Scarf cutting: ‘This does my heart good’
Hall of Fame rocker partners with Youth Villages to renovate home
Steven Tyler has dozens of music-related accolades, including a spot in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as the frontman of the famous rock band Aerosmith. But Janie’s House? “This is real.” “This does my heart and soul good,” Tyler said Monday moments before cutting the ribbon — which was actually a long scarf attached to microphone stands, in true Tyler fashion — on Janie’s House, a project between Tyler and Youth Villages to renovate a home for girls who have suffered abuse or neglect.
Janie’s Fund, housed within Youth Villages, has raised over $4 million, much of which goes toward helping girls as they age out of the foster system.
Inside
Here’s how to support Janie’s Fund, Steven Tyler’s charity for abused girls, 8A
Tyler was in Bartlett for the scarf-cutting ceremony on the second Janie’s House. The first is in Atlanta.
The home can hold about 14 girls at a time, and features bright paint on the walls with inspirational quotes from Tyler, including the song lyrics from “Dream On.”
It cost about $500,000 to renovate the home, which sits on Youth Villages 80-acre property in Bartlett. Girls living in the home can receive treatment for mental health issues, including trauma and addiction.
Inspiration from ‘Janie’s Got a Gun’
The fund’s name was born out of the fictional Janie from Tyler’s song “Janie’s Got a Gun.” Unlike many of his songs or the videos that go with them, Tyler said Monday, Janie’s song is literal. It depicts a girl abused by her father, and became an anthem of sorts for victims of abuse after its release in 1989.
Tyler told the story of the song’s origin Monday, explaining how the music came to him before the lyrics. And in between, he had to deal with his own addition problem.
“As you can only imagine, being in a band with guys for 50 years, you can have problems,” Tyler said. “And rather than quit, I decided to go to this treatment center for co-dependency.”
While in treatment, he noticed nearly all the women present had at some point been abused, emotionally or physically.
“That touched me,” Tyler said. “So when I got out of there, I laid that all on Janie.”
About five years ago, Tyler’s management met with the heads of Youth Villages, which operates facilities and programs for children across the country.
“It’s not every day you get a call from a manager of a rock star who says he wants to meet you,” Youth Villages CEO Patrick Lawler said. “First of all, you think it’s one of your buddies screwing around with you.”
Their first meeting, Lawler said, Tyler talked for three hours about why this cause was important to him. He had done his homework on Youth Villages, Lawler said, and had no interest in being a spokesman for the organization. “Steven wanted to be all-in,” Lawler said. One of the girls living in the home now, a 14-year-old whom Youth Villages identified with just her first name of Jabrayia told the crowd she’s grateful for Tyler and the house because now she knows she’s not the only one going through the issues that have plagued her young life.
Nicole Fannin, the director of residential services for Youth Villages, relayed additional messages from the girls. They told her to thank Tyler — “but don’t just say it in a regular way.”
They felt safe there, she said, in some cases for the first time. In her promise to relay their message, she quoted one girl directly: “It’s not often somebody like him cares about somebody like me.”
Reach Jennifer Pignolet at jennifer.pignolet@commercialappeal.com or on Twitter @Jenpignolet.