A great swath of musicians, their music, and their fans have frequently been disparaged over the years. I’m talking about “hair metal” bands and their fans.
A new three-part series now on Paramount+ digs into several musicians and their experiences of the era, recounting their rise and when the fiery flame of the brightest period for their brand was snuffed out.
We had the chance to catch up with a couple of those musicians, and today, we’re sharing our discussion with Janet Gardner, best known as the lead singer of the all-female group Vixen.
Gardner, now a dental hygenist and still making kickass music with her husband, Justin James, opened up for I Wanna Rock: The ’80s Metal Dream director Tyler Measom and for us during our candid discussion.
Please see the full conversation below, which has been edited for clarity.
Hi, Janet. How are you?
I’m good, thanks. How are you, Carissa?
I’m doing very well. Thanks for asking. I was definitely a fan back in the day, so it’s a thrill to talk to you.
Oh, nice. Thank you.
How many times over the years do you think you’ve been asked to recount your Vixen story?
Oh, many, many, many times, but you know what? It is what it is. It was a very cool time for me, so I don’t mind reliving it once in a while. It’s kind of fun.
Did being questioned by documentarians change the experience? Did they ask better questions, better informed? What was that experience like, versus just particular journalists?
They did a lot of research, even choosing who was going to be the participants in it, so yeah. It was funny because Tyler, the director, really was not that familiar with the genre.
He’s a little bit younger and didn’t live through it, so he really had to do a deep dive to get a sense of it and to get a feel for it, and he did a great job. I think it was definitely more in-depth, and hours and hours and hours of interview, starting from where were you born, where did you grow up, things that, yeah, you don’t normally go that deep.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FoyNmL0aybw
What was the most surprising part of that experience?
It was exhausting. I have a new respect for people that do reality shows because being in front of the camera nonstop like that is exhausting. I don’t know how they do it.
How long were the interviews?
Well, we did probably five hours at the venue that was chosen to do the main interviews, and then they came to the house for another five hours, and then they came to my work for probably three or four hours.
It was a lot, and just a few days of that, I was like, “Oh, my God, I’m so glad that they’re leaving.” Love them to death, they were all amazing, talented, wonderful people, but it was very intrusive on your life.
Oh, sure. You’re not going to be on the rock star version of Big Brother anytime soon?
Absolutely not. That’s a hard pass.
Have you seen the finished product?
Of the documentary?
Yeah.
Yeah. No, we watched it last night. We had a family gathering. We got some food, and we watched it from start to finish.
What did you think?
Well, I’ve known these guys for many, many years, and it was eye-opening for me. I was like, “Oh, my God. I had no idea.” I had no idea. I mean, I knew little bits and pieces of things that had happened, but not to that extent. My jaw hit the floor a few times. It’s like, “What? I didn’t know that.”
What’s your biggest takeaway?
Well, I think it’s really good for people who have a certain preconceived notion about the music business or even our particular genre of music that it was just, “Party, party, party, party, party, party,” and there wasn’t much more to it. Well, there was a lot more to it.
I think it definitely pulls down the curtain a little bit on the whole rock star thing. I thought it had a lot of heart, and it was real. It was very real, and I appreciated that. There was nothing pretentious about it.
As a fan and somebody who lived through that era and still has a great affection for that music, it surprises me how much disdain there still is for it, even though it’s also celebrated.
If you see a movie sometimes, you’ll hear that music in there because it was so infectiously happy. Everything was just, “Let’s have a good time, let’s enjoy life,” as opposed to the more dour stuff that followed.
Right. I mean, there’s a place for all of that. For me, what I try to do and what I love to do, and what Justin, my husband, also loves is to try to inspire people. I think that’s what we always tried to do. We tried to do that in Vixen — inspire women to empower people. That’s what we still try to do to this day. That’s what Justin and I try to do.
I mean, yeah, everybody gets depressed. Honestly, it’s a lot easier to write songs about sadness and anger. That stuff comes easy. It’s much harder to write things that inspire people, I think. It’s much more of a challenge. It’s easy to just be sour and write about how depressing everything is.
And to rant.
Yeah, exactly. I think it’s a lot harder to turn that around and help to inspire people to better themselves and their lives and the world and all of that. A lot of it was fluffy and fun, and I think people need that too.
Your life has problems. Sometimes you want to go to a show and just have fun. I think there’s still value in what we did, and it’s still valuable today.
My friends and I, even as adults, would never give up the experience we had with all of your bands, never. We look back on it so fondly, and it still informs our musical taste today.
Awesome. I love hearing that. Thank you. You’re still out there.
We are. In spades! There are a lot of us. This documentary is going to be really well received.
Oh, great.
Just so you know. There’s a shot in the series of you in a golf cart, talking about losing everything. How did the bottom falling out of ’80s metal force you to pivot into other directions, both personally and musically?
Well, I took some time to lick my wounds and do other things that I had enjoyed in life, and I put music to the sidelines for a minute. I knew it wouldn’t last because I love it too much. I love doing it, even if it’s just for myself sitting in a room with a guitar, expressing myself to my dog.
I love it, but I did put it aside, and luckily I had a great support system. My family is amazing.
I had good friends that were amazing and just said, “Hey, you’re no different than you were when you were on top of the world. There’s nothing different. You’re still talented, smart. Everything is still ahead of you, so enjoy yourself, enjoy your life, and know that things will get better,” and they did.
It took some time and a lot of reevaluation, and a lot of scary. Like I was expressing at that time, I put all my eggs in that basket, and when it crashed, it crashed. I just told myself, “I’m not going to let that happen again. I’m going to have better balance. I’m going to have other things in my life,” and music will always be there.
