Grunge legend shares brain surgery pH๏τo as GoFundMe soars to $250K

Grunge legend Jennifer Finch has shared a pH๏τo of her brain surgery scar with her public as her family and friends plead for donations amid her cancer battle.

Finch, 59, who is best known as the bᴀssist and vocalist for the 1990s girl group L7, went public Monday with news she has been diagnosed with a brain tumor.

Her bandmates announced her illness in an Instagram statement revealing she had been forced to pull out of their upcoming farewell tour.

‘Following multiple surgeries and serious complications, Jennifer now requires extensive medical care, rehabilitation and professional in-home support,’ they wrote.

They linked to a GoFundMe set up by her loved ones, containing a picture of Finch pulling back her hair to reveal the still healing incision after one operation.

She received an outpouring of support on the crowdfunding platform, where by Tuesday afternoon she had raised over $250,000 toward a goal of $350,000.

The Daily Mail contacted a representative for Finch for comment. 

Grunge legend Jennifer Finch has shared a pH๏τo of her brain surgery scar with her public as her family and friends plead for donations amid her cancer battle

(from left) Donita Sparks, Suzi Gardner, Finch and Demetra ‘Dee’ Plakas are pictured in Belgium in a 1992 publicity sH๏τ for their grunge band L7

Proceeds from the GoFundMe will be directed to such causes as ‘home-care expenses that will allow Jennifer to remain safely and comfortably at home.’

The page also requested donations to help recover the ‘significant out-of-pocket medical expenses and legal fees’ already paid for her care.

BREAKING NEWS 90s grunge icon diagnosed with ‘aggressive’ brain cancer as she pulls out of band’s farewell tour

Taking stock of the ‘the difficult reality that Jennifer may have more good days behind her than ahead,’ her loved ones also solicited contributions so they could maintain Finch’s ‘legacy by creating an archive of her artistic and creative work.’ 

Finch, 59, was one of the earliest and longest-lasting members of L7, which she joined in 1986, the year after they first formed in Los Angeles.

She also featured in the 1994 Doll Parts music video for Courtney Love’s group Hole as a replacement for bᴀssist Kristen Pfaff, who had died at 27 of a heroin overdose.

Although she left L7 in 1996 and the band broke up altogether in 2001, she got back together with her old colleagues when L7 reformed in 2014.

This May, they announced that they would be embarking on their final tour called The Last Hurrah 2026 with dates to begin this October.

However the band posted to Instagram this Monday that their ‘beloved bandmate, sister and friend’ had ‘been diagnosed with an aggressive form of brain cancer.’ 

Born in Los Angeles, Finch began her career in San Francisco as part of Courtney Love’s early pre-fame band Sugar Babydoll in the 1980s; pictured 1991 in London performing with L7

Finch featured in the 1994 Doll Parts music video for Courtney Love’s group Hole as a replacement for the late bᴀssist Kristen Pfaff; Finch (left) pictured with Love (right)

During the early 1990s she enjoyed a dalliance with Dave Grohl, who was then the drummer for Nirvana before his days in the Foo Fighters; Finch and Grohl pictured 1991

They explained that their upcoming tour ‘was planned along with Jennifer when all four of us were in good health and spirits,’ and that they were proceeding with the American concert dates without Finch at her urging.

‘We will honor her request while making her care and well-being our immediate priority,’ they wrote. ‘We love her, and we want her to feel the full strength of the community that has loved and supported her for so many years.’

Born in Los Angeles, Finch began her career in San Francisco as part of Courtney Love’s early pre-fame band Sugar Babydoll in the 1980s.

In 1986 she joined L7, which was formed the previous year by Donita Sparks and Suzi Gardner, habituées of the art scene of Los Angeles’ bohemian Echo Park area.

The band rose to its greatest heights of success in the early- to mid-1990s with a lineup comprised of Finch, Sparks, Gardner and Demetra ‘Dee’ Plakas. 

Perhaps their best remembered song is their 1992 breakout single Pretend We’re ᴅᴇᴀᴅ, which they played on The Late Show with David Letterman.

Finch confessed she was ‘barely’ able to ‘remember’ one early L7 tour because she ‘was on so much heroin,’ in an interview with Louder.

Having become ‘an opiate IV drug user at 13,’ she eventually ‘got clean’ in 1990, she recalled in a podcast appearance a few years ago.

Finch abruptly exited L7 in 1996, grappling with the combined grief of losing both her father and the band’s roadie Umbar; Plakas, Sparks, Finch and Gardner pictured 1992

During the early 1990s she enjoyed a dalliance with Dave Grohl, who was then the drummer for Nirvana before his days in the Foo Fighters.

They have remained friendly enough in the decades since their split that she publicly defended him in 2024 amid the explosive scandal over his having fathered a daughter outside his longtime marriage to Jordyn Blum.

During the controversy, Finch insisted Grohl was ‘doing everything he can for his family’ and ‘giving it his all in spite of the messy situation,’ via TMZ.

Finch abruptly exited L7 in 1996, while the band was still reeling from the overdose death of their beloved roadie Umbar on their tour bus the previous year.

She announced her departure to her bandmates by walking out of a recording session and leaving them a note scrawled in pencil, as revealed in a 2016 documentary documenting the group’s history called L7: Pretend We’re ᴅᴇᴀᴅ.

‘I remember starting to have a lot of concerns over my health, and I might have to leave,’ Finch recalled. ‘My own control issues were getting fired up. I was having money concerns. I was grieving over the loss of my father and Umbar.’

She added: ‘Any one of those things would’ve not been a problem, but all of them kind of converging together – it was just gonna be hard to continue.’

After an interregnum as the frontwoman of her own punk band, The Shocker, Finch reunited with Sparks, Gardner and Plakas as L7 in 2014.