When I read this headline yesterday on Page Six – “Courtney Love admits to losing $27 million” – I thought to myself, “Yep, that sounds about right.” If anything, she’s probably lost/blown much more than that. So I was kind of meh on it as a story. Then I read some additional quotes from the interview and… well, here we are. It’s not just that Courtney Love lost $27 million and she thinks it’s all fine, it’s all gravy, nothing to see here. She also thinks, she truly believes, that she’s a great money manager when she’s all coked up. That must be Lindsay Lohan’s money management plan too.
That’s a lot of flannel shirts! As the widow of Nirvana’s tortured frontman Kurt Cobain, Courtney Love had access to one of the biggest fortunes in ’90s rock. As it turns out, the “Doll Parts” singer, 50, burned through a significant portion of that cash, she admitted in a new interview with the UK’s Sunday Times. “I lost about $27 million,” Love said, explaining that much of the dough went towards settling several lawsuits over the years.
In typical Love fashion, howevr, the Hole rocker isn’t sweating it. “I know that’s a lifetime of money to most people, but I’m a big girl, it’s rock ‘n roll, it’s Nirvana money, I had to let it go. I make enough to live on, I’m financially solvent, I focus on what I make now.”
One thing that helped her keep track of her money, she claimed, was cocaine and, later, crack. “I had to run very fast to look after my money and I felt cocaine helped me do that. So I started taking cocaine and that turned into nine months of crack,” said Love, mom to Cobain’s child Frances Bean, now 21.
Love is also quick to dispel rumors that Frances Bean, from whom she is famously estranged, has executive control over the Nirvana brand. “There’s this myth out there – put out by Frances’ lawyers – that Frances runs the catalogue, which is absolute nonsense,” Love revealed. “When she’s 40, she becomes a member of the board and she has a vote, but not now.”
As a current member of that board, Love said she has preserved the Nirvana song catalog from cheesy oversaturation in the pop cultural/commercial landscape — including an intriguing-sounding KFC campaign. “I’ve protected it [the Nirvana catalogue] from everything from Kentucky Fried Chicken commercials to movies about board games,” Love said. “We’ve been offered $6 million for 18 seconds of one Nirvana song and I turned it down.”
The rock ‘n roll queen also revealed her bizarre encounter with actual royaly: Prince Charles’ younger brother Prince Andrew, who Love said once showed up at her home in L.A. looking for a party.
“He rang the bell, but my antipodean nanny wouldn’t get up because she’s anti-monarchy, so I had to go down in my slippers and bathrobe,” Love recalled of Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie’s father. “I had all these Jubilee mugs with pictures of the Queen on, so I made him a really good pot of tea and I hand him a mug with his mum on it, and he saw the joke. He asked, ‘What do you do all day?’ which I thought was just nerdy. I said, ‘What do you do all day, Prince?'”
Ten bucks says it wasn’t Prince Andrew at all. Ten bucks says it was just some weird, middle-aged English guy who was probably also high as a kite.
As for the money loss and the coked-up, crackhead financial planning… I’m disturbed by how blasé she seems about the crazy amount of money she’s blown through and how she’s fighting Frances Bean’s legal right to exert some control over Kurt Cobain’s catalog. I hope The Bean’s lawyers read this interview. It would make a great exhibit in future proceedings when The Bean wrests control of Cobain’s catalog and profits from her mom.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
Sure, crack and cocaine are the secrets to money-management. Warren Buffet wouldn’t be without them.
+1,000
So THAT’S what I’m doing wrong!!
Team Bean.
She’s so disgusting…
Wow because coke and crack is exactly what you need to be clear headed and handle such affairs.
Ahhhh button fly jeans. The 90’s.
Yeah, because she wasn’t doing any drugs before Kurt’s death. She just started doing drugs to organize the music catalog, em-kay.
At least she didn’t sell out the music for cheesy commercials like Michael Jackson did with Beatle’s music. I’ll give her that. The car commercials with Train music, a year or two back, made me almost homicidal.
I heard a Pixies song in a commercial recently and felt much rage.
I thought Train was okay pre-advert, didn’t love them. Then the commercial happened and was played CONSTANTLY and I decided that I hated them with the force of a million tsunamis.
yes, yes, yes, YES! that stupid, stupid Iphone commerical. I had to turn that sh*t every single time it would come on and that thing was in heavy rotation for quite awhile. Black Francis broke my heart w/that.
And yes, I hated that iphone commercial with a passion, it killed the song. It made me cringe at Apple’s marketing. Steve Jobs seemed to have a slightly more subtle approach to ads during his reign. This made it seem like the iphone was the second coming of god.
I heard it and I was sad for about 5 seconds, but then was glad they are still making money off it and that a new generation would hear it.
I did hear one of those singing kids tooth bruses playing smells like teen spirit – so I question that one. But I think over all, she’s held back on the commercials.
Oh, you’re kidding. I never heard that.
