Hole bassist on the “public witch trial” that followed her leaving the band – and why she was “pissed” at Courtney Love “turning away”
Nearly three decades on, former Hole bassist Melissa Auf der Maur has opened up about her tumultuous relationship with Courtney Love, and the “public witch trial” that followed her exit.
Appearing in the new issue of Uncut, Auf der Maur looks back on her five-year stint in Hole, a period that saw the band rise to mainstream success with 1998’s Celebrity Skin. The 54-year-old joined the alt-rock group in 1994, stepping in after the tragic loss of bassist Kristen Pfaff, and remained through some of the band’s most high-profile years. After leaving Hole in 1999, she toured briefly with The Smashing Pumpkins, fronted by Courtney Love’s ex, Billy Corgan.
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Reflecting on the emotional fallout of leaving Hole, Auf der Maur says, “We broke our own hearts along the way. I had dutifully stayed, trying to do what we set out to do, which is put women in a male-dominated landscape. We had a Top 40 hit, we were as big as ever, and Courtney turned away and explored Hollywood and I was pissed. But that’s her journey. She was surviving insurmountable pain – not just Kurt [Cobain] and being left alone as a mother and her own struggle with addiction, but a lifetime of not being loved.”
In the aftermath, Auf der Maur adds, the band’s reputation took a hit and the narrative quickly spiralled.
“And then it became a public witch trial. The legacy of Hole was in the gutters. No one took care of it because no one took care of her.”
The drama didn’t stop when she left Hole. When asked about Love’s reaction to her move to the Pumpkins, Auf der Maur admits it was complicated.
“She was respectful, but angry that I was leaving for her ex-boyfriend,” the bassist explains. “It was a lot of drama, but I’ve long said that Hole was my Bachelors in humanity and the Pumpkins was my Masters in music. I learned in Hole about how society treats women, and then I got to basically go on vacation and be the best bass player I’ve ever been by playing with the best musicians I’ll ever play with in my life.”
Playing with Corgan, she adds, pushed her creative and technical limits like nothing she had experienced before.
“The intensity of Billy Corgan and his work ethic, and the radical dexterity I needed to have as a bass player, was insane,” says Auf der Maur. “We were playing up to three hours a night, different setlists every night. It was Olympian-style musicianship.”
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