This historic interview, photographed by Michael Lavine on January 12, 1992, captured Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love at a transformative moment in music history – the day after Nirvana’s breakthrough performance on Saturday Night Live.
Behind the Iconic Photoshoot
The images from this session became legendary, particularly the cover featuring their kiss that would define an era in rock. According to photographer Michael Lavine, the shoot almost didn’t see the light of day: “Afterwards, they called and said that they didn’t want to use the pictures… We showed them the photos and they approved the kiss for the cover. I think that they were uncomfortable with doing that kind of magazine cover.”
This marked the only professional studio photoshoot Kurt and Courtney ever did together, creating a visual time capsule of alternative rock’s most famous couple just months before their marriage.
The Interview: Love, Fame, and Rock & Roll
By Christina Kelly
Meeting Rock’s New Royalty
It’s 1:00 PM on a rainy afternoon in New York’s East Village. I’ve been waiting since noon at a local restaurant, hoping that Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love will actually show for our scheduled interview. Nirvana’s “Nevermind” has just become the number-one album in America, selling a staggering three million copies—an unprecedented achievement for a band that emerged from the underground punk scene. Their sudden success has made them media darlings, yet Kurt has famously declined interviews with major publications from Rolling Stone to the New York Times.
Meanwhile, Courtney’s band Hole has begun attracting serious attention from major labels, eager to sign them from indie label Caroline Records. Despite their busy schedules and newfound celebrity status, I’m confident they’ll show up—they’re both Sassy readers, after all.
Just as I’m reassuring the waiter that my companions will arrive any minute, Kurt and Courtney walk through the door, apologizing for their lateness.
The Look of Love
Courtney arrives wearing a black midi-dress, a well-worn sweater, and vintage brown pumps. She constantly plays with her bleached hair, alternately hiding behind it and styling it upright. Though she claims to be 24, I suspect she might be older. Not conventionally beautiful, she carries her unique features with confidence.
Kurt, who is likely 24, captivates with strikingly blue eyes accentuated by his pink-streaked hair. His alarming thinness makes me want to order him a hearty meal. He’s dressed in deteriorating jeans, a cardigan over a vintage Flipper band t-shirt, and black sneakers with holes.
“He’s got the number-one record,” Courtney notes in her distinctive raspy voice, “and he only has one pair of shoes.”
A Whirlwind Romance
When I mention seeing their engagement announced on MTV, Kurt admits, “It was embarrassing, but it was also kind of neat.” Courtney counters, “I thought it was kind of dorky.” She’s wearing an antique engagement ring from 1906 with what appears to be a ruby in the center. Kurt wears an ornate band as well.
Their meeting story unfolds with Courtney taking the lead: “I saw him play in Portland in 1988. I’m from Eugene. I thought he was really passionate and cute, but I couldn’t tell if he was smart, or had any integrity.”
“And then I met him at a show about a year, or something ago,” she continues. Kurt adds, “Butthole Surfers.” Courtney clarifies, “And L7. I really pursued him, not too aggressively, but aggressive enough that some girls would have been embarrassed by it.”
Her directness proved challenging for some potential suitors. “I got Kurt’s number when they were on tour, and I would call him. And I would do interviews with people who I knew were going to interview Nirvana, and I would tell them I had a crush on Kurt. Kurt was scared of me. He said he didn’t have time to deal with me. But I knew it was inevitable.”
Kurt gently corrects the record: “I would just like to say I liked Courtney a lot. I wasn’t ignoring her. I didn’t mean to play hard to get. I just didn’t have the time, I had so many things on my mind.”
Courtney quips, “He had to write a hit record.”
Their relationship solidified the previous September when Courtney convinced a record executive to spend $1,000 on a plane ticket to see Nirvana perform in Chicago. “And that is when we got together,” she says.
Planning a Future Together
Now engaged, they plan to marry soon—both wearing dresses. Kurt explains his preference for dresses, particularly baby-dolls with floral prints, finding them comfortable and flattering.
“In the last couple months,” Kurt shares with surprising vulnerability, “I’ve gotten engaged and my attitude has changed drastically, and I can’t believe how much happier I am. At times I even forget that I’m in a band, I’m so blinded by love. I know that sounds embarrassing, but it’s true. I could give up the band right now. It doesn’t matter, but I’m under contract.”
This tender confession seems remarkable, especially considering Courtney’s revelation that a friend warned her against dating Kurt: “She told me, ‘What you’re doing is culturally important and you’ll just get swallowed up by going out with Kurt.'”
Feminism and Fame
Courtney reflects on their relationship in the context of gender and rock culture: “We get attention for our relationship, but if we didn’t have bands, no one would care. I mean, the reason we’re doing this interview is girls have been trained to look up to rock star boys as these… objects. They grow up their whole lives with horses or rock stars on their walls.”
