Rumors of a full Hole reunion are, apparently, slightly exaggerated. After Courtney Love appeared to tease news of getting her 1990s grunge pop band together for their first performance since a one-off gig in 2012 in a cryptic post on Tuesday (March 3), the frontwoman clarified things on Thursday (March 5).
Popping the speculative balloon, Love explained that the “Malibu” band that has been on hiatus since 2002 is not getting pulled out of mothballs after all, but that she is planning some shows with former bassist Melissa Auf der Maur. The update came in the form of Love commenting in a SPIN magazine Instagram post about the news, in which she wrote “no Hole reunion.”
She did, however, say that she and Auf der Maur, who joined Hole in 1994 before splitting in 1999, would be performing together and playing “some shows, new songs.” Love also added a new comment to the original post that set off the speculation, writing, “Not a reunion baby. Me and @xmadmx [Auf der Maur] touring new songs,” adding that the dates have not been cemented yet.
Fans got amped up earlier this week when Love posted a series of videos of Auf der Maur on her Instagram feed on Tuesday, sparking speculation about a possible reunion. The post, soundtracked by the band’s 1998 Billboard Hot 100 No. 85 hit “Celebrity Skin,” featured a series of videos of photographer/author/bassist Auf der Maur and the message, “So do we tell the kids about the tour @xmadmx?”
Auf der Maur responded “it starts with eternal love ….” Not long after the initial tease, Love added a vintage picture of herself with Auf der Maur and former guitarist Eric Erlandson taken at Los Angeles’ iconic Chateau Marmont hotel just a few months before the release of 1998’s sun-kissed, Grammy-nominated Celebrity Skin album.
Both Love and Auf der Maur have new projects to promote, with Love’s life story coming to the screen in the upcoming raw documentary Antiheroine (release date TBD), which premiered at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. Auf der Maur’s rock memoir, Even the Good Girls Will Cry, is out on March 17. Love rejoined Instagram in January after several years away and later that month she posted a photo of her and Auf der Maur enjoying a cup of tea at the Chateau, which first sparked rumors of a possible Hole return.
Auf der Maur and Love last appeared together to play some Hole songs in 2018 during a tribute to Love at the Basilica Hudson, the upstate New York venue that Auf der Maur runs with her husband, filmmaker Tony Stone.
Love has flip-flopped about reuniting the band over the years, telling Vogue in 2021 that it was “just not gonna happen,” and then appearing to change her mind three years later in 2024 when she performed in London with Billy Joe Armstrong’s cover band the Coverups in London, where she told the crowd, “Later, I’ll be back in Hole.”
At press time no additional information was available about the dates and a spokesperson for Love had not returned Billboard‘s request for comment.
