If you remember the Reading Festival tampon incident as Courtney Love’s doing, you’re wrong.
The Hole frontwoman sat down with BBC Radio 6 and clarified it wasn’t her who threw the tampon to the audience during the show. It appears it was the L7 singer Donita Sparks instead. When asked about her craziest gig memory, she told the story people have attributed to her the most:
“The crazy part is that earlier in the day L7 played – [they are some] of my oldest friends – and they’re getting bottled, like real bottled, like bad. And [one] hits De Plak, the drummer, in the eye. Donita, the singer, gets pissed. She’s menstruating and she’s having a heavy flow day, so she just reaches up into her crotch and pulls out her tampon and throws it.”
Well, it wasn’t Love throwing the tampon, but she wishes she was. The Hole singer continued:
“Often people will say to me ‘Oh you threw that tampon at Reading’… I wish. The few times I had been bottled after that, it had already been done, so I didn’t want to copy Donita’s thing, so I didn’t do it. But man, what a genius move, kudos to you Donita Sparks.”
Why Sparks Really Threw A Tampon?
Looking back on the incident in the L7 documentary, Sparks recalls hoping it would lighten her mood during a tough situation. The only obstacle was that she had to duct-tape her shorts since she didn’t have a belt. She recalled removing the tampon as:
“It was not smooth at all.”
She then talked about the incident with only a few words:
“I wanted to do something that would amuse me because I wasn’t having a good time.”
Although the singer left the stage feeling down, Sparks later realized the incident could also make headlines. As a result, the band talked to their publicist:
“We went into our trailer and there was our publicist, and I said, ‘Get a press release ready.’”
You can watch the moment down below.