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1992 in nyc.

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10 January 1992 // Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love // Nirvana & Hole

East Village NYC

Photos by Dora Handel

30 years ago today Kurt and Courtney were in town for Nirvana's first Saturday Night Live performance. They were newly engaged and Courtney is pregnant with Frances Bean here though probably doesn't know it yet. They were interviewed by Christina Kelly for the April 1992 edition of Sassy Magazine:

" The lead singer of Nirvana and the lead singer of Hole are getting married. They're buying a Victorian house in Seattle and want to have a baby. It is so nice to see a multiplatinum rock star in love with an opinionated, feminist, ambitious rocker, not some supermodel in a boob tray.

Courtney’s in this cool black midi-dress, a fuzzy old sweater and brown vintage pumps. She keeps playing with her bleached hair, covering her face with it and making it stand up and stuff. Courtney says she’s 24, but I think she could be older. She’s not classically pretty, but she wears her offbeat looks well. Kurt, who probably really is 24, is very cute, with incredibly blue eyes, which are set off nicely by his pink-streaked hair. However, he is so skinny that I would like to force-feed him a solid meal. He’s wearing disintegrating jeans and a cardigan over an ancient Flipper (the band, not the TV show) T-shirt. His black sneakers have holes in them. "He’s got the number-one record," says Courtney, in her scratchy voice, "and he only has one pair of shoes."

Kurt has a very sweet way about him, almost shy. He’ll sit there and not talk, but not in a hostile way - besides, it’s hard for anyone, even me, to get a word in edgewise with the loquacious Miss Courtney.

And then I met him at a show about a year or something ago." "Butthole Surfers," says Kurt. "And L7," adds Courtney.

The turning point for the relationship was last September. Courtney was meeting with a record company exec. ‘He said to me, ‘What do you want? I can make you a big star,’" says Courtney, whose band is based in LA. "And I said, ‘I want to see Nirvana in Chicago.’ So he got on the phone and spent, like, $1,000 and bought me a ticket and I went. And that is when we got together."

"The other day I was driving around in LA 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 are alternative. 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." Kurt says.

We go outside for some photos. They sit on the sidewalk and Courtney kisses Kurt, smearing lipstick on his face. It’s looking very Sid and Nancy."

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