On this day 25 years ago, Hole’s highly anticipated 3rd album ‘Celebrity Skin’ was released.

September 8th, 1998.

This would be Hole’s last studio album with members Courtney Love, Melissa Auf Der Maur, and Eric Erlandson. Patty Schemel did not drum on this album. (This whole story about Patty is a different post for another day.) Courtney went onto to release “Nobody’s Daughter” in 2010 under Hole’s name. But it had no actual members of Hole in that lineup other than Courtney herself.

Billy Corgan of The Smashing Pumpkins co-wrote some songs on this album, but not all of them. Most notably he came up with the riff to “Celebrity Skin” and “Malibu” which would go on to be two of Hole’s biggest hits. When The Smashing Pumpkins held a 30 year anniversary show in 2018, Courtney was invited to play with them. They performed “Celebrity Skin” and “Malibu” together. Courtney had told the audience this night that when her and Billy had written Malibu, it was intended to be a song for Stevie Nicks, but she insisted that Billy had made the song so good she decided to keep it for herself. The only other songs Billy co-wrote on this album were Hit So Hard, Dying, and Petals. (Although “Kurt Truthers” would try to tell you otherwise.)

The album was much more clean cut and polished in comparison to Hole’s previous 2 albums. The album was a reflection of Courtney’s sobriety and newly found fame in Hollywood as an actress, and just over all, getting her life back together after the events of 1994. The album has been described as Courtney’s “love letter to Los Angeles.”

Photos by Les Guzman

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Kurt & Courtney at Kurt’s mother, Wendy O Connor’s house on a Sunday afternoon.

Aberdeen, Washington.

December 22nd, 1991.

Hole was scheduled to play a show at Portland Underground in Portland, Oregon this day, Opening for the Smashing Pumpkins. They dropped out of the lineup. This show would have been their last gig of 1991.

5 days later on December 27th, Nirvana joined RHCP on their BloodSugarSexMagik West Coast Tour.

Kurt’s mother Wendy O’Connor was very fond of Courtney, in 1995 she talked to People Magazine.

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“I adore her. She sacrificed a lot for Kurt, including her career almost. She was totally dedicated to helping him survive. She tried hard to be domesticated with Kurt. They truly loved each other.”

Hole performing at Madison Square Garden.

December 5th, 1994.

Z-100’s Acoustic Christmas. Benefit for Lifebeat & The American Suicide Foundation. New York City, New York.

Courtney came out, took off a pale blue coat that matched her dress, threw her guitar strap over her shoulder, and screamed “F*ck you!” to the audience and ripped into their first song of the night, ‘Plump’.

‘Violet’ was noticeably missing from the set list this night, they ended the show with ‘Doll Parts’.

Artists such as Weezer, Green Day, Bon Jovi, and Sheryl Crow also played this event.

At the after party, Courtney was described as “reflective” and was witnessed telling a friend that marrying Kurt was “Great because it got me away from my own dysfunctional family.” Evan Dando of the Lemonheads then tackled her near the buffet table, pulling her blouse down. They then ran off together.

Kurt & Courtney at Roppongi Prince Hotel in Tokyo.

February 19th, 1992.

Photos by Kenji Kubo.

"At that time a lot of Japanese photographers were not interested in Courtney Love but I was, her band Hole's first album was produced by Kim Gordon and I really liked Sonic Youth so for me she was important. So a lot of photographers did not want to take pictures of them together, they just wanted Kurt, but I thought they were so much in love, it is nice they are always together, it was very beautiful and they were very nice to me. Like a love story, after Japan, they went to Hawaii and got married." — Photographer Kenji Kubo on Courtney.