"Janis Joplin" by, Stevie Nicks
 

Janis Joplin
by Stevie Nicks
You could say that being yelled at by Janis Joplin was one of the great honors of my life. Early in my career, Lindsay Buckingham and I were in a band called Fritz. There were two gigs we played in San Francisco that changed everything for me: One was opening up for Jimi Hendrix, who was completely magical. The other was the time that we opened up for Janis at the San Jose Fairgrounds, around 1970.

It was a hot summer day, and things didn't start off well because the entire show was running late. That meant our set was running over. We were onstage and going over pretty well, when I turned and saw a furious Janis Joplin on the side of the stage, yelling at us. She was screaming something like, "What the **** are you assholes doing? Get the hell off of my stage." Actually, she might have even been a little cruder than that — it was hard to hear.

But then Janis got up on that stage with her band, and this woman who was screaming at me only moments before suddenly became my new hero. Janis Joplin was not what anyone would call a great beauty, but she became beautiful because she made such a powerful and deep emotional connection with the audience. I didn't mind the feathers and the bell-bottom pants either. Janis didn't dress like anyone else, and she definitely didn't sing like anyone else.

Janis put herself out there completely, and her voice was not only strong and soulful, it was painfully and beautifully real. She sang in the great tradition of the rhythm & blues singers that were her heroes, but she brought her own dangerous, sexy rock & roll edge to every single song. She really gave you a piece of her heart. And that inspired me to find my own voice and my own style.

Sad.....who flamed out a year or so later, and who's still going strong almost 40 years later?

cool, thanx for posting:nod:~ i love to hear stevie talk of janis~

What is this from?

I know - it seemingly is fan fiction or something like that. But, I could be totally wrong as the synapses do not fire like they used to.

Yeah, it didn't read like Stevie wrote it. Plus Lindsey is spelled wrong. I do remember a TV interview where I believe she mentioned Janis not being what you would call "Beautiful" though.

I believe this is from the Rolling Stone website?

The above Stevie quote is from the liner booklet of Big Brother and the Holding Company's (Joplin's band) Live at Winterland '68 cd. It is, in fact, a direct quote from Stevie. ;)

I had gotten it off of the Rolling Stone web site. It was what they had posted that day. I just thought it was fun to read so I would share it with everyone.