For the Rock and Roll Maniacs out there this PP is focusing the women of Heavy Metal like never before.

1. HEAVY METAL GIRL
POWER
By Susan Graham

2. ORIGINS - THE FIRST WOMEN OF
ROCK
Until the 1980s few women claimed the rock and roll stage and only a handful recorded memorable albums. Janis
Joplin, perhaps still the reigning queen of rock, had one of the most exciting—and most tragic—careers in rock. As
the raspy-toned lead singer for Big Brother and The Holding Company, and later as a solo artist, Joplin delivered
legendary rock classics such as "Piece of My Heart," "Try (Just a Little Bit Harder)," "Move Over," and "Summertime."
Grace Slick, a singer-songwriter and classically trained musician, helped launch the band Jefferson Airplane to
commercial success with such hits as "Somebody To Love" and "White Rabbit." With Slick's good looks and dynamic
stage presence, the band earned international exposure and, by 1967, had become one of the highest-paid rock
groups in America.
In the 1970s, vocalist and songwriter Stevie Nicks gave the group Fleetwood Mac its signature sound, transforming it
from an average band to one of the biggest selling rock groups in history.
But few other women left their mark in the 1960s and 1970s, during the early, formative years of rock's
development. Does the history of rock, then, really depend on female contributions? Would the story of rock and
roll look so different had women rockers, like Joplin, Slick, and Nicks, never graced the stage, or female rock
musicians never picked up an instrument? Does a musical phenomenon recognized by its fans as brash, ballsy, and
masculine have a prominent place for women—for both the rough and the softer sides?

3. "ROCK 'N' ROLL IS HARD WORK"
• The answers to these questions aren't as simple as they might seem. In fact it's
difficult to determine just how crucial women have been in the
development of rock and roll, and it's certainly impossible to know what the
music would sound—and look—like had women never become involved as
either singers, songwriters, musicians, or fans. Women, of course, have filled
all these roles and asserted themselves in various and complex ways in rock
and roll culture. All along the way they have negotiated obstacles, such as
sexual aggression, exploitation, unfair pay, condescension, and exclusion.
And they've also risen to the many challenges facing any performing
musician, fighting to win over bandmates, audiences, and critics. "Rock 'n'
roll is hard work," punk-rock singer Patti Smith explained in an interview in
1977, "it's harder than being in the army. And your guitar is your machine
gun; tour instruments are your implements of battle."

4. SLICK – STRUGGLE BEING ROCK
ICON
• Grace Slick also struggled to define herself in the 1960s, a period she called the "sensual
revolution." A middle-class, college-educated model from Chicago, Slick transformed
herself in San Francisco's world of sex, drugs, and psychedelic rock. But unlike Joplin, who
often felt crushed by her chaotic lifestyle, Slick was along for the ride, and she was
unwilling to let anything or anyone ruin her fun. "It wasn't like peace and love kinda stuff,"
Slick remembered, "it was, Let's make music and screw around instead of making war. To
a certain extent it was pretty arrogant and it was also the hedonism thing that said, If you
get in the way of my fun, f--- you."
• Jefferson Airplane's first album featuring Slick, entitled Surrealistic Pillow, hit the charts in
1967 and made the band a "Summer of Love" sensation. By the mid 1970s, however, Slick
had left the band for another group, Jefferson Starship. She and Starship managed to
rack up several Top Ten hits in the 1980s, most notably "Sara" and "We Built This City (On
Rock 'N' Roll)" (which, incidentally, would become a karaoke favorite and, for many rock
fans, the bane of their existence). Slick managed to survive what Joplin had found to be
the physically and psychologically destructiveness of rebellion, sexual experimentation,
and drug abuse. She also managed to maintain a sense of herself as a woman without
allowing that to destroy her. She was one of the lucky ones.

5. FAMILIAR BOUNDARIES
• Women, especially in the first decades of rock's development, were
pressured to stay "in their place" much the way post-World War II middle-
class housewives were confined to traditional roles in the home. That's quite
odd for a music culture that emerged as a reaction to the rigid boundaries
of the 1950s! "Despite its radical beginnings," writer Lucy O'Brien comments,
"the codes of mainstream rock are maybe too conservative, too rigorously
male-defined for a woman to find a comfortable place."

6. PAYING DUES AND BREAKING
THROUGH
• The fact is rock and roll has never been an exclusively male venture. In the
beginning it may have seemed that way, but with each decade more
women, inspired by those who rocked early and often, such as Janis Joplin,
Tina Turner, Patti Smith, Grace Slick, Joan Jett, and Stevie Nicks, took up the
pen, or the mic, the guitar, or the drumsticks, and little by little rock and roll
gained its feminine perspective. "I'm glad there's a lot of babes doing this s---
," Chrissie Hynde, lead singer of the Pretenders, told Rolling Stone magazine
in 1994, "because it's kind of lonely out there." Throughout the end of the
twentieth century, rock—like the blues and jazz before it, and hip-hop and
reggae/dancehall after it—remained a male-dominated genre of music, but
women emerged as an undeniable and powerful force in the studio and on
the stage.

