“If you lined up Jimmy Page, Jonny Greenwood, and Will Sergeant, I’d pick Sergeant every time”: Courtney Love on why Echo & the Bunnymen's Will Sergeant is her “favorite guitarist on Earth”

Grunge superstar Courtney Love has been busy. In addition to releasing her own rendition of Tim Buckley’s Song to the Siren with 070 Shake, reuniting with Hole's Melissa Auf der Maur in the studio, and auctioning the handwritten lyrics to the band's 1994 classic Violet, Love has also found time to work on a solo album – her first since 2004’s America’s Sweetheart – featuring Echo & the Bunnymen’s Will Sergeant.

“Will Sergeant, my favorite guitarist on earth, from my favorite band agreed to work with me!” Love tells UK newspaper, The Standard [the piece misspells Sergeant’s name].

070 Shake, Courtney Love - Song To The Siren (Visualizer) - YouTube

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“My goodness, when he returned from LA for our first song together, I nearly fainted – he's such an icon! If you lined up Jimmy Page, Jonny Greenwood, and Will Sergeant, I’d pick Sergeant every time; it's insane! He’s on this album and elevating songs beyond description.”

Love asserts that while the new wave guitar icon is “not much of a talker,” her producer, Butch Walker, and her management “are all literally fainting” because “he's next level.”

“Dreams do come true! Still Scouse AF. I think Scousers are my favorite Brits; he's a genius!” she quips.

And should we expect Love to play guitar on her upcoming album as well? While the Hole singer and guitarist hasn't yet confirmed this, she did mention in 2020 that she had picked up the guitar again.

“[I’ve] been taking guitar lessons over Zoom during lockdown and I’m writing again, so we’ll see!” she told NME.

“For a while, I actually did not pick up my guitar. I stopped having the kind of relationship that you need to have with the guitar to write good guitar songs. So, I came here [to the UK] to focus on writing my book and my record.”

Earlier this year, bassist Melissa Auf der Maur reflected on her career with Hole and her “real unspoken loyalty” to Love.