When Kurt Met Courtney
When Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love first locked eyes on each other, it was 11 p.m. on Friday, January 12, 1990. And within a minute, the 23-year-old Kurt and the 26-year-old Courtney were already tussling on the floor of the dark and tiny Portland, Oregon nightclub called Satyricon. Kurt was there to do a Nirvana gig.
Photo by Ian Dickson / Shutterstock
Courtney was there because she came with a friend who was dating a member of the band (Oily Bloodmen) that opened for Nirvana. Courtney, the lead singer of Hole, was already famous by then, and she was holding court in a booth when she caught eye of Kurt walking by a few minutes before he was set to perform on stage. Courtney, in her red polka-dot dress, said to him: “You look like Dave Pirner.” (Pirner was the lead singer of Soul Asylum).