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The Latest Breaking News from Melissa Auf der Maur

Girls in bands: two 90s rock icons on romance, ruthlessness and boring men

In the 1990s, Melissa Auf der Maur played bass in two of the decade’s most notable rock bands: Hole and Smashing Pumpkins.

The Conversation

Melissa Auf der Maur says Olivia Rodrigo crediting Hole’s influence to her daughter was a career‑defining moment

Melissa Auf der Maur says Olivia Rodrigo telling her daughter that Hole helped shape her music was one of the proudest moments of her life.

BANG Premier

"Olivia Rodrigo said to my daughter, Without your mother, none of this would have happened." Melissa Auf der Maur, one of the unsung heroes of '90s rock, is finally getting her flowers

New books, a photo exhibition, new music and book tours, Melissa Auf der Maur is thriving

Louder

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read the most diverse news in one place.

Courtney Love was 'angry' over Melissa Auf der Maur quitting Hole to join Smashing Pumpkins

Former Hole bassist Melissa Auf der Maur has recalled Courtney Love's reaction to her joining The Smashing Pumpkins.

BANG Premier

"By writing obsessively in my diary I was admitting, This is madness, you are in danger, be careful." Hole, Smashing Pumpkins bassist Melissa Auf der Maur on surviving the '90s, love, loss, and her brilliant memoir Even The Good Girls Will Cry

"There was a lot of pain from all the death and drugs and corporate destruction"

Louder

"I felt like an absurd grunge Cinderella, who’d found herself with VIP access to the ball." Melissa Auf der Maur's '90s rock memoir Even The Good Girls Will Cry is frank, fearless and fabulously revelatory

You won't read a better '90s music biography than former Hole / Smashing Pumpkins bassist Melissa Auf der Maur's new memoir

Louder

Five Great Reads: 90s bassists, at war with AI slop, and a secretly gay footballer’s extraordinary story

Guardian Australia’s weekend wrap of essential reads from the past seven days, selected by Kris Swales

The Guardian - AU

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Hole’s Melissa Auf der Maur: ‘Courtney Love is a maniac and a hero – and yes, you can be both’

INTERVIEW: The bassist for the rock band Hole has written a tender, dishy and wildly funny new memoir about her time in a group beset by tragedy and chaos. She speaks to Adam White about beauty, trauma, her inevitable romance with Nirvana’s Dave Grohl, and her determination to reframe Courtney…

The Independent UK

“Living in the shadow of my grunge parents, Courtney and Billy… it was a complex and exhausting shadow to come out from under”: Melissa Auf der Maur on joining Hole amidst tragedy and her “Master’s in Music” with the Smashing Pumpkins

In her love letter to the ’90s – the last analog decade – the Hole and Smashing Pumpkins bassist shares how she fell in love with the low-end and became an integral part of the noise-making generation

Guitar World

“Was Courtney impossible, difficult, a drug addict, terrifying, and even mean sometimes? Yes, she was. But it took me one second to understand that she was also a survivor”: Melissa Auf der Maur on her time in Hole and why she’s “proud” of Courtney Love

She has a memoir out this week

MusicRadar

‘I watched society burn a woman at the stake’: Melissa Auf der Maur on her bandmate Courtney Love and the farce of the 90s

Wary of working with Hole’s ‘impossible, drug addict’ lead singer, the bassist soon found herself entranced. So why did she jump ship for the Smashing Pumpkins – and start a relationship with Love’s enemy Dave Grohl?

The Guardian - UK

"I threw my guitar off, dove into the crowd, and began strangling him to the ground. I remember the look of terror in his eyes." The night that Smashing Pumpkins Billy Corgan met his future bandmate, and future Hole bassist, Melissa Auf der Maur

The night that fate brought two alt. rock icons together

Louder

“I threw my guitar off mid strum, dove into the crowd and began strangling him to the ground”: Billy Corgan on the first time he met future Smashing Pumpkins bassist Melissa Auf der Maur

The pair reflect on how a heckler at an early Pumpkins gig led to a decades-long friendship

Guitar World

“I was a good bass player, and I am proud of my Celebrity Skin work, but oh my God, it changed my level of musicianship forever”: Melissa Auf der Maur on what she learned from playing with Billy Corgan and The Smashing Pumpkins

Auf der Maur joined the Pumpkins in October 1999 following a five-year stint with Hole

Guitar World

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Louder

"So do we tell the kids about the tour?" Courtney Love and former Hole bandmate Melissa Auf Der Maur are reuniting

Get ready for half a Hole reunion, but not as Hole

The Independent UK

16 books to have on your radar in 2026

THE LIST: No guarantees, of course, but Annabel Nugent thinks these hot titles will be some of next year’s best

Guitar World

“The moment I discovered what it feels like to teach yourself a riff that you love, I was hooked. It feels like you're riding the universe”: Hole and Smashing Pumpkins' Melissa Auf der Maur reveals the bassists who compelled her to pick up the instrument

The ’90s bass icon pays homage to the other women in the scene at the time – and recalls how seeing them onstage was a total game-changer for her

Guitar World

“I apologize for the broken beer bottle that was thrown at him”: Melissa Auf der Maur surprises fans as she reunites with Billy Corgan to perform a Smashing Pumpkins classic

The bassist linked up with the alt-rock titans for the final song of the night in Montreal

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Evening Standard

Courtney Love: 'I may not love Taylor Swift musically, but her angry lyrics resonate with me'

Courtney Love tells us about her new collaboration with 070 Shake... and gives a few thoughts on Lamar, Taylor Swift, Billy Corgan, Lana Del Rey, PJ Harvey and more...

Guitar World

“With Courtney, it enhanced my commitment as a woman to keep on rocking”: Courtney Love and bassist Melissa Auf der Maur have reunited in the studio – what this means for a possible Hole reunion

Courtney Love teased a Hole reunion in February – is it finally happening?

Guitar World

“It's a disgrace to the bass player in me, but it's hard to write on the bass. Playing power chords on a guitar is much easier”: Melissa Auf der Maur looks back on a life in rock

As the bass player for Hole and Smashing Pumpkins Melissa Auf Der Maur helped define the sounds of alternative music in the 90s

Guitar World

"The Breeders, Hole, Sonic Youth, The Smashing Pumpkins all had female bass players. That was definitely an inspiration": When Melissa Auf Der Maur went solo

From the Archive: Melissa Auf Der Maur on gear, grunge and the fine art of going solo

The Guardian - AU

‘Kurt was not in a good way’: backstage on Nirvana’s first – and only - Australian tour

Promoter Stephen ‘Pav’ Pavlovic spent weeks on tour with bands like Nirvana and Hole in the 1990s. ‘I hoarded everything,’ he says – and a new exhibition reveals all

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