Courtney Love opens up about the hate she received after Kurt Cobain died

19 April 2024, 16:00 | Updated: 9 July 2024, 13:27

Courtney Love in 2023 and the Hole rocker with Nirvana icon Kurt Cobain at the 1993 MTV Awards. Picture: Dave Benett/Getty Images for National Portrait Gallery, Vinnie Zuffante/Getty Images

By Jenny Mensah

The Hole singer has recalled how the dislike of her went to a whole "new level" when the Nirvana frontman died.

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Courtney Love has said she's never wanted to be liked but wasn't prepared for the hatred she received after Kurt Cobain died.

The late Nirvana frontman tragically lost his life to suicide on 4th April 1994, but much blacklash was thrown at his Love, with many even creating conspiracy theories that she was responsible for his death.

Now, in a sprawling interview with the Evening Standard, the Hole singer revealed that she always wanted to be thought of "as a bitch," while her late husband wanted to be liked.

"People used to say that I was so difficult," said the Celebrity Skin singer. "They said I was disagreeable. Yes, I am completely disagreeable and I’m never going to apologise for that. I always wanted to be known as a bitch. Being liked was never my thing. Kurt wanted to be liked but not me."

Love added that hate was often directed at her as the wife of the beloved Nirvana frontman, but his shocking death at the age of 27 took it to "a whole new level".

"He was able to hide behind me, but then I got hated," she went on. "Then Kurt died, and the hatred towards me reached a completely new level. I did not plan for that."

The interview also saw Courtney Love share her thoughts on Taylor Swift and Lana Del Rey.

"Taylor is not important," she said of Swift. "She might be a safe space for girls, and she’s probably the Madonna of now, but she’s not interesting as an artist".

Back in 2021, however Love was much more positive about the impact of the Folklore singer, wishing her a Happy Birthday and praising her influence on young women.

The Celebrity Skin singer has also previously praised Lana Del Rey in the past, calling her one of two only "true musical geniuses" she'd ever known.

However, it seems she's even tiring of the Born To Die singer and has cited the moment where it all went wrong.

"I haven’t liked Lana since she covered a John Denver song, and I think she should really take seven years off," said Love. "Up until Take Me Home Country Roads I thought she was great.

"When I was recording my new album, I had to stop listening to her as she was influencing me too much."

This month marked the 30th anniversary of Cobain's passing and his daughter Frances Bean took to Instagram to pay tribute to her father, who she lost when she was only one years old.

Sharing a series of photos on Instagram, she began: "30 years ago my dad’s life ended. The 2nd & 3rd photo capture the last time we were together while he was still alive. His mom Wendy would often press my hands to her cheeks & say, with a lulling sadness, “you have his hands”. She would breathe them in as if it were her only chance to hold him just a little bit closer, frozen in time.I hope she’s holding his hands wherever they are."

The daughter of of the Love and the Smells Like Teen Spirit rocker went on: "In the last 30 years my ideas around loss have been in a continuous state of metamorphosing. The biggest lesson learned through grieving for almost as long as I’ve been conscious, is that it serves a purpose. The duality of life & death, pain & joy, yin & yang, need to exist along side each other or none of this would have any meaning. It is the impermanent nature of human existence which throws us into the depths of our most authentic lives. As It turns out, there is no greater motivation for leaning into loving awareness than knowing everything ends."

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She continued: "I wish I could’ve known my Dad. I wish I knew the cadence of his voice, how he liked his coffee or the way it felt to be tucked in after a bedtime story. I always wondered if he would’ve caught tadpoles with me during the muggy Washington summers, or if he smelled of Camel Lights & strawberry nesquik (his favorites, I’ve been told). But there is also deep wisdom being on an expedited path to understanding how precious life is. He gifted me a lesson in death that can only come through the LIVED experience of losing someone. It’s the gift of knowing for certain, when we love ourselves & those around us with compassion, with openness, with grace, the more meaningful our time here inherently becomes.

"Kurt wrote me a letter before I was born. The last line of it reads, “wherever you go or wherever I go, I will always be with you.” He kept this promise because he is present in so many ways. Whether it’s by hearing a song or through the hands we share, in those moments I get to spend a little time with my dad & he feels transcendent. ✨

"To anyone who has wondered what it would’ve looked like to live along side the people they have lost, I’m holding you in my thoughts today. The meaning of our grief is the same."