It seems strange that after so many years that Dave Grohl and Courtney Love have ended their decades-long feud. There was a time when the pair was actually civil with one another.
At Kurt Cobain’s wedding to Love in 1992, no family was in attendance and Nirvana bassist, Krist Novoselic didn’t even attend the ceremony thinking that Courtney Love was a bad influence on Cobain. Dave Grohl however, was in attendance and was even seen posing for photos with Love and holding her hand here. So how did things get so sour with Dave Grohl and Courtney Love?
The Howard Stern Show
Grohl would appear on the Howard Stern radio show in 1999 and the topic of Courtney Love’s band, Hole came up and Stern asked Grohl what his favorite Hole song was. He replied “Teenage Horror” because Grohl claimed he knew she wrote it, insinuating that other people including Cobain wrote Hole’s other songs.
Courtney Love responded during her appearance on the Howard Stern Show, “Now if you were in a band with me for five years or four years if Sam wasn’t in and I died and my boyfriend started a band or was in a band, you’d know like every riff, know the way that I sang everything. You’d know perfectly well who wrote what, right? So Dave is on this like mission.”
Nirvana’s Final Studio Recordings
Three years later in 2002, Courtney Love, Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic would get into a legal battle over the rights to one of Nirvana’s final studio recordings, “You Know You’re Right”.
Grohl and Novoselic had wanted the song for a planned Nirvana box set but Love blocked its release saying the song would have been wasted on a box set. It would have been better suited as a single disc collection similar to the Beatles. Her lawsuit called the song, “A potential hit of extraordinary artistic and commercial value” and Love’s manager asserted that a release with the song could sell 50 million copies.
Now former Nirvana bassist, Krist Novoselic revealed that he did not necessarily disagree with Courtney Love at that time saying, “I’ve always considered everything she said. I tried to get along with Courtney as best as I could. There’s only so much you can do.”
In September of 2002, the lawsuit was finally settled and it was announced that “You Know You’re Right” would arrive on a one CD history of the band called Nirvana, later that year.
Echo, Silence, Patience and Grace
Fast forward five years to 2007 and Foo Fighters would release their sixth studio record Echo, Silence, Patience and Grace. It featured the song, “Let it Die”, which was also released as a single and it had the verse that read “A simple man and his blushing bride intravenous intertwined. You’re so considerate did you ever think of me.”
“There are a lot of people that I have been angry with, in my life but the one that’s most noted is Courtney.” – Dave Grohl
In a recent interview that happened around that time, Grohl explained his feelings on Courtney Love saying, “There are a lot of people that I have been angry with, in my life but the one that’s most noted is Courtney. So it was pretty obvious to me that those correlations are going to pop up every now and again. I still remain a little secretive about it all” referring to the meaning of the song, “Let It Die”.
Courtney Love would respond on her MySpace blog at the time, writing, “As for the drummer, well he’s hit on me so many times. He’s just a very conflicted guy about me which is why he continually writes songs about me, to hear he hates me more than anyone else.
Kurt loathed him more than anyone else except a journalist and in his will, he made a codicil that Grohl was no longer a member of Nirvana. I just ignored the guy and will continue to do so. Dave knows this and he takes it out on me. It’s funny he hates me since I don’t think about him. He’s just a sub-mediocre kind of guy who does this nice guy nonsense. There isn’t a word he could say that would ruffle my feathers honestly.”
Kurt Cobain’s Avatar in Guitar Hero 5
Fast-forward two years later to 2009 and the rhythm gaming craze has taken hold.
Guitar Hero announces that Kurt Cobain’s avatar will be playable in Guitar Hero 5 which was coming out that fall. In addition to being able to play “Smells like Teen Spirit” and a live version of “Lithium”, you could use Cobain’s avatar to play every other song in the game including Bon Jovi’s “You Give Love a Bad Name”, which shocked many fans. Initially, Courtney Love approved the use of Cobain in the game and then went on a Twitter rampage against Dave Grohl and the publisher of Guitar Hero, Activision.
In reality, Grohl and Krist Novoselic had no control over the likeness and the name of Kurt Cobain being used in the game as they are not the owners of his estate. Courtney Love was at the time. Love would write on Twitter, “I dragged my butt and never signed off on the avatar and let alone this effing feature.”
