Michael Stipe and Courtney Love

They share a deep commitment to having body odor, drug addictions and being a whore.

When was that picture? 1989?

Probably mid-90s R2, but there are numerous pictures of them together over the years. This one is from 2015.

They're both insufferable. It's a bond.

Are you dense or ?

Not sure if you're inferring that they bonded over drugs, R5, but if that is the case, I've never heard of Stipe being associated with drug use, at least not since he's been famous. Beyond that, they have polar opposite temperaments, and are regarded very differently by the culture at large; they seem like unlikely friends, on a surface level, at least.

I never knew they were at the skating rink when Tonya had Nancy brutally kneecapped.

Their shared love of Hobby Lobby provides them with endless topics to bond over.

Gays love their messy, white girls.

To quote Matteo Lane:

Listen white girls. When you are out and drinking and all of a sudden gay men are showing up around you, and they are like "YAS, QUEEN, YAAAAS!" ... that's a bad sign!

I’m assuming drugs and she can be entertaining and dramatic. I have a histrionic acquaintance that I can’t entirely let go of because we’ve known each other for decades and it’s kind of fun to see what wackiness she gets up to next.

Here’s the vintage gossip: “ Stipe, Michael. Massive cokehead. Rumored to prefer the company of gentlemen, and is now admitting it. Hygienically challenged. "Vile creature...I watched him belittle a radio station worker unless she'd service some of the crew on the bus." (I've received some e-mails from people who challenge this, saying that it would be quite out of character for him). Bad tipper. Reportedly linked with Helena Christensen, Toni Collette, Stephen Dorf, Natalie Merchant (who apparently was quite unpleasantly obsessed with Stipe, and for a long time), River Phoenix, and Keanu Reeves.“

[post redacted because linking to dailymail.co.uk clearly indicates that the poster is either a troll or an idiot (probably both, honestly.) Our advice is that you just ignore this poster but whatever you do, don't click on any link to this putrid rag.]

R11, based on likeness alone, I cannot fathom Frances not being Courtney's biological child—she resembles her far too much—so, no, I don't think Courtney was born male. I guess it's possible she could have been intersex at birth—some intersex people can carry children so long as their female reproductive system was developed enough. If that were the case, nobody would really know except Courtney's parents and the doctor who delivered her. If there was medical intervention at birth (which is often the case), Courtney herself may not even know.

In the last several years, I have come across several conspiracy theorist types claiming Courtney is in fact a trans man. They mainly cite her body shape as evidence—she does have broad shoulders and is quite tall (around 5'10"-ish), but the idea still seems ridiculous. She simply strikes me as a woman with high testosterone.

I know people who know him pretty well and, according to them, he's just as batshit as Courtney in many ways without the disordered personality.

She was diagnosed with Autism as a child which goes some way to explaining her weirdness and was abused to the point of sociopathy or Borderline Personality or whatever the fuck is wrong with her. I think he knows he can't fix her but he really identifies with her damage in some way.

He's a REALLY strange guy although a pretty good hearted person from what I've heard. His family is a little genetically crazy to start with. He had encephalitis as a kid and was considered somewhat slow, had a few car accidents and bad blows to the head, almost died from hypothermia did a fuckton of hard drugs as a teenager/twentysomthing.

He hallucinates visually ( thinks he can see ghosts) and has a ton of weird semi-psychotic mental stuff going on, OCD, paranoia etc, talks to people who aren't there. Totally unmedicated.

At the 43 minute mark of this podcast he starts " Stuttering" in a way that isn't quite right. Like , even a really bad stutter doesn't work like that. Dudes got brain damage.

EDIT: 44 Min mark of the podcast or thereabouts.

[quote] She was diagnosed with Autism as a child which goes some way to explaining her weirdness and was abused to the point of sociopathy or Borderline Personality or whatever the fuck is wrong with her. I think he knows he can't fix her but he really identifies with her damage in some way.

I'd never heard that about her, but her Behind The Music story says it all. She was all but abandoned as a child, in a very cruel way. She's a raging mess but honestly, that she's even as remotely functional as she is at the moment is a surprise given her childhood.

[quote] Natalie Merchant (who apparently was quite unpleasantly obsessed with Stipe, and for a long time)

I'd heard about this from a friend who knew and worked with the Maniacs. He said Michael and Natalie had a very Cruel Intentions/Mean Girls sort of vibe. I think ultimately she thought he was interested in a way he wasn't.

