With a new BBC radio series now launched, Courtney Love is once again proving the power of the adage “go large or go home.”
In a wide ranging interview with the UK’s Evening Standard today, the former Hole front woman puts forth her take on some of the biggest names in the music industry. Let’s just say, Love bites in deep in the newspaper, to quote from her 1998 tune Celebrity Skin, to get her pound of flesh from Taylor Swift, Beyoncé, Madonna and recent Coachella headliner Lana Del Rey.
“Taylor is not important,” the People vs. Larry Flint star says of the superstar. “She might be a safe space for girls, and she’s probably the Madonna of now, but she’s not interesting as an artist,” Love added.
The contrarian opinion on Swift is a big shift from where Love was on the Folklore singer just over two years ago. Back in a Facebook post on December 22, 2021, Love wished Swift a “happy birthday” and called her an “aspirational huge role model for many young women.” The post also features a photo of Love and her “occasional hair twin/neighbor.”
No word on why the Swift love from Love has eroded, but it’s worth noting that in 2021, she didn’t have an eight-part BBC Radio 6 series on Woman in music to promote.
Speaking of Madonna, the touring Material Girl is not favorite of Love’s either. “I don’t like her and she doesn’t like me,” the RuPaul’s Drag Race guest judge stated. “I loved Desperately Seeking Susan, but for the city of New York as much as her,” she went on to say in a stinging back-handed compliment.
Never shy to share her opinions over the years, Love in 2005 warned actresses to stay away from Harvey Weinstein. Repeating this remarks in late 2017 as the New York Times dropped its explosive expose on the now incarcerated producer, Love said her comments from 12 years beforehand had earned her CAA‘s wrath. Over the decades, Love has also had sharp words for the likes of her deceased husband Kurt Cobain’s bandmate Dave Grohl, No Doubt’s and The Voice’s Gwen Stefani, Olivia Rodrigo, her almost Fight Club co-star Brad Pitt, and former Nine Inch Nails leader and soundtrack composer Trent Reznor, among many others.
Today, Beyoncé and Lana Del Rey were added to the list.
“I haven’t liked Lana since she covered a John Denver song, and I think she should really take seven years off,” Love told the Dylan Jones-led Standard. About a year or so ago, Love called Del Rey a “musical genius” and compared her to Nirvana’s Cobain.
As for the chart-topping Cowboy Carter performer, Love asserted: I like the idea of Beyoncé doing a country record because it’s about Black women going into spaces where previously only white women have been allowed, not that I like it much. As a concept, I love it. I just don’t like her music.”
If you wonder, if there is anyone Love does like. There is. Patti Smith, Blondie’s Debbie Harry, Nina Simone, and Billie Holiday, plus early albums by PJ Harvey and Joni Mitchell, get a thumbs up from the past Golden Globe nominee and grunge icon, at least for now.
Absent Love’s love, coming off blockbuster tours last year, Swift and Beyoncé both took over the big screen with their box office topping Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour and Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé releases. Beyoncé’s March 29 dropped Cowboy Carter was her eighth consecutive number #1 album on the Billboard Top 200, and the first album by a Black woman to soar to the top of the Country charts. Swift’s new album The Tortured Poet Department comes out on April 19 and is expected to debut at number #1.
