Courtney Love

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Birthday:

9 July 1964, San Francisco, California, USA

Birth Name:

Courtney Michelle Harrison

Height:

174 cm

The daughter of Grateful Dead devotee and first manager Hank Harrison and psychotherapist Linda Caroll, Courtney Love was born Courtney Michelle Harrison in San Francisco, California in 1964. Love spent her early years living in hippie communes in Oregon and at schools in Europe and New Zealand, under the care of her mother and other family members.By age 16, Love became legally emancipated and traveled throughout Europe, living off of a small trust fund left behind by her grandmother. Love eventually returned to Portland, Oregon, still pursuing music, and then moved around to various locations in the United States before making her break into the industry.As a musician, she played in early incarnations of Babes In Toyland and Faith No More, as well as acting in bit parts for some Alex Cox films. In 1989, she started her own band, Hole, and in 1992 married Nirvana singer Kurt Cobain, giving birth to their daughter, Frances Bean Cobain, that same year. After Cobain's suicide in 1994, and the release of Hole's second album "Live Through This", Love continued to thrill her fans and enrage her detractors with her on- and off-stage antics.By 1998, Hole had released their third studio album, "Celebrity Skin", and Love had attracted cinematic notoriety for her performance in The People vs. Larry Flynt (1996), which not only garnered her a Golden Globe nomination, but recognition as a serious performer.Early into the millennium, Hole broke up, and Love took some supporting roles in films such as Trapped (2002), but her rocky past and propensity toward drug addiction eventually caught up with her, sending her through a whirlwind of numerous health and legal issues.After unsuccessful stints in and out of drug rehabilitation centers, Love was ordered by the L.A. county court to three months in lock down rehab, which came to an end in 2006. Love soon after released a scrapbook-like diary recounting her life, titled "Dirty Blonde: The Diaries of Courtney Love", and continued writing music, testifying her sobriety to the press and public.In 2009, after losing custody of daughter Frances Bean Cobain for unrelated reasons, Love re-formed Hole with an entirely new lineup, and soon after released the band's first album in ten years, titled "Nobody's Daughter". Show less «

I'm not a woman, I'm a force of nature.

"I'm not going to hurt anybody other than that dick who keeps writing songs about me" --about Dave Grohl in a Howard Stern interview.

"Cocaine is like really evil coffee." (What she told her daughter about drugs.)

"You're no one in the rock industry unless you've feuded with me or slept with Winona Ryder.

"Being famous is just like being in high school. But, I'm not interested in being the cheerleader. I'm not interested in being Gwen Stefani....Show more »

"Being famous is just like being in high school. But, I'm not interested in being the cheerleader. I'm not interested in being Gwen Stefani. She's the cheerleader, and I'm out in the smoker shed. And plenty of you are out there in the smoker shed too. When it comes to rock 'n' roll, it's just like high school" (From an interview in the August 2004 Seventeen magazine). Show less «

"Knowing me, I'd probably end up at a bar, asking some guy to get me another martini. Still bleaching my hair at 59." (her response to what ...Show more »

"Knowing me, I'd probably end up at a bar, asking some guy to get me another martini. Still bleaching my hair at 59." (her response to what she thinks she'll be like when she's old.) Show less «

[on the changing state of the music industry] It's a radical time for musicians, a really revolutionary time, and I believe revolutions [lik...Show more »

[on the changing state of the music industry] It's a radical time for musicians, a really revolutionary time, and I believe revolutions [like Napster] are a lot more fun than cash, which, by the way, we don't have at major labels anyway, so we might as well get with it and get in the game. Show less «

If I write a song about being a teenage prostitute, that doesn't mean that I was a teenage prostitute, any more than it means Kurt raped Pol...Show more »

If I write a song about being a teenage prostitute, that doesn't mean that I was a teenage prostitute, any more than it means Kurt raped Polly. Show less «

Drugs have nothing to do with the creation of music. In fact, they are dumb and self indulgent. Kind of like sucking your thumb.

[on her father] He managed the Grateful Dead for five seconds, and he was an amateur acid-maker.

I surrounded myself with women when I was growing up because I had this horrible psycho father. Now I'm trying to really appreciate and like...Show more »

I surrounded myself with women when I was growing up because I had this horrible psycho father. Now I'm trying to really appreciate and like men more. Show less «

I think Andy Kaufman is to comedy what The Velvet Underground was to music- it's like, 80 thousand records sold, but everybody who bought on...Show more »

I think Andy Kaufman is to comedy what The Velvet Underground was to music- it's like, 80 thousand records sold, but everybody who bought one started a band. Show less «

If you treat a girl like a dog, she's going to piss on you.