7. PIONEERS - DRUMMERS
Sandy West - singer, songwriter and drummer and
founding member of the pioneering Hard Rock All
Girl Band The Runaways.
Driven by her ambition to play professionally, she
sought out fellow musicians and other industry
contacts in southern California with the idea of
forming an all-girl rock band.
West, a heavy smoker, was diagnosed with lung
cancer in 2005 which later spread to her brain,
West succumbed to Lung/Brain Cancer and
passed away on October 21, 2006 at age 47.

8. PIONEERS – DRUMMERS
Roxy Petrucci is a drummer Vixen. he and
fellow Vixen and bandmate Janet
Gardner were born on the same date.
Roxy helped contribute to Vixen including
adding her Maxine to the mix in the late
1990’s. Roxy rejoined Vixen in 2013.

9. PIONEERS - DRUMMERS
Denise Dufort – drummer of Girlschool, the world’s
longest running All Girl Heavy Metal band.
Dufort is the third still active founding member of
Girlschool. Before joining, she had played in a few punk
bandsand had become a fan of Painted Lady, the
cover band formed by Kim McAuliffe and Enid Williams
in their school days. She is the sister of British drummer
Dave Dufort, drummer in the NWOBHM band Angel
Witch. Denise Dufort has always been present in every
formation of the band and had a long relationship with
Girlschool’s road manager Tim Warhurst. When working
with Girlschool, she also played with the post-punk band
Au Pairs. She manages web communications for the
band.

10. PIONEERS - GUITAR
Nancy Lamoureaux Wilson – longtime member of Heart on
guitar and various instruments.
She and her older sister Ann are the core of the rock band
Heart.
After signing with Capitol Records in 1985 but only if they
agreed to record songs written by others, or if they co-write
with "hit factory" songwriters. They reluctantly agreed. Capitol
also brought in Ron Nevison as producer. One of the first things
he wanted was to lose the acoustic guitar, and Nancy
agreed.
Nancy gained her 1st #1 hit as lead singer of the song "These
Dreams“ in 1986.
Over the years Nancy has been a huge inspiration for girls
across America picking up the guitar and playing it.

11. PIONEERS - GUITAR
Kelly Johnson founding member and guitarist of Girlschool the longest all girl band in
the planet.
Johnson started playing piano after her father when five years old and switched to
guitar at twelve then he attended Edmonton County School in Edmonton, which is in
North London, and part of the London Borough of Enfield, where she discovered rock
music and played bass and piano in school bands. She went back to guitar and was
already writing and playing her own material when she met her future bandmates at
the age of 19. After her first encounter with Kim McAuliffe and Enid Williams in April 1978,
she was immediately accepted in the ranks of the new band formed from the ashes of
the group Painted Lady, which took the name of Girlschool.
Johnson was a songwriter, playing lead guitar and singing both lead and backing
vocals on the group's first four albums. She provided both a strong visual focus for the
band with her tall figure and blonde hair and an excellent musical contribution with her
trenchant guitar playing. The eminent rock guitarist Jeff Beck was quoted as saying he
"couldn't believe it was a girl playing", a remark described by the DJ John Peel as the
most sexist comment he had ever heard. On the other hand, Lemmy Kilmister, the
leader of Motörhead, declared about Kelly Johnson that "the nights that she was really
on, she was as good as Jeff Beck".
Sadly in the late 1990’s Johnson was diagnosed with Spine Cancer.
After 6 years in the battle Kelly Johnson succumbs to Spine Cancer and passed away
on Sunday 15 July 2007, aged 49
Johnson’s death was the inspiration for Girlschool’s 2008 Album legacy commerating 30
years in the Heavy Metal circuit.

12. PIONEERS - GUITAR
Janice Lynn "Jan" Kuehnemund the founding member and lead guitarist for Glam
Metal Band Vixen.
in St. Paul, Minnesota, Kuehnemund formed Vixen in St. Paul in 1973 while still in high
school. She moved the band, along with singer Janet Gardner, to Los Angeles in
1981. Then 3 years later Vixen then as a quintet gained notice by appearing in the
1984 teen film Hardbodies under the on-screen name Diaper Rash.
By early 1986 Jan added Roxy Petrucci on drums and Share Pedersen on bass, the
lineup that signed to EMI Records. They released their self-titled debut, Vixen, in 1988.
The group's most well-known lineup did reunite in 2004 to perform for VH1's Bands
Reunited. After nearly 10 years since the 1st reunion Jan was planning to reunite the
classic Vixen line-up with Janet Gardner, Share Pedersen, and Roxy Petrucci, who
had since reunited in JSRG with guitarist Gina Stile. However, in January 2013, just
days before they were about to make the official announcement of their reunion,
Kuehnemund was diagnosed with cancer. The cancer diagnosis forced them to
delay the announcement indefinitely, until possibly when Kuehnemund was fully
recovered and cancer-free. Unfortunately, the plans of a full-fledged reunion
became impossible because on October 10, 2013, after nine months battling cancer,
Jan Kuehnemund died at the age of 51.
JRSG changed their name back to Vixen in accordance with the wishes of founding
member and guitarist Jan Kuehnemund who was unable to be part of the reformed
band due to her battle with cancer and death and carry on the legacy with her
blessings.

