Bonus: Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, Kurt & Courtney Conspiracies, and…Constipation?

Jake Brennan (0:01)

Hey, Disgos, need a little more Disgraceland in your life? Just a touch to get you through? Yeah, me too. This is the podcast that comes after the podcast. Welcome to Disgraceland, the After Party.

I've asked this question a couple of times before. The first time it came up, of course, was when we released, originally released our Nirvana episodes, our two-part story. It's basically on Kurt and Courtney.

And we had them in the rewind feed this past weekend. And we excerpted parts of that story for some content on Instagram. And the response has been, I mean, I knew the response was going to be what it was. I didn't know it was going to be as intense as it was. I know that there's a large group of people out there who believe what they believe about Courtney Love. And it's not what I believe, clearly. And I knew that they were going to be upset by the fact that we were pointing out this anecdote from the couple's past where Kurt overdosed. I talked about this last week in the After Party. He overdosed and Courtney saved his life.

The response is not only intense, again, this is on social media, it's on Instagram.

It's also pretty hysterical.

It's very flattering, guys, to think that Courtney Love would pay me to do publicity for her.

It's very flattering to think that people believe that I'm an industry plant.

But it is kind of ridiculous and fascinating. It's more fascinating to me than it is ridiculous. And it deserves some unpacking. Because, again, I've looked at everything out there, including, of course, soaked in bleach, including the new so-called evidence that has come out over the last 12 to 18 months, whatever it is. And yes, there's a lot of compelling, I don't want to call it evidence, circumstances, compelling circumstance, excuse me, to the death of Kurt.

There's a lot you could pull to paint some sort of narrative, some sort of picture here that points fingers at Courtney Love, but there's no actual evidence. And if there were, my God, man, don't you think, don't you think that Courtney Love would be held accountable? Okay, but hold on, let's just go back. I want, I'm more interested in the why, like where this disdain comes from. Now on the one hand, I get it. Courtney Love is an outrageous person. She always has been, even in the last two decades of her career here, she hasn't really been as in the public eye as she was in the 90s and in the early 2000s. She is still outrageous, truly. In the truest sense of that word, she is outrageous. Okay, she says things that are meant to drive you crazy, to get attention. She does truly outrageous things. I know two people personally who went to her house and have the same story. She showed up, she answered the door, basically, not basically, she answered the door naked, okay? And that's just me. I cannot imagine what it's like for people who actually know Courtney Love. But I'm guessing that most of the people in the comments section on our Instagram page do not know Courtney Love. And I'm also pretty sure that most of the people who are saying these ridiculous things, making these ridiculous comments, aren't Disgraceland podcast followers. Some of them are. Most of them are just Disgraceland Instagram followers. And there's a difference. A lack of understanding of nuance, I think, is the main difference. But whatever, that's a different story. My point is, I don't know amongst those of you who are listening now, I don't know how many of you are as convinced that Courtney Love killed Kurt as a large portion of people on the internet are. And that's because I think most of our podcast listeners are, I think you guys are smart. I think you guys are well informed and I think you know how to process information. However, I do understand, because I get the emails, that there's some of you who still think that she did it. And I'm truly interested in hearing from you and hearing why.

But again, that's the point here. Why? Why do people think this? She, okay, she's outrageous. There's a lot of outrageous rock stars.

Does that make them killers? No, it does not. But Courtney Love, she just scratches this particular itch for people that is unique. She's truly hated. And I try to not hate anybody, like nobody. I just don't, I don't believe in hate. I don't even like, I don't like saying that word. I'm not trying to get up on a moral high horse here, but it's, I try to get it. Like, okay, why is this person doing this ridiculous stuff? And to me, Courtney Love just strikes me as a very cold and calculating Machiavellian type of entertainer, of which there are many in history. And I know you're hearing these words come out of your mouth and you're going, dude, listen to what you're saying. These are the exact qualities of a killer. Well, it takes a lot to kill somebody and get away with it. A real lot, especially in the public eye, especially when you're someone like Courtney Love. So you and Kurt Cobain is one of the biggest rock stars in the history of rock and roll, in the history of pop, in the history of entertainment.