Courtney Love

One of the more polarizing figures in music, Courtney Love was either one of the great heroes or villains of the indie-rock movement. She was born in San Francisco and grew up around Haight-Ashbury; her mother was a psychotherapist and her father a Grateful Dead roadie. Her family moved to New Zealand in 1972; she was expelled from the prestigious Nelson College for Girls soon afterward. By the time she hit twenty Love had worked as a topless dancer, been arrested for shoplifting in Portland OR, cohabitated with songwriter Julian Cope in England, and been deported from Taiwan after working illegally as an exotic dancer. Moving between Portland, Minneapolis and San Francisco, Love studied acting and formed her first band, the Pagan Babies, with respective future Babes in Toyland and L7 members Kat Bjelland and Jennifer Finch. She made her film debut playing a small role in "Sid & Nancy" (1986) after director Alex Cox rejected her for the role of Nancy Spungen; however Cox made her a lead in his next movie, the spaghetti-western pastiche "Straight to Hell" (1987). Moving to Los Angeles in 1988 she formed the first lineup of Hole with guitarist Eric Erlandson. Sonic Youth member Kim Gordon produced their 1991 debut Pretty on the Inside, which was more confrontational and less pop-friendly than what followed. History took its course soon afterward when she went to a Dharma Bums show in Portland and met her future husband Kurt Cobain. The pair became the grunge movement's notorious glamor couple. Love alternately confirmed and denied that she was using heroin while pregnant with their daughter Frances Bean; she did pose semi-naked for Vanity Fair while pregnant with a cigarette that was airbrushed out. Cobain was said to have worked extensively behind the scenes on Hole's sophomore album Live Through This, which was released four days after he died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. The album was widely praised and sympathy for Love initially ran high, however her behavior on tour became increasingly unhinged with onstage tirades and occasional physical outbursts. During 1995's Lollapalooza tour she had a backstage altercation with Bikini Kill frontwoman Kathleen Hanna; Sinead O'Connor was traumatized enough to quit the tour over it. Love's later career held some genuine triumphs, including Hole's next album Celebrity Skin-- a polished pop album that reveled in the dark side of Hollywood-and her starring role in "The People vs. Larry Flynt" (1996). However her one solo album, America's Sweetheart (2004) was a relative flop; as was 2010's Nobody's Daughter, essentially a solo album credited to a reunited Hole. She saw numerous stints in rehab during the 2000s, and in 2009 lost custody of her daughter for reasons unspecified. She made headlines again in 2018 when Frances Bean's ex-husband Isaiah Silva sued Love and several others, claiming they'd plotted to murder him over his ownership of a Kurt Cobain guitar. Love has continued acting in the 2010s-including James Franco's "The Long Home" (2019)-but has made no music since the 2010 Hole album.