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I struggled with using the word "pioneer" to describe myself, but after researching it I found precious few transsexual heavy metal musicians who predated my band Glamazon (1995-2001). Certain we had already seen punk rockers like Jayne County well before Glamazon and no shortage of guys who did androgyny or flat-out drag onstage, but transsexual women who'd transitioned full time and played in working heavy metal bands were not heard of. Given the "cock rock" aspect of metal and its strong association with maleness I'm not surprised there aren't many of us and few before Glamazon who regularly performed live and recorded a CD. So in that sense "pioneer" is no exaggeration. I'd wanted to play into a rock band forever, but my poor reception as a TS woman by other muscians made me despair I'd never be in a band. In 1986 our all-transsexual band fell apart because we were all dope fiends, and when I crippled my left hand during a PCP blackout, I thought I'd have to hang up my dream forever. Relearning to play as a leftie, I was a shadow of my former self. Then in 1993 I met one of the best female guitar players in the world and we founded Glamazon. We first performed in San Francisco in February on 1995 and played our last gig in Glendale near Los Angeles in December 2001. I could fill a book with the adventures of Glamazon: gigging, recording our CD, the setbacks and disappointments, the constant struggle to make the band work; but we never succeeded. We made a lot of wrong decisions, had some bad luck, but I finally had to admit that at nearly 44 years old I had grown too old to balance the stressful hours of an indie rocker against my corporate day job. Thus I quit Glamazon at the end of 2001 and we went our separate ways. Musician Main Photos 1 Photos 2 The New Glamazon Website Back to ChristineBeatty.com |
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