Courtney Love bashes Guitar Hero on Twitter

(Credit: Twitter)

Actress-singer Courtney Love used Twitter to rail against what she claimed was the unauthorized use of Kurt Cobain's likeness in the video game Guitar Hero 5, going so far as to threaten a lawsuit.

But Activision, the maker of Guitar Hero, said the company is in possession of an agreement signed by Love that authorized it to create an avatar in the likeness of the former Nirvana front man. At this point who knows who is in the right. What is certain is that Love--widowed when Cobain shot himself in 1995--didn't present a convincing case by issuing meandering, disjointed, caustic, and barely readable Twitter posts.

Perhaps she came to the same conclusion. On Thursday evening, Love blocked public access to her Twitter account, courtneylover79.

(Credit: Activision)

Love's Twitter-tweak of Activision is a powerful endorsement for the need of celebrity publicists. In an age when a cell phone is all that is needed for stars to communicate with their fans, a carefully cultivated image can get shredded with a few ill-advised key strokes. Love's tweeting is an example of what can happen when someone famous, either out of anger, despair, or lunacy, addresses the Web without proper supervision.

"Have fun with your avatars you slimebags," the 45-year-old Love wrote in a Tweet posted early Thursday morning (most of the grammar and spelling is as it appeared in Love's posts). "i rant? F*** off i have proof youve simply never bothred to look. so f***ing play your videogame.

"we have NOTHING to do with this," she said in another post as she denied involvement with the Cobain avatar, "it was presented to me and oi said 'show me a better avataR' TO DRAG MY HEELS., never did i intend on allowing GUITARHERO for me or for Kurt i am NOT yoko f***ing Ono no ofense to her, but i am a different person entirely and this is insane."

Love later acknowledged that she did sign some sort of agreement with Activision.

"I signed whats known as a (deal) memo under great pressure and i was pleasnat to work with? HA i wouldnt show up i made them change all sorts of s***t, and even then i had no intention of doing his btw we get NO money for this, travesty, Frances (her and Cobain's daughter) gets NO money for the rape."

From reading Love's tweets, what appears to have happened is Activision went to Love for permission to use Cobain's likeness. When she saw that Cobain's avatar not only can be programmed to perform Nirvana's music but also the songs from Bon Jovi, Bush, and Madonna, she became dissatisfied. Her outrage also came after rock critics and Nirvana fans began holding her responsible for the alleged defiling of Cobain's memory.

Despite all her bluster, there may be little that Love can do to force Activision to make changes, said Mark Litvack, a well-known entertainment attorney at the law firm Reed Smith.

Litvack said that California law does indeed protect a deceased person's likeness. A California statute commonly referred to as the "Fred Astaire law," named after the legendary dancer and movie star whose likeness was used without permission following his death, says that anyone using another person's likeness for commercial purposes without consent from them or their estate "shall be liable for any damages sustained by the person or persons injured."

"But Activision would have known this," Litvack said. "It appears, she licensed her husband's likeness and the fact that she licensed them away was her decision. I get the sense that this is a case of sellers' remorse and as far as the law is concerned all she's left with is her remorse."

One way Love may benefit from her bizarre tweeting is that it's drawing attention to the Cobain avatar.

Anyone who has any knowledge of Cobain knows he took himself and his music very seriously and is unlikely to have allowed his likeness to be seen shimmying around on stage like some teen pop star or feigning the poses of a rap singer, which is what his avatar can be made to do on Guitar Hero 5.

Some may find the depiction to be disrespectful or at the very least not very authentic. That may do more to force Activision's hand than any Twitter bashing from Cobain's inarticulate wife.

[murph0613]

Sweet, so now we can draw attention to one of the worst guitarists of popular music history...I thought "Guitar Hero" was about people who were actually GOOD at guitar. I guess the truth is, garbage sells. Where are the Steve Vai, Steve Morse, Eric Clapton, etc, etc, etc, guitarist avatars? You know, the ones who actually shaped the way guitar is played? How about Les Paul?

[hankthedwarf]

Saying Kurt Cobain was a bad guitarist because he couldn't shred like EVH or Yngwie Malmsteen is like saying Bob Dylan is a 'bad' singer because he doesn't sound like Pavarotti.

