Courtney Love has a message for Dave Grohl: please get your "straight white male" fans to stop picking on me.
The 61-year-old musician - who is not currently planning a Hole reunion - appeared on ex-boyfriend and fellow alt-rock icon Billy Corgan's The Magnificent Others podcast, where they discussed among many things, her long-standing feud with the Foo Fighters frontman, formerly bandmate of Love's late husband, Kurt Cobain.
Dating back to when Grohl first joined Nirvana in 1990, the two have never really enjoyed each other's company. Love has regularly called out Grohl for various things, and even sued him and bassist Krist Novoselic to dissolve Nirvana LLC, and retain sole control of the band's catalogue. While they did seem to reconcile following Nirvana’s Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction in 2014 and even publicly bury the hatchet, she appears to be reopening the wound.
Upon mention of his name, Love said she would like Grohl to come out and acknowledge their truce.
“Grohl, come out with it and just say we’re cool,” she told Corgan. “Be man enough to man up, because you’re the Übermensch that has all the straight males, and we’re cool, but you won’t say it because you’re afraid you’ll lose your audience. You’re afraid it’ll affect your relationship with literal Paul McCartney, ’cause he’s got a friendship with Paul.”
Love then grabbed a figurative shovel and started digging a deeper hole, comparing Grohl and McCartney, who share a lot of common ground, including losing famous bandmates.
“Dave has not the talent of Paul, let’s be clear," she stated. "They both have the b**ch wife — haunting, dark shadow. They both have the cool guy dying — haunting, tragically… haunted. So, they’re buddies. Is that why?”
After insulting him, she then pleaded with Grohl to try and put an end to the harassment she claims to face from his mostly "straight, white millennial male" fan base.
“Dave, it would really behoove me if the straight white males that are your base will stop picking on me, the millennials in particular. Gen Z is not picking on me. Your heart drops whenever somebody that you’re cool with, or maybe just remotely cool with, disses you in the press.”
Corgan, to his credit, did step in and defend Grohl, saying, “I can confirm that I’ve spent time with you and Dave together, and Dave doesn’t have any issue with you. There’s the stuff that goes on behind the castle walls, and there’s stuff goes out front.”
The two also discussed "the pernicious and horrific meanness of the indie community" during their mutual rise in the 1990s, including a shared disdain for Sonic Youth's Kim Gordon, who Corgan called "the worst" and Love described as "really horrible in the ’90s."
Love did have some kind words, however, for singer Lana Del Ray, who she says kindly put her up for an entire year at no cost.
“I would call us really good friends, and she put me in her house in Malibu for a year rent-free – like what the hell?" she explained. "[She was] really great at helping me get out of town because I needed to get out of the life. She’s got this upper-middle-class thing as well, so she could play these guys that were really harming my life.”
Off the top, Corgan joked that "This is going to be a 100-part series," so maybe there is more tea for the two to spill in the future.
Watch the full episode below.