Courtney Love is moving to New York City. At least that’s what she told us in the bathroom last night. At the premiere for It Might Get Loud — the new Davis Guggenheim documentary about Edge, Jack White, and Jimmy Page — Love pulled us into the Sunshine Cinema ladies’ room for a cigarette and confessed her cross-country moving plans. (We did, for the record, voice our objections to being taken into the wrong-gendered restroom, and also to her smoking indoors, but Love scoffed, “Who’s gonna stop me?” Certainly not us!) Possibly because she’s moving to New York, she also squashed her Twitter beef with Taylor Momsen: “Somebody fucking — I would never Twit that … I would never pick on a child. That’s stupid. I’ve been around for a long time, and I don’t own blonde hair.” The complete transcript of Vulture’s bathroom summit with Courtney is after the jump.
Hi, we’re with New York Magazine.
Hey, come to the bathroom for a cigarette.
Okay, we’re not sure we can come into the ladies’ room.
Why? Who’s gonna stop me? There’s no women even in the fucking audience, so there will be no women in here. There’s only, like, Anna Sui.
[Literally pulls us into the bathroom and lights a cigarette. There are, in fact, no other women in there.]
New York Magazine’s always mean to me, why are you fucking talking to me? New York Magazine is nasty to me.
How are we mean to you?
I don’t know. I don’t Google myself every day, so I don’t read it. But my publicist said New York magazine is someone I should never, ever talk to.
Okay, well, sorry to make you break that rule. So, are you enjoying the film?
Oh, God, yeah. It’s fucking great. It’s just insanely intimidating. The five days I worked on October [the U2 album] were the days that Edge was doing his guitar sounds. And then I got fired.
For what?
Girl stuff! Steve Lillywhite’s wife — may she rest in peace — she didn’t want me there. Well, anyway, I saw Echo & the Bunnymen last night and that riff, that riff for “I Will Follow” and then the riff for “Rescue,” which [E&tB guitarist] Will Sergeant taught me. So I saw that yesterday. I went to hear “I Will Follow,” which I wasn’t sat down and taught at that time in 1982 or ‘83, ‘cause I was 14. It’s like, fucking, this whole other side of rock or something. And that, and Page, and David [Edge], and White were so, so insane.
Did you get emotional at the show last night?
Yeah, of course! I get very emotional. I’ve seen music for the last three days. I watched Billie Joe [Armstrong] the other night doing three and a half hours and then three hours at Madison Square Garden, and then have a cigarette, which pissed me off. So I’ve been talking to him every night — like, he’s my new BFF. Billie Joe Armstrong is my new BFF. It’s awesome. Nobody gets him. Like, he’s a very peculiar person and I’m really very meat-and-potatoes, way more than people think. So, we sort of negate each other’s … what other people perceive of us. And I played Madison Square Garden with Green Day many years ago, but it was a radio show. But this was on their own steam. I was getting major, like, chiropractic adjustments, like “Uh! Uh!” I mean it’s very simplistic power pop, but both of us are power-pop people. We had this — about three months ago — power-pop face-off on our iTunes and I fucking won. He started with Rhino, “Massachusetts,” Liars. And I started very basic with [indecipherable], but that’s just so obvious. Then his next move was — what was it? Anyway, then I went to Alex Chilton, the Replacements, “A Million Miles Away,” and then he did “Shake Some Action,” then I fucking [played] “Please Go All the Way.” Yeah, oh yeah. And that was it, it was awesome.
Have you been hanging out with him in New York?
No, we’ve just been talking on the phone every night.
Is it romantic?
No! His wife, Adrienne, is a friend of mine. His son Joey is 16, and my daughter’s 16, so they’re friends. No, I don’t do the musician thing anymore, no way.
Not at all?
No, ‘cause I am one, so just friends. Like I found this girl who is awesome and she’s in this band called Dead Sara, so I’m going to have her sing on this record and my manager said, “There’s no market until your record comes out.” It’s fucked up but it’s sort of weirdly genius ‘cause it’s like, “Wow, nobody does my job but me.” It’s so weird.
What’s your new stuff going to sound like?
It’s really epic; very, very, big. It’s like giant black pyramids. Almost “Diamond Dogs.” What I would want, obviously it’s not what it is, is side two of The Wall on 180-gram vinyl — the good side of The Wall.
Can we get a picture?
Only if you’re in it.
You can kind of see us in the mirror. [See more photos on the Cut’s Twitter feed.]
What’s your opinion on leather pants? [She sits in the sink, stretching out her leather-pants-clad legs.]
They look good on you. Not everyone can get away with them, though.
Well, I’m not so sure I’m getting away with it.
You already changed out of your dress.
Yeah, but that’s ‘cause it’s Givenchy and I have to do the fashion thing, too, ‘cause I’m a chick. So, I have to.
But you don’t really want to?
No, I do. Because I’m preparing for a face-off in the Hamptons, where I’ve never been. So I get to wear this couture dress; it’s awesome, it looks like a giant tampon, it’s all red.
What did you do with the Givenchy dress?
Oh, I put it in my big, American Apparel, fourteen-dollar bag.
So what’s with the Taylor Momsen Twitter feud?
Oh, I would NEVER pick on a little girl! No, no, no. Somebody fucking — I would never Twit THAT. It didn’t make sense to me. Somebody took my picture down as well. I would never pick on a child. That’s stupid. I’ve been around for a long time and she can fucking — I don’t own blonde hair. But I will say that there’s some sister-pop Perez Hilton-y duo [the Veronicas] and what they did is … I personally Twittered them, about these four dresses from a vendor on Etsy, who had stolen some dresses from me. And I asked them to not physically wear these physical dresses. That’s totally different. And they made those private Twits public. And it made the Australian national news, someone told me. I was like, “What? Over a dress?” That’s retarded. Like, if it’s a million-dollar dress, like my tampon dress, that’s a different story. [Puts the cigarette out in the sink.]
What’s your name, kid?
Mike. So if you’re cool with Taylor Momsen, are you a Gossip Girl fan?
I’ve never seen it. It strikes me as stuff about the Upper East Side that I wouldn’t want my daughter to be around. She watches it, I think. I mean, I think. She’s familiar with aspects of it.
What are you doing in New York?
Oh, I’m moving here! I am moving here! That’s what I’m doing here. That’s what we’re doing. I’m just getting my daughter into a school here and then we’re recording.
What neighborhood are you moving to?
Aha! What neighborhood do you think?
Somewhere in the Village?
Aha! [She leaves the bathroom.]
