Evan Dando Says Kurt Cobain Believed He Was Having An Affair With Courtney Love

Evan Dando has reopened one of grunge’s most persistent and uncomfortable rumours, claiming that Kurt Cobain believed Dando was having an affair with Courtney Love right up until his death in 1994.

Speaking in a new interview with NME, the Lemonheads frontman addressed allegations that Love told Cobain she was sleeping with Dando while Hole and the Lemonheads toured together in 1993, according to Dando, the optics were damaging, even if the reality never matched the narrative.

“She was treating me like her boyfriend, and she was on me the whole time, where it looked like we were doing something,” Dando said.

The story is also explored in Dando’s recently released autobiography, Rumors of My Demise, where he firmly denies any affair took place, despite that, he claims Cobain never stopped believing otherwise.

Spiritual experience

“My first spiritual experience was when Kurt died [in 1994], because I felt that he knew the truth – because he went to his death not knowing,” Dando explained.

According to Dando, the belief was reinforced by those close to Cobain:

“[Nirvana’s] Pat Smear told me Kurt really thought I was having an affair with Courtney.”

Reflecting on Love’s influence during that era, Dando said he tried to approach the subject carefully in his book, though some memories were too striking to omit.

“I hope I’m balanced in the book about her, but I couldn’t help saying that the first thing she said to me when grunge broke and everybody had money was: ‘Evan, this is great! We can put hits out on people now!’”

Dando also described a strange sense of posthumous understanding between himself and Cobain, suggesting their similarities created distance while Cobain was alive. “Me and him had this weird barrier. We were doppelgängers in a way,” he said, pointing to shared influences and vocal qualities.

“This sounds like a podcast and it’s so boring and who-gives-a-sh*t,” Dando added, “but we could have been friends and it’s a bummer. And I think we are friends now ‘cause he knows the truth.”

When asked whether Love has read Rumors of My Demise, Dando laughed before replying: “[Laughs] F*ck, I hope not! I think I might not be alive [if she had].”