Jane re-visited the site of her fall last year.

15′ drop from top to first rock ledge, then rolled 40 feet thru poison oak. Eeek!

Jane stopped by the Gibson NYC Showroom to chat punk rock, learning guitar and being a super hero. View interview HERE.

DRAG SCHOOL!!

NEW YORK, NY – May 10, 2011 – Summer school has never been this glamorous with the return of Logo’s hit series “RuPaul’s Drag U.” RuPaul and his drag queen faculty help a new batch of biological women unleash their inner diva through the power of drag. This season delivers new drag faculty, new guest choreographers, more iconic celebrity guest judges and gallons of glitter! The new one-hour, 10-episode season of “RuPaul’s Drag U” premieres Monday, June 20 at 9/8c on Logo.

Join RuPaul as he “schools” women on self-esteem and self-acceptance along with this season’s drag faculty of fan favorites offering their own pizzazz to this school’s curriculum. The faculty of fabulous include: Bebe Zahara Benet, Carmen Carrera, Jujubee, Manila Luzon, Mariah, Morgan McMichaels, Ongina, Pandora Boxx, Raven, Shannel, and Tyra Sanchez. In addition, “Dean of Drag” and permanent judge Lady Bunny undertakes a more hands-on role by offering a vital “lady lesson” to the diva-drained students each week. “RuPaul’s Drag U” also welcomes an expanded group of guest choreographers to take on the role of “Dean of Dance” including Toni Basil, Candis Cayne, Andre Fuentes, Tricia Miranda and Jamal Sims.

This season of “RuPaul’s Drag U” will also feature a new batch of visiting celebrity professors including Molly Ringwald (actress), Lynda Carter (actress), Dot Jones (actress, “Glee”), Shirley Jones (actress), Carnie Wilson (singer), Raven Simone (actress), Charo (singer/actress), Beverly Johnson (model), Ana Ortiz (actress) and Alec Mapa (actor/comedian). In addition, 1980s pop culture icons Stacy Q, Downtown Julie Brown and Jane Wiedlin enroll as students in the season finale.

The students at “RuPaul’s Drag U” will learn to embrace the power of their inner diva by mastering the fundamental elements of sexiness, sass and spunk. As President of Drag U, RuPaul oversees each pupil’s individual progress and imparts invaluable life advice that only the “World’s Most Famous Drag Queen” can provide. The season continues to offer a wide-spectrum of today’s modern woman: the online dater, the virgin, the lesbian, the overworked nurse, the overextended mother and the unemployed woman. Of course, RuPaul will have many tricks up his graduation gown sleeve by including an incoming class full of family members related to the drag faculty!

The road to glam will not be easy. The women will be put through “The Dragulator,” a “highly-sophisticated piece of technology,” that will reveal the ladies’ full drag potential.  Next, they are paired with a carefully selected drag faculty mentor who will be responsible for helping the women achieve their drag dreams through an outrageous lesson plan that will challenge the women inside and out.  The heart-stopping drag transformations are unveiled at the culmination of each episode in a musical performance before an audience of family, friends and the judges’ panel. At the conclusion of the episode, all students will “draguate” with a boost in confidence, self-respect and whole new take on the power of drag.

Fun interview with Jane and Bill and Rock Book Show

Jane stopped by the Gibson NYC Showroom to chat punk rock, learning guitar and being a super hero. View interview HERE.

Not Jane’s birthday yet, but she already got a FAB one-of-a-kind ecard from Sideshow Tony and his friends!

Jane had a gay old time hanging out with Big Gay Ice Cream in NY.

Download the BGIC Truck theme song written/performed by Jane HERE.

And with the gang at the Frank DeCaro Show, Sirius/XM OutQ Radio.

New interview with Jane and Billboard.com

The Go-Go’s are still a going concern, and guitarist Jane Wiedlin, for one, hopes that a summer tour to celebrate the 30th anniversary of their debut album, “Beauty and the Beat,” will lead to some new music from the all-female 80s favorite.

“We’ve talked about it for years. It’s one of those ongoing conversations,” Wiedlin tells Billboard.com. “I was thinking about how few records we actually have made in our 33 years and how we could be doing a lot better. Because the Go-Go’s isn’t a full-time band anymore and the fact we’ve scattered over the whole world, it makes it really hard to commit to things like making records. But having said that, now that the interwebs are so big and people release one song at a time… the structure of making music has become less rigid. So I’d like to think that, yes, we will have new music coming.”

