The First Time with Courtney Love

Courtney Love shares her musical milestones with Matt Everitt in a programme first broadcast in 2014. She discusses her heroes and influences, her success with Hole and memories of her late husband Kurt Cobain.

Born in San Francisco in 1964, after submerging herself in the UK post punk scene of the 80s, Courtney became a member of Babes in Toyland and then the leader of Hole, where she cut a defiant figure, making equally powerful music. A year later, she married Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain, and the couple seemed enmired in controversy at every turn. Four days after Cobain's suicide in April 1994, Hole released Live Through This, a deeply personal and brilliant album that would break them worldwide and prove the quality of Love's songwriting.

Hole released two more albums before breaking up in 2002, by which time Courtney had taken up acting. Despite her often turbulent life, Courtney is a survivor, who remained outspoken and unbowed.