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Sonic Youth's Kim Gordon has followed up on comments that were made in, and subsequently removed from, her autobiography, which suggested that Lana Del Rey "off herself."
The singer released Girl In A Band in February, but ahead of its release, an excerpt from an early press draft circulated online.
In the excerpt, Gordon said, "Today we have someone like Lana Del Rey, who doesn’t even know what feminism is, who believes women can do whatever they want, which, in her world, tilts toward self-destruction, whether it’s sleeping with gross old men or getting gang raped by bikers."
She added, "Naturally, it’s just a persona. If she really truly believes it’s beautiful when young musicians go out on a hot flame of drugs and depression, why doesn’t she just off herself?"
Gordon's comments were made in light of two controversial interviews Del Rey has given recently. In the first, she asserted that feminism "is just not an interesting concept." In the second, she told The Guardian, "I wish I was dead already. I don't want to have to keep doing this. But I am."
The comments angered Frances Bean Cobain, the daughter of Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain, who committed suicide in 1994 at the age of 27. "The death of musicians isn't something to romanticize," she tweeted Del Rey. "I'll never know my father because he died young & it becomes a desirable feat because ppl like u think it's 'cool'".
Now, speaking of the furore in an interview with Bret Easton Ellis, Kim Gordon has explained, "Initially it was about just seeing something [...] about [how] rock and rock stars should just like kill themselves with drugs, and Frances Bean had really reacted to that and I felt really actually weirdly protective of Frances. And I just started thinking about well, I mean obviously Frances, does she really think that’s her? It’s a persona. She’s just saying this."
She added, "So I was basically just trying to point out that it was a persona and I just offhandedly said what I said, just kind of laughingly... I guess I could have articulated the whole thing a lot better... I've only really seen one video with her hanging around with these older biker dudes and I just think that if the music was more interesting then I would like it, but it's so conventional. That's why it's popular, because it appeals to broad bases."
In the same interview, Gordon addressed Chrissie Hynde's recent heinous comments on rape victims. "It’s one thing to have this dialect in your mind," she said, "but as far as I can see, I think a writer should have protected her a little more, like let’s maybe articulate that a little more. But maybe that’s her stance for herself and she isn’t looking at herself like she’s this icon and she’s supposed to be responsible, and you can’t just ruminate."
Listen to Kim Gordon in conversation with Bret Easton Ellis below
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