Courtney Love discussed mourning Kurt Cobain’s death, and how the many lawyers involved in his estate has led to her having to be ‘ruthless’ since his death to protect their daughter, Frances Bean Cobain, in a new Interview magazine piece. Courtney Love is currently involved in an ugly social media feud with Motley Crue drummer Tommy Lee over what she said in the interview.
“There are these stages in Buddhism: hell, hunger, animality, anger. All anyone wants is a proper service, proper burial, all that stuff. But it’s really hard to deal with emotionally. With [Kurt’s] estate, you have to be ruthless. I have a kid. There are still, like, 12 lawyers in Washington, 12 lawyers in California, and, like, six lawyers in New York. It’s insane.
History is set of facts that gets incredibly distorted, and the right side of history needs proper stewardship. It’s really hard to do that. There’s shock. There’s turmoil. There’s lament. There’s relinquishing. There’s remembrance. There are huge swings of emotion. There’s fake smiling. There’s ugly crying. I really felt like there were a couple of times where I’d get over it, and then it would come back a few years later.
Carrie Fisher used to say of Frances [Bean Cobain, Love’s daughter], ‘Well, we know she’s gonna come looking for the big hug.’ I don’t quite know what that means, but it’s one of those great Carrie things. The game’s not over yet, but one really pertinent thing about grief is to not let anyone tell you that it should be over: ‘It’s been 15 years, it should be over now.’ ‘It’s been 25 years, you should be over it by now.’ You get over it when you get over it, which is probably never.”
AV Club wrote in a recent review of Danny Goldberg’s Kurt Cobain book Serving the Servant:
He’s also not shy about sharing financial details: Cobain at one point asks Goldberg how much money he’d make if In Utero—the “difficult” follow-up to the smash Nevermind—didn’t sell very well, and if the band didn’t tour much. Goldberg replies—and publishes—that Cobain would still take home more than $2 million for the year.
Unfortunately, as Goldberg eventually realizes, that much cash can be deadly to someone with a drug addiction. In March of 1994, Cobain overdosed and went into a coma; Goldberg foolishly hoped it might be a wake-up call. By early April, Cobain was dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Serving The Servant arrives 25 years later, almost to the day. Goldberg spoke at Cobain’s funeral, and was mocked by naysayers for treating him too reverently—apparently pouring your heart out isn’t punk.
