed blonde hair, classy-looking friend of Sharon Stone.
She may have a new look, but is she the same Courtney Love? She
sure is! She just looks different now. She still has the same
punk rock ethics, but now she's got a hold on her life.
She's now working with Hole on their third LP which
shall be called "Celebrity Skin". Hole is recording right now in
Altanta, GA; the new record will be produced by Smashing Pumpkin,
Billy Corgan and is due out in early 1998, because production was put off until late July. But, after that,
who knows what's next?
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this is a most unauthorized biography of Courtney Love written by, GEN. I put this together by reading bits and piece of other sources and compiling all information into this brief biography here. Should anything be wrong, or out of chronological order, IM SORRY, but I'm not perfect and I'm not Courtney Love, so I don't know how everything happened. Contact me if the error bothers you that much.