She's not just the wife of...
She's not just a provocative character...
And she's not just a singer...
Musician, actress, and painter Courtney Love is celebrating her birthday today !!
Let's see if you succeed in following her disturbed, unconventional and creative life !!
(Photo: David Roemer)
1. She was born on July 9, 1964. Her full name is Courtney Michelle Harrison and she was born in San Francisco. Later in life, she changed her last name to Love.
2. From an early age she grew up on music with her godfather being bassist Phil Lesh and one of the founders of the "Grateful Dead" band.
3. In 1970 Courtney's parents divorced when the divorce process was ugly and difficult which greatly affected Courtney.
4. At the age of 9, Courtney was diagnosed with autism by a school psychologist she attended.
(Photo: Courtney Love Facebook)
5. Courtney's mother created a beautiful, unrestrained, and boundless environment in her home, Courtney said that different people would walk around her house, sometimes without even clothes, and would do yoga and various religious ceremonies.
6. At the age of 14 Courtney held her debut in the prison cell, when she was arrested for theft from his compartment store.
7. After her release, Courtney was adopted by a foster family until 1980, where she grew up on the music of Patti Smith, "The Runaways" and "The Pretenders".
8. Until her return to the US in 1982 Courtney traveled to Japan, the UK, and Ireland working on bizarre works and a booklet for her biological father. One of the experiences she gathered there was staying at the home of The Teardrop Explodes, a local post-punk rock band.
9. That same year during a performance of the band "Faith No More", Courtney asked the band to become their singer. The band agreed and even recorded several songs with her, but the experiment ended very quickly and Courtney was fired from the band.
10. After another outing outside the US and again odd jobs, Courtney returned to the US and formed her first lineup with Ursula Wehr and Robin Barbur. In 1984 she formed her first official band "Pagan Babies", they recorded a short demo of four songs and broke up.
11. Courtney decided she was doing a professional conversion and started studying film and theater, she got several very small roles and in 1987 she was cast in a lead role in the comedy-action-film Straight to Hell directed by Alex Cox.
12. The film caught the attention of Andy Warhol who cast Courtney for his guest show Andy Warhol's Fifteen Minutes. That same year she also appeared in a Ramones band clip for the song "I Wanna Be Sedated".
13. A year later Courtney left acting and began working as a stripper in several West Coast cities. She felt she could not find herself and her destiny and after a few months, she moved to Alaska for a few months.
14. At the end of 1989 Courtney moved to Los Angeles and decided to form a band. She enlisted guitarist Eric Erlandson and the two began working on materials together. At night she would work as a stripper to purchase equipment for the band and during the day they would rehearse in a studio loaned to them by the RHCP.
15. Courtney enlisted Lisa Roberts and together they screamed their souls to Eric's guitar sounds. After a few weeks, Courtney recruited drummer Caroline Rue and another guitarist Mike Geisbrecht, but the latter did not last long and was replaced by Jill Emery. The above ensemble was called "Hole".
(Photo: Spotify)
16. In 1991 the debut album "Pretty on the Inside" was released, it was produced by Kim Gordon from "Sonic Youth" and the singer Don Fleming from "Gumball". The album was very rough and very influenced by punk rock and metal, it was a commercial success When the only single from the album was "Teenage Whore".
17. After the release of the album, the band went on a tour in Europe to promote the album along with "Mudhoney" and "Smashing Pumpkins". Through the tour, Courtney met Billy Corgan and the two had a relationship for several months.
18. In May 1991 Courtney met Kurt Cobain and the two had a relationship until February 1992 when they got married and she became his official partner.
19. In April 1993 their only daughter was born "Frances Bean Cobain".
20. That same year Courtney appeared on the cover of the famous "Vanity Fair" magazine which included an article that portrayed the rockers in a very negative light, as they were addicted to drugs and raising a child under very bad and irresponsible conditions. Courtney said the article had a very severe and profound impact on Cobain and their relationship.
21. In the same year, the couple made their only appearance together at an anti-rape event in Hollywood where they performed the songs "Pennyroyal Tea" and "Where Did You Sleep Last Night".