They seem like two Borderline Personality types, maybe they bonded over that.

Cuntiness respects Cuntiness.

[quote] EDIT: 44 Min mark of the podcast or thereabouts.

Yeah... That WAS weird. What the fuck was that? Like his brain just shorted out like an android having a stroke.

Michael Stipe and Kurt Cobain became so close that there were rumors that the two were fucking. He and Courtney probably bonded over Kurt and good drugs. Stipe was also good friends with River Phoenix, whom he thought of as his little brother.

They share a dealer and maybe a few hook ups.

R15 if you talk to the "Courtney killed Kurt!" truthers, everything in that Behind the Music episode (and everything Courtney has ever said about her life, really) is a lie. It goes without saying that she's dramatic and she obviously exaggerates things, but where her childhood is concerned, I believe everything she's said—I think she's telling it from the perspective of her pre-adolescent self, but it still rings true, and probably accounts for much of her psychological issues as an adult. Her mother wrote a memoir some years ago in which she essentially admitted that she ditched Courtney in Oregon and started a new life in New Zealand with her third husband and Courtney's half-sisters. Meanwhile, Courtney got shuffled around with her ex-stepdad (I believe he was in the Behind the Music doc), who was apparently a good guy, but she was a hellion and ended up in juvey—after that, all bets were sort of off.

Courtney's dad is fucking looney, and although she denies it, I suspect he might have molested her at some point. She got taken out of his custody as a toddler, purportedly because he fed her LSD, but during her teen years she briefly reunited with him in Ireland—there are a few photos of them together at that time, and they're creepy as fuck. He has a smarmy, lecherous vibe and is truly off his rocker. Her mother, on the other hand, seems like a sane person—a bit hippy dippy, but no different than any other upper-middle-class earthy lady. She is a therapist I believe. While I don't think she is a terrible person, I do think that, at the time she had Courtney, she was young, selfish, and not fit to be a parent.

When you lay it all out and really look at it, Courtney's life story is truly insane. I suspect there will one day be a biopic made about her after her death.

I like my Rock stars eccentric but she's one of the few celebrities I truly feel sorry for, even though she's a massive, dangerous loon. Theres just a ton of wasted human potential there.

Incidentally she claims Stipe wrote "Country Feedback" about her. Which, if true , actually goes some way to describing their fucked up bond. Or at least his attitude towards her.

R22 I agree about her wasted potential—she threw her career away after Celebrity Skin when she turned to movies, and then, shortly after, crack cocaine and assorted opiates for a good 5 years. I think she was a worse addict in the 2000s than she was in the '90s to be honest. That being said, with all of the baggage she has, she's managed to carve her name in stone. As much as people hate her, the vast majority of her music has been well-received (both at the time of release and in retrospect) and she has definitely a secured a niche in the annals of pop culture. It's worth something, though she could have had a much more prolific career if she hadn't so consistently gotten in her own way.

I've never heard that Country Feedback was about her, but I recall her claiming at one time that Crush with Eyeliner was. Who knows if that's the case or not.

Can’t stand either of them. Maybe they’ll do a murder suicide and the world will be a better place.

I know it's trendy to hate his guys but I still think he's kind of a sweetheart. Look at his Coronavirus PSA.

As a public figure who spent most of "fame" years deep in the closet, he's really no role model for LGBT kids. He and REM were rich, powerful, and culturally influential enough to really make a difference back 30 years ago.

But he didn't.

They've met through Kurt Cobain who was a huge REM fan, that's what Stipe has said before.

Since when was Michael Stipe ever in the closet?

Celebrity Skin was basically a Smashing Pumpkins album even Cortney admits it was all Billy Corgan's work.

" I've never heard of Stipe being associated with drug use,"

Because you're deaf?

Meanwhile, Lukas Haas practically died of an overdose when he was with Stipe and it took him a couple of years to start functioning normally.

Since he was living with Stipe at the time , do you really think Stipe has no association with drugs?

^ According to CDAN. That bastion of journalisitc integrity.

[quote] Meanwhile, Lukas Haas practically died of an overdose when he was with Stipe and it took him a couple of years to start functioning normally.

I remember that. The internet wasn't that big back then. I remember something about Lukas not being able to walk for a while after the overdose. What kind of drug does that to a person? Did he have a stroke?

