Nirvana Appears in Rock Band Despite Courtney Love’s Guitar Hero Rage

Courtney Love may be in a tizzy over the use of her late husband in Guitar Hero 5 (as pictured in the GH5 screenshot above), but that hasn’t derailed a batch of Nirvana tracks in rival music game Rock Band. Starting tomorrow, the studio version of “Smells Like Teen Spirit” and live cuts of “Come As You Are” and “Lithium” will be available as downloadable Rock Band tracks, priced at $2 per track on the Playstation 3, Wii and Xbox 360. Of course, you won’t be able to play as Cobain, whose likeness in Guitar Hero 5 was the source of Love’s rage in September. Love went on a Twitter tirade when she saw a video showing how Cobain’s Guitar Hero 5 likeness could perform in non-Nirvana songs. The video showed Cobain singing “You Give Love a Bad Name” by Bon Jovi, among other bad 80s tracks, sending Love into a public rage.

“YOU for dismissing me as a LOON, go f—ing play guitar hero commit necrophilai KNOW you are raping me and my family mother in law child,” she Tweeted. Love also threatened to sue Activision. Earlier this month, 90s rock group No Doubt did sue the publisher on similar grounds, claiming that its contract with Activision only permitted the band’s characters to perform in three No Doubt songs. As is the custom, Gwen Stefani and her bandmates appeared in other songs, turning their performance into a “virtual karaoke circus act,” as the band described it.

This article has been updated to clarify how Cobain’s avatar only appears in Guitar Hero 5, not Rock Band.

[via GameFocus and Aversion]