OLIVIA OYL

Lizzy Mercier Descloux

Wendy O. Williams

May 28, 1949 – April 6, 1998

The “Queen of Shock Rock” as the lead singer of the punk band Plasmatics before going solo with great success.  She liked to blow shit up on stage, attack cops, and get naked.  She was also a raging animal rights activist.

Following excerpts from Wikipedia…..

Early life

Williams was born in Webster, New York. She attended R.L. Thomas (public) High School in Webster at least partway through the tenth grade, but apparently left school before graduating. At the age of 16, she hitchhiked her way to Colorado where she earned money selling crocheted string bikinis. She headed for Florida and then to Europe, where she worked as a macrobiotic cook in London and then as a dancer with a gypsy dance troupe. In 1976 she arrived at the Port Authority Bus Terminal in New York City where she saw an ad in Show Business Magazine that lay open on the bus station floor. It was a casting call for radical anti-artist and Yale MFA graduate Rod Swenson’s experimental “Captain Kink’s Theatre”. She replied to the ad and there was immediate chemistry between Swenson, known as Captain Kink, and Williams, which began a 22-year relationship that would see her launched as lead singer of the punk/metal rock group the Plasmatics some two years later.

Solo career

In 1979 she appeared in Gail Palmer’s XXX-rated adult production, Candy Goes to Hollywood playing herself (though she is credited as Wendy Williams). She is featured as a performer on a parody of The Gong Show where she shoots ping pong balls across the set from her vagina.

Wendy recorded a duet of the country hit “Stand by Your Man” with Lemmy Killmister of Motörhead in 1982.

In 1984, she released the W.O.W. album, produced by Gene Simmons of Kiss. Kiss members Paul Stanley, Ace Frehley, Eric Carr, and Vinnie Vincent also perform on the album.

Retirement

In 1991, Williams moved to Storrs, Connecticut, where she lived with her long-time companion and former manager, Rod Swenson, and worked as an animal rehabilitator and at a health food store in Manchester.^{[citation needed]}She explained this move by saying that she “was pretty fed up dealing with people.”

Despite her reputation as a fearsome performer, Williams in her personal life was deeply devoted to the welfare of animals, a passion that included a vegetarian diet, working as a wildlife rehabilitator and being a natural foods activist. In one TV talk show appearance on KPIX’s The Morning Show, she accused Debbi Fields (of “Mrs. Fields” cookies) of being “no better than a heroin pusher” for using so much processed white sugar in her products.

Death

Williams had first attempted suicide in 1993 by hammering a knife into her chest; the knife lodged in her sternum and she changed her mind, calling Swenson to take her to hospital. She attempted suicide again in 1997 with an overdose of ephedrine.

Williams died at age 48 on April 6, 1998 of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in a wooded area near her home. While some argued that rather than compromise her art, she committed suicide, Swenson reportedly described her as “despondent” at the time of her death. This is what she is said to have written in a suicide note regarding her decision:

“I don’t believe that people should take their own lives without deep and thoughtful reflection over a considerable period of time. I do believe strongly, however, that the right to do so is one of the most fundamental rights that anyone in a free society should have. For me, much of the world makes no sense, but my feelings about what I am doing ring loud and clear to an inner ear and a place where there is no self, only calm.”

Gene Simmons, Joey Ramone, and many others issued statements on her achievement at the time of her death. On Motörhead’s 1999 live album Everything Louder Than Everyone Else, before the song “No Class”, Motörhead vocalist Lemmy said that he wanted to dedicate this song officially to her.

A memorial was held at CBGB on May 18. Several of Wendy’s former Plasmatics co-members (Chosei Funahara, Richie Stotts, Wes Beech, Stu Deutsch, Jean Beauvoir and possibly TC Tolliver) played a six-song set with four of them handling the vocals.

sexy music***

Jay Reatard (Jimmy Lee Lindsey Jr.) 

May 1, 1980 – January 13, 2010

R.I.P.

Untimely death for a dude with immense talent.  It’s so sad.  Really looking forward to watching the Documentary Better Than Something.  For updates check out the doc’s website betterthansomething.com