[Commenting to NME on the hypocritically differing attitudes towards male and female rockstars]- You've got to be prepared for the names the...Show more »

[Commenting to NME on the hypocritically differing attitudes towards male and female rockstars]- You've got to be prepared for the names they are going to call you compared to your male peers... You will be a floozy and a slattern. He will be virile and a ladies' man. You will be a freakshow, a retching wretch, a sloppy drunk. He will be charismatic, vainglorious, a ferocious drunk and Dionysian. You will be indiscriminate and desperate. He will be generous, tortured and driven. Show less «

I am just the classic person who wants to learn stuff. I want good tutors, and with Kurt I had the best.

[on clinging to all of her late husband's belongings in 2007] "My house is like a mausoleum. My daughter doesn't need to inherit a giant hef...Show more »

[on clinging to all of her late husband's belongings in 2007] "My house is like a mausoleum. My daughter doesn't need to inherit a giant hefty bag full of flannel shirts....A sweater, a guitar and the lyrics to 'Teen Spirit'--that's what my daughter gets. And the rest of it we'll just sell." Show less «

[on Hole's successful second album, Live Through This (1994)] "It was so easy to make that I get surprised by the effect it had on people. B...Show more »

[on Hole's successful second album, Live Through This (1994)] "It was so easy to make that I get surprised by the effect it had on people. But, you know, all good rock is easy. The riffs just came, and they were fresh from chords that I'd learned from [Billy] Corgan and Kurt [Cobain]. I wrote 'Doll Parts' in five minutes." Show less «

There's a kind of appeal in vulnerability, and there's an appeal in sort of a quantum vulnerability, where you really are exposing something...Show more »

There's a kind of appeal in vulnerability, and there's an appeal in sort of a quantum vulnerability, where you really are exposing something. It's like, a "haha, what are you gonna do?" kind of thing. "Yeah, come here, screw with me, I'm only, like, hanging upside down on a cross." Show less «

How can any woman be the female Jim Morrison? What Jim Morrison was was a sexual object. Women - we invented rock and roll, and sexualized m...Show more »

How can any woman be the female Jim Morrison? What Jim Morrison was was a sexual object. Women - we invented rock and roll, and sexualized men so that we could go and scream at these unattainable football captains. Show less «

I wanted to be something when I grew up, and I grew up in the '70s. What was I gonna be, a movie star? Movie stars say other people's words....Show more »

I wanted to be something when I grew up, and I grew up in the '70s. What was I gonna be, a movie star? Movie stars say other people's words. A writer- I'm undisciplined. A rock star- that's what I wanted to be when I was a kid. Show less «

[2009] I'm sober. I'm fabulous. I have a few character defects, but I'm not dishonorable and I'm not a liar. I have a good heart...I've neve...Show more »

[2009] I'm sober. I'm fabulous. I have a few character defects, but I'm not dishonorable and I'm not a liar. I have a good heart...I've never claimed to be anyone's role model. I'm not Mother Teresa. Show less «

I like to mentor young women and encourage them to play music. It's like teaching someone to play a sport; it doesn't matter if they grow up...Show more »

I like to mentor young women and encourage them to play music. It's like teaching someone to play a sport; it doesn't matter if they grow up to be a professional athlete. It is a skillset you can use for the rest of your life and it keeps people out of trouble. Every girl should know how to play three chords on a guitar; it should be mandatory. It will keep them out of trouble, and they'll get any guy they want [laughs]. Show less «

[commenting on her brief relationship with Trent Reznor] "Trent and I had this torrid whatever-you-want-to-call-it...he said in "Details" th...Show more »

[commenting on her brief relationship with Trent Reznor] "Trent and I had this torrid whatever-you-want-to-call-it...he said in "Details" that my alleged pregnancy would have to be immaculate conception, so I said in "Spin" 'Don't call your band "Nine Inch Nails" if you have a three inch one!' My band is called "Hole." It's not called "big hole," it's not called "little hole," it's not called "flapping nony", it's not called "teeny rosebud", it's not called "Barbie pussy." It's called "Hole."" Show less «

[on her music career with Hole] "I said this band is going to be ten times bigger than Sonic Youth but not as big as Jane's Addiction. What ...Show more »

[on her music career with Hole] "I said this band is going to be ten times bigger than Sonic Youth but not as big as Jane's Addiction. What was the but for?! It's like a fucking curse! The gods were listening that day! I could have said 'this band will be ten times bigger than Sonic Youth and The Beatles' and that's where we'd be right now." Show less «

[on Kathleen Hanna] I still don't like her. She bugs me. Kathleen Hanna runs that ship [her relationship with Beastie Boy Adam Horovitz] in ...Show more »

[on Kathleen Hanna] I still don't like her. She bugs me. Kathleen Hanna runs that ship [her relationship with Beastie Boy Adam Horovitz] in a way that is far more Yoko than I would be. I envision her being in a decked-out loft with a little corner for a desk that look like it belongs in a poor person's East Village apartment, with her battered-women's stuff and her Ms. magazines and all her communication with leading feminists. Show less «