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Courtney Love Rushed To Hospital For Drug OD Following Arrest

Singer found outside friend's Los Angeles home, where she admitted to breaking several windows; she OD'd soon after.
By Gil Kaufman

Courtney Love
Photo: Geffen

Police responding to a burglary call arrested Courtney Love in Los Angeles early Thursday morning for allegedly being under the influence of narcotics, according to a spokesperson for the Los Angeles Police Department.

The 39-year-old singer was found standing in the middle of the street outside a male friend's home just before 3 a.m., where she admitted to breaking several windows while trying to enter. "The resident said that he did not wish to have her arrested," LAPD spokesperson Renee Montoya said. "But as the investigation continued, the officers noticed that Ms. Love's behavior was consistent with being under the influence of controlled substances." Police would not disclose the name of the resident.

Love was taken into custody and booked under the name Courtney Michelle Cobain for allegedly being under the influence of a controlled substance. She was released a short time later after posting $2,500 bail.

A spokesperson for Love could not be reached for comment by press time.

Beverly Hills police received a call at 6:38 a.m. from a female resident of a home in the area reporting a medical emergency, according to a Beverly Hills Police Department spokesperson. Paramedics arrived a short time later and rushed Love to a hospital for treatment of a drug overdose, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Beverly Hills PD spokesperson Mitch McCann would not confirm that Love was the patient or that she had suffered an overdose, but said that it was his understanding that the patient checked out of Century City Hospital Thursday afternoon. A spokesperson for the hospital could not be reached by press time.

Love's long-in-the-works debut solo album, America's Sweetheart, was originally due at the end of this month, but was recently postponed until February 10.

[This story was updated at 1:44 p.m. ET on 10.03.2003]

• Courtney Love
• Hole

‘A Lot Of God And A Lot Of Sex’ On Courtney Love Solo Album

America's Sweetheart will be ex-Hole singer's first LP for Virgin Records.
By Jennifer Vineyard

Courtney Love
Photo: Image Direct

After fighting for free agency, it seemed unlikely that Courtney Love would take up with a major-label conglomerate ever again, but for her comeback as a solo artist Ms. Love is getting in bed with Virgin Records.

Love had previously been with Geffen, but she and the label's parent company sued each other for breach of contract, which resulted in her being released from the label (see "Courtney Love, Universal Music Reach Settlement; Nirvana Material Freed Up For Release"). This time around, Love signed a three-album worldwide deal that includes co-ownership of her masters and no usage in record clubs.

Love began work on her forthcoming album, America's Sweetheart, in the South of France, recording 32 songs in all. Most of them were written during Los Angeles sessions with hitmaker Linda Perry (Pink, Christina Aguilera), while a few others were born of out of collaborations with her former manager and onetime boyfriend Jim Barber and producers Josh Abrahams and Matt Serletic. (In addition to handling albums by Matchbox Twenty and Collective Soul, Serletic is CEO of Love's new label.)

"There's one song about a fictional boy who saves fictional rock and roll in a fictional town," Love told Billboard of the album, due October 28. "Other than that, it's a lot of God and a lot of sex. Some rebirth, stagnation and death and some hope."

One of the songs recorded was a cover of Kim Carnes' 1981 hit "Bette Davis Eyes," but there's no word yet which tracks will make the final cut, as the songs are still in the mastering phase. "It's all still a work in progress," Love spokesperson Jill Fritzo said.

No touring band has been selected yet, either. Love canceled appearances at the August U.K. Reading and Leeds festivals, opting to dedicate the time to her album. She issued an open casting call this spring for touring musicians, asking for bassists and guitarists who sport the "Lolita Goth" look (see "Wanted: Band For Courtney Love; Only Goddesses Need Apply").

Love is expected to make the final selection on her bandmates by the end of the month. A tour is in the works for the fall, but dates have yet to be locked in, her spokesperson said. The tour would likely start in Australia and Japan, then continue in the United States.

• Courtney Love
• Hole

Wanted: Band For Courtney Love; Only Goddesses Need Apply

Ex-Hole singer assembling touring band to support upcoming solo debut.
By Joe D'Angelo

Courtney Love
Photo: Geffen

Courtney Love is looking for a few good women.

With about 28 songs written for her solo debut, Courtney Love has issued an open casting call for touring bandmembers. "Women required for international rock revolution," reads the opening line of a full-page ad in the weekly New York newspaper The Village Voice. "Join Courtney Love's touring band and get famous, see the world."

Similar ads also ran in the LA Weekly and papers in the U.K. and Australia. Applicants need only to meet two requirements: they can play bass or guitar and they look like a goddess.

The first concert Love has scheduled isn't until late August, when she'll take the stage alongside Metallica, System of a Down, Good Charlotte and Sum 41 at the Reading and Leeds festivals in England. A U.S. tour is expected to begin this fall. It would be Love's first Stateside trek in four years.

Prospective players will have an idea whether they meld with Love by meeting some points of reference, also listed in the ad. Love and the people she has on board thus far like the misanthropically themed Emily the Strange clothing line, the sexy and sinister Lolita Goth image, the unsung psychedelic '60s bands that comprise the various Nuggets compilations, and the swinging London gangster flick "Performance." They also fancy former Hole drummer Patty Schemel's playing style.

The only other guideline is the "no boys" clause.

Those interested in applying for the job are asked to send video cassettes to PO Box C238, New York, NY 10011. A phone number listed in the ad — (212) 802-7269 — reaches a voice mailbox that was full at press time.

Although Love has written enough songs to fill two albums, she has not yet secured a label deal for one, which she plans to call America's Sweetheart. Talks with labels are expected to yield a deal by the end of the month. Among the tracks being recorded in a studio in the south of France, with help from Christina/Pink collaborator and former 4 Non Blondes frontwoman Linda Perry, is a cover of Kim Carnes' 1981 hit, "Bette Davis Eyes."

America's Sweetheart is expected to surface in the fall. It will be Love's first studio album since 1998's Celebrity Skin by Hole, who officially called it quits last May after an 11-year recording career (see "Courtney Makes It Official — Hole Are No More").

• Courtney Love
• Hole