Courtney Love says Kurt Cobain and Lana Del Ray are the only “true musical geniuses” she’s ever known
In a new interview with Marc Maron for the podcast WTF, Courtney Love declared Lana Del Ray and her late husband, Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain, to be the only “true musical geniuses” she’s ever known.
Love is currently gearing up to release a new album – her first in more than 12 years, following Hole’s 2010 record ‘Nobody’s Daughter’ – which she made alongside former Dirty Pretty Things guitarist Anthony Rossomando and frequent Del Ray collaborator Justin Parker.
During her chat with Maron, she revealed that her next release won’t be a rock album – “people aren’t really doing rock anymore,” she said (as transcribed by Stereogum), because “rock’s not a thing” – however the trio did whip up a pair of “fucked-up guitar songs”: tentative opener ‘Kill Fuck Marry’, inspired by the legal dramas between Johnny Depp and Amber Heard, and “an earworm and a half” called ‘Justice For Kurt’.
The latter song is said to be about the conspiracy theorists spreading the narrative that Love was responsible for Cobain’s death in 1994, but likely won’t make the album because Love says it “would swallow the entire narrative”.
Later in the interview Love praised Del Ray – with whom she toured in support of the latter’s 2014 album ‘Ultraviolet’ – as “an actual true, great friend”. She compared the dream-pop magnate’s musical talents to those of both Cobain and Stephen Spielberg, continuing: “Lana and Kurt are the only two true musical geniuses I’ve ever known And by that I mean they can Spielberg anything.”
Citing Del Ray’s performance of the Allen Ginsberg monologue ‘Howl’ – which she compared to Nirvana covering three Meat Puppets songs for their MTV Unplugged session – Love expounded on her respect for the artist: “She’s got the integrity that Kurt had. The only two people I know that I can say [that about].
“By the way, Stipe? Bono? Yes, these are people that I know and love. Billie Joe, sure. But Lana? She’s got a magic thing. And she’s not even fucked up!”
Have a listen to Love’s full episode of WTF below:
Love’s upcoming record will most likely be a solo affair – although she teased a Hole reunion in 2020 (and said in 2019 that the band were “definitely talking about it”), she later rejected the notion altogether, saying a “proper” comeback will “absolutely not” happen any time soon.
Love has thus far released just one solo album, 2004’s ‘America’s Sweetheart’, which she said last year was one of her “life’s great shames” (alongside Steve Coogan and crack cocaine).
Meanwhile, Del Ray is gearing up to release her ninth album, ‘Did You Know That There’s A Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd’, in March.
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Ellie Robinson
NME
