Courtney Love has recalled how she and Marianne Faithfull “hated” being compared.
The musicians were each known for their romantic involvement with famous frontmen – Courtney for her marriage to the late Nirvana singer Kurt Cobain, and Marianne for her relationship with The Rolling Stones singer Mick Jagger.
But Courtney, 61, told The Times this week that both she and Marianne, who died in January Last year aged 78, loathed being held up against each other for comparison.
“In terms of her influence, we really hated being compared to each other,” the Hole frontwoman told the outlet ahead of the release of documentary-biopic Broken English, about Marianne’s life.
“Marianne was an intellectual and I am not. She read Dante’s Inferno and I like a cheap thrill and a Beatles hook. But I remember her saying, ‘They wanted me broken!’ I know from experience: she’s not wrong.”
When The Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards’ home was raided in a 1967 drug bust, the police famously found Marianne wearing nothing but a fur rug.
Courtney explained she believed one thing she had in common with Marianne was a quest to find “dignity”.
“It’s dignity. And a refusal to be defined by a short-term relationship with ‘The Great Man’,” she said.
“She told me being ‘the girl in the rug’ really f**ked with her and that should not have been the case.”
