{"id":480036,"date":"2026-03-17T08:06:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-17T08:06:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/480036\/"},"modified":"2026-03-17T08:06:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T08:06:10","slug":"melissa-auf-der-maur-and-billy-corgan-on-the-inspiration-of-courtney-love-on-kurt-cobain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/480036\/","title":{"rendered":"Melissa Auf der Maur and Billy Corgan on the inspiration of Courtney Love on Kurt Cobain"},"content":{"rendered":"

Melissa Auf der Maur<\/a> and Billy Corgan<\/a> have spoken about the influence that Courtney Love<\/a> had on Kurt Cobain<\/a>\u2019s songwriting, and credited her with themselves \u201csmarter\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Hole<\/a> bassist caught up with The Smashing Pumpkins<\/a> frontman on his podcast, The Magnificent Others<\/a>, and spoke about the influence that her past bandmate had on the artists around her \u2013 as well as the misconception that her husband, Kurt Cobain, wrote a lot of her music.<\/p>\n

In the interview, the two of them looked back at how, like most alt-rock bands of the \u201890s, Hole saw their fame skyrocket following the mammoth success of Nirvana<\/a>\u2019s 1991 breakthrough \u2018Nevermind\u2019, but also faced accusations that Cobain was the brains behind their 1994 sophomore album \u2018Live Through This\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven in 1991, nobody knew who [Courtney] was other than some rock critic people, but she had a vision of where she was going to go,\u201d shared Corgan \u2013 a close friend and collaborator of Love \u2013 adding that it was when Hole released their 1994 record that everyone \u201ccould really see the influence of Kurt\u2019s success\u201d.<\/p>\n

Addressing the rumours that Cobain wrote a large portion of the instrumentals for the record, he added: \u201cPeople overly attribute Kurt\u2019s influence, as if he was sitting there and telling her what to write. Everybody was under that sway \u2014 you couldn\u2019t not be.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Nirvana] was the biggest band in the world, who kicked open the door to Pixies<\/a> and Sonic Youth<\/a> and all of these other bands. Everybody was on the world stage all of a sudden because of Kurt\u2019s courage and incredible talent.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Auf der Maur agreed: \u201cShe and Eric [Erlandson, guitarist] were already being underestimated as songwriters in \u2018Live Through This\u2019. Everyone said, \u2018Kurt wrote that record\u2019. I still say to this day, listen to \u2018Doll Parts\u2019 and \u2018Miss World\u2019 \u2013 it\u2019s one riff and three chords repeated over and over.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s about the power of the lyrics [that Courtney added]. I\u2019ve always said that, if anything, she inspired Kurt\u2019s lyrics,\u201d the bassist added, citing the way that she saw Cobain\u2019s lyricism change after meeting Courtney. \u201cI was so pissed [to see her work diminished]. We should pledge to the people, Eric and Courtney wrote \u2018Live Through This\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

After adding that \u201cKurt\u2019s influence is undeniable to everyone\u201d, Corgan then chimed in to say that he asked Love directly in the mid \u201990s about how much of \u2018Live Through This\u2019 was written by Cobain, to which the frontwoman clarified: \u201cHis only influence on the record was one chorus\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Speaking about Love\u2019s ability as a lyricist, Auf der Maur went on to say that working with the Hole singer \u201cmade us both smarter\u201d, and Corgan agreed, sharing one piece of advice that Love gave to him to improve his The Smashing Pumpkins lyrics.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe called me and said, \u2018The person that I talk to on the phone or have tea with, why is that person not writing lyrics? Why are you hiding behind this hippie haze? Why are you writing in some sort of sentimental mode as opposed to talking about what you actually talk about in reality?\u2019\u201d he recalled.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s the one who put that thumb on me. That\u2019s why [1993\u2019s] \u2018Siamese Dream\u2019 was such a watershed [moment], because I was like \u2018OK I will do that\u2019. She\u2019s an ace lyric writer.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Also in the interview, both Corgan and Auf der Maur looked at the intense scrutiny and backlash that faced Love after Cobain died by suicide in April 1994 \u2013 with her being criticised for \u201cbreaking up\u201d Nirvana, and blamed by some for his death.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere seemed to be a need to pin the blame on somebody,\u201d Corgan said, while Auf der Maur added: \u201cAbsolutely, and we lived in a patriarchal hellscape\u2026 What they did to Courtney, they burned her at the stake.\u201d<\/p>\n

The two of them then looked back at how Love joined The Smashing Pumpkins on stage later in 1994 when they played at Lollapalooza<\/a>, and Corgan said that he wanted to invite her to the festival to combat the narrative that was being created.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe backstory of her coming on Lollapalooza was that she was still in mourning over Kurt\u2019s tragic death [and] I saw this narrative lining up. They were going to turn her into a widow\u2019s version of Yoko Ono<\/a>,\u201d Corgan said. \u201cWe\u2019re talking about the way that people talked about Yoko after The Beatles<\/a> broke up, [so] out of this weird loyalty, I told the band that Courtney was going to join us on tour, and she was going to get up during Lollapalooza and perform a song or two.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a sense that getting her back out in the world instead of behind a haze of mourning was valuable,\u201d he added, while Auf der Maur said that the moment felt like it was \u201cempowering a woman who was abandoned and left behind by \u2013 yes, a heroic icon \u2013 but [also] a man who left his wife and daughter.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hole\u2019s classic line-up, with Auf Der Maur, Love, Erlandson and drummer Patty Schemel, has been on hiatus since 2002, but did return between 2009 and 2012 with some different members.<\/p>\n

Since then, Love has frequently teased and denied a possible full comeback, and earlier this month sparked fresh speculation by sharing a mysterious video online<\/a>. In that clip, Hole\u2019s 1998 hit \u2018Malibu\u2019 played in the background of a post featuring Auf der Maur, and in the caption, Love wrote: \u201cSo do we tell the kids about the tour?\u201d<\/p>\n

Auf der Maur replied in the comments section: \u201cIt starts with eternal love\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

Later that week, Love clarified the meaning behind the teaser<\/a>, saying that there would be \u201cno Hole reunion\u201d, but instead she and Auf der Maur would be \u201cplaying some shows, new songs\u201d together. More details are expected to be announced shortly.<\/p>\n

Last November, Auf der Maur announced a new memoir, Even The Good Girls Will Cry<\/a>, out tomorrow (Tuesday March 17). It is described as a \u201cpart coming-of-age autobiography, part travel diary, part psychedelic scrapbook\u201d and will also feature rare photos from throughout her career.<\/p>\n

Seattle police recently responded to shoot down a new report about the death of Kurt Cobain<\/a>, which claimed that he may have been murdered.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Melissa Auf der Maur and Billy Corgan have spoken about the influence that Courtney Love had on Kurt…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":480037,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[25065,96,6794,128,3584,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-480036","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-alternative","tag-entertainment","tag-grunge","tag-music","tag-rock","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/480036","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=480036"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/480036\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/480037"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=480036"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=480036"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=480036"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}