Courtney Love

Courtney Love (born Courtney Michelle Harrison on July 9, 1964 in San Francisco, California) was the singer for the now-defunct band Hole. Currently in and out of rehab and on the verge of losing custody of her daughter, Love is also an occasional model and actress. Love is the widow of Kurt Cobain (1967–1994), lead singer of the band Nirvana, with whom she has one daughter, Frances Bean Cobain.

Early life

The daughter of Grateful Dead manager and publisher Hank Harrison and therapist Linda Carroll, Love spent her childhood with her mother as she wandered though five husbands and as many hippie communes in Oregon and New Zealand. Love later claimed to have been given LSD as a toddler. Her father denies this and has passed polygraph tests.

Related Topics:
Grateful Dead - Hank Harrison - Therapist - Hippie - Commune - Oregon - New Zealand - LSD - Toddler

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A troubled, angry child, Love was a veteran of reform schools and juvenile halls by the time she was a teenager. She broke away from her family and traveled around the US, United Kingdom and Ireland, living off of a trust fund established for her by her mother's adoptive parents. Her first rock musician boyfriend was Roz Rezabek folowed in Liverpool by Julian Cope, the founder of Teardrop Explodes. In her late teens she worked in Japan as a stripper, a job that she would return to at several points in her life before attaining fame. At age 22 she found herself back in Portland, Oregon, then moved to Los Angeles in 1987 along with the band Babes in Toyland. After being fired from Babes by founding member Kat Bjelland, she took up in Los Angeles with Leaving Trains. Viewed by some as a social climber, she befriended many musicians who would later become alternative rock icons, among them Michael Stipe of R.E.M. and Billy Corgan of Smashing Pumpkins.

Related Topics:
Reform school - Juvenile halls - United Kingdom - Ireland - Trust fund - Roz Rezabek - Julian Cope - Teardrop Explodes - Japan - Stripper - Portland, Oregon - Los Angeles - 1987 - Babes in Toyland - Kat Bjelland - Leaving Trains - Alternative rock - Michael Stipe - R.E.M. - Billy Corgan - Smashing Pumpkins

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Before Courtney Michelle Harrison assumed the artistic name "Courtney Love", it bears mentioning that in 1987 Lois Maffeo formed a duo consisting of herself on vocals and guitar and drummer Pat Maley releasing a couple of 7" EPs under the band name of "Courtney Love". This band gigged around the Pacific Northwest in the late '80s and the release of these singles preceded Love's assumption of that name. The band Courtney Love, however, was very different from Love's adrenaline charged performances with her band Hole. Hole did not start releasing EPs (the first of which was a song called "Dicknail") until 1990. Courtney Love (the band) played in the twee sub-category of indie-rock of mellow, soft, sickly-sweet yet deftly performed songs. As noted, the band only put out two EPs but hailed from Olympia, Washington, where the "grunge" scene was also starting to take hold at about the same time as the "twee" scene.

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