I can’t find it now, Kiddo. This was a good few years back – maybe it was a pitch that did get rejected. I remember this being a thing, though.
It’s called ToothTunes. Unless you’re thinking of another brand. They do 2 minute songs so kids can brush their teeth for the right amount of time. There’s a wiki page that lists all their songs by year used. Smells like isn’t there, but I do remember 1 brush that you could change out the music so it’s possible. Though not sold with that song preloaded.
I’d guess a good portion of the $27 million went up her nose.
I hate how she’s treated her daughter in the past few years. FB actually seems to be a strong, smart young woman who stays low profile, and CL is always blabbing on publicly about their problems .
Well, maybe she’s not a total monster if her daughter has a good head on her shoulders.
I admit there’s some logic there, but when your teen child legally separates from you, it’s not the best parenting endorsement. My guess is that FBC had good people in her life that provided counter influences to the crackhead mom.
I think her grandmother was a big part of her life.
Yeah, whatever druggie.
She’s just such a mess, I feel really sorry for her daughter, even as an adult, I can’t imagine what it would be like to have a mother who so desperately needs to get her sh-t together.
She is a piece of work.
ugh. she’s repulsive. People starve, families struggle and this piece of work pisses 27 mil down the drain. This is the world we live in, people.
MTE. The worst part is her lack of shame. At least if she’d spent the money repeatedly remodeling her castle there’d be job creation.
Everything else aside this comment is quite poetic in it’s rhythm: “But I’m a big girl, it’s rock ‘n roll, it’s Nirvana money, I had to let it go. I make enough to live on, I’m financially solvent, I focus on what I make now.”
27M could have done so much good. I was waiting for CL to say something like “the number 27 is cursed, man…. Jimmy, Kurt, Janis, Jim….I did Frances a favor blowing her fathers cursed money.”
I might put 27 in my lotto numbers this week. Maybe I’ll be cursed with a first division.
Btw good get on the 27 thing.
I have no comment on her poor management of money but will give this train wreck credit for putting on a hell of a good show the couple times I saw Hole. I can’t help but love her old music.
Saw her back in 1990- she’s actually a genius, and an amazing songwriter, but completely f—-d up and has little self control. Sad.
When cleaned up she’s quite a sight. I think last time was for the Oscars. Just another example of how terrbile drugs can make you.
I thought Kurt sort of mentored her and am wrote a significant number of Hole songs?
Not this again.
Kurt wrote the majority of Live Through This and Billy Corgan wrote the majority of Celebrity Skin. The two albums have totally different styles that are incredibly similar to Nirvana’s catalog and the Smashing Pumpkins catalog. Just imagine “Doll Parts” sung by Kurt, or “Malibu” sung by Corgan. It’s beyond obvious.
Courtney is nothing but a leach. Just like when she was dating Edward Norton, all of a suddden she wanted to clean up and go Hollywood. Talent, my ass.
@anon33: I agree. Kurt and Billy wrote all of her music, which is the only reason Hole existed. She also copied Kat Bjelland’s “kinderwhore” style of bleached-blonde hair and babydoll dresses for her own image. Her “career” was born of using other people. Courtney sucks and always has. She can’t even play a guitar!
I remember reading an interview years ago where she claimed to be a mathematical savant when on coke. I kinda feel the need to google some of her interviews now, because they’re so cracktacular, but it’s nearly midnight here. Tomorrow, maybe.
I believe Courtney is a sociopath who had Kurt killed for money.
He was divorcing her and removing her from his will prior to his death, and she had signed a prenup stating if they split, she’d receive nothing, but if he died beforehand, she’d inherit the entire Cobain estate, worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Kurt had 1.25 liters of heroin in his system, 3X a lethal dose, and died instantly – he couldn’t have removed the syringe or operated a shotgun. The “suicide note” was actually a retirement letter and only mentions suicide in the final four lines which are in someone else’s handwriting. His credit cards were being used for 5 days after his death in Los Angeles and, despite dying in Seattle, Courtney was there (L.A) at the time bragging about having sex with Billy Corgan and going on multiple shopping sprees.
Kurt was murdered. I’ve no doubt in my mind. His death made her famous, and aside from Nirvana CDs and merchandise sales increasing thus making her richer, she and Hole received alot of attention and interviews amistd the tragedy in which she’d milked for as much publicity as she could get. Her own father thinks she did it, and found a list she’d written at 16 saying she wanted to kill a rich rock star. It was homicide.
Why hasn’t Courtney sued Tom Grant for slander if none of this information is true? Simple – IT IS, and she doesn’t want trial or a prison sentence. She’s guilty as sin and has crapped on everything grunge stood for. I hate her.
Holy mackerel, that’s a heck of a tale. (Over a litre of heroin???!!!)
There’s too much known evidence against that theory and too much unknown overall. Much listed is not factual, but hearsay for the sake of rumor and conspiracy theories.
Chris
No. That’s an inflated conspiracy theory. If it was that cut and dry don’t you think it would have a bit more people believing it?
