Courtney Love Says She ‘Almost Died’ in 2019

Courtney Love has told fans that her long-awaited new album is complete, while opening up about a health scare that she says nearly killed her after moving from Los Angeles to London in 2019.

In a video posted to Instagram, the Hole frontwoman said she was stepping back from social media for a few weeks and addressed persistent questions about her next record. “A lot of you are asking where my record is at. It’s done. It’s kind of been done,” she said. “It’s a really good record. I put a lot into it.”

Love went on to describe the illness that followed her relocation to London. Without specifying a diagnosis, she said her body “exploded” and that she was frequently hospitalized. She has spoken before about serious health struggles, revealing in 2021 that she had nearly died the previous year while hospitalized for anemia, during which she said she was “stigmatized for being an addict” by doctors.

She closed the video reflecting on Hole’s most recent album, 2010’s Nobody’s Daughter, and its commercial disappointment. “Spectacularly humbling,” she said, recalling playing a festival slot at 11 a.m. while Limp Bizkit and 30 Seconds to Mars headlined. Looking ahead, she praised the current state of music: “People sound great live. The girlies are amazing.” She added: “I will be back.”

One of the defining figures of 1990s alternative rock, Love formed Hole in Los Angeles in 1989. The band’s 1994 album Live Through This — released days after the death of her husband, Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain — became a landmark of the era, and its 1998 follow-up Celebrity Skin became the band’s highest-charting release, debuting at No. 9 on the Billboard 200 and earning four Grammy nominations. Its title track spent time atop Billboard’s Modern Rock Tracks chart.

Hole disbanded in 2002; Love has released one solo album, 2004’s America’s Sweetheart, and the band briefly reformed with a new lineup for 2010’s Nobody’s Daughter, which reached No. 15 on the Billboard 200.