W.i.G.--for Women in General

JANE WIEDLIN: QUEEN OF THE [kissproof] WORLD!
by Shawna Kenney

In the late '70s a fungus known as punk rock crept not-so-quietly across the world, just below the mainstream's myopic radar. LA, like other major cities, spawned numerous legendary bands, many of which gained popularity with the birth of MTV in 1980-but maybe none as memorable or influential as the Go-Go's. They were cute, they wrote good songs and they all actually played their instruments. (Remember this was way before the term riot-grrrl was even a zygote in the womb of rock-n-roll history.) Every boy wanted and every girl wanted to be one of the five females who burst onto the scene with their six-weeks-at-number-one hit "Our Lips Are Sealed." Skinny-tied guys and sparkly leg-warmer-wearin' gals pogo-ed earnestly to "We Got the Beat" at high school dances across the country. And any '80s-kid worth their can of Aqua Net dreamed of being on those fake water-skis and lip-synching along in the video for their next hit, "Vacation."

Jane Wiedlin was (and still is) one of those lucky girls. In 1984, the rhythm guitarist quit the Go-Go's, and about a year later the whole band dissolved. Wiedlin released a self-titled debut solo record followed by another entitled "Fur" and a third called "Tangled." In 1995 Wiedlin formed the band FroSTed, which was signed to Geffen Records long enough to put out the full-length "Cold" and later the single "Bed," on Sugar-Fix Records, before breaking up in '98. The summer of 2000 hailed the release of her fourth full-length solo record, Kissproof World, in true DIY style. Wiedlin wrote, produced, promotes, performs, and distributes the CD herself, and she released it on her own label, Painful Discs.

While pushing 'Kissproof' to the masses, she's doing press and tuning her six-string for this summer's unleashing of "God Bless the Go-Go's," an all-new long-awaited Go-Go's record, and a tour with the band that she quit 17 years ago. So how did a girl born in Wisconsin, raised in, "like, the Valley," grow up to become the kick-ass guitar goddess that she is? And where the heck have the Go-Go's been all these years? And what's behind all that VH-1 Behind the Music melodrama? Lucky for us, her lips aren't sealed…

WHAT DO YOUR PARENTS THINK OF YOUR CAREER?
I think they're really proud of me. I think at one point, before the Go Go's got signed my dad got a little wiggy because we'd been playing out for three years and couldn't get a deal and he sat me down and said "it's time to give up this crazy dream and get a real job." And then a month later we got a record deal, so it's good that I didn't listen to him. And he always cracks jokes about it anyways. He always says "and I was the one who said the Beatles wouldn't last six months!" He's said that to me at least six thousand times, and I always laugh as if I've never heard it before.

DO YOU REMEMBER HOW YOU GOT INTO PUNK ROCK?
I was in college studying design, and I saw pictures of the punks in London and I just freaked out-this was in '76-about how cool they were and how rebellious and immediately I wanted to be a punk, so it started more from the way it looked. I started designing punk rock clothes and I took them to this shop on Sunset Strip called Granny Takes a Trip, and the guy bought some of my stuff and while I was in there Pleasant Gehman came in and we started talking, so she was like the first real punk rocker I ever met. She gave me a flyer for the Masque to go see the Alleycats and the Controllers. Anyway, it was how I found out where the LA scene was, so I started going there alone. I didn't know anybody, I just thought it was really cool. I immediately fell in love with the scene and then that was that.

WHEN DID YOU DECIDE TO PICK UP THE GUITAR?
When I was 12 I took one of those classes at the local park, one of those summer programs where you learn to play folk guitar. I actually learned how to play Cumbaya and Tom Dooley and She'll be Comin' Around the Mountain, and that was the extent of my guitar training. By '78 there was almost nobody left in the punk scene that wasn't in a band except for me and a couple other people, and that was when we decided to start the Go Go's.

