Courtney Love made an unexpected appearance Saturday at the Rockrgrl Music Conference in Seattle, where she reflected on the difficulty of finding a new bassist for Hole and gave advice to female musicians.

For two hours, Love listened as attendees who'd crammed inside the Renaissance Madison Hotel talked about their bands and musical projects, and she advised them on everything from pitching labels to embracing the digital music revolution.

"Courtney really hammered home [the message]: you need to be in control of you career," said Carla DeSantis, founder of Rockrgrl magazine. "You can't expect people to do things for you. It's fine to [have the help] of lawyers and managers, but if you're not educated, you're going to get screwed."

Organizers for the grass-roots women's music conference announced Saturday morning that the outspoken singer would appear for an 11th-hour question-and-answer session. The event, which ran from Thursday afternoon to Saturday night, included panels, workshops and live showcases featuring female artists of all styles.

Love said Hole still have not found a replacement for Montreal-born Melissa Auf Der Maur, who left the group more than a year ago.

"She said the Canadians are far superior to [U.S. musicians] because they have money for music education in the school system," DeSantis said.

The singer/actress also revealed during the forum that she recently went on three dates with Fred Durst. Love said she never got the Limp Bizkit frontman to take off his ever-present ball cap and that she was turned off that he didn't have any R.E.M. records in his CD collection.

"She said something to the effect of Fred asking her advice about making his image better for women," DeSantis said. "She said, 'Well, maybe if you didn't have your record release party at the Playboy Mansion, that might help.' "

More than 250 artists performed at 20 venues in Seattle. Performers included Heart's Ann Wilson, Exene Cervenka with her group Original Sinners, Jill Sobule and Penelope Houston.

Ann and Nancy Wilson received the first Rockrgrl Women of Valor award at the opening banquet on Thursday. Former Ronettes singer Ronnie Spector and Indigo Girl Amy Ray gave keynote speeches.

"I think people walked away feeling like they could do this, but at every level, people need to help each other out," DeSantis said.

DeSantis said she is eyeing 2002 for the next Rockrgrl conference.