Hole didn't sell millions of albums on personality alone. Courtney Love may have soaked up the spotlight, but she had some excellent musicians backing her up, including a hard hitting drummer from Marysville named Patty Schemel.
“Getting into Hole and jumping on that train was crazy” said Schemel.
In her memoir Hit So Hard, Patty recounts life on the crazy train; a ride she experienced addicted to heroin.
“It happened so fast,” said Schemel. “Also I was just a kid. I was in my early 20's and also being in Hole we were in the shadow of Nirvana and all these things were happening to them, so it felt like naturally well that's what happens to everybody. But not necessarily, you don't just sell a billion records your first time out.”
Schemel was more than just the band's drummer. She lived with Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love and was devoted to their daughter.
“Kurt had a great sense of humor,” said Schemel. “Then he would go into another room sit down and play his guitar and some amazing beautiful stuff would come out.”
When Kurt Cobain died, followed by bassist Kristen Pfaff's overdose a month later, the wheels came off Hole's crazy train.
“We had just completed a record and so immediately we all went into shutdown mode and where do we go from here?”
For Schemel, only the needle offered answers.
“Don't let it catch up,” said Schemel. “It's a race against the feelings and that's how it went you know?”
Schemel’s life story fell into a hopeless pattern. Tour. Home. Relapse. Rehab.
“We say it a lot in recovery: making the same mistake and expecting a different result," said Schemel.
It went like that for 11 years until she lost everything, including her place in the band. In 2005 she finally sobered up. Patty Schemel is now married and the mother of young girl.
“I'm so glad my life is what it is today,” she said. “I don't have to be a rock star I don't have to be rich and famous I'm so good right now.”
Patty Schemel’s Hit So Hard is now in stores.
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