I read a story the other day that said that Courtney Love is broke. If you live under a rock or nowhere near a methadone clinic or cable tv systems with the E! network, you might not remember Courtney.
She’s the previously pretty attractive widow of Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain, lead singer of the once popular and successful band Hole and currently the mother (sometimes in absentia) of Francis Bean, the now 12 or so year old child born of their trainwreck of a relationship but bearing a remarkable resemblence to her father.
Anyway, the story I read said that Courtney was broke (and was even trying to sell her shitbag house in San Francisco with no takers) and that she was now putting the Nirvana library up for sale and could make up to 100 million dollars.
I then read on a couple of messageboards about fans that thought former bassist Krist Novoselic and former drummer and now frontman of The Foo Fighters Dave Grohl should “go in and buy it to keep it out of anyone else’s hands.”
I know the Foo Fighters have been successful, and I know Novaselic is a lobbyist of some sort, but why do people assume that guys in bands can just pull 50 or 100 million dollars out of there assholes? I mean, what if it’s tied up in Enron or something?
And another thing, why the fuck is the library of a three-chord band worth 100 million dollars? Have you listened to most of that stuff? It’s shit. And it’s not like I’m out of touch. In fact, in 1991 when Nirvana’s Nevermind dropped, (like that hip hop term?) I was a mostly disenchanted 23 year-old guy who loved rock and grunge. I enjoy some of Nirvana’s stuff, but I have never bought into the “one of the greatest/most revolutionary bands ever” or the “Cobain is a genius” bullshit. They were just a flavor du jour that was slapped into an elite category because Kurt found a shotgun in the greenhouse.
Kurt Cobain was a weak, heroin addicted guy who came along when rock and roll was floundering and hair metal was dying. I would contend that if the timing was different, Soundgarden or Alice In Chains or any other of 100 bands could have been in Nirvana’s shoes.
But instead, I have to listen to accoustic Nirvana “genius” every 3rd song on “New Rock” stations all the time in addition to hearing the media still spew about Cobaine’s greatness over and over and over again.
I believe Dave Grohl is infinitely more talented than Cobain could have ever hoped to be. He plays every instrument in some fashion or another on the Foo Fighters cd’s, he’s achieved great success with that band without Kurt or Krist, and he seems like a fairly well adjusted and decent guy. He’s never seemed caught up in that brooding rock star bullshit that Cobain so conveniently embraced.
And now for Courtney. Whether the library sells for 100 million dollars or just 100 bucks will make no difference. It’ll all be blown long before her daughter gets to college age. I also predict that Courtney will overdose when the money’s almost gone, leaving Francis Bean a broke orphan who will wonder why two of the most selfish and dysfunctional people on the planet even bothered to get together at all.
I think Courtney and Kurt are proof positive that drugs affect your decision-making and that this story, from beginning to end, should be the movie that kids are forced to watch in junior high school so they can see what will happen.
That said, I hope Paul McCartney pulls a Michael Jackson and buys the library and then sells the songs for tampon commercials or lesbian SUV ads.
That’d rule.
What say you?