Melissa Auf der Maur is a pillar of ’90s alt-rock with the resume to prove it. Her influential music career includes five years as Hole’s bassist, an eight-year run in The Smashing Pumpkins, and, since 2004, a successful solo career. In March 2026, she released her memoir, Even the Good Girls Will Cry, which revealed the highs and lows of the ’90s alt-rock scene, along with personal revelations, conflicts, and triumphs.
Speaking with NME following the release of her book, Auf der Maur was asked whether she had ever noticed Hole’s influence on the latest generation of musicians. One artist in particular immediately came to mind.
“When I got my daughter tickets to see Olivia Rodrigo for her 13th birthday, we got invited backstage,” she began. “Olivia Rodrigo said to my daughter: ‘Without your mother, none of this would have happened’. That’s when it locked in for me that there are direct correlations.”
Melissa Auf der Maur Notes the ‘Direct Correlations’ Between Hole and Olivia Rodrigo
Olivia Rodrigo’s two albums, Sour from 2021 and Guts from 2023, are not subtle about their ’90s alternative influences. Rodrigo said that artists like Alanis Morissette, The Breeders, Smashing Pumpkins, The Cure, and Fiona Apple were inspirations for her work. Additionally, there are obvious homages to Hole throughout Sour. She cites Avril Lavigne and Fleetwood Mac, as well.
So, ’90s alt-rock is just one influence, but it’s the most obvious. Considering Auf der Maur’s crucial work in the genre, Rodrigo’s admiration makes total sense.
Auf der Maur, for her part, clearly noticed a distinct “’90s influence in both the songwriting and production” of Rodrigo’s two albums. “And of course her debut album, Sour‘s cover has a nod to Hole’s Live Through This, with the beauty queen,” she added. “But having that said to my daughter in front of me was one of the proudest moments of my life.”
Courtney Love may have found Rodrigo’s Sour visuals more of a rip-off of Hole, calling the Sour Prom Concert Film poster a copy of the Live Through This album cover. But Auf der Maur clearly considered the similarities an homage to the influential band, and Rodrigo’s admission to Auf der Maur’s daughter definitely backs that up.
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