Love’s recent comments on Twitter though seemed to negate everything Activision’s Tim Riley told Rolling Stone of the time when they talked to him about the Cobain avatar in Guitar Hero 5. “Courtney supplied us with the photos and videos and knew exactly what she wanted Kurt to look like. She picked the wardrobe and the hairstyle which turned out to be the ‘Teen Spirit’ look. Then we went back and forth over changes, some subtle, some not so subtle. She was actually really great to work with. She got back with comments pretty quickly.”
Some speculated that Love was reacting to a backlash from fans over Cobain being included in the game.
To make matters worse Krist Novoselic and Dave Grohl released their own statement on the matter saying we want people to know that we were dismayed and very disappointed in the way that Kurt Cobain is used in the Guitar Hero game, “The name and the likeness of Kurt Cobain are the sole property of his estate.
We have no control whatsoever in that area and while we were aware that Kurt’s image was being used with two Nirvana songs we didn’t know players have the ability to unlock the character. This feature allows the character to be used with any song that the player wants.
We urge Activision to do the right thing in relocking Kurt’s character so this won’t continue in the future. It’s hard to watch an image of Kurt pantomiming other artists’ music alongside cartoon characters. Kurt Cobain wrote songs that hold a lot of meaning to people all over the world we feel he deserves better.”
Courtney Love’s On-Stage Breakdown
Two years later in 2011, Courtney Love had an on-stage breakdown during a Hole performance in South Paulo Brazil, screaming about Foo Fighters and former Nirvana drummer, Dave Grohl and how he was stealing money from herself and her daughter, Frances Bean Cobain.
The tirade started when a fan held up a picture of Cobain from the audience and Love berated the crowd, seemingly out of nowhere for supporting Grohl saying, “I don’t care what you listen to at home,” she announced referring to Foo Fighters and Grohl, “but if a guy takes money off my kid’s table, eff him.”
After the show, she tried to explain her comments to an interviewer saying, “Dave makes five million dollars a Foo Fighters show. He doesn’t need the money from Nirvana so why the eff does he have a Nirvana Inc credit card and I don’t and last week he bought an Aston Martin on it.” She went on to claim that Cobain’s sister lives under a bridge and his mom lives in a mould-infested house.
A year later in 2012, Love would make a startling accusation on her private Twitter account. Courtney Love would go on a rant saying she heard from her daughter’s roommate and driver that Dave Grohl hit on Frances Bean Cobain. Frances Bean would push back against the rant and Grohl would respond and Love would be forced to apologize to her daughter a few days later on Twitter.
It would be Gawker who published the private tweets prompting Grohl to respond with a statement saying, “Unfortunately, Courtney is on another hateful Twitter rant. These new accusations are upsetting offensive and absolutely untrue. Frances Bean Cobain later responded by dismissing Love’s claims and suggesting that Twitter ban her mother from the service.
Nirvana’s Induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
In 2013, Nirvana was being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and it appeared that Grohl and Love buried the hatchet.
During the live speech, Love walked up to Grohl and hugged him.
Courtney Love would reveal to Pitchfork following the ceremony, that the real reconciliation took place backstage saying, “On my way to the bathroom I saw Grohl and Grohl saw me and he came up to me and I was like all right no matter what happens we’re not going to be bastards. This was my attitude going in and obviously his. Not much else needs to be said.
We both knew it was time to let go. We were ready to do it. It’s been twenty years. We didn’t even talk at the funeral, none of us. So 20 years of Dave bashing and me bashing, making it worse. All that stuff, the legal stuff, the trial. We just buried it. It was really deep.”
In 2018, Love expressed regret over feuding with Grohl all those years saying, “I regret the acrimony between myself and Dave deeply. I feel like I missed out on some great years with him.
We got into bizarre litigation and apex of treacherous predator attorneys but that was over money in the way suicide affects family which we are. Love also opened up about how she admires Dave’s gregarious energy saying that he made Kurt very happy with his jokes, often pulling Kurt out of the slumps saying, “I like Dave very much. He was a boundless bundle of energy. Not only a great talent but great fun.”
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