Courtney Love and Lana Del Rey’s bizarre relationship took another turn this week when their on–off friendship seemed to evaporate once again in the blink of an eye.
The 59-year-old Hole rocker appeared to cut ties with Del Rey in a withering interview with The Standard in which she opined that the 38-year-old songstress should stop making music.
‘She should really take seven years off,’ Love vented in an interview that also included major jabs at Taylor Swift and Madonna, even as she admitted that she had to stop listening to Del Rey while recording her latest album because she was being influenced too much.
But Courtney hasn’t always been so dismissive of Lana, and she has even compared the Norman F***ing Rockwell singer to her late ‘genius’ husband, Kurt Cobain.
As the leading ladies of yesterday and today’s popular music drift apart, DailyMail.com takes a look back at their fraught friendship and unexpected feuds…
Courtney Love and Lana Del Rey ‘s bizarre relationship took another turn this week when their on–off friendship seemed to evaporate once again in the blink of an eye; seen in November 2018
The 59-year-old Hole rocker appeared to cut ties with Del Rey in a withering interview with The Standard in which she opined that the 38-year-old songstress should stop making music; pictured March 19 in London
Off to a rough start: Courtney mocks Lana for covering Nirvana
But one of the first interactions was a bit of playful hazing. After Kurt Cobain superfan Del Rey covered Nirvana’s Heart-Shaped Box in Sydney, Love joked on Twitter: ‘You do know the song is about my Vagina right?’
Lana Del Rey (real name: Elizabeth Grant) has long been known for her dark yet literate lyrics, so it made sense that she would cover Nirvana, even if her own music never rocks as much as the grunge pioneers.
In a 2011 interview with Sirius XM, she revealed that the band’s frontman, the late Kurt Cobain, had fascinated her since she was a child.
‘When I was 11, I saw Kurt Cobain singing Heart-Shaped Box on MTV, and it really stopped me dead in my tracks,’ she revealed. ‘I thought he was the most beautiful person I had ever seen. Even at a young age, I really related to his sadness.’
She added: ‘I never revisited his music again until I was about 17 or 18, and then when I did, it still meant just as much to me then. It’s continued to be my primary inspiration, in terms of not wanting to compromise lyrically or sonically.’
So it made perfect sense that Lana would cover the song that she first associated with Nirvana, Heart-Shaped Box, during a 2012 appearance in Sydney, Australia.
But a week later, Courtney — who was married to Kurt from 1992 until his death by suicide in 1994 — opted to haze the rising star over the performance.
‘You do know the song is about my Vagina right? “Throw down your umbilical noose so i can climb right back,” umm,’ Love tweeted at Del Rey. ‘On top of which some of the lyrics about my vagina I contributed. So umm next time you sing it, think about my vagina will you? lol xc.’
But later in the day, she returned with a follow-up post confirming that she was just messing around.
‘You are gorgeous and very talented, it was all in good humor love, it is true however bwahaa xc,’ she wrote to Del Rey.
But the hazing gave way to mutual admiration. In 2014, they announced a 2015 tour with eight dates featuring Courtney as the opening musician
In her good graces: Love plots a 2015 tour with Del Rey
Courtney’s playful joking with Lana in 2012 seemed to transform into respect and mutual admiration just a few years later.
In 2014, Del Rey surprised mutual fans of the artists by announcing that she was going out on tour and Love would be joining her as her supporting artist.
Courtney got fans excited in late November by tweeting cryptically: ‘See you in London in ten hours @LanaDelRey we are going to own that town xxc #excitingnews2come.’
The exciting news turned out to be the upcoming dates, which Del Rey confirmed shortly afterward.
‘i love summer * and i love courtney love,’ the Taylor Swift confidant tweeted to announce a 2015 tour starting in early May.
Courtney was featured on the first eight dates of the tour, which wound from Texas up to the Pacific Northwest.
Del Rey continued on with the second half of her tour without Love, though it wasn’t clear if that was due to scheduling conflicts or if the two weren’t interested in performing together for longer.
In a December 2022 interview on Marc Maron’s WTF podcast, Love called Del Rey ‘an actual true, great friend.’ She compared her to her late husband Kurt Cobain as one of only two real geniuses she had ever met
Love also described hipping Del Rey to Joni Mitchell, and she claimed the discovery transformed the sound of her hit album Norman F***ing Rockwell; seen in 2020 in LA
Highest praise: Love says Del Rey is a ‘genius’ like Kurt Cobain
Although the two don’t appear to have said much about each other in subsequent years, Love made it clear that she was still an admirer of Del Rey in 2022 when she called the hitmaker a ‘genius.’
