Love nets $50m in sale of Nirvana back catalogue

Courtney Love sold a 25% stake in Nirvana’s sought-after back catalogue for more than $50m, it was reported today.

Rolling Stone said the singer had inherited 98% of the group’s publishing rights when her frontman husband Kurt Cobain killed himself in 1994, and had now sold a quarter of her share to Larry Mestel, a former general manager of Virgin Records.

Love told the magazine she took on Mestel, now of Primary Wave Music Publishing, as “a strategic partner” because she found managing the estate “overwhelming“.

On Cobain’s death his former bandmates Krist Novoselic and Dave Grohl were left with part of the rest of the catalogue, which includes hits such as Smells Like Teen Spirit and Come As You Are, Rolling Stone said.

A source close to the deal said Mestel had probably paid more than $50m for the rights.

“The affairs of Nirvana are so massive and so huge, and they’ve all fallen on my lap,” Love told the magazine.

“I own almost all of (the publishing) … and it proved to be too much for me.

“I needed a partner to take Kurt Cobain’s songs and bring them into the future and into the next generation.”

But she reassured fans that although the deal would take Nirvana “places it’s never been before“, the way the music was used would remain “tasteful“.

“We’re going to (retain) the spirit of Nirvana,” Love said.

Mestel told the magazine: “My goal is to keep the music very true to who the songwriter was and what his passions and tastes would be, and to work through Courtney to figure out exactly the best way to go about exposing his music to a new youth culture to a new generation.”

He said the appeal of buying into the catalogue was Cobain’s status as “one of the most important songwriters of his time“.