Courtney Love, Former Nirvana Members Attack Kurt Cobain’s ‘Guitar Hero 5’ Appearance

 
 
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  • Kurt Cobain with wife Courtney Love and daughter Frances Bean in 1993 at the 10th Annual MTV Video Music Awards
  • Courtney Love attends the Elle Style Awards 2009 held at Big Sky Studios, Caledonian Road on February 9, 2009 in London
  • Courtney Love arrives at the 2009 Elle Style Awards on February 9, 2009 in London, England
  • Dave Grohl, Kurt Cobain and Krist Novoselic of Nirvana, 1992

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  • WireImage

    Kurt Cobain with wife Courtney Love and daughter Frances Bean in 1993 at the 10th Annual MTV Video Music Awards

  • Getty Images

    Courtney Love attends the Elle Style Awards 2009 held at Big Sky Studios, Caledonian Road on February 9, 2009 in London

  • Getty Images

    Courtney Love arrives at the 2009 Elle Style Awards on February 9, 2009 in London, England

  • WireImage

    Dave Grohl, Kurt Cobain and Krist Novoselic of Nirvana, 1992

 
 

FIRST PUBLISHED: September 11, 2009 2:29 PM EDT
LAST UPDATED: September 11, 2009 3:14 PM EDT

LOS ANGELES, Calif. --

The fifth installment in the popular “Guitar Hero” video game franchise was released on September 1, but not everyone’s a fan.

Courtney Love, the widow of Kurt Cobain, has lashed out against game maker Activision after it became evident that the late Nirvana frontman’s likeness was unlockable as a playable avatar in the game.

“For the record this Guitar Hero s--t is breach of contract on a Bullys part and there will be a proper addressing of this and retraction,” Courtney wrote on her Twitter page. “WE are going to sue the s--t out of ACtivision we being the Trust the Estate the LLC the various LLCs Cobain Enterprises.”

And Cobain’s Nirvana bandmates, Dave Grohl and Krist Novolesic, who confirmed they have no say in the use of the late musician’s likeness, released a joint statement on Thursday criticizing the game.

“We want people to know that we are dismayed and very disappointed in the way a facsimile of Kurt is used in the Guitar Hero game. The name and likeness of Kurt Cobain are the sole property of his estate — we have no control whatsoever in that area,” they said in a statement released to Access Hollywood. “While we were aware of Kurt’s image being used with two Nirvana songs, we didn’t know players have the ability to unlock the character. This feature allows the character to be used with any kind of song the player wants. We urge Activision to do the right thing in ‘re-locking’ Kurt’s character so that this won’t continue in the future.

”It’s hard to watch an image of Kurt pantomiming other artists’ music alongside cartoon characters,” their statement continued. “Kurt Cobain wrote songs that hold a lot of meaning to people all over the world. We feel he deserves better.”

However, following these criticisms, the company defended itself in a statement to Access.

“Guitar Hero secured the necessary licensing rights from the Cobain estate in a written agreement signed by Courtney Love to use Kurt Cobain’s likeness as a fully playable character in Guitar Hero® 5,” the company said in the statement, to which Courtney responded on her Twitter page.

“Activision has made thier press release, we shall make ours and we shall seek acyive damages against these f***ers,” she Tweeted.

Copyright 2009 by NBC Universal, Inc. All rights reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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