Eric Erlandson

Eric Erlandson (born January 9, 1963, in Los Angeles, California, United States) is an American musician, most notable as the co-founder, former songwriter/composer and lead guitarist of alternative rock band Hole. Erlandson has also collaborated with a number of artists and is more recently known as the co-founder and former lead guitarist of experimental rock band RRIICCEE with Vincent Gallo.

Erlandson was born in Los Angeles and raised in nearby San Pedro, California. During his college years, he worked for the now defunct Licorice Pizza record store chain. He graduated from Loyola Marymount University, where his father, Theodore Erlandson, served as dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, with a Bachelor of Science degree in economics with a minor in marketing. Prior to his musical career, he worked for Capitol Records doing Paul McCartney’s and Tina Turner’s royalties. In 1990, he began practicing Nichiren Shoshu Buddhism, which he continues to today.

Forming Hole with Courtney Love in 1989, Erlandson was the co-writer of most of Hole’s back catalogue and was also co-producer of a number of the band’s sessions. In 1996, while Hole were on a reported hiatus, he also formed short-lived side project Rodney And The Tube Tops with Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore and Los Angeles KROQ DJ Rodney Bingenheimer. Erlandson and Love disbanded Hole in 2002 due to creative differences and publically opposed Love’s reformation of the band in 2009.