Wise people have long argued that everybody has their own taste, as tastes are indisputable. However, it might be fair to say that when it comes to liking Courtney Love, she has the power to become a hot topic in every debate she chimes in, any room enters, or whenever someone mentions her name in a chat.
Although tastes seem to be subjective, Love’s fans might still face troubles while defending the Hole frontwoman because her haters could be shocked to hear that someone might actually like her. It’s true, after all, that Courtney has been a controversial figure in rock history since the singer always seems to have an unconventional side to her that pushes boundaries and presses people’s buttons.
Still, even with all the controversies, the rocker also managed to become the ultimate ‘siren,’ enchanting people with her intelligence, wit, and, as some might call, ‘poisonous charm.’ At least, Kurt Cobain would agree with these statements, as he, like the ancient mariners enhanced by the sirens’ charming calls, appeared to be mesmerized by his wife, at least for the most part of their marriage.
So, all the reasons stated above were perhaps some of the elements that inspired Ann Wilson to write a song about Love, or was at least influenced by Courtney’s characteristics while creating a track that also featured Metallica frontman James Hetfield on vocals. Ann would discuss the song’s origins with Rolling Stone in 2016 while also disclosing why she chose the Hole singer as her source of inspiration.
Well, when Wilson decided to write a song about a charming but ‘troubling’ maiden, the first name came to her mind was Courtney; since who would have been better to fit in that archetype? Love thrived in controversies, after all, while building a cult following through her charisma and way of getting under people’s skin.
Ann started writing ‘Beautiful Broken,’ around 2013, which would later become the title track of Heart’s album of the same name. The rocker had discussed how she imagined a ‘beautiful disaster chick,’ and Courtney’s character showed her the way while creating that persona.
Soon after Wilson finished the song, her sister and bandmate, Nancy, thought it would be fitting to have Hetfield collaborate with them for the song to bring out the hard-rock vibes even more, and luckily, James was happy to oblige and sing with the Wilson sisters.
The rocker on how the track was inspired by Love:
“I wrote the words in 2012 or 2013. And the vision I had for it was of a sort of fabulous disaster chick, kind of in the form of someone like Courtney Love. She’s complicated; she’s gorgeous; she’s got it all wired tight, you know? But she has a design flaw upstairs that makes her unable to live in the world normally. It’s a character study, really.
And getting James [Hetfield] to sing on it, that was an idea that Nancy had. I think she thought, ‘Well, we need somebody to kind of underscore what this is about in a rock sense.’ And so James came back with that ‘just like you and me’ thing…”
So, when Ann decided to write a song about a ‘fabulous disastrous chick,’ Courtney was the first name that came to her mind, as she took the rocker as the prototype for her character while writing the track. Well, the song’s catchy and hard-rocking vibe fits Love’s spirits and you can check it out right below.