Music is not about technique, it's about songwriting and the genuine emotion it evokes in a given listener. Any guitar tech at the local Sam Ash probably shreds better than Kurt could, but they also can't write a lick or have anything to say that anyone would want to lend 5 seconds of their day to.

[markosph]

Elvis couldn't play the guitar although he often held one...don't trash Cobain cause Ms Love, she is as bitter as they get.

I love Bob Dylan, his voice is so unique.

[johnnyzero]

Kurt Cobain *absolutely* shaped the way guitar is played, and influenced everything post-Nirvana. True musical artistry isn't simply a matter of technical skill and notes-per-second. It's more about creating evocative textures, timbres, and melody lines that serve the SONG. I'm sure that even your most revered guitar gods (certainly Jimi & Clapton) would wholeheartedly agree with this.

(btw: Kurt Cobain died in 1994, not 1995.)

[Bakkster]

Personally, I find it just as off-putting that Johnny Cash's avatar in the game does the same thing. Something about him dancing up on stage, clapping his hands above his head, and rapping to Public Enemy seems wrong.

At least Shirley Manson, Carlos Santana, and Matt Bellamy agreed to allow their own likeness to be used. Least we can do is respect those who have passed just a little bit.

[hankthedwarf]

If it's any consolation to fellow fans of early 90s rock, other than the hair and unplugged-era sweater, this animatronic prettyboy looks very little like Kurt. Actually, even the hair is off because it looks like it's professionally coiffed weavejob.

[calculatorwatch]

when you make the decision to follow courtney love on twitter, are you really looking for anything other than stupid, mostly incomprehensible freakouts? i mean what does she put on there that people would actually want to read other than her being crazy?

also, kurt cobain was a great guitarist, he just didn't have very much in the way of talent

i'm just glad i finally got to see kurt sing "you give love a bad name" haha
it's not that the avatar doesn't look like him, it's just that it claps it's hands above its head

[rickhigginshtbr]

I think that's the point of following her, you'll always know someone out there is crazier than you are. I'm amazed she's still allowed to speak in/to the public.

[HlLLARY CLITON]

shes opened up her Twitter account again

[microapple]

She locked and now unlocked her twitter. I agree with her 100%. This is sad.

[PhaseDMA]

Clearly she has some issues. Just about everyone would agree with that statement I suspect.

That being said it doesn't mean she isn't right which seems to be what Greg Sandoval is attempting to say.

This is why Rock Band gets my respect rather than GH. They don't screw up in such BIG details, they're considering that actual music fans might be potential clients and they might get either offended, or morbidly amused.

[Static-X-Machina]

LOL SHOT HIMSELF?
DOES ANYONE ELSE AGREE HE DIDN'T DO IT HIMSELF?
</caps>
I could really care less about the woman who DROVE him to his death!
Does anyone remember the time kurt overdosed on heroin (I know smart alek which time) right before a show? Ms Psycho decided to administer an illegally aquired syringe of narcan to wake him up from OD.
Not only that! When he was discovered at the time of death he had over 3 times the lethal dose of heroin in his system.
I don't know what you happen to believe but I believe dead men don't pick up shotguns and pull triggers.
Legally YES it was ruled a suicide.
This is also one of the biggest legal BLUNDERS of all time.
There was WAY too much evidence suggesting a murder.
I don't see why anyone is making such a big fuss over someone whose brain has been SHREDDED by her own abuse of drugs. She's probly got the mind of what, a 6 year old?
She locked her twitter and then reopened it after realizing "oh hey! I have the medias attention? let me be a little attention wh***"

[thelemurking]

There's an old Nirvana documentary post death in which they interview Love's father. He said that without a doubt that Courtney was behind his death. I mean it's pretty sad when your own dad believes you to be a murderer. He didn't believe Kurt killed himself, he believed Courtney did it. Now she has the rights to Nirvana and it's her own personal cash cow.

You could get her to sign anything for a few pills.

[calculatorwatch]

wow, i'm amazed even her own father said that, but yeah i don't think he killed himself. Obviously theres nothing anyone can do about it now and i'm about as far away from envious of her as it gets so i don't really care if she goes to jail. I do wish people would see that kurt wouldn't have done it though. And i wish they would've taken the kid away from her.

