How Courtney Love inspired one of Nirvana's biggest songs

9 July 2024, 17:22

Nirvana - Heart-Shaped Box

Courtney Love is 60 years old and to celebrate, we look back at how she inspired one of Nirvana's most iconic singles.

Courtney Love turns 60 years on 9th July 2024.

The Hole singer is embedded in the history of grunge music, inspiring many bands and artists to this day, but did you know she had direct influence of a song on Nirvana's In Utero album?

The band's third and final album - which was released in September 1993 - went on to be the grunge band's swan song, after their frontman Kurt Cobain tragically lost his life to suicide on 5 April 1994.

Intentionally made to sound less polished than its predecessor, Nevermind (1991), In Utero saw Nirvana recapture the heavy and abrasive sound of their early days.

One of the stand-out tracks from the album is Heart-Shaped Box, which is known for its iconic video as well as its striking lyrics.

Cobain is thought to have begun writing the song in early 1992 around the time he wed Courtney Love, but just how much was it inspired by the Hole frontwoman?

Find out below...

Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love with Nirvana's Heart-Shaped Box single artwork. Picture: Vinnie Zuffante/Getty Images, Press

Heart-Shaped Box was released on 30 August 1993 but was a glint in Kurt Cobain's eye at least a year before when he wrote the track in early 1992.

Many believe that the song was about Cobain's feelings for Love - who he married in February 1992 - but as noted in Michael Azerrad's book, Come As You Are, the idea came directly from a heart-shaped box full of possessions she gave to him.

A quick look at the artwork for the single is testament to this:

Nirvana's Heart-Shaped Box single artwork. Picture: Press

But as recently as 2012 Love hinted that the inspiration didn't end there....

As reported by Rolling Stone in 2012, Lana Del Rey gave a rendition of the track in Australia and Love reached out to her on Twitter to give her a little more context.

She wrote: "You do know the song is about my vagina right? 'Throw down your umbilical noose so i can climb right back,' umm".

@LanaDelRey you do know the song is about my Vagina right? throw down your umbilical noose so i can climb right back umm
— Courtney Love Cobain (@Courtney) July 30, 2012

She added: "on top of which some of the lyrics about my vagina i contributed".

@LanaDelRey on top of which some of the lyrics about my vagina i contributed
— Courtney Love Cobain (@Courtney) July 30, 2012

Despite the song's title being inspired by a box given to him by Courtney Love, it was almost called something else entirely.

Early mentions of the track, including its demo refer to the song as Heart-Shaped Coffin... which is pretty apt for Nirvana, but we reckon doesn't have quite the same ring to it.

nirvana heart shaped box (band demo)

Still, had it been called Heart-Shaped Coffin, the song's original title would have only made it all the more haunting and prophetic when Cobain sadly took his own life.

Sadly, the Nirvana frontman wasn't to stay with us, joining the 27 club like many artists before him.

Though Courtney Love has had a well-documented struggle with addiction, the musician has beaten the odds and lived to tell the tale... something which hasn't always been easy, given how many fans blamed her after the Nirvana frontman's passing.

Speaking on the topic earlier this year as part of a sprawling interview with the Evening Standard, Love said that she always wanted to be thought of "as a bitch," while her late husband wanted to be liked, but she wasn't prepared for how she was perceived after his tragic death.

"People used to say that I was so difficult," recalled 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."