While chatting with Marc Maron on his popular WTF podcast, she gave Del Rey one of the biggest compliments of her life when she said the Ultraviolence singer and Cobain were the ‘only two true musical geniuses I’ve ever known.’
Moreover, she confirmed that the two were just admirers or occasional collaborators, but real-life friends.
Courtney called Lana ‘an actual true, great friend,’ during the conversation, in which she also compared the younger singer favorably to the iconic filmmaker Steven Spielberg.
‘Lana and Kurt are the only two true musical geniuses I’ve ever known, and by that I mean they can Spielberg anything,’ she gushed.
Courtney praised Lana for her 2013 short film Tropico, which she wrote and starred in, particularly for a rendition of Allan Ginsberg’s poem Howl.
She compared the critically acclaimed performance to how her late husband had transformed three songs by the multifaceted alternative band Meat Puppets when he covered them during Nirvana’s famed MTV Unplugged special, via People.
‘She’s a genius, too. She’s got the integrity that Kurt had,’ Courtney gushed to Maron. ‘The only two people I know that I can say [that about].’
She went on to list some of her other famously accomplished friends to emphasize just how much she admired Del Rey.
‘By the way, [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!’ she said.
Love also told a story about Del Rey describing an idea for her next album, which reminded the veteran rocker of folk icon–turned–jazz songstress Joni Mitchell.
‘She described a record she wanted to make to me, and I’m like, “Oh you mean Hissing Of Summer Lawns,” which, I don’t even like that record,’ Love said of Mitchell’s 1974 classic, which melded her complicated wordplay with jazz-rock touches.
‘She’s like, “What’s that?” I’m like, “It’s a Joni Mitchell record.” She’s like, “Who’s that?”‘
According to Love, she went out and bought ‘all the Joni’ albums she could find for Del Rey, who allegedly changed ‘her f—ing whole thing’ in response.
Love appeared to be referring to Del Rey’s hit album Norman F***ing Rockwell, and she recounted how many of her acquaintances gave the seemingly Mitchell-inspired album a big thumbs up.
‘My boomer rock critic friends are calling after Norman Rockwell, “Hey your friend, she’s pretty good…” And I said to her, “Welcome to the Thunderdome, Ms. Del Rey.” Even Springsteen! He goes, “She’s our greatest songwriter.”‘
Love also recounted her advice for Del Rey — ‘Don’t go insane’ — and she praised the younger singer by taking her advice and mostly getting off social media.
But in an interview with The Standard this week, Courtney said she hadn’t ‘liked Lana since she covered a John Denver song, and I think she should really take seven years off’
Love said she though Del Rey was ‘great’ before the December 2023 cover of Take Me Home, Country Roads; seen in 2022 in London
Love’s mysterious change of heart: The knives are out for Del Rey
After Courtney’s effusive praise for Lana in December 2022, it came as a shock this week when she slammed the Video Games singer in an interview with The Standard.
In addition to bashing Taylor Swift as ‘not important’ and ‘not interesting as an artist’ and coming for other elder stateswomen like Madonna — ‘I don’t like her and she doesn’t like me’ — Love admitted to falling out of love with Del Rey’s music.
‘I haven’t liked Lana since she covered a John Denver song, and I think she should really take seven years off,’ she said.
It’s unclear if the John Denver cover was all it took to reevaluate her relationship with Lana or if something happened between the two artists between December 2022 and April 2024 that shook up their friendship.
Del Rey’s latest album, Did You Know That There’s A Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd, which was released in March 2023, features a reference to Denver in the opening track, The Grants.
‘I’m gonna take mine of you with me / Like Rocky Mountain High / The way John Denver sings,’ she sings.
In December of last year, Del Rey paid tribute to Denver by covering his song Take Me Home, Country Roads, which seems to have been the precipitating event for Love to distance herself.
However, she doesn’t shed much light on her disdain, and whether it’s because she doesn’t care for Denver or over other objections to Lana’s cover.
Courtney even admitted she had to stop listening to Lana’s music because it was influence her ‘too much’ on her upcoming LP; Love and Del Rey seen with Alessandro Michele in 2018 in Hollywood
‘Up until Take Me Home, Country Roads I thought she was great,’ Love continued, indicating that Del Rey had been a major influence before then.
‘When I was recording my new album, I had to stop listening to her as she was influencing me too much,’ she said.
The profile even compares the sound of Love’s upcoming LP to ‘early Lana Del Rey.’
So far, Lana isn’t taking the bait with a response — though plenty of Taylor Swift fans have attacked Love online for her complaints about their icon — and her strategy of staying off social media has kept her and Love from duking it out for all to see.