Sidebar: Lukas Haas seems like a giant mess.

Courtney Love apologia....I never thought I'd live to see it. "she had a bad childhood". So many did, she is insufferable, and retconning it with "She's autistic" is just fucking perfect for her. Your friends didn't know her at all if they are excusing her behavior at ALL.

She may have had a bad childhood, but as an adult, she had opportunities to be a better person, to not traumatize another generation. Not Courtney. Fuck her, and fuck those who apologize for this selfish, selfish cunt.

R32 Unwad your panties. I don't think anyone was making excuses for her shit behavior. Just making observations and guesses as to what engendered it.

R32 is either a WA state Kurt Cobain truther/riot grrrl obsessive, or someone who got burned/knows someone who got burned by Courtney back during her Portland days in the '80s.

R32 my friends didn't know her at all. They knew Stipe.

Courtney was the first to present Hole on a national stage. That should matter to some of you here.

I've posted this a lot, but Stipe still gets obsessive over UGA twinks. He stalked my husband's old roommate for a year.

R37 He lives in Berlin now.

R27 Courtney always claimed she wrote all her lyrics herself. And that Billy only had a hand in writing SOME music for less than half the Celebrity Skin tracks (credit given in the liner notes). However, in 2018, Courtney did call Billy a "career-maker" for writing Celebrity Skin, and I kind of hated she said that because it seemed like kind of a backtrack or a concession that without him she's nothing. And after all, LTT is generally the more iconic album.

R39 IMO Courtney is a fantastic lyricist/writer, but a so-so instrumentalist. I've always believed that she has always written her own lyrics. Her themes and lyrical style have been pretty consistent throughout her career—I've frankly always found her lyrics to be very high-brow, much more than most of her contemporaries. I think she has been helped greatly in terms of composing by those around her, though. She needs people who are more proficient in composition/instrumentation for it to really gel. Eric Erlandson was a major part of what made Hole work—Courtney's guitar chops aren't good enough to carry the whole band. Same situation with Billy, who helped write the guitar riffs for some of the tracks on Celebrity Skin, as you mention. As far as Live Through This goes, we'll never know if Kurt wrote any of those riffs. Sometimes I think he may have, but at the very least, she had to have been influenced by what he was writing.

She's a mess, and also a legend.

Love this.

r41 Thats fucking epic.

He might be a pretentious douche in person but his newly recorded demo made me cry.

Classic Fag Hag with G.B.F.

Nothing to see here.

They both wanted to bed Keanu Reeves.

Ugh, the QAnon loons like R11 are tiresome, according to them everyone is a secret trans. They had so much fun with Joan Rivers and her "Michelle is a tranny" bullshit that they now do it with everyone.

You don't have to be either to hate Courtney Love, R34.

Her image has been rehabilitated over and over again for decades now, and people have short memories, but she really is a terrible human being, and some of us don't think an artist's work overrides their innate awfulness.

[QUOTE] But almost ALL actors, actresses and musicians are closeted LGBTQs to the general public.

Welp Troll

She's a Cancer, he's a Capricorn.

For what it's worth, R49 has a point—if you believe in astrology at least. Cancer and Capricorn are polar opposites on the zodiac (literally), and there is definitely an "opposites attract" principle that applies between them. Cancer is also considered the mother sign of the zodiac, and Capricorn, the father, so it kind of makes sense. My longtime best friend since high school is a Capricorn, and I am a Cancer—we sometimes hate each other and can go long spans without speaking, but there is still a bond between us that I cannot explain.

Courtney will always be on of the greats. She did it like no one else did. Hats off to her for creating what she did.

[quote]Michael Stipe has shared a first-take demo of a new song called “No Time for Love Like Now.” The track is a collaboration with the National’s Aaron Dessner. “Michael Stipe has been a great hero and friend to me (and the National),” Dessner wrote, “and I never in my wildest dreams imagined writing songs together...but here is the demo of one in progress...coming to you from Michael in isolation at home—hope it raises some spirits. The lyrics and sentiment in the music feel tied to this time.”

It's not terrible. It's mostly pleasant. But It's instantly forgettable, IMHO.

There was a rumour that the "overdose" story was just a cover up and that Lukas Haas really got injured in a freaky S/M accident involving Michael Stipe. R28