American singer-songwriter Courtney Love was BOTD in 1964. Born in San Francisco, California, she had an itinerant childhood, raised variously in Portland, Oregon, England, Ireland and rural New Zealand. Returning to California in her late teens, she began her professional career as an actress in Sid and Nancy and Straight to Hell. After brief stints in the band Babes in Toyland, she formed the rock group Hole in 1989, releasing their debut album Pretty on the Inside in 1991. Love developed a punk-rock influenced image of ripped baby doll dresses, smeared make-up (often referred to as “kinderwhore”), while her wildly unpredictable live performances drew comparisons with Patti Smith and PJ Harvey. Her relationship with Nirvana lead singer Kurt Cobain made her a tabloid star, and they became the First Couple of the emerging grunge movement. They married in 1992 and gave birth to a daughter, Frances Bean, briefly losing custody of Frances following concerns over their heroin use. Cobain committed suicide in 1993, days before the release of Hole’s second album Live Through This. Showcasing a corrosive punk rock sound with Love’s witty, corrosive lyrics, the album quickly became an immediate bestseller, bolstered by her celebrity and frequently unhinged public appearances. Hole’s released a successful third album, Celebrity Skin in 1998, before disbanding. Love returned to acting, earning critical praise for roles in The People vs Larry Flynt and Man On the Moon, and the lesbian romance Julie Johnson. In 2004, she launched her first solo album, America’s Sweetheart, which was nominated for three Grammy Awards. Her career was derailed by drug and alcohol addiction, frequent arrests and the eventual loss of custody of her daughter. She became a friend and confidante of trans writer J.T. LeRoy, resulting in public humiliation when LeRoy was unmasked as the creation of writer Laura Albert and actor Savannah Knoop. Recordings of Love’s phone conversations with Albert featured prominently in the 2016 documentary Author: The JT LeRoy Story, in which Love is heard saying “There’s a small line of coke here and I don’t want to put you on hold.” Undeterred, Love appeared in the 2018 biopic J.T. LeRoy. In recent years, she made regular appearances in TV drama series Sons of Anarchy and Empire. Love was in high-profile relationships with musicians Scott Weiland, Trent Reznor, Billy Corgan, Jim Barber, Jesse Camp, Gavin Rossdale and her Larry Flynt co-star Edward Norton. Long hailed as a queer icon, she also admitted to a brief affair with model Kate Moss in the 1990s. Her memoir The Girl with the Most Cake was released in 2022. Now considered one of the most influential female singers of all time, she has inspired artists including Gwen Stefani, Tori Amos, Lana Del Rey and Miley Cyrus.