Melissa Auf der Maur said Courtney Love definitely jumped the gun last summer when she said the Montreal bassist would be part of any revived Hole project.
“She said I was in the studio singing on what was, by the way, her solo record (Nobody’s Daughter) at the time,” Auf der Maur told QMI Agency while in Toronto at Canadian Music Week to promote her second solo album, Out of Our Minds, which includes a short film and comic book.
Auf der Maur, who played bass in both Smashing Pumpkins and Hole during the ‘90s, did confirm she was approached by Love to sing on the record but didn’t due to her own busy schedule.
She said whether there was ever an offer to tour was unclear.
“But she knows I was busy,” saud Auf der Maur. “She’s been exploring other ways that we can work together, let’s put it that way. But I did say that I think a reformation of Hole is slightly confusing, but it’s her choice.” Hole, without fellow founding member Eric Erlandson, has already played some British TV shows and has March-April dates in North America and May dates in Europe, not to mention the April 26/27 release of Nobody’s Daughter.
Erlandson has stated in SPIN magazine that contractually no Hole reunion can take place without his involvement, but Love has claimed that Hole is her trademark. The two announced the breakup of Hole together in an online statement in 2002.
For the record, Auf der Maur said she approves of Love’s re-emergence as a music artist in general.
“I think it’s very important she come out again musically and perform, the lady’s got more fire inside than most people on the planet, and she should be on stage and she should be making records, no doubt.”
YUKS AND SONGS: One of the more entertaining and funny sessions to come out of Canadian Music Week was the Kings of Songwriting session on Saturday.
All seated in a row up on stage, Paul Williams (The Rainbow Connection, We’ve Only Just Begun, Evergreen), the Eurythmics Dave Stewart with Canadian protege Cindy Gomez (Sweet Dreams, Here Comes The Rain Again, Taking Chances, Ordinary Miracle), Dan Hill (I Am My Father’s Son, Sometimes When We Touch), and Nashville-based Bob Schlitz (The Gambler, When You Say Nothing At All) - took turns singing those songs and explaining their genesis.
But mainly they got off some great one-liners.
Stewart said he and Eurythmics singer Annie Lennox lived together for about four to five years and only wrote a bad instrumental: “But then we broke up and we wrote 250 songs about it.” Don Schlitz, a big, burly, bearded man, said: “If I’d known someday I’d be up here with this amount of talent surrounding me, I would have taken better care of myself.” Williams, who's now been sober for 20 years, recalled being only seven months on the wagon in Jamaica in 1987 when a waiter came by with a rum and coke.
“So at two o’ clock in the afternoon in Ocho Rios, I had one rum and coke, at 2 o’clock in the morning, I was at Bob Marley’s grave explaining reggae to a lot of black people I didn’t know,” he joked.
Williams also delighted the crowd by ending the session with The Love Boat Theme.
“This is the song that put my kids through private school,” he said.
jane.stevenson@sunmedia.ca
