September 2, 1993, the MTV Video Music Awards, Los Angeles’ Universal Amphitheatre. Courtney Love was in attendance with her husband, Kurt Cobain, whose rock band, Nirvana, was up for Best Alternative Video. The couple’s 1-year-old daughter, Frances Bean, perched on Love’s hip, outfitted in a pastel onesie. Cobain wore jeans. As Love told Cindy Crawford, she went “un-grunge” for the occasion, opting for a vintage white gown and Anne Klein heels. She accessorized this upscale version of her broken baby doll “kinderwhore” uniform with her signature bright red lipstick, untouched roots peeking out of her bleached hair.
The Aftermath of Tragedy
One month after the ceremony, Love and her band Hole entered the studio to make their second record, Live Through This. In April 1994, days ahead of the album’s release, Cobain died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Two months later, Hole’s bassist, Kristen Pfaff, would die of an overdose. The Live Through This rollout was paused until late August, when Love, guitarist Eric Erlandson, drummer Patty Schemel, and replacement bassist Melissa Auf der Maur appeared at 1994’s Reading Festival. “Oh yeah, I’m so goddamn brave,” Love wryly greeted the crowd as she strapped on her guitar. “Let’s just pretend it didn’t happen. Is that what you’re doing, pretending it didn’t happen? Great. Well, I’m not.”
Hole would be on the road for the next year, beginning with Nine Inch Nails’ Self Destruct tour. Their shows had always been wild—the music’s raw noise and Love’s swaggering stage presence inspired catharsis. But now Love was an open wound and was numbing her grief in one way or another. Her performances could be erratic; she’d pause a show to address a heckler, or jump into the audience for a physical confrontation; she’d ramble on about the paparazzi or whatever random subject popped into her mind, yell at her bandmates, smash instruments, knock over mic stands. There was a darkness to the way she threw herself to the wolves, night after night.
Versace and the Hollywood Makeover
March 24, 1997, the 69th Academy Awards, Los Angeles, Shrine Auditorium and Expo Hall. After several small but strong roles, Love had her big-screen breakthrough in Miloš Forman’s 1996 film The People vs. Larry Flynt. Her performance as the troubled wife of the Hustler publisher had earned widespread acclaim, including a Best Actress – Drama nomination at the Golden Globes. Though snubbed by the Academy, she was invited to present the Best Makeup trophy. After much deliberation, Love chose an elevated version of her 1993 VMAs look, a pearly bias-cut Atelier Versace Spring/Summer 1997 gown.
Love’s Hollywood makeover was received with skepticism from those who felt she had slept with the enemy. “So I didn’t go to the Globes and write SLUT on my stomach,” Love said. “Hollywood has its rules.” She was an actress before she was a musician, and besides, she’d always said she wanted to be famous. She was learning the ropes from Pat Kingsley, an influential publicist behind Tom Cruise’s ascent. Once unapologetically foul-mouthed, Love now asked writers to censor her cussing, explaining that “in print it always makes you look kind of dumb and raunchy.”
The Creation of Celebrity Skin
Hole spent the second half of 1997 concentrating on their third album, Celebrity Skin. Love had been teasing the title for a couple years, attributing it to a soft-porn magazine. After several unsuccessful writing retreats—New Orleans sessions went up in literal flames—ideas started to flow at Conway Recording studio in Los Angeles. Their muse was all around them: California, a rich psychogeography ripe for deconstruction.
Love initially struggled to get the record off the ground and needed someone to light a creative (and competitive) spark in her, so she called up Billy Corgan. (In addition to being Love’s ex-boyfriend, the Smashing Pumpkins frontman had recommended Auf der Maur after seeing her band play in Montreal.) Corgan has co-arrangement credits on five songs, including the title track, and was initially announced as the album’s executive producer. But he left the project to work on the Pumpkins’ Adore, and Hole hired Michael Beinhorn, known for his work with Soundgarden, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Ozzy Osbourne.
Throughout Celebrity Skin, Love addresses the anger, sadness, emptiness, and guilt that accompany a profound loss. She crawls through the wreckage on “Dying,” a downcast song made strangely hypnotic by an electronic flicker that sounds like an EKG sucked through a straw. “Use Once and Destroy” amplifies “the emptiness that’s all you have left” to industrial proportions, powered by Auf der Maur’s massive bassline. “Playing Your Song” is an unmistakable rebuke to her late husband and his former bandmates, Love’s legal adversaries.