Kurt Cobain's Guitar Hero Character Causes A Flap

09/11/09 11:20am

by Kate Harper (CHARTattack)

Courtney Love and surviving Nirvana members Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic aren't particularly happy that Activision has decided to include a Kurt Cobain character in the upcoming Guitar Hero 5 video game.

Love threatened legal action over the character on her Twitter account on Thursday, saying she didn't approve it.

"i think Kurt would despise this game alone let alone this avatar," she wrote.

She then continued to rant for an hour before writing, "disgusted? welcome to my NIGHTMARE. yell well sue activision this is disgusting."

"we have NOTHING to do with this it was presented to me and oi said 'show me a better avataR" TO DRAG MY HEELS., never did i intend on allowing GUITAR HERO for me or for Kurt i am NOT yoko fucking Ono no offense to her but i am a different person entirely and this is insane."

Activision replied to Love's comments later on Thursday with this statement:

"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."

But Grohl and Novoselic released a joint statement on Thursday that said they were "dismayed and very disappointed" that Cobain's avatar could be "unlocked" and used to play other musicians' songs.

"While we were aware of Kurt's image being used with two Nirvana songs ["Smells Like Teen Spirit" and "Lithium"], we didn't know players have the ability to unlock the character," the statement reads, according to the Associated Press. "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."

Guitar Hero 5 also includes avatars of Carlos Santana, Johnny Cash and Garbage's Shirley Manson. Guitar Hero 5 came out Sept. 1.