If you ask Courtney Love, Kurt and Lana, top her list of musical greats.
The singer/songwriter named her deceased husband Kurt Cobain and artist Lana Del Rey as the lone two actual musical geniuses she’s ever met personally in an interview on Marc Maron’s WTF podcast.
“They can Spielberg anything,” the Hole lead singer said in an interview with Maron. “[R.E.M.’s Michael] Stipe? Bono? Yes, these are people that I know and love. Billie Joe [Armstrong], sure. But Lana? She’s got a magic thing. And she’s not even f—ed up!”
On her “Endless Summer” tour in 2015, Love made six stops with Del Rey and told Maron that Del Rey is a “real, true, fantastic friend.”
“She’s got the integrity Kurt had,” Love stated. “The only two people I know that I can say [that about].”
Love contrasted Nirvana’s versions of “Plateau,” “Oh, Me,” and “Lake of Fire”—three Meat Puppets songs—that the band played during the band’s MTV Unplugged special in 1993—to Del Rey’s feminized rendition of Allen Ginsberg’s “Howl.”
Additionally, she revealed to Maron that she introduced singer/songwriter Joni Mitchell to Del Rey while they were passing the time in Portland and that meeting Mitchell impacted Del Rey’s “f—-ing whole thing.”
“My boomer rock critic friends are calling after Norman Rockwell, ‘Hey your friend, she’s pretty good,'” Love recalled. “And I said to her, ‘Welcome to the Thunderdome, Ms. Del Rey.'”
Love and Maron also discussed Love’s debut studio album after Hole’s 2010 Nobody’s Daughter. The song’s title, “Kill F—- Marry,” was presumably based on the Johnny Depp and Amber Heard defamation case.
Cobain, the lead singer of Nirvana and the epitome of the grunge alt-rock movement of the 1990s, committed suicide on April 5, 1994, when he was 27 years old.
Who is Kurt Cobain?
Kurt Donald Cobain, an American musician, was the lead singer, guitarist, and chief songwriter for the rock group Nirvana from February 20, 1967, until around April 5, 1994.
The subject boundaries of popular rock music were extended by Kurt Cobain’s angst-filled songs and anti-establishment image. He was hailed as the voice of Generation X and is regarded as one of the most essential artists in the development of alternative rock.
With Krist Novoselic and Aaron Burckhard, Cobain founded Nirvana in 1987, establishing it as a component of the grunge movement that originated in Seattle.
Nirvana achieved international popularity with “Smells Like Teen Spirit” off their critically praised second album, Nevermind after signing with major label DGC Records (1991).
Following Nirvana’s unexpected success, Cobain was lauded as the voice of his generation, but he disliked this, feeling that the general public had misunderstood his message and artistic vision.
Other songs that Cobain composed for Nirvana besides “Smells Like Teen Spirit” include “Come as You Are,” “Lithium,” “In Bloom,” “Something in the Way,” “Heart-Shaped Box,” “All Apologies,” “About a Girl,” “Aneurysm,” and “You Know You’re Right.”
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Issues
Cobain had chronic health issues like depression and heroin addiction in the final years of his life. He also battled the rigors of fame on a personal and professional level and had a rocky marriage to fellow artist Courtney Love.
Later, Cobain underwent an intervention and entered a detoxification program after overdosing on champagne and Rohypnol in March 1994.
The singer was discovered dead at his Seattle residence on April 8, 1994, at the age of 27. Police later determined he had passed away on April 5 from a self-inflicted shotgun wound to the head.
Along with comrades Krist Novoselic and Dave Grohl from Nirvana, Cobain was posthumously inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2014, their first year of eligibility.
By Rolling Stone, Cobain was listed among the 100 Greatest Songwriters, 100 Greatest Guitarists, and 100 Greatest Singers of All Time.
In its list of the “22 Greatest Voices in Music,” MTV rated him seventh. On Hit Parader’s list of the “100 Greatest Metal Singers of All Time” from 2006, he was ranked 20th.
Read also: 15 Songs That You Should Add To You Track List, Per Pitchfork
Lana Del Rey
American singer-songwriter Elizabeth Woolridge Grant, better known by her stage name Lana Del Rey, was born on June 21, 1985.
She is known for the cinematic nature of her music, which explores tragic romance, glitz, and melancholy while making frequent allusions to modern pop culture and 1950s–1960s Americana.
In addition to being nominated for six Grammy Awards and a Golden Globe Award, she has won several awards, including a Satellite Award, two MTV Europe Music Awards, and two Brit Awards.
At the Hitmakers Awards, Variety recognized her as “one of the most influential singer-songwriters of the 21st century.”
Del Rey, who was raised in rural New York, relocated to New York City in 2005 to pursue a career in music.
The singer’s breakthrough occurred in 2011 with the viral popularity of her track “Video Games,” following many endeavors, including the release of her self-titled debut studio album. She subsequently secured a recording deal with Polydor and Interscope.
With her second album, Born to Die (2012), that featured the sleeper hit “Summertime Sadness,” she found both critical and commercial success.
The third album by Del Rey, Ultraviolence (2014), debuted at number one in the United States and made greater use of guitar-driven instrumentation. 200 on Billboard.
In contrast to her critically lauded the sixth album, Norman Fucking Rockwell!, her fourth and fifth albums, Honeymoon (2015) and Lust for Life (2017), witnessed a return to the stylistic traditions of her earlier releases.
Her next album, which focused on soft rock, was followed in 2021 by Chemtrails over the Country Club and Blue Banisters.
