During her acceptance speech at the 2020 NME Awards, Courtney Love revealed to audiences that she was 18 months sober to the day. Wednesday’s ceremony in London saw Love receive the NME’s ‘Icon Award’, naming her as “one of the most influential singers in alternative culture of the last 30 years.”
Love used her unplanned acceptance speech to celebrate her sobriety, love for London, and to remind audiences that her accolade is well deserved. “I had the honour today of picking up this wonderful ‘Fuck You’ thing [waves award]… in the capital of this fantastic country, where I picked up a new musical express in 1981. I also am 18 months sober today and that’s pretty wild.”
After decades of a highly publicised struggle with substance abuse, Courtney Love has revealed at the NME Awards that she is 18 months sober.
2018 seemed to have opened up a new chapter for the Hole singer. Love’s struggles with substance abuse have been well documented in the media, most prominently with her appearance at the 1995 MTV VMA’s where she crashed an interview with Madonna.
Love was treated for an overdose of oxycontin back in 2003, and was ordered to rehab by a judge in 2005.
The singer married Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain in 1992, with both suffering from high-profile addictions to heroin. Cobain famously committed suicide in 1994. The couple’s daughter Frances Bean Cobain went public in 2018 with her own struggles with substance abuse, sharing on instagram that “it’s an everyday battle.”
This new chapter of Love’s life is in full swing, with the release of her new track Mother in November 2019 for the upcoming The Turning (2020) soundtrack. Last year, Love gained public support after declining oxycontin heiress Joss Sackler’s attempts to pay the recovering singer $100,000 to attend her New York Fashion Week show. “The Sackler family has no shame — I won’t sell out to them,” Love responded about the controversy.
