'Courtney Love’s Women' Series on BBC to Spotlight the Hole Singer's Life and Musical Influences

BBC Radio 6 Music and BBC Sounds have announced an April start date for the new eight-episode music series Courtney Love’s Women, in which the trailblazing icon shares the "soundtrack of her life."

The series will be co-hosted with Love's friend and writer Rob Havilla. According to the BBC press statement, "the founder and lead singer of Hole takes listeners on an intimate and unfiltered, era-by-era journey through her life and the music that made her."

On April 12, BBC Radio 6 will celebrate the 30th anniversary of Hole's sophomore release Live Through This, which is acknowledged as a classic of the alternative rock era. Lauded by music critics and heralded as a breakthrough in women's rock, it had the distinction of being overshadowed by Kurt Cobain's suicide a week previous, and two weeks after, the heroin overdose of Hole bassist Kristen Pfaff.

The entire 6 Music schedule will be devoted to Love that day, and Hole songs will be played throughout the day from 7am to 7pm.

Never miss a story — sign up for the Q newsletter for the latest music news on all your favorite artists, all in one place.

According to the press release: "Throughout the series, Courtney recalls: her formative years, in which she discovered disco through the record collection at a childhood care home; reciting Sylvia Plath poetry for a Mickey Mouse Club audition; her love of Billie Holiday and Nina Simone; her time at an all-girl boarding school in New Zealand and in juvenile detention; couch-surfing across America; her struggles with drug abuse; her acting career – which resulted in a Golden Globe nomination for her role in The People vs. Larry Flynt in 1997; how she attempted to creatively matchmake Stevie Nicks and Billy Corgan; hanging out with Debbie Harry at a Limp Bizkit album launch at the Playboy Mansion; Gwen Stefani; her relationship with Nirvana frontman, Kurt Cobain; taking pandemic guitar lessons with The Big Moon’s Juliet Jackson and much more."

The three-time Grammy nominee has not released new music since the song "Mother" for the 2020 horror film The Turning. Love told Women's Wear Daily in March of that year that she was writing while living in London, working on songs that are "really sad, and writing in minor chords, and that appeals to my sadness," she said. That collection of tunes has yet to see the light of day. Her most recent public outing was at the March 11 fundraising gala at the National Portrait Gallery, where she naturally garnered attention for her 'punk princess' ensemble designed by Elizabeth Emanuel, Princess Diana's wedding dress designer.

Courtney Love's Women episodes 1-4 will be available on BBC Sounds from Monday 8 April and broadcast on 6 Music on Monday 8 – Thursday 11 April, 11pm-12pm. Episodes 5-8 will be available on BBC Sounds from Monday 15 April and broadcast on 6 Music on Monday 15 – Thursday 18 April, 11pm-12pm.