YOU TALK ABOUT BEING REALLY HURT THAT GEFFEN DROPPED THE BALL WITH YOUR 'FROSTED' RELEASE…IS THAT WHY YOU SELF-PRODUCED/DID EVERYTHING 'DIY' ON THS ONE?
Yeah, because Geffen didn't do any promotion and they wouldn't give me money to tour. They told me that nobody wanted to talk to me, so I couldn't get interviews. I ended up selling 2,000 copies of that record mostly from selling them myself at shows. I just thought that is so dismal, I know that I can do that poorly on my own. It's funny because that's exactly what's happened with this one-I've sold 2,000 copies on my own, so now I'm starting to think that I have a 2,000-person fanbase, but you know what? I'm okay with it because at least I did it my way and it was all my decision. I really am proud of my record. Everyone who hears it loves it-it's not like people buy it and try to get their money back!

WAS DOING IT YOURSELF A LITTLE EASIER BECAUSE OF YOUR EARLY PUNK YEARS?
Definitely. I've always had that mentality. I've always been very self-sufficient. I got my first job when I was 14 and I've never stopped working since. I've never been supported by a man, I've always known how to make my own clothes, make my own curtains, make my own records. I can take care of myself. That's just the way I am. I don't see anything weird about it except when I look at some other peoples' lives and think "wow-someone is totally taking car of them!" And then I think, "do I want that?" And part of me would love that, and part of me thinks "how boring." I am where I am and I'm pretty content with myself. There's the odd day when I wish I didn't have to make my own curtains. I mean I guess I really don't-that's stupid-but I sort of have this mentality where only a fool…Charlotte has a great story about that. She wanted curtains for her living room and she called this interior decorator and he came over and quoted her $10,000. And then she went out and bought herself $100 worth of fabric and made the curtains, and I'm like 'that's exactly it! That's what it's all about!' There are people out there who can just take you. It's better to be self-sufficient and know what you're getting. It's the same story as being with a record label or not.

SO I GUESS WE'RE NOT GONNA SEE YOU ON 'WHO WANTS TO MARRY A MILLIONAIRE' ANYTIME SOON?
You know, I'd fuckin' love to marry a millionaire if they were really bitchen…actually I take that back because I'm never getting married again. I got married once and it was a mistake and now I'm single for life. I just don't think marriage works in modern society. It's totally archaic tradition that serves no purpose except for people that need to be taken care of or people who are breeding. Other than that, why would the rest of us do it?

WHAT ARE YOUR BEST MEMORIES OF THE GO-GOs?
Probably the punk rock days because it was so fun and exciting and it was when I was still young enough to be really rebellious but old enough to be out of my parents' house. It was a really cool tight-knit community of people who supported each other, and there was always something fun to do every night.

WHERE YOU'D PLAY YOUR FIRST SHOW?
At the Masque.

DO YOU REMEMBER THE MOMENT YOU KNEW OR FELT THE BAND HAD REALLY 'MADE IT'?
I think it was a series of little moments. When we came home from England in 1980 and we played the Starwood and we came to the show and there was this huge line wrapped around the block on Santa Monica Boulevard and we were like "check THAT out!" And then when our record came out, we did an in-store signing and we thought like 100 people would show up and it ended up over a thousand people! Lots of little things like that. Hearing "Our Lips Are Sealed" on the radio for the first time…those moments are just so incredible. There's no way to describe how they make you feel. It's just a wondrous thing.

HOW HAS FAME CHANGED YOU?
I think for a long time, when the Go-Go's were being famous, because I was young and immature and didn't have any prior experience and let's face it-it was my first band so it's not like I really fucking struggled for a million years to get there-you know three years, compared to a lot of peoples' careers-nothing?-so I think that I got real bratty and I think I had this sense of entitlement…then when I left the band and had pretty much nothing but difficulty trying to establish myself on my own, I realized fame isn't an easy thing to get, and that it isn't a right, it's a privilege. I think I learned a lot more after I was famous than while I was famous. Now I sort of feel like I'm in in-between land, because yeah, a couple times a week someone will come up and say "oh you're Jane from the Go Go's" but it's not like that weird, annoying thing where you're sitting in a restaurant and ten people some up to you while you're eating and try to talk to you, which is so fucking rude but it's also the kind of thing that turns celebrities into monsters. I don't know what's gonna happen now because the Go-Go's record is coming out and we all hope it'll be a huge success but in my mind I'd like it to be popular and still be left alone-that would be the ideal!

