Courtney Love to author: I wrote note found on Cobain

SEATTLE -- One of the foremost experts on Kurt Cobain said the late grunge rocker did not pen a note mocking his wedding vows to fellow musician Courtney Love.

Love herself wrote it, said Seattle author Charles R. Cross, who has written several books on Cobain, including the biography "Heavier Than Heaven."

Cross wrote in a blog post on The Seattle Times' website that Love emailed the newspaper Friday night to say that she wrote the note and that she gave it to Cobain before their wedding in 1991.

"Early in their relationship, they wrote notes like that to each other constantly," Cross told The Associated Press. "The handwriting is absolutely Courtney's."

Cross wrote in the blog post that Love's sister, Nicole Jon Carroll, and an unnamed former Cobain estate employee who had examined journals for Cobain and Love backed Love's statement.

Police found the note in Cobain's wallet after he killed himself in 1994.

On Tuesday, CBS News published a story about the note, which was disclosed through a public-records request to the Seattle Police Department.

In a comparison of a copy of the note to a copy of another note that police have characterized as Cobain's handwritten suicide note, the handwriting appeared to be similar. The story also noted the possibility that Cobain and Love could have written the note together.

Love's attorneys did not return phone calls from CBS News inquiring about the note before the story's publication.

The note begins, "Do you Kurt Cobain take Courtney Michelle Love to be your lawful shredded wife..." and goes on to say, "even when she's... siphoning all (your) money for doping and whoring..."

Cross, in the blog post, wrote, "Cobain and Love typically traded such notes, laced with sarcasm and coarse references to sexuality and drug use."

Cobain's body was discovered in Seattle on April 8, 1994. An investigation determined that days earlier Cobain had gone into the greenhouse of his home and taken a massive dose of heroin. He then shot himself with a 20-gauge shotgun.

Earlier this year, in advance of the 20th anniversary of Cobain's suicide, a Seattle detective reviewed the case files, including evidence photos and statements. He found no new information to change the police conclusion that Cobain took his own life.

Cobain, who was 27 when he died, sold millions of albums with Nirvana and helped popularize the Pacific Northwest's heavy, muddy "grunge" rock. Nirvana was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame last month.