Courtney Love on Springsteen: ‘Saxophones Don’t Belong in Rock & Roll’

Less than a week after Courtney Love helped celebrate the induction of her late husband’s band, Nirvana, at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, the singer has posted a YouTube video as part of her “Love on Love” series, offering up her opinions on another Hall of Fame inductee: Bruce Springsteen. “I like Nebraska,” she said, referring to Springsteen’s 1982 album featuring only himself performing, while shrugging in a, “What do you want me to say?” kind of way. “And whenever I say that to a Springsteen person, they look at me funny.”

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“With Springsteen, I just. . .” she said, pausing to look out a car window. “And I really like him. He’s a nice guy. Cameron Crowe, an old, very dear friend of mine, took me to the Staples Center for a three-night gig, and I could only last an hour and a half in a three-and-a-half hour show with the Boss.”

Her only rationale for why she did not like Springsteen had to do with the instrumentation of the E Street Band, as well as an overarching theory of hers. “My Springsteen problem is just that saxophones don’t belong in rock & roll,” she said. “They just don’t belong.” The video then cuts to a shot of late–E Street Band saxophonist Clarence Clemons with Springsteen as a skronky sax sound is heard in the background.

The video ends with Love shrugging off whatever Springsteen may think of her music. “I don’t think he sits around listening to Hole records, do you?” she asks. Then she recites the verses from the title track of Hole’s 1991 album Pretty on the Inside.

Despite her predictions, the Nirvana induction was not “awkward.” She was able to set aside whatever differences she has had with Dave Grohl long enough to stand on the same stage as him for their acceptance speeches. “This is my family I’m looking at right now — all of you,” she said, calling the Foo Fighters leader “Mr. Grohl” and hugging him. “I just wish that Kurt was here to feel this and be this.”