It will always be a part of it, but I need other things. That was what it really taught me, and so that’s what I did, and now I’m in the best place I’ve been in many years. I am so happy in life right now, so it all works out, but we all struggle.
We all go through times. It’s like anybody else. Losing their job or having some career-changing event is hard, but it does make you stronger, and it makes you smarter.
You parted ways with Vixen in 2019. What’s it been like letting go of such a significant portion of your life and seeing somebody else pick up where you left off with that band?
It’s fine. Like I said, I’m in a really good place. I wasn’t when I had to leave. That’s why I had to leave. It’s good. It’s positive. I don’t think I ruined it for anyone. They’re still continuing, and that’s great, so I don’t have to feel bad, and I’m just really happy with what’s happening in my life.
I have music. I have it with the person who is my life partner, and that’s really satisfying. We love making music together, and the album’s out. It just came out recently, and sharing it with the world, it’s all good.
I mean, it was tough. It was hard to let it go. I’ll admit that. There was a part of me that was like, “Oh, my God, this has been a part of me forever, one way or the other.” It was hard, but I made the right choice, for sure, because I feel better than I have in a long time. It’s all good.
I really enjoy the Gardner/James music, so you haven’t missed out on anything creatively.
Well, that was part of the struggle that we were having in Vixen was the creative aspect. This person didn’t like that person’s idea, and that person didn’t like this person’s idea, and this person didn’t want to do this, and that person didn’t want to work on that.
When you have a large committee like that, it’s hard to move forward. To get everybody on the same page, it’s difficult. For Justin and I to get two of us on the same page, it’s easy. It’s made things flow a lot easier, for sure.
I love that you still have so much fondness for the past. Your song 85, it’s like an anthem to everybody who lived through that time, even if we weren’t in a band.
That was the object because I have such fond memories of the early days before Vixen got signed. It was so carefree, and we had so much fun and so much hope for the future. You know, we had nothing, but we didn’t need anything. All we needed was our guitars and each other.
I have such fond memories, and I hope it reignites that for other people that were doing similar things or just getting started in their life at that time, and all that sort of innocent hope. Yeah, I still love that.
How much of yourself are you putting into your music now?
Well, it’s a balancing act, for sure, because between Justin and I, we have three kids. We have jobs; we have a dog, we have a mortgage. We have all that same stuff everybody has.
For us, we enjoy it so much that it’s our entertainment. We go to see shows. We see other bands play, other artists. We go see comedy, we go do things, but we also like to stay home and just create. It’s something that we enjoy together, so we can give a lot and we’re still at home.
We still have kids running in and out and asking for things and disrupting us, but it’s all good. It’s all part of it, and they participate. We get them singing the gang background vocals, and they’ve been in a couple of the videos, and we just have fun with it. It’s something we enjoy, so it’s easy to give the time that it requires.
Do any of your kids have musical aspirations?
Ryan, our oldest son, plays drums. Our younger son, Ashton, plays drums, and he is starting to learn guitar. He’s starting to get pretty damn good.
London, our daughter, has very eclectic music tastes, so she loves music, but I don’t know if she has any aspirations of doing it. It’s part of her life, for sure. She’s always listening to music. We can hear her in the shower. She’s got music on in the shower. It’s coming out of her room all the time, and she’s got really interesting taste. She’s an interesting girl.
That’s a wonderful thing to say about your daughter.
Oh, yeah.
It really is.
She’s unique and smart, and interesting. She’s unique. I love her to death. Boys are great, but they’re boys. [laughs]
It’s nice to have both, isn’t it?
Yeah. The boys are easier to read. Definitely, what you see is what you get. London, you have to dig a little deeper, but there is a lot there. There’s a lot in there. Yeah, they’re all really good, good kids.
Generally, how does it feel to still be kicking ass as a rock musician into your sixties?
I’ve always loved it, and I always will love it until the day I can’t do it anymore. It feels just as good to move people, to look into the crowd and people get it.
People are getting what you’re feeling, what you’re saying. There’s nothing like it. It feels just as amazing all these years later, and hopefully will until I’m six feet under. It’s great.
What advice do you have for people out there with musical ambitions and stars in their eyes?
Well, I think the best piece of advice is to be yourself. Search your soul. Be who you are. That’s what makes you you — your perspective. That’s what people want, and that’s what’s going to make people gravitate to what you’re doing. If they don’t, that’s okay too.
Your love of doing it is where it should start and end. Everything that happens in between is just your life journey. Just be yourself. Savor every moment that you have with your music and with the people you love. I know that’s kind of out there, but …
No, it’s not.
You know, you can get specific with little details of, well, you need to do this, and you need to do that, watch the business end and do this, and make good decisions for this and that, but you know what, it doesn’t really matter. It’s the journey and the growth that really are going to make your life happy and good.
I think that’s terrific and well-earned advice.
Thank you.
I want to thank you so much for chatting with me today. It was an absolute pleasure, and I wish you luck on your tour, and I hope everything goes great.
Great. Thank you so much. Thank you for all the support over the years and for still enjoying what we do. That means everything to us. Thank you so much.
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You can watch I Wanna Rock: The ’80s Metal Dream, an MTV Studios production in association with Gunpowder & Sky, right now on Paramount+.
Carissa Pavlica is the managing editor and a staff writer and critic for TV Fanatic. She’s a member of the Critic’s Choice Association, enjoys mentoring writers, conversing with cats, and passionately discussing the nuances of television and film with anyone who will listen. Follow her on Twitter and email her here at TV Fanatic.