Courtney Love Tributes Daughter at Oxford Address

Courtney Love has joined a long list of musicians, including Jon Bon Jovi, Michael Jackson and, more recently, Patrick Wolf, to have addressed the Oxford Union, a student society at the prestigious U.K. university, which over the years has also invited a great number of politicians, peacemakers and movie stars to speak.

Love, who is in town for several tour dates with a new lineup of her band Hole, spoke Friday of late husband Kurt Cobain's 1994 suicide and its impact on her family, and credited her daughter, 17-year-old Frances Bean Cobain, who is currently in the custody of Cobain's mother and sister, with helping her come to terms with the death.

Love's "restrictions on her access to her daughter were recently extended," according to the BBC. Frances filed a restraining order against her mother following a December argument on Twitter. But at her Oxford address, Love, perhaps in a message to Frances, said, "My daughter's the most important thing to me, in my life." Referencing the Greek myths and the custody battle, she added, "I'm having my Demeter and Persephone moment with my daughter."

Love, who attended boarding school in England and lived in Liverpool for a time, described herself to the audience as "Amglish." She also spoke of things that inspire her as a musician, naming Robert Graves as her favorite author and Mozart's work as her desert-island music of choice. She also noted that the poetry of Rilke and YouTube videos of quantum physics have influenced her music.

Of Cobain's death, Love said, "That action had a horrible effect on our family. It's not cool. It just wasn't cool." But she added that she was shocked to be seen as an "ancillary object" to Cobain's "Alpha male." Describing herself as a feminist, Love said she was "expected by the zeitgeist to go with him or something. But I worked. I had to work to get money to feed my kid."

Love and the band will be heading to Europe following the band's U.K. dates, one of which was canceled last week due to a riot. The tour is in support of Love's forthcoming album, 'Nobody's Daughter.'

Courtney Love on AOL Music
Hole on AOL Music