Hole was all over MTV and alt rock radio during the mid-'90s, but its members all suffered
terrible tragedies throughout their lives, before and after the band broke up. Here's
a look at the tragic real-life story of Hole.
Wild and complicated adults the kind who become hard-living rock stars often start out as
troubled kids and teenagers. That's definitely the path followed by Hole mastermind Courtney
Love. Born Courtney Michelle Harrison in 1964, her parents had split by the end of the decade.
Her mother, therapist Linda Carroll, divorced Courtney's father, Grateful Dead biographer
Hank Harrison, and, according to SFGate, retained full custody after alleging that he'd given
their toddler daughter LSD.
Carroll remarried and divorced a few more times and at one point moved to New Zealand,
taking Courtney with her. The future rock star was later thrown out of her boarding
school and sent back to the US, where she lived with a friend of her mother's in Oregon.
As a junior high student, Love befriended three teenage prostitutes. She told The Sunday
Times:
"I just wanted to hang out with them. I ended up going through the juvenile system with
them because I got arrested shoplifting a Kiss T-shirt."
This led to a stint at the Hillcrest Youth Correctional Facility in Salem, Oregon, and,
at age 16, Love's mother emancipated her, setting Love off on a worldwide walkabout
At 17, she found steady employment. As her father put it:
"She was topless dancing in Portland. She was underage so she changed her name [to Courtney
Love]."
“Or else I would've been, maybe… Maybe I woulda been a stripper!"
Several members of Hole were close with Nirvana leader Kurt Cobain. Courtney Love was married
to him, they had a daughter named Frances Bean together, guitarist Eric Erlandson considered
him a friend, and Patty Schemel joined Hole after her pal Cobain introduced her to Love.
Cobain died in April 1994 at age of 27, taking his own life in his Seattle home after fighting
severe depression and drug addiction for years.
According to Rolling Stone, the death came with some sad and ugly warning signs: Earlier
in 1994, Cobain almost died of a drug overdose after a tour stop in Rome. In March, Love
called police to the home she shared with Cobain when, after a fight, he locked himself
in a room with a handgun and threatened to kill himself. While authorities confiscated
several bottles of pills and four guns, Cobain said he hadn't really planned on taking his
life that night. Nevertheless, Cobain continued to battle his many demons, and after reportedly
going missing for six days, the singer was found in his home, dead of a self-inflicted
gunshot wound.
Just two months after the death of Kurt Cobain, another tragic, far-too-early musician death
unnerved Hole. On June 16, 1994, the band's bassist, 27-year-old Kristen Pfaff, was found
dead in the bathtub at her apartment in Seattle. The Seattle Times reported that authorities
believed Pfaff died of drug-related causes despite recent stints in rehab, because they
discovered syringes and other drug paraphernalia in the room where the bassist died.
Pfaff reportedly hated Seattle and was only in the city temporarily, visiting for Cobain's
funeral and to grab her personal effects before moving back to her home in Minneapolis. Pfaff's
family barred the surviving members of Hole from attending the funeral. The musician's
father Norm Pfaff explained:
"It wasn't anything personal. We just didn't want any publicity."
Courtney Love was frequently in the news from 2003 to 2005, but not for her music. In October
2003, according to People, Love broke some windows at her boyfriend's house, was arrested
for being under the influence of a controlled substance, and then went home and took more
painkillers, leading her 11-year-old daughter, Frances Bean, to call an ambulance. Love temporarily
lost custody of her daughter over the incident, and after telling a friend she was a danger
to herself, she was checked into a psychiatric facility against her will for 24 hours.
Problems continued into 2004 according to The Associated Press, when, hours after flashing
David Letterman multiple times during an appearance on his show -
"My whole life, I've just wanted to flirt with you. Oh, well, I mean, we don't need
a show for that, do we?"
- she was arrested for hitting a fan with a mic stand during a club concert. Weeks later,
according to CNN, she allegedly attacked a woman with a metal flashlight and a bottle.
After failing to appear for an arraignment on an assault charge, Love was arrested on
July 9, 2004 her 40th birthday – and was placed on a 72-hour watch at a hospital. A
year later, Love, on probation for various offenses, admitted to a judge that she'd violated
the terms of that agreement by using drugs and was ordered into a 28-day rehab program.
In order to avoid prison time for her crimes, she accepted an additional 180-day rehab stay.
Rock stardom via Hole was technically a sideline for Courtney Love. Long before she got into
music, Love was an actress, appearing in a few '80s cult classic films like Sid and Nancy,
Straight to Hell, and Tapeheads. After Hole's music and associated dramas made her a household
name, Love returned to playing professional make-believe, landing roles in three big 1996
movies: Feeling Minnesota, Basquiat, and The People vs. Larry Flynt, which earned her a
Golden Globe nomination.
Despite that, Love only landed a handful of major acting roles afterward. What happened?
According to Love, Hollywood rejected her. In 2006, Love told The Guardian that she was,
quote, "in actor jail" and couldn't get cast in anything, likely because others were afraid
they'd have to deal with the inconsistent and unpredictable Courtney Love of yore.
If you or someone you know is struggling with addiction, please call the Substance Abuse
and Mental Health Administration's 24/7 National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP. That's 1-800-662-4357.
If you or anyone you know is having suicidal thoughts, please call or chat online with
the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255).