I don't know that fame has changed me, but life changes everybody, and as the years go on if you have any brain cells left whatsoever, you learn to grow and learn from your mistakes and hopefully become a better person.

WHAT'S THE REUNION ALL ABOUT? WAS IT HARD TO DO, SOMETHING SOMEONE SUGGESTED, ETC…?
We'd been getting together every few years throughout the 90s just to do shows, and when we did it this past summer all of us agreed it was time to either do some new songs or call it a day, because we were really sick of playing the same three albums' worth of songs over and over again. I have to say I think it went really well.

DO YOU ALL LIVE ALL OVER THE PLACE NOW?
Four of us live in LA and Belinda Carlisle lives in France.

SO HOW MANY YEARS WERE YOU GUYS APART BEFORE YOU GOT BACK TOGETHER?
I quit the band in '84, then the first time the five of us played together again was 1990, then we played together in '94 and '95, then in '98 I think, and 2000. Really we've been playing more than some bands that have never broken up! We don't really consider ourselves as broken up, so as far as the reunion aspect, it's not so much a reunion because we've been working.

DO YOU STILL CONSIDER THE OTHER WOMEN IN THE BAND "FRIENDS"?
We still have intense dynamics within the band. It's kind of beyond friendship and more like relatives or lovers, because you tend to take things a lot harder-I don't mean literally lovers-but there tends to be more drama than I would normally put up with in a friendship. On the other hand, I'm a lot fucking better at speaking my mind now and I don't like when I get that weird feeling in the pit of my stomach and I know that there's something I need to communicate. I just do it now because I don't feel like going around being unhappy about something when I can get things off my chest and it's easy to solve things. The things that people end up arguing about are so meaningless. We don't even call them arguments anymore, we call it 'bickerments.'

ARE YOU PRETTY ACTIVE IN THE GAY AND LESBIAN COMMUNITY?
I'm a very sexually open person and I consider myself bisexual. Yeah, I mean, we have so many gay men fans, and I personally have so many friends that are gays and lesbians it would be impossible for me not to be part of that community. I have a monogamous relationship with a man, and before that I had a 12-year monogamous marriage with a man, so I'm not gay but I certainly relate to it.

WHAT'S WITH ALL OF THE DOMINATION/S&M IMAGERY ON KISSPROOF WORLD? IS THAT SOMETHING YOU'RE PERSONALLY INTO?
I know a lot of people in the fetish community.

HAVE YOU EVER SPANKED ANYONE?
Of course! I'll spank anybody on the street! I'm always finding an excuse to spank people.

DO YOU PREFER TO BE THE SPANKER OR SPANKEE?
Well, you know…it's fun to spank people! Most people deserve a good spanking. Women have better butts for spanking but men need to be spanked.

DO YOU HAVE AN IDEAL WOMAN OR TYPE?
I just like people in general that are smart and funny and let's say "weight-height proportionate." I'm not…I don't know…I look at people I've had crushes on over the years and I don't really see any common threads. To me it's more beyond the fact that they're basically attractive, they don't have to be models, but that they be funny and smart, and twisted, too. I wouldn't want a Bill Cosby-type of funny-more of a Sam Kinnison type of funny.

SO YOU DO A LOT OF VOICEOVER WORK?
I've done quite a few cartoons and cartoon movies. On Scooby-Do I was one of the 'hex' girls. I was on a series called Mission Hill. Also on King of the Hill and Pinkya and the Brain and Batman the Animated Series and some CD ROM games, and it's really something I love doing and hope to get back into once my schedule isn't so frantic.

I always wanted to do it, since I was a teenager people would pick on me 'cause of my voice and I thought "if only I could be a cartoon voice, that would make it all worth my while."

