Courtney Love reveals who lyric in Nirvana’s ‘Heart-Shaped Box’ is actually about

Courtney Love has claimed one of the most significant lyrics in the chorus of Nirvana‘s ‘Heart-Shaped Box’ is actually about Sonic Youth‘s Kim Gordon.

Love joined Billy Corgan on his podcast The Magnificent Others for an in-depth interview lasting almost an hour and three quarters. During the episode, they discussed the ’90s indie scene’s often unwelcoming nature and at one point, Love described Gordon as a “gatekeeper”. 

“She was really horrible in the ’90s,” Love recalled. “I remember in Holland I was hanging out with you and they were so mean.” Corgan returned: “I was a fan and I came in to pay my respects and I was treated so rudely by them.”

Later, Love said Corgan was the inspiration for the first line of the chorus of Nirvana’s ‘Heart-Shaped Box’.

“You know the lyric from Kurt which is ‘Hey, wait. I’ve got a new complaint / [Forever in debt to your priceless advice]’ That’s about Kim. That’s literally about Kim,” explained Love.

“He was so mad at her. Kurt’s whole thing was he hid his light under a bushel for [Nirvana’s debut album] ‘Bleach’,” recalled Love. “Because one, Seattle, which he wasn’t from, and two Kim Gordon.”

Love then recounted an incident in which she saw Gordon approach then-Nirvana guitarist Jason Everman at a show and turned his guitar all the way down.

Despite witnessing this, she still sought Gordon’s help to produce Hole’s debut album ‘Pretty On The Inside’. “I know I was scarred by Kim, so scarred that I had to write a letter kissing her ass. You don’t go for the cool husband, you go for the wife. And she produced my first album to her eternal regret.”

“I don’t know if her art made her pernicious, but she was really a bad force in the whole thing,” says Love of Gordon.

By contrast, Cobain had previously said in a 1993 Circus interview the line “Hey, wait, I’ve got a new complaint,” was a reference to how he felt he was perceived by the media.

Incidentally, the song has often been thought to be about Love herself. As noted in Michael Azerrad’s book, Come As You Are, the idea purportedly came from a heart-shaped box full of possessions Love gave to Cobain.

Love also joked to Lana Del Rey after she covered the song in 2012 that the song was about her vagina. 

Writing on Twitter, in posts which were later deleted, she said: “You do know the song is about my Vagina right? ‘Throw down your umbilical noose so i can climb right back,’ umm… On top of which some of the lyrics about my vagina I contributed. So umm next time you sing it, think about my vagina will you?”

Elsewhere on the podcast, Love described Del Rey as a “really good friend” who let her live in her house rent-free.

Love continued to say that Del Rey was “really great at helping me get out of town because I needed to get out of the life. She’s got this upper-middle-class thing as well, so she could play these guys that were really harming my life.”

She also asked Dave Grohl to “just say we’re cool” – and for his fan base of “straight white males” to stop “picking” on her.

Despite their historically contentious relationship, Love said that the pair are actually on amicable terms. “Come out with it and just say we’re cool,” Love said while referencing the Foo Fighters frontman. “Be man enough to man up, because you’re the Uberman. [You have] all the straight males and we’re cool, but you won’t say it because you’re afraid you’ll lose your audience. You’re afraid it’ll affect your relationship with literal Paul McCartney.”

Love went on to accuse Grohl of not having the same “talent” as McCartney, adding: “They both have the wife — haunting, dark shadow. They both have the cool guy dying — haunting, tragically haunted. So they’re buddies. Is that why?”

She went on to directly address Grohl, saying: “Dave, it would really behoove me if the straight white males that are your base will stop picking on me”.

Love last caught up with NME in 2020, in which she divulged what it was she loved about the UK.

““I’ll tell you. When I arrived in London from Liverpool aged 16 in the early ’80s, I ended up staying at the Columbia in Bayswater – the scene of so much decadent rock and roll activity. My knowledge of London literally became the tube from Bayswater to Oxford Street – that’s literally all I knew. I would see these posters of Nick Cave (he had this huge mohawk) and his band, The Birthday Party. The poster said ‘Drunk on the Pope’s Blood’ – and this is all over London. And I was shocked!

“You can put posters up saying ‘Drunk on the Pope’s Blood’ in this country? I realised – you haven’t got nearly the Thought Police you think you do compared to in Portland or parts of LA. I’m allowed to dissent here, which I haven’t felt comfortable doing recently elsewhere. Being able to have a real dialogue and read all sorts of opinions… it made me fall in love with the UK even more.”

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