COURTNEY LOVE DENIES CORGAN CRUTCH Courtney Love fired off a letter to USA Today late last week, defending the musicianship of herself and her band-mates (guitarist Eric Erlandson, bassist Melissa Auf der Maur, and drummer Patty Schemel); Love denied that Smashing Pumpkins' leader Billy Corgan was extensively involved in putting together the new Hole record, which is now, more or less, officially called Celebrity Skin. Corgan recently told UK rock monthly Select: "'Yeah. I am the Svengali...." He added: "She encouraged me to write songs with and for them, so I did... There would not be a new Hole album without me.'' Love's response, which the national newspaper printed in its entirety, stated, ''Eric and I co-wrote five songs of the 12 on Celebrity Skin with Billy Corgan. Billy does not have a majority of publishing percentage on any one of those songs. (These percentage splits on these songs are registered through ASCAP. Obviously, 100% of the lyrics are mine, as always.) Billy did, however, spend quality time mentoring and teaching me a craft that I really needed to learn in order to make the record I wanted to make, much like a brilliant music teacher, and that was what was so invaluable to me. Eric already is a brilliant musician, so our collaboration with Billy yielded a joyful, magnificent contribution to a great record. I am incredibly grateful for Billy's skill. However, I, Melissa Auf der Maur, Patty Schemel, Eric Erlandson and (producer) Michael Beinhorn all worked ourselves to the bone to create this record and I feel it's silly and somewhat sexist to credit Billy Corgan with things Billy Corgan did not do based on the assumption that accomplished male musicians are somehow superior to accomplished female musicians, such as myself or Patty or Melissa, not to mention that Eric is possibly one of the greatest male guitarist of our generation or that Michael Beinhorn has produced some of the greatest rock records ever in this decade.'' Spokespersons for Corgan were unavailable at press time. Celebrity Skin is slated for a September release. - SPINonline, June 23, 1998 - - - - - - - - - - - - -