Courtney Love on selling Nirvana rights: I needed the money

Kurt Cobain's widow, Courtney Love, was forced to sell a share of Nirvana's publishing rights after finding herself penniless.

The 41-year-old sold 25 percent of the rights to Larry Mestel of Primary Wave Music Publishing, but insists decisions concerning her late husband's music still lie with her.

Love -- who has a 13-year-old daughter Frances Bean with Cobain, who died in 1994 -- says, "Basically I needed the money. Frances was really, really confused about why her dad's on every radio station in the world and why her mom sells a few records herself, and why we didn't have enough money, really, for groceries.

"It's very hard to be very, very famous and be that broke. So I sold off a little bit of what I've got and kept the majority of it.

"(Mestel) doesn't get to decide anything, it's not like all of a sudden there's going to be some big shift in like, y'know, crap ads or something."

Love also insists the remaining Nirvana members Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic have no claim on the publishing rights themselves.

She adds, "They don't have anything to do with it. ... Krist and Dave didn't write the songs, they didn't inherit anything, that's the way it goes. Tough [bleep]. What do you want me to say?"

sfgate