22. The band's second album "Live Through This" was released in 1994, a week after Cobain's death. The album contained softer and melodic sides of the band but retained the hard, rough core. Except for guitarist Eric, all the other members of the band have changed.
23. The album was an even greater success than its predecessor and was the band's breakthrough album, it won a place in Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 best albums of all time.
24. The tour to promote the album was one of the wildest and most notorious events in the band's history. Courtney would take to the stage unleashed as she unloaded her positions on the microphone, lashing out at stage workers and spectators and physically dismantling the stage and the audience, not to mention several events that led to many arrests of the lady.
25. After finishing her tour in 1996, Courtney returned to her second profession and began acting in several series, until she was cast in a lead role in The People Vs. Larry Flynt, tells the story of the owner of the pornographic magazine "Hustler".
26. A year later Courtney returned to the world of music and releases "Hole" a compilation album called "My Body, the Hand Grenade". In the same year, the band also released an EP called "The First Session".
27. In 1998 Hole released her third album "Celebrity Skin". The album features several musicians from outside the band such as Billy Corgan mentioned above who also wrote some of the songs, "Jordon Zadorozny" and "Charlotte Caffey", Courtney wrote all the lyrics on the album. This is the band's most successful album to date and it reached number 9 on the Billboard 200. Courtney made no secret of the fact that the album combines commercialism and art for her!
28. By the way, Corgan remained friendly with Courtney Love and later had a relationship with her, when in 2006 he even moved in with her and her daughter Frances Bean Cobain at her Hollywood mansion.
29. Back in 1998, Courtney designed a guitar in collaboration with "Fender" under the low-cost brand of Fender Squier guitar called "Vista Venus".
30. In 1999 she starred in the movie "Man on the Moon" with Jim Carry.
31. A year later she starred in the film "Beat" alongside Kiefer Sutherland.
32. In 2001 she starred in the film "Julie Johnson" alongside actress Lili Taylor.
33. That same year Courtney formed a punk rock supergroup called "Bastard" with Veruca Salt, Louise Post, and Gina Crosley. The band recorded a demo of only a few songs and disbanded shortly thereafter.
34. A year later in 2002, she starred in the movie "Trapped" with Kevin Bacon and Charlize Theron.
35. That same year Hole officially disbanded!
36. In 2004 Courtney released her only solo album called "America's Sweetheart". The album is very different musically from the material of "Hole" and it was a commercial failure when at a later stage Courtney called it a mistake.
37. In 2005 she co-wrote and published a manga (Japanese comic) called Princess Ai with writer Stu Levy.
38. In 2009 Courtney brought "Hole" back to life and a year later, what started as a second solo album became the band's fourth and final album Nobody's Daughter. Linda and Corgan also had partners on this album and despite mixed reviews from fans and critics, Courtney declared it to be the best album she had made.
39. This time too Billy Corgan co-wrote and produced several songs from the album. Immediately after his release Corgan got upset with Courtney for acting without his permission with the songs and they started exchanging "blows" between them on Twitter and Facebook. It was so ugly and offensive that the two do not speak to this day.
40. In 2012 she released a collection of 40 handmade paintings and illustrations called And She's Not Even Pretty.
(Photo: Courtney Love Facebook)
41. In 2014, Courtney starred in the seventh season of the "Sons Of Anarchy" series.
42. In 2016 she released a clothing collection together with businesswoman Sophia Amoruso named Love, Courtney.
43. In 2018 she appeared in the clip for the song "Tattooed in Reverse" by Marilyn Manson along with Lisa Marie Presley.
44. In 2020, she received the Icon Award at the NME Awards; NME described her as "one of the most influential singers in alternative culture of the last 30 years".
45. The drugs were an integral part of Courtney's most of her life, she underwent several rehab processes and was even arrested several times.
46. Throughout her life, she has been involved in such and such scandals that have included violence against fans and reporters, provocative behavior in TV shows and programs, libel, and lawsuits, and a series of numerous bizarre arrests.
You are invited to listen to the latest album she released as part of the band "Hole": here.
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