TORONTO - Unlike most celebrities who speak with the media, rocker Courtney Love doesn't hold back or watch her words.
She compulsively name-drops and seemingly can't help herself from gossiping about friends and relating random encounters with the famous people who frequent the same velvet-roped hot spots.
And she's equally frank about her past failures, including a solo album - 2004's "America's Sweetheart" - that went nowhere and sent her on a downward spiral.
The album coincided with trainwreck TV appearances on the "Late Show with David Letterman" and "Comedy Central's Roast of Pamela Anderson," arrests, a drug overdose, rehab, and the loss of tens of millions of dollars through alleged embezzlement.
She also lost custody of Frances, her daughter with late husband Kurt Cobain.
"('America's Sweetheart') probably shouldn't have been made, alright? You can tell a man or woman by their failures and certainly that was one of mine, it's nothing I'm particularly proud of," Love said during a spirited telephone interview with The Canadian Press, one of many she conducted in a press blitz to promote the first Hole album in 12 years.
"That record didn't go anywhere, I didn't tour on it, I didn't like it, I hated it. I had a nervous breakdown - crazy crazy, I went nuts, all that stuff. Did a lot of drugs, yadda yadda. And so the effort that I put into ('Nobody's Daughter'), this is to me a fine wine that has been bottled for exactly the amount of time it needed to. And has all the complexity that an album should have."
Love, 45, is hoping for redemption and a new way forward with Hole's "Nobody's Daughter," which is out April 27 and took five years to complete. Dozens of songs were written and recorded before the band carefully settled on the final 11 tracks for the album, which was financed by Love.
The first single, "Skinny Little Bitch," has been well-received and is a chugging return to form, reminiscent of the grunge days of the '90s. Love said she was overwhelmed when she heard the song was getting serious radio airplay.
"I was crying in the airport, I was sobbing," she recalled.
While relieved that the first single didn't bomb, she also felt anxiety about the overwhelming industry response that comes with hit records.
"(I thought) ... my husband died from commercial success, I hated being a movie star, this is wrong."
She's extremely proud of the album - which she said was influenced by Pink Floyd and David Bowie - although she's still conflicted about one song, "Loser Dust," a scornful ode to cocaine and drug users that was written during her rehab days.
She talks about being worried that the fast, loud punk song will come across as "poseurish," and suddenly launches into a tangent about an old flame.
"Remember Bush? I used to date that guy (lead singer Gavin Rossdale, now married to Gwen Stefani) and I was never public about it because it was so embarrassing - but my god he was cute," Love said, suddenly sounding like a gossiping schoolgirl.
"Anyway, they had this one song where they were pretending to be Green Day and ... honestly, I think it's the worst song of all time," she said in reference to "X-Girlfriend," a 45-second song in which Rossdale recites one line of lyrics repeatedly.
"It's an English band pretending to be Green Day, at the height of the 90s, and they were already pretending to be Nirvana."
"Loser Dust" stayed on the Hole record after some encouragement from off-and-on-again friend Billy Corgan of the Smashing Pumpkins.
Corgan has writing credits on three of the album's songs but has publicly distanced himself from Love. He suggested in a recent interview that legal action would follow if those songs were released.
"He can go be a bitch all he wants, I love him and he's family," Love said by way of response.
As Love discusses her new songs she halts to announce she's sending a text message to screenwriter Aaron Sorkin, who's also staying at the Chateau Marmont Hotel in West Hollywood, a legendary high-class compound for the rich and famous. Modest rooms start at US$370 a night and go up to $3700.
The hotel has a "controlled environment" free of spying reporters or paparazzi, Love said, and staying there leads to endless encounters with other celebrities, which Love freely dishes about.
"There's this little kid that's here at the Chateau, a cute little kid named Evan (Taubenfeld). (I ask) 'What do you do?' (He says) 'Oh I write songs for this chick you probably don't like - and in walks Avril Lavigne! And he's right!" Love said.
"She's fine, I haven't even heard a song Avril Lavigne's done for 10,000 years, so I wouldn't know."
The hotel's courtyard is also where Love famously shared a recent brief encounter with Jessica Simpson, which quickly became an unintended tabloid sensation after Love tweeted about it.
Love admits she underestimates the impact of her tweeting and the attention she gets from doing it.
"Maybe I shouldn't Twitter about what goes on the courtyard but still ... I didn't think it would do any harm," she said.
"I still have access to it but I probably shouldn't."
If the album's new songs don't take off the way she hopes, Love doubts she can stomach continuing to tour with Hole on the strength of the old hits.
"No, I can't do it, I'd go back to acting or something. I'd direct, I'd design clothes," she said.
But she is prepared for touring and the trappings that come with big success. She's using the painful reminders of the past and Buddhist chanting to help ground her.
"If I don't do that I will go bananas and you can kinda tell from my life condition whether I've been chanting or not," she said.
Although she insists she was drug-free in the lead up to the album's release, she worked herself to the point of exhaustion. She said looking at her overworked, emaciated self in photos from the recording sessions was a wake up call to stay clean.
"I saw those pictures and I'm like, 'This is a mentally ill person,"' she said.
"This record has really taken a toll."
