Janet Gardner
For the former Vixen guitarist, hearing Heart “was the turning point for me”.
Ask Janet Gardner to choose the best decade to be a rock star and she doesn’t miss a beat: “Oh, the eighties, for sure”. Her choice makes sense: she spent that era prowling LA’s Sunset Strip with Vixen, who could stake a claim as the only all-female band of the 80s to have platinum record sales. Vixen played melodic soft-rock hits like Cryin’; on Gardner’s self-titled debut solo album she sounds positively feral – in
a really good way.
Do you think your new solo album will surprise longstanding Vixen fans?
Yeah. We knew it would. Because it’s not Vixen. A lot of it is heavier. More attitude. A little less ‘sweet victim’-y and more assertive. So that’s a departure. But I still have that Vixen side to me, I still love really beautiful melodic rock too.
What themes did you write about on your solo album?
There’s anger in there. There’s sadness.
You name it, it came out on this record. Best Friend is a very tender love song. Candle is about being with my dad when he passed away, and just those feelings of deep regret and remorse. Y’know, thinking back to my relationship with my parents, when you’re a rotten teenager and you treat ’em terrible. Did your parents approve of you becoming a rock’n’roller?
No, they were very concerned. My dad was a very conservative guy. Y’know, you get a job with good benefits, save your money. My mom was the same way.
Which women in rock did you admire?
The first time I heard Dreamboat Annie, the first Heart record, that was it, right there. Previous to that I was mostly into male bands: Aerosmith and Zeppelin. Then all of a sudden there were two women doing it as good. That was a turning point for me.
Do you think Vixen had to fight harder to reach the top?
Absolutely we did. Because people were inspecting us. They were looking for flaws. They were looking for some reason why we weren’t as good as a male band. Or we weren’t as legitimate somehow. Y’know, there’s gotta be a weakness. So we worked our butts off.
Vixen supported a lot of major bands, including Ozzy, Kiss, Bon Jovi…
The most exciting for me was Deep Purple, but that crowd was tough. The lights came on and they’d look at us like: “What is this?” You could just see it: “Pfft. I think I’ll go get a beer.” So it always took a good three or four songs, but by the end they came around.
People always say the eighties hard rock scene was sexist. Do you agree?
I don’t think it was any worse than any other time period. Things are just as sexist now. You see videos all the time objectifying women. It’s a hard thing to be a woman in such a visual industry. You still have to be conscientious about the way you look. I wish you didn’t, cos it’d make my life a lot easier. But you didn’t want people to brush it aside because you’re not appealing. Sad but true. So you go with it.
You seem to have come through without too many demons on your tail.
Yeah. I’ve never been to rehab. I’ve never had to be resuscitated. Luckily I have great people who kept me grounded through it all, the ups and the big downers. As a musician, you go through some really dark moments. But you have to put it in perspective and say: “I’m the same person today that I was yesterday,” y’know, when people loved what you were doing.
Do younger bands tell you that Vixen inspired them?
Yeah, they do. When somebody comes up and says: “When I saw your video on MTV, we formed a band and now we’re out playing,” that’s incredibly satisfying.