IN MY LOVELY REVENGE THE FIRST WORDS ARE "SHINY HAIR AND A PERFECT BODY." HOW MUCH PRESSURE WAS/IS THERE AS A 'GO-GO' AND PERSON IN THE PUBLIC EYE, TO H AVE ALL OF THESE THINGS?
I think there's a ton of pressure. On our new album there's a song called Throw Me a Curve that's about that-we don't want to be size 0, we don't want to be 'lollipop heads.' We wanna just be ourselves and be healthy and happy with ourselves. The Go-Go's have never been size 0 people or models and I think it's good because it's very hard to find any women in the entertainment industry that don't look like models. It's weird. I get so obsessed with watching it, too-I watch the Academy Awards and I'll spend the whole night just looking at everybody's upper arms-they're all the size of fucking toothpicks! How does everybody's arms look like that?! Except for Ellen Burstyne, she's like 60-once you get over a certain age where people don't think of you as a sex-bomb anymore then you're 'allowed' to gain weight. I just think it's fucking appalling. In that song it's obviously just a fantasy. I don't think I'll ever have shiny hair and a perfect body, but I just wanna be so amazingly irresistible that you'll totally regret dumping me or losing me.

I'M SURE YOU ARE!
[giggles]

WHAT IS YOUR SECRET TO LOOKING SO FOXY IN YOUR FORTIES?
I've gotta give my parents credit for good genes because they're both in their 70s and look like they're in their 50s and have never had any work or anything. I think a lot of what makes people look good is their joi de vivre, and I have a lot of that. I have a lot of energy and love of life and I think that kind of comes through with me. Other than that obviously you can't eat french fries everyday without their being repercussions. It goes beyond "I wanna be skinny," it's more like I wanna be healthy and feel good. I try and base everything on that than trying to be underweight. I think that whole culture of the 98-lb-woman is based on some bizarre pedophilic closeted homosexual thing. Why should women look like 12-year-old boys? It's fucking disgusting. And that's one reason-I know there's feminists who think corsets are a crime against womanhood-and my feminist philosophy is being a feminist means being able to do whatever the fuck you want, so when I put on a corset and all of a sudden I look like Mae West and my butt looks really big and my waist looks small and you get the whole hourglass thing, I love it! It makes me feel sexy and womanly and good. I think that's the thing that really appeals to me about corsets-it's that giving someone more curves than they would have normally and it's just fun. I guess someone could construe that as trying to be skinny, but to me it's a totally different thing. It seems like modern society is about having no curves…unless of course you get fake titties, which apparently 'above the ribs' it's OK.

SO HOW DID YOU SURVIVE LA ALL THESE YEARS?
Without fake titties?

WITHOUT SUCCUMBING TO THE FAKE-BOOB PRESSURE?
I don't know. I've been tempted, because you see those fake titties and they're amazing-they're defying the laws of gravity, but every guy I know-and I know a lot of guys-who says they prefer fakies to real ones-they've always been really shallow, really stupid boys, really immature…and I think 'is that really what I want? Is that the culture that I want to be part of?' I guess I just don't. In theory I guess I don't have anything against plastic surgery-I think it's within anyone's right to want to improve themselves. But everyone knows in LA it's fucking totally out of hand.

It's funny when you go to strip clubs and you can tell they have a 'titty policy.' You go to one and everyone will have fake ones and at another, no one will have them, and you just know it's someone behind a desk goin' "I love fakies!"

SO WHAT DO YOU DO WHEN YOU'RE NOT MAKING MUSIC?
Oh…go to strip clubs! (laughs) After I work I go into a coma because I'm so exhausted, so sleeping is one of my favorite hobbies, and eating…and drinking wine, hanging out with my doggies, hanging out with my friends, reading and um hiking and…I guess that's it.

Author Shawna Kenney is a freelance writer and author of the award-winning memoir, "I WAS A TEENAGE DOMINATRIX." Her site is very cool: www.shawnakenney.com