Sep 10, 2009 03:19 PM
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Courtney Love did not authorize that Hellish Guitar Hero version of her dead husband that she authorized, for money—it's all Dave Grohl's fault and she's going to sue and she wants a British journalist to rape him.
Earlier this year, Love and former Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl sold Cobain's likeness to Activision for use in Guitar Hero, and former Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl and bass player Krist Novoselic signed off on the use of the band's music. But once it became clear that the game lets people make Cobain sing Bon Jovi songs, puppet-like, Everett True, the Melody Maker writer who mythologized the Seattle scene in the late 1980s and introduced the world to Nirvana, called foul via Twitter:
Love, as you might expect, went crazy, replying that she didn't authorize the likeness, and colorfully implicating Grohl:
Here's Rolling Stone, by the way, on Love's participation in the Activision deal:
Naturally, Love did have some concerns. Namely, Cobain's physique, Riley reveals. "Courtney supplied us with photos and videos and knew exactly what she wanted Kurt to look like," he says. "She picked the wardrobe and hair style, which turned out to be the ‘Teen Spirit' look, then we went back and forth over changes - some subtle, some not so subtle." In column B? Love's reference to the Greek God Adonis, whose youthful good looks made the male deity an object of desire. "She certainly had a physical image in mind," says Riley. "She wanted him to have that sort of athletic definition but not overly so." And while Love has long had a reputation for being difficult, Riley's experience was anything but. "She was actually great to work with," he says. "She got back with comments pretty quickly."
Our sister-site Kotaku confirmed with Activision that Love signed a contract giving the company the right to "use Kurt Cobain's likeness as a fully playable character in Guitar Hero 5."
Anyway, Courtney love then unleashed 214 Tweets over a six-hour period—or roughly 1.7 Tweets-per-minute for six hours straight—about True, crystals, Margaret Atwood, and all the people who are out to get her, which is absolutely not the sort of obsessive behavior that someone under the influence of methamphetamine would exhibit.
UPDATE: We thought we'd share this nice note from Steve Martin of the appropriately named Nasty Little Man publicity, pointing out that Grohl didn't have anything to do with whoring out Cobain's likeness for a video game—he only whored out the music:
correct this you assholes:
"Earlier this year, Love and former Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl sold Cobain's likeness to Activision for use in Guitar Hero."
DAVE GROHL HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH THE SALE. AND IT'S DISRESPECTFUL THAT YOU DON'T EVEN MENTION KRIST NOVOSELIC WHO CO-FOUNDED NIRVANA.
He followed up with this statement from Grohl and Novoselic:
This is a statement regarding Nirvana, Guitar Hero and the likeness of the late Kurt Cobain.
We want people to know that we are dismayed and very disappointed in the way a facsimile of Kurt is used in the Guitar Hero game. The name and likeness of Kurt Cobain are the sole property of his estate – we have no control whatsoever in that area.
While we were aware of Kurt's image being used with two Nirvana songs, we didn't know players have the ability to unlock the character. This feature allows the character to be used with any kind of song the player wants. We urge Activision to do the right thing in "re-locking" Kurt's character so that this won't continue in the future.
It's hard to watch an image of Kurt pantomiming other artists' music alongside cartoon characters. Kurt Cobain wrote songs that hold a lot of meaning to people all over the world. We feel he deserves better.
Krist Novoselic and Dave Grohl
We've updated the post above to reflect the distinction, but not the difference.
Send an email to the author of this post at john@gawker.com.
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