As even Stephin Merritt could tell you, Wikipedia is no place to gather factually accurate information (obvs), but its user-driven database is still, unfortunately, a one-stop shop for many who believe it to be an expert-driven encyclopedia. It’s also the second Google result for “Mary Lou Lord” and many other notable artists.
In a lengthy post on her Facebook page (via ONTD), Lord ranted, reacted, and responded to false information submitted by anonymous users to her Wiki page, recounting the story of her friendship with Kurt Cobain in the months prior to the release of Nirvana’s breakthrough album, Nevermind.
As the headline suggests, Lord debunks rumors that she was ever involved in a love triangle with Cobain and his future wife, Courtney Love. The most important part of her post, however, is that she brilliantly details her experience as a street busker, music fan, and behind-the-scenes witness during an amazing period of music history.
“I know you’re in Nirvana, but which guy are you?,” Lord recalls asking Cobain outside the Middle East club in Boston, MA in 1991. “Oh, I’m the singer and play guitar,” he responded, asking her later what her favorite bands were. “Daniel Johnston, Teenage Fanclub, The Bats, the Clean, The Vaselines,” Lord said. “The look on his face was PRICELESS.”
Lord and Cobain immediately struck up a friendship (she even played him a late-night acoustic set of songs from Nevermind she had heard on an unauthorized pre-release cassette) that lasted a few months.
I could go on and on quoting bits from Lord’s story, but you may as well read it for yourself.