"Celebrity Skin" is a song by American alternative rock band Hole, released on August 31, 1998 as the first single from their third studio album of the same name. It is their most commercially successful single, being the only one to reach the top place on the US Modern Rock Tracks chart. In October 2011, NME ranked it the 126th best track of the past 15 years.
Celebrity Skin (song)
The lyric "So glad I came here with your pound of flesh" references William Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice (depicted here by John Gilbert)
Hole was an American alternative rock band formed in Los Angeles, California, in 1989. It was founded by singer and guitarist Courtney Love and guitarist Eric Erlandson. It had several different bassists and drummers, the most prolific being drummer Patty Schemel, and bassists Kristen Pfaff and Melissa Auf der Maur. Hole released a total of four studio albums between two incarnations spanning the 1990s and early-2010s and became one of the most commercially successful rock bands in history fronted by a woman.
Hole performing at Public Assembly, NYC in April 2013
Love and Erlandson performing with Hole, c. 1989.
Courtney Love performing with Hole at Big Day Out, Melbourne, January 22, 1995.
Love and Micko Larkin performing with Hole at SXSW in Austin, Texas, 2010.