In a new interview with Marc Maron for the WTF podcast, Courtney Love declared Lana Del Ray and her late husband, Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain, the only “real musical geniuses” she had ever known.
Love is currently preparing to release a new album — the first in more than 12 years after Hole’s 2010 recording of “Nobody’s Daughter”, which she recorded with former Dirty Pretty Things guitarist Anthony Rossomando and frequent Del Ray collaborator Justin Parker.
During a conversation with Maron, she said that her next release would not be a rock album – “people don’t do rock anymore,” she said (as transcribed by Stereogum), because “rock is not a thing” — however, the trio concocted a couple of “fucking guitar songs”: a trial introductory “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 conspiracy theorists spreading rumors that Love was responsible for Cobain’s death in 1994, but most likely won’t make the album because Love says he will “absorb the whole narrative.”
Later in an interview, Love praised Del Ray, with whom she toured in support of the latter’s 2014 album “Ultraviolet”, as a “real real, great friend”. She compared the pop music mogul’s musical talents to those of Cobain and Steven Spielberg, continuing: “Lana and Kurt are the only two true musical geniuses I’ve ever known. And by that I mean they can do anything to Spielberg.”
Referring to Del Ray’s performance of Allen Ginsberg’s monologue “Howl”, which she compared to Nirvana’s performance of covers of three Meat Puppets songs for their performance on MTV Unplugged, Love expressed her respect for the artist: “She has the same integrity as Kurt. The only two people I know that I can say [this] about.
— By the way, Stipe? Bono? Yes, these are people I know and love. Billy Joe, of course. But Lana? She has a magical thing. And she didn’t even screw up!”
Listen to the full episode of WTF with Love below:
Love’s upcoming album is likely to be a solo affair —although she teased a Hole reunion in 2020 (and said in 2019 that the band was “definitely talking about it”), she later rejected the idea outright, stating that a “proper” comeback would “absolutely not” happen anytime soon.
So far, Love has released only one solo album, “America’s Sweetheart” in 2004, which, according to her, last year was one of her “great shames in life” (along with Steve Coogan and cocaine).
Meanwhile, Del Ray is preparing to release his ninth album “Did You Know There’s a Tunnel under Ocean Boulevard” in March.
