Courtney Love has been the center of attention ever since her marriage to Kurt Cobain and definitely since his untimely death and the suspicions about how it came to happen. She is known for her off the wall antics both on stage and off, even to the point of shocking pop icon Madonna. It got worst for Love when she was accused of using drugs while being pregnant with her child Frances Bean. If you’re a Nirvana fan, you might hate her for the fact that she took all of the rights to the name Nirvana, and has exploited and manipulated the name for her own devices, even giving consent to allowing Kurt Cobain to be used as a character in the popular Rock Band series. There are a lot of things Courtney has done that has pissed a lot of people off and majority have good reason to.

With all of these reasons to not like Courtney, I still find some sentiment to actually like her. I am above all a die hard Nirvana fan owning every album ever put out including the Unplugged session, but what Nirvana has done cannot be tainted whatever Courtney Love has done. Nirvana will always be the best band ever to have been around, plus Kurt was already fucked up from the beginning, Courtney was just there to be his companion in his demons. Whether she killed him or not is to be determined although if it was anyone who could’ve saved him, it could have been her. I say all of this to say that I actually like Courtney Love. Before you hate me, here’s why…

Part of the reason why I like Courtney Love is the same reason why I like Kurt Cobain… they both just don’t give a fuck. Kurt Cobain used to go on stage and mess up his lyrics, wear a dress in interviews, or fuck up his own equipment just like Courtney would throw something at Madonna, scream at the audience or say some random shit. They both personified the whole dirty rock star image and while Kurt did it for the guys, Courtney Love did it for the girls. She is even one of the first to rock the “kinderwhore” look where she would dress up in ripped up baby doll dresses with her make up smeared all over her face. I honestly dig people who do their own thing despite what others think and Courtney Love is one of those people.

Another reason why I dig Courtney Love is because she actually makes good music. I will admit to having my reservations about it at first, but when I heard the first Hole album Live Through This, I was convinced that she and Cobain were a great musical match and that Cobain had some influence on her style. I can listen to that album all the way through and unless someone else wrote the songs (???) and made the music, it was pretty darn good. Even some of her solo stuff isn’t too bad. Like Cobain, her music is pretty grungy which makes me like her more because she’s dabbling in the genre ruled mainly by males and she has the look to verify herself in that genre. She touches on subjects about feminism and conformism and does it to some really great and catchy riffs.

My final reason I’m going to give for liking Courtney Love is that regardless of what people have said or what she has done, she has lasted a very long time and still performs to this day. People can hate you all of your life but it’s up to you how you want to handle it and Courtney seems to let it roll off her shoulder and continue doing what she wants to do, even though she is stepping and crushing a lot of people’s toes. Even the situation with the Hole reunion where she went on with the band without the aid of Eric Erlandson whom she originally started the band with. Anyone who can go through fire, brimstone and whatever else and still keep moving on has my vote in the persistence category. People will always tell you what you can or can’t do and Love has my respect in that manner.

Like I said, I recognize the fucked up things that Courtney Love has done, but when I add up the fact that she makes good music and doesn’t give a fuck, she gets at least 4 stars from me in the rock star zone. I’m sure there are a lot of male and even female artists who do the same. Plus, if you look at the background of Love, you can see where a lot of this is coming from. Sometimes I wonder what goes on in that head of Courtney Love but I like surprises so I’ll just keep on watching and seeing what she does. I hate I missed her Atlanta show though.

Later Days…