Every few years this debate picks up and the theories bloat the “facts” again. It’s silly to drag it out again. I’m giving this rumor mill no more attention.
@FLORC: I’ve personally spoken to a toxicologist regarding Kurt’s death and he said the amount is called a “hotshot” and will deliberately incapacitate, then kill, the user instantly. It’s no theory when even medical professionals say it would have been impossible for him to have shot himself afterwards.
According to the electrician who found him, Kurt had no facial damage and wasn’t bleeding. You need a beating heart and blood pressure to pump blood out of a wound, so this coupled together with the dosage tells me he was shot after he’d already died. She tried killing him in Rome earlier with Rohypnol but he survived, so this time she used pure heroin and got help (I believe the hitman was Michael “Cali” Dewitt, Frances’ babysitter at the time) and they shot him to make sure he was really dead. Kurt was murdered.
@drawbackwards: Thank you for not ripping my head off. I was hesitant posting my belief, fearing “OMG go %$#& yourself” as a response, but my opinion is based on the mountains of evidence Tom Grant has provided us, and he has never been sued, so I fully believe him. Several men admitted she approached them for sex and money in exchange for killing Kurt for her. She wanted him dead. Kurt told Dylan Carlson (his best friend at the time) that he was divorcing her, quitting Nirvana (which Krist and Dave both confirmed, the band broke up the previous week), moving to New York to live with Michael Stipe of REM, was raising Frances there and wanted to open an art exhibition. Kurt would not have left his daughter, who currently has a restraining order against Courtney. People are welcome to believe otherwise, in a mature way, but I 100% believe she had him killed for money. She’s the only person who benefited or had motive and that person is always the #1 suspect. She’s violent, manipulative, has superficial charm and lies constantly – these are sociopathic traits. I see the real her and she’s definitely capable and intelligent enough to do it.
I think Kurt wrote “Live Through This” too.
There is something – aside from drug abuse – seriously wrong with this trick. As in psychotic. When you look at her relationship with her daughter, what you see is all kinds of dysfunction, mostly related to blurred lines. I’m not sure this woman knows how to stay in her lane, so to speak, when it comes to relationships with other people…
I know the evidence is shady, but seriously I could believe that she killed him. I think she was jealous of his talent/likeability and went nuts when he threatened to end the marriage.
I second this. I’ve been a fan of Courtney’s since the 90’s… She’s a true narcissist- Brilliant, but don’t dare try to get in her way. She absolutely planned Kurt’s death.
I guess she’s the one who took everything *rimshot*.
Who even knows if she actually did lose that much money, though. She says a lot of things, a lot of which are exaggerated.
I agree. Sounds like she wants us to think she even ever had that much.
Hole was one of the best bands on the planet once upon a time. Courtney is actually- was, I guess, not is- an incredibly talented musician and songwriter. Pretty On the Inside was a genius album and in the early 90s, you couldn’t beat them in concert. But she’s a total mess, and her issues keep taking over, and she’s ruined herself and her relationship with her daughter. Total waste and total pity. I’d bet she’s still on coke and crack.
I heard that most bank managers are cokeheads, so there is some truth to what she is saying.
Gross. I hope Frances stays dar away. As for Love..just go play in a cokebox with Lilo or something.
Courtney doesn’t have sole control over the catalog does she? Wouldn’t Dave Grohl and other band members have control as well?
When I looked at the header photo, I didn’t even realize that was Courtney Love. WTF has happened to her FACE?!
kudos for avoiding the sell out… CL, while probably a terrible mother, seems to be the real thing. the real rock chick, star, artist… she truly ‘believes in’ rock’n’roll
I’m guessing she never had the opportunity to have enough sway to use Nirvana’s music that way. She’s inventing it just to take credit for it. Real rockstars don’t say, “financially solvent” in interviews, IMO.
@Esmerelda: You’re joking, right? Courtney DID sell out in 1997 by wearing designer clothing, walking on the red carpet and attending Hollywood functions – everything that grunge was/is against in favour of anti-materialism and anti-mainstream views/beliefs. That’s the point of underground punk-rock! She’s fake, a poser and only achieved musical success via Kurt and Billy’s work. Her interests now are attaining money, doing drugs and being a celebrity.
I guess she finally solved that mystery she had been going on about (remember her practically yelling in the streets that people stole all of her Nirvana money?). Didn’t she take it all the way up to some high courts? I guess those financial detectives followed her ATM trail to some drug dealers and found the truth.
That’s still insane money to spend when you take into account that Courtney’s pretty good at getting stuff for free (clothes, homes). $27m is a lot to pay for drugs. Hope her hanger-ons enjoyed it. At least someone got something out of it. How does Francis even have money after all of that (she still has to share it with the others)?
How does she manage to stay alive? After more than 20 years of drug abuse, botched plastic surgeries and terrible choices …how does she do it? She never pulls back from the edge but never careens over it.