13. PIONEERS – LEAD SINGERS
Ann Wilson the lead singer of Heart also flute player.
Shy because of a stutter, Wilson sought fulfillment in music. In the
early 1970s she joined a local band, White Heart, which
changed its name to Hocus Pocus, and then in 1974, to Heart.
Regarded as one of the best female vocalists in rock music
history, Wilson was listed as one of the "Top Heavy Metal
Vocalists of All Time" by Hit Parader magazine in 2006.
As a child, Wilson was bullied for being overweight. She
revealed that in the 1970s and into the early 1980s she would
starve herself to stay thin. When Heart made a comeback in the
mid-1980s, Wilson had gained significant weight. Fearing it
would compromise the band's image, record company
executives and band members began pressuring her to lose
weight. In music videos, camera angles and clothes were often
used to minimize her size, and more focus was put on her svelte
sister Nancy. Ann stated she began suffering from stress-related
panic attacks due to the negative publicity surrounding her
obesity. She underwent a weight-loss surgery called "adjustable
gastric band" in January 2002
In the band's 2012 autobiography, Wilson revealed her past
struggles with cocaine and alcoholism. She stated she has been
sober since 2009
With a vocal range of Soprano Wilson belts out a powerful
signature sound making Heart legendary.

14. PIONEERS - SINGERS
Janet Gardner (born Janet Patricia Gardner) is best-known as the lead singer
also the rhythm guitarist of the all-woman hard rock band Vixen.
Her parents were of the Mormon faith. Janet was the only girl in a family with
four brothers. She sang in school choirs and learned to play piano and guitar.
Janet joined the band's early lineup in 1982. In 1984, the band appeared in the
movie Hardbodies before moving to Los Angeles to further their career.
After some initial changes, the primary lineup of Vixen consisted of Janet, Jan
Kuehnemund, Roxy Petrucci, and Share Pedersen. Vixen signed with EMI and
recorded their self-titled debut album which was released in September 1988.
Gardner described the pressure of recording as, "We were just girls from
Minnesota and Montana who loved playing live, so it was a bit of a rude
awakening.“
the 3 surviving classic line-up members of the band decided to carry on under
the Vixen name in honor of late guitarist Jan Kuehnemund who passed away
from cancer in October 2013.

15. NEW PIONEERS
Marcela Alejandra Bovio
García (born October 17,
1979) known professionally as
Marcela Bovio is the lead
Singer of Stream of Passion
The Dutch/Mexican
progressive metal band with
symphonic, Latin and gothic
influences founded by her and
guitarist Arjen Anthony
Lucassen.
Stream of Passion is currently
touring to support their 4th
Album.

16. NEW PIONEERS
Kittie (stylized as KiTTiE) is an all-female Canadian
alternative metal band formed in London, Ontario in
1996. Kittie rose to fame in 1999 following the release
of the single "Brackish" from their gold-rated debut
album Spit. Kittie's biggest selling album was 1999's
"Spit" which sold 1,250,000 copies worldwide.
The band had a string of MTV2, MTV and Fuse
Network music video hits which included, "Brackish",
"Charlotte", "What I Always Wanted", "Into The
Darkness", "Cut Throat", "Sorrow I Know" and "Empires
(Part II)". American Active Rock radio hits (all which
charted within the Top 50 of the Radio & Records
Active Rock chart) include "Brackish", "Charlotte",
"What I Always Wanted", "Into The Darkness" and their
biggest US hit single "Funeral For Yesterday".
The current line up is the 2005–2007 and 2012 - present
of
Morgan Lander – lead vocals, guitar
Mercedes Lander – drums, vocals, piano
Tara McLeod – guitar
Trish Doan – bass guitar

17. NEW PIONEERS
Orianthi Panagaris known
professionally as Orianthi was the
lead guitarist for Country Goddess
Carrie Underwood, The King of Pop
the late great Michael Jackson
and most recently Alice Cooper
the Shock Rock King himself.
Orianthi also has a solo career
releasing Believe her debut album
recorded for a major label in 2009.
Orianthi was named one of the 12
Greatest Female Electric Guitarists
by Elle magazine. She also won the
award as "Breakthrough Guitarist of
the Year" 2010 by Guitar
International magazine.