About

Name: Courtney Love-Cobain [born Courtney Michelle
Harrison; usually goes by "Courtney Love"]
Date of birth: July 9th, 1964
Place of birth: San Francisco, CA
Height: 5’11″
Hair color: Brown; bleached blonde
Eye color: Blue-green [see here]
Official websites:
» http://Twitter.com/CourtneyLoveUK/
» http://WhatCourtneyWoreToday.com/
» http://HoleRock.net/

Biography:
Courtney Love was born to Linda Carroll and Hank Harrison. Linda was a therapist and Hank was formerly a roadie for The Grateful Dead, as well as being a publisher. Courtney had a turbulent childhood: her parents divorced when she was young and underwent a custody battle, with Linda accusing Hank of having given Courtney LSD at the age of three (though he vehemently denies this). Courtney mainly lived with her mother, eventually settling in hippy communes in Oregon. She then went to a boarding school in Nelson, New Zealand. Whilst there, she was a huge fan of Bay City Rollers and applied to join the Mickey Mouse Club (which spawned careers for Justin Timberlake and Britney Spears) but was rejected after reading a Sylvia Plath poem.

At the age of 16, Love traveled independently around England, financed by a trust fund and hanging out with musicians such as Julian Cope of The Teardrop Explodes, as well as Ian McCulloch of Echo and the Bunnymen. Courtney’s first foray into music was as the singer of Faith No More. Roddy Bottum has since stated that Love’s personality did not fit in. When Courtney moved to Portland, Oregon, she formed a band with Kat Bjelland (Babes in Toyland) and Jennifer Finch (L7), called Sugar Baby Doll (or Sugar Babylon). They wore ripped baby doll dresses, and dubbed their style ‘Kinderwhore’. In 1986, Courtney auditioned for the role of Nancy Spungen in Alex Cox’s Sid and Nancy. She lost out to Chloe Webb, but played Nancy’s friend Gretchen. The following year, Alex Cox cast Courtney in his spaghetti-western, Straight to Hell, along with Joe Strummer, Grace Jones, Kathy Burke and Dennis Hopper.

After recruiting Eric Erlandson on guitar, Courtney Love formed Hole in 1989. Their debut album, Pretty on the Inside, was produced by Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth, as well as Dom Fleming. She made a number of musician friends in this period of her life, including R.E.M.’s Michael Stipe and Billy Corgan of The Smashing Pumpkins. Around this time, Courtney met her husband, Kurt Cobain [Nirvana frontman], at a club. Although it’s been unclear as to how exactly Courtney and Kurt met, the latest theory, coming from Courtney herself, is that, at a concert, Kurt was there with his girlfriend at the time. Courtney thought the girl was chubby, didn’t hesitate to tell Kurt her thoughts, and Kurt & Courtney wrestled – something Courtney found “cute”. They ended up meeting again, at a different club. From then on, they were together.

Soon, Courtney and Kurt became pregnant with their first and only child, daughter Frances Bean Cobain. Once Frances Bean was born, an interview with Vanity Fair got Frances Bean taken away from her parents, due to Courtney’s confession of using heroin while unaware of her pregnancy. Luckily, Frances was eventually returned to Kurt and Courtney. Shortly before the release of Live Through This, Hole’s second studio album, the band was hit by tragedy when Courtney’s husband, Kurt Cobain, committed suicide, leaving Courtney and Frances behind. A few months later, the bass player, Kristen Pfaff also died, of a suspected heroin overdose. She was replaced by Melissa Auf Der Maur. Live Through This was a huge success, despite the tragedies in Courtney’s life, and the band eventually toured once again.

In 1996, Courtney Love appeared in Milos Forman’s biopic The People Vs. Larry Flynt, playing Larry Flynt’s wife, Althea. Larry was played by Woody Harrelson and the film also featured Edward Norton (whom she briefly dated). Love’s performance was highly acclaimed and her public perception of her abilities started to shift. Hole’s next album, released in 1998 was another success for Love. Entitled Celebrity Skin, the album featured a more polished sound, that Love dubbed ‘Fleetwood Smack’. Drummer Patty Schemel had left the band and was replaced by a session drummer, Samantha Malone. In 2001, the future of Hole was uncertain. Love started a ‘supergroup’ named Bastard, with Louise Post of Veruca Salt and bass player Gina Crosley. Crosley was replaced by Corey Parks from Nashville Pussy, but the project never came to fruition.

The majority of the early and mid 2000′s were embarrassingly horrible for Courtney, as she was addicted to several different drugs, got her daughter – Frances Bean – taken away from her once again, and was generally unstable, mentally and emotionally. 2004 saw Courtney Love release a solo album entitled America’s Sweetheart. The album received mixed reviews but it did not fare as well commercially as previous releases with Hole. Courtney’s second solo album, Nobody’s Daughter [although, was previously called "How Dirty Girls Get Clean"], was started in 2005, with Linda Perry (former singer of 4 Non Blondes and songwriter for artists such as Pink, among others) at the helm, producing the album. The album’s demos were famously referred to as “The Rehab Demos”, as they were just that – her rehab demos. Billy Corgan is also one of the album’s collaborators.

In 2009, it was announced that Hole would be reforming, with Micko Larkin (formerly of Larrikin Love) replacing Eric Erlandson. It was also reported that Melissa Auf Der Maur would be re-joining, but this turned out to be untrue. The album was recorded throughout 2009 and the beginning of 2010. Hole’s newest album, Nobody’s Daughter, was released on April 27th, 2010. As of now, Courtney is touring with her band, Hole. Despite the unfortunate fact that her daughter, Frances Bean, isn’t in her custody, but rather Kurt Cobain’s mother’s – Courtney is sober, seemingly happy, still outrageous, and still one of the world’s best rockstars – possibly the best.