Letters to Kurt
Erlandson is known as the cofounder, songwriter, and lead guitarist of the rock band Hole, but he has performed in the shadows of his more famous, and infamous, colleagues and friends, especially Kurt Cobain, the iconic lead singer of the premier grunge band, Nirvana, who committed suicide at the height of his fame, and Courtney Love, Erlandson’s former girlfriend and Hole bandmate. As it turns out, Hole released their debut album, Pretty on the Inside, a week before the release of Nirvana’s behemoth best-seller Nevermind. Within a month, notes Erlandson, Love and Cobain were a couple. From then on, Erlandson assumed “a sort of friend/caretaker role,” serving as both Cobain’s sounding board and morale booster even as he felt pangs of “subconscious jealousy.” In addition to Cobain, other friends and associates of Erlandson’s self-destructed during a relatively short period of time. Erlandson finally comes to terms with his loss in 52 prose-poem letters ostensibly addressed to Cobain, in which he straightforwardly confronts his inner demons while offering personal reflections on food, drug abuse, death, and self-sabotage. --June Sawyers