Courtney Love Finds Buyer for Nirvana Catalogue

Troubled rocker Courtney Love has sold a 25 percent share of the Nirvana back catalogue to music mogul Larry Mestel for an undisclosed sum.

Mestel, of Primary Wave Music Publishing, is now working as a "strategic partner" with Love, the widow of late Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain.

The former Hole frontwoman currently receives a substantial amount in royalty payments from airplay and sales of Nirvana songs -- including smash hits "Smells Like Teen Spirit" and "Come As You Are" -- after acquiring the rights following Cobain's suicide in 1994.

But she has been finding it increasingly hard to manage the business alone.

She explains, "I took on a strategic partner, Larry Mestel, to help me co-manage the estate because it was overwhelming.

"The affairs of Nirvana are so massive and so huge, and they've all fallen on my lap. I own almost all of (the publishing) and it proved to be too much for me.

"I needed a partner to take Kurt Cobain's songs and bring them into the future and into the next generation. And this guy's the guy to do it."

sfgate