“For me, I didn’t want to marry a rock star, I wanted to be one,” she continues. “I had a feminist hippie mom, and she told me I could do whatever I wanted to do. But a lot of girls think that to go out with somebody who’s cool or successful, they have to be pretty and submissive and quiet. They can’t be loud and obnoxious like me, and they can’t have their own thing.”
Her ambition is palpable—she wants success on her own terms, not as an appendage to Kurt’s fame. This creates a certain defensiveness when I ask if they plan to tour together.
Kurt answers naturally: “I know that when we were on tour, we wished we were playing all our shows together. I spend so much money on phone calls. The next time we go on tour, we’re going to go together.”
Courtney quickly qualifies: “That has to do with my band being on a level where we should go on tour with his band. Otherwise, I wouldn’t do it. I would rather die than go on tour with someone just because I go out with them.”
She adds thoughtfully, “It’s cool to go out with someone that you know you would go out with if you were a waitress and they worked at a gas station… you can get really paranoid in music because you never know why people like you.”
Women in Rock and Creative Evolution
On female musicians, Courtney offers a provocative perspective: “I kind of don’t think it’s enough at this point for girls to start a band, and be punk. There aren’t many girls right now who write really good songs. I wanna write as good as Charles from the Pixies, or Kurt, or Neil Young.”
She continues with an observation about gender and musical composition: “It seems like girls always concentrate on lyrics. I read in Sassy about how girls get discouraged from math, and I think that affects songwriting, because math is a big part of arranging songs in your head.”
When I ask Kurt how love might influence his songwriting, he reflects: “My songs have always been frustrating themes, relationships that I’ve had. And now that I’m in love, I expect it to be really happy, or at least there won’t be half as much anger as there was.”
His artistic philosophy embraces change: “I’m just so overwhelmed by the fact that I’m in love on this scale, I don’t know how my music’s going to change. But I’m looking forward to it. I love change. All the bands I respect the most have changed with every album. I can’t stand to hear the same format, where after three or four albums you know exactly what to expect. That’s boring, and that’s why those bands lose their audience.”
Courtney adds her perspective on the creative challenge: “It’s a lot harder to write about sunshine and make it interesting. I’ll always have certain amounts of anger about social things, about my life. I think a lot of the reason people like both our bands is because of the anger involved. His band always had prettier songs too, but I was scared of pretty songs.”
Home and Family Dreams
Their conversation shifts to domestic plans—a Victorian house in Seattle they hope to buy. “My favorite thing to think about while we’re doing major label meetings and stuff is basically what color we’re going to paint the walls,” Courtney says. “I want to have a baby really bad, but I want to be able to afford it myself. I want my own money. I couldn’t imagine marrying someone with money and then living off them.”
Kurt shares her family vision: “I just want to be situated and secure. I want to make sure we have a house, and make sure we have money saved up in the bank.”
Authenticity in the Mainstream
With Nirvana’s commercial success, I ask about the backlash from alternative music fans who accuse bands of selling out once they achieve mainstream popularity.
Kurt responds thoughtfully: “I’d be really egotistical to admit that, but I can’t help but feel that way once in a while. The other day I was driving around in L.A. listening to a college station. They were playing a lot of my favorite bands, like Flipper and The Melvins. I was saying to myself, This is great. And then the DJ came on and went on this half-hour rant about how Nirvana is so obviously business oriented and just because we have colored hair doesn’t mean we’re alternative.”
He continues with genuine emotion: “And I felt really terrible. Because there is nothing in the world I like more than pure underground music. And to be shunned by this claim that just because you are playing the corporate game you are not honest! You use [the corporate ogre] to your advantage. You fight them by joining them.”
A Moment in Time
As our interview concludes, Kurt needs to leave for MTV, where Nirvana will record five videos for regular rotation. Courtney has an appointment at Charisma Records. Before parting, we step outside for photos. They sit on the sidewalk, Courtney kissing Kurt and smearing lipstick on his face, creating images that evoke comparisons to Sid and Nancy (Courtney had a small role in the 1986.film).
Kurt asks Janet, Hole’s publicist, for a copy of their album. “This is the man I’m going to marry,” Courtney remarks, “and he still hasn’t heard my entire album.”
The interview ends with a telling moment: a yuppie couple approaches, asking to take a photo with Kurt. “Who were those people?” I ask. Courtney replies with characteristic bluntness, “Christina, everyone has the Nirvana album. Everyone.”
Looking at the man with his camera and bolo tie, I realize she’s right. In that moment, the underground had become the mainstream, and Kurt and Courtney stood at the epicenter of a cultural earthquake that would define a generation.
Within months of this interview, Kurt and Courtney would marry in Hawaii (February 24, 1992), and welcome their daughter Frances Bean Cobain (August 18, 1992). Their turbulent relationship would continue until Kurt’s tragic death on April 5, 1994, forever freezing this moment in time.
