Courtney Love to auction handwritten lyrics to Hole’s ‘Violet’ for charity: “It’s not just about Billy Corgan”

nme.com:

Courtney Love is preparing to auction her handwritten lyrics to Hole’s ‘Violet’ for charity, and has told NME the song is “not just about Billy Corgan”.The song was the opening track to the band’s second album ‘Live Through This’ in 1994, and was written by Love three years earlier during Hole’s tour ahead of the release of their 1991 debut album ‘Pretty On The Inside’.Now, Love has donated the original handwritten pages of lyrics for the song to an auction for a fundraiser by the wildlife sanctuary Ellis Park, which is running until December 15.

All proceeds will go to the charity, which is dedicated to caring for rescued animals in Sumatra. You can see the lyrics pages below and bid for them here.The song has long been thought to have been written about The Smashing Pumpkins frontman Corgan, with whom Love was in a relationship in 1990.

However, Love has exclusively told NME that there is more to the inspiration for the song than that.“It’s not just about Billy Corgan, as many might assume; it’s about sitting on the fire escape of his flat, sipping cheap wine and taking a Vicodin (oh, to be young!) while the Chicago sun sets, leaving behind a bejewelled amethyst sky,” she explained.“Sometimes I just channel whatever comes.

I realise my comment on Jools Holland was a bit mean – I was just being bitchy beefy. But someone has to uphold the standards of good faith beef!”Love is referencing comments made on Later…with Jools Holland in 1995, when she said ‘Violet’ was “a song about a jerk, I hexed him and now he’s losing his hair”.Continuing about the song, Love added: “It is somewhat influenced by Pope and Brontë.