‘I can’t be the only one’: Docuseries on ‘Women Who Rock’
As a percussion protégé growing up in the Bay Area, Sheila Escovedo would ask visiting bands if she could sit in. She was often told to beat it.
“They’re looking at me like, well, ‘You’re a girl. Go away.’ They would push their hand like, ‘Get out of here,’” Escovedo recalls. “I was told: “You’re a girl, you can’t and you won’t and you don’t. And there’s no way.”
Escovedo, thankfully, found a way, becoming Sheila E., the Grammy-nominated, gold record-making drummer who collaborated with Prince, performed at the Academy Awards and supplied music for soundtracks, mammoth sporting events and world tours.
She and other women in rock have faced similar disbelief and hostility.
A deep dive into rock’s female pioneers like Sheila E. forms the backbone of the
fascinating, four-part docuseries “Women Who Rock” starting Saturday on Epix. Director Jessica Hopper says the series offers a look at far more than just rock stars.
“Just like you can’t separate art from artists, you can’t separate music from culture. If you tell these stories, you are telling this broader story of America,” said Hopper.
The series features appearances by Nancy Wilson of Heart, Chaka Khan, Pat Benatar, Mavis Staples, Shania Twain, Macy Gray, Rickie Lee Jones, Norah Jones, Aimee Mann, Tori Amos, Kate Pierson of the B-52’s, Tina Weymouth of Talking Heads, Nona Hendryx, Susanna Hoffs of the Bangles, Jody Watley, St.
Vincent, Kathleen Hanna of Bikini Kill and Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth, among others.
“I loved hearing the other women talk about their experiences,” Hendryx told the AP in an interview. “There’s just so many who are standing on the breasts — I was going to say shoulders — of many women who have come before them and fought battles that they didn’t even know they were fighting.”
The docuseries moves chronologically from the birth of rock ‘n’ roll, where women weren’t taken seriously, to the present day, where they’ve seized both production credits and technology to blaze their own independent paths. It’s been an uphill climb for most.