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Courtney Admits 'Coke-Nutbag-Breakdown'

added 04 January 2005 at 15.36

Courtney Love has described her recent mental state as down to being a “coke-nutbag-breakdown”, but has revealed she has started work on her new album and her dreams to front Jane’s Addiction.

Love may still have two criminal cases pending against her in Los Angeles (one for illegally possessing painkillers and another for alleged assault), but things seem to be on the up. Firstly, she won custody of daughter Frances Bean and secondly she has commenced work on the follow up to her solo debut, last year’s tepidly received ‘American Sweetheart’. 

The new album also sees her reunited with former Smashing Pumpkins and Zwan frontman Billy Corgan, who co-wrote much of ‘American Sweetheart’. 

“I didn't pick up a guitar the whole time,” she explained of the recording process, “I let go to a degree that it's starting to bother me. I had a dream that I was holding a frame of a painting in my hand, but it was really a guitar, which to me symbolizes that my frame is how I play guitar and I need to adjust these songs that I wrote where I just sang melody lines.”

As for why she’s moved away from playing the guitar, Love simply replied, “I've just been lazy and post-traumatic and, you know, coke-nutbag-breakdown, and I just didn't want to play guitar. Now I want to play guitar again.”

Love goes on to explain she wants Jane's Addiction guitarist Dave Navarro and drummer Stephen Perkins to play on the record, fulfilling an almost-realised dream to front Perry Farrell’s legendary outfit.

“Courtney's Addiction!” she exclaimed, “I want to front Jane's Addiction… I did! In Las Vegas [November 2004], I did ‘Mountain Song’, basically with Jane's Addiction. It's like, ‘Where's Perry? No one misses him? Great, I'm taking over’.”

As for what the new songs sound like, using a nice drug analogy, Love describes them as like Bob Dylan on amphetamines.

“They're more narrative, acoustic-based. Someone like Elliott Smith would just take a guitar and narrate, and that's something Billy brought up that I need to do. What we wrote with an eye towards was Dylan's ‘Tangled Up in Blue’, that really cool era of Dylan.

“That's why these songs need a big, huge hit of speed, and since that would be illegal, I need to drink a lot of fucking coffee and sit down and really figure out what it is I want to say. They are beautifully arranged tunes so far.”

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