[Remo_Williams]

He's a public figure, his likeness doesn't -- or shouldn't -- have any protection whatsoever. Furthermore, having your likeness bundled into your estate is patently absurd. Trademark, copyright, and patent laws are all seriously in need of an overhaul.

[fcz1]

Courtney Love has a carefully cultivated image? My image of her was always as a crazed lunatic cashing in on her dead husband's fame. This incident just bolsters that image.

[pjscullion]

To Static-X-Machina: I'm right there with you. I've gone over all of the widely-available court docs and releases made public online and through magazines, etc. I'm still convinced it wasn't a suicide, but since the case was closed people are going to take everyone at their word. The investigator was a lying, evil person who screwed up a bunch of other cases during his time too (look it up!).

Public figures can be photographed and placed in derogative tabloid-trash 'zines with very little (read: no) consent by the "estate" of the person involved. Keep in mind, people, that video games are only relevant for about 10 years, tops. That's for a good franchise. People will remember that Kurt was in the game, but that's not the entire selling point of the game - the point is to make people feel like a rockstar without any of the effort involved in actually becoming a public figure. The game will fade into the "Guitar-Hero genre" and 10 years from now, when GH15.2 comes out, no one's going to think about Kurt being in GH way back then.

Courtney Love is completely off her rocker. She's too coked-out to be coherent in person, she refuses to make appearances sober, and to be honest I'm not sure she's capable of doing so. She hasn't spoken a coherent, intelligible sentence in years. She's losing fans and friends in droves because she's such an abrasive person that no one can stand to listen to her any more. It's sad to see someone who could have been a prominent music figure devolve into her current state.

[Blacksheep1982]

First of all, to the person who thinks Cobain was the "worst guitar player of all time" or whatever, you should note that Cobain knew how to play the guitar well, but what he said was that he wanted his songs to be simple with meaningful lyrics, this was a counter reaction to the self indulgent "look at me I can play the guitar!" 20 minute solos from the 1980s. Yes those people were technically good at playing the guitar, but all those unnecessary and over elaborate solos were becoming tiresome, boring and all to typical, as was the Motley Crue/David Lee Roth "yaaaahhhhh" singing style.

In comes Nirvana, playing, as Cobain said, simple songs, like the Beatles (argue with me about basic chord usage meaning talentless, hello Beatles, invented modern rock with 5 chords). Cobain's style wasn't about "hey look at me, I'm the greatest guitar player ever!!!1111" it was about making music real again, it sounded like it was live, he was pissed the hell off about everything, he didn't care what he looked like or what you thought he looked like, in fact he didn't even want you to listen to his music, he'd probably tell the first poster "good, f-off, go listen to whatever" lol. It was real, which is more than I can say for the pink spandex wearing, perm having, explosion enthusiast phonies of the preceding decade. And more importantly, his style, his singing, his anger, his discontent with the world and it's morons "I'm not like them, but I can pretend" spoke to a generation, my generation, in a way that "hot for teacher" or "Pour some sugar on me" and other stupid songs could not.

As for his avatar in the game, it should not be rapping or singing dumb pop songs. I think it would be ok if they made a Nirvana Rock Band, with only Nirvana songs, properly done like the Beatles version, which is excellent, but he shouldn't be dancing around like a moron in genres he despised.

[thelemurking]

Absolutely man! Well said!

[sparrowhyperion]

Lame Game......

[PixP]

Oh cry me a freak'n river Love.

[ledhead1962]

Courtney is one messed up chick. If she is as concerned about Curt's legacy and her daughter as much as she says she would come up for air once in awhile instead of wallowing in the sea of bitterness/self loathing and drug abuse she lives in. As for the rest of this, if she sold the rights to her departed husbands life to a company that is now raping his fans memories she has no one to blame but her own greed and stupidity (big business out for it's own ends, who'd of figured? Someone with past dealings in the music industry maybe. Nah). But when it's all said and done it's a video game, hardly the end of the artistic contribution Nirvana has made and maybe will cause some new fans to search out the real Curt.

[USDecliningDollar]

Who cares what Courtney Love has to say anyway?

[WhiskeyTester]

Coutney love is a useless, festering pile of heavily medicated freakout, and in my opinion, has no right to be in control of Kurt Cobain's likeness or anything having to do with him, for that matter. She is a useless, drunk, waste of existence, and the only reason she is making a drunken fuss is because she smells money that can support her drug habit.