There was some natural rivalry between Courtney Love and Gwen Stefani. Both were leads of ’90s bands, Hole and No Doubt, and both had been in relationships with famous musicians. So Love couldn’t resist taking a jab at Stefani in an interview with Seventeen from August 2004. “Being famous is just like being in high school,” Love said (via Grazia). “But I’m not interested in being the cheerleader. I’m not interested in being Gwen Stefani. She’s the cheerleader, and I’m out in the smoker shed.”
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The comment ended up inspiring Stefani. “I was being bullied by someone and was being called a cheerleader, which was a bad thing!” she told Billboard. “Growing up, that was not cool. I thought I was the opposite of that. I told Pharrell [Williams] we should write a song about that.” Sure enough, Stefani and Williams made “Hollaback Girl.” There was the obvious cheerleader element, but the title was inspired by Naomi Campbell. Williams spoke to the supermodel on her “No Filter” podcast, saying, “That chorus came from a conversation where you were telling somebody you ain’t no Holla Back girl because of a song we had at the time with Fabolous called ‘Holla Back.'” He added. “Somebody was trying to speak to you or whatever, and you were like, ‘I’m sorry, I have a name. I ain’t no Holla Back girl,’ and I thought that was so amazing and it ended up becoming the chorus to the song.” It was certainly a dig at Love, too.
