Hole frontwoman Courtney Love no longer thinks that a Hole reunion is going to happen. Although they played a comeback show in 2012 and some members have been rehearsing together since then, Love says that they won’t do it without guitarist Eric Erlandson.
Erlandson, 1993-1998 drummer Patty Schemel and 1994-1999 bassist Melissa Auf der Maur were last seen rehearsing together with Love in 2014, and “the girls” announced that they were “serving up a Hole lot of something, maybe” in 2016, but nothing new has come out.
Love told The Guardian in 2019 that they were still “definitely talking about” reunion, adding “There’s nothing wrong with honoring your past.” Love and Auf der Maur had been planning to perform at a Planned Parenthood benefit concert that was canceled due to COVID-19. When the three girls were seen rehearsing together again in 2020, Love responded to NME’s question about a reunion, “It’s something I’d love to do and I’ve been taking guitar lessons over Zoom during lockdown and I’m writing again so we’ll see!”
Now, in an interview with Vogue that was published today, June 2, Love explained why she thinks that there will never be a Hole reunion. “We’re all really good friends, and Melissa and I are especially close — we talk every day,” She stated. “But Eric is kinda off the grid right now — I think he’s in Japan literally becoming a monk. I’m not even kidding. Melissa, Patty, and I think he’s become a monk or something on that level of asceticism.”
So as for whether there will be a reunion, “No, absolutely not.” She tells Vogue, “And you guys have gotta get over it. Our old manager Peter Mensch calls once a year to ask about a reunion: ‘Hey, just doing my thing I do every year with you and Jimmy Page.’ And I’m so honored to be in that company, but it’s just not gonna happen.”
Although Erlandson reportedly ‘becoming a monk’ is the leading reason she gave for a reunion never happening, she mentioned that she seriously practices Buddhism herself. She states, “My spirituality is everything. It’s called Soka Gakkai, or SGI, and it’s the same practice as Tina Turner and Orlando [Bloom].” She claims, “The interference and distractions of what I’m calling celebrity—but are actually just noise and fillers and lawsuits—don’t exist anymore. I wake up happy every day now, and I don’t think happy is a setting you guys have seen me in for a while. But you’re just gonna have to learn to deal with it!”
Love also denied the possibility of a solo tour as well. “I love playing festivals, but I don’t know about touring,” she commented. “I don’t look forward to ever having to play the Ventura Theater again with a plate of cold cuts backstage. Life’s too short, and I’m not doing that bullshit anymore. That was actually the night I swore off touring [Love last played the Ventura in 2015]. I just said, ‘Nope! No more small theaters, no more cold cuts. Not doing it.’”
She shared her first song since 2015 in 2019, called “Mother,” from the soundtrack for The Turning. Although she has continued sporadically releasing singles, her last full-length album was 2004’s America’s Sweetheart. Schemel was also in a band called Juliette & The Licks in the 2000s, and she’s been playing with a band called Upset more recently. Auf de Maur has had a solid solo career, but she’s been a bit quieter lately publicly.
Photo credit: Boston Lynn Schulz
Leave a Comment