Wiedlin adds that bandmates Charlotte Caffey and Kathy Valentine have, in fact, written a new song “that is good, and if we get our act together to learn it, we might perform it in concert.”

The Go-Go’s recorded three albums during the 80s and came back in 2001 with “God Bless the Go-Go’s.” It has not released any new music since then. The group will, however, release a remastered 30th anniversary edition of the double-platinum “Beauty and the Beat” on May 17, featuring the entire original album and a second disc recorded live at The Metro in Boston during 1981, featuring non-LP tracks such as “London Boys” and “Surfing and Spying” as well as an early version of the title track for the group’s second album, “Vacation.”

The Go-Go’s hit the road for their Ladies Gone Wild tour on May 29 in Hershey, Pa., and Wiedlin says that, unlike last year’s farewell trek — which was postponed after she injured her knees in a hiking fall — there are no plans to say goodbye for good when this tour wraps in August.

“Over the course of a year everyone just started re-thinking that idea and ultimately we decided we shouldn’t say it’s a farewell tour this year,” explains Wiedlin, who also writes a comic book called Lady Robotica and recently wrote and directed a short film called “The Pyrex Glitch.” “I was not happy about it, anyway; I want to be a 90-year-old Go-Go someday. I love being a Go-Go. It definitely has its ups and downs, and we have a very intense energy with each other. Sometimes it’s amazing fun, and it’s always magical when we play live together. And sometimes we are just such a pain in the ass to each other, like, we all get on each other’s nerves because we’ve all known each other for so long. Basically it’s a five-way marriage that’s gone on for 33 years — and will keep going if I have anything to say about it.”

While Jane is in NY she popped by Gibson headquarters for a visit and an interview (video soon).

Sweater by Heartbreaker Fashions.

Check out this new interview with Jane where she gives us some scoop on the 30th anniversary remastered re-issue of BATB, talks Bill and Ted and reminisces about 1981 and what it felt like to have an album on the charts.

Jane and Dead Elvi performing at Chiller Theatre

Mark your calendars!

On Monday May 2nd listen to Jane on The Frank DeCaro Show, Sirius/XM OutQ Radio at 12:30pm EST.

Jane will be at the Chiller Theater Expo this weekend. See you there? 🙂

For those of you in NYC … Jane will also be playing 2 shows at the Iridium with the Les Paul Trio on May 2nd.

Info and tickets available HERE.

Jane and Gina – Circa 1980

Photo by Gary Leonard

Awesome Spinning Platter interview w/Jane

Jane Wiedlin is a modern renaissance woman. Not only is she the legendary guitarist for the most successful all female rock band of all time, she has more career hyphenations than I can fit in this space. She’s about to embark on a tour with the Go-Go’s to commemorate the 30th anniversary of their debut record Beauty & The Beat, but she fit some time in from her busy schedule as a musician/comic book artist/producer/actor/Jedi to talk about her touring plans, her numerous creative projects, as well as what really caused the band to cancel their tour last summer.

Last year your tour was billed as a Go Go’s farewell tour, which was canceled because of injury. Your tour this summer is not being billed as a farewell tour. Does this mean that you will keep going after this tour is over?
Well, like you said, last summer we had a tour booked. We dubbed it the ‘Happily Ever After’ tour, and it was a farewell tour, and just before rehearsals were due to start I had a hiking accident. I was hiking through Corona Heights Park in San Francisco, and I fell off a cliff. I really damaged my leg. I had knee surgery. And, having had a year to think about, we decided that we didn’t want to be so finite and call it a farewell tour. Leaving it open like that gives us the opportunity to work together again in the future, which I am hoping we will do. If you asked me 30 years ago if I would still be a Go-Go at this age, I would have said that you were crazy, but now I’m really happy to be a Go-Go, and I would be thrilled to be a Go-Go for the rest of my days.

How is it now versus then? If I’m doing my math right, The Go Go’s have been ‘reunited’ longer than you were initially together…

You are doing your math correctly… We reunited in 1990, so that’s been 21 years. Most think that this is a reunion tour. That is not true. Even though we aren’t as active as we once were, we still played pretty much every year since 1994, last year being the only year we took totally off, but that was because of the accident. Yeah, so it’s crazy… Even in the heyday, which was only seven years, 3 forming years, then getting a record deal, have a #1 record, and then three years later we split up. So, yeah, we’ve been doing it way longer now.

Are there any precautions being made preventing anyone from getting horribly injured between now and the tour?

Yes. I am chained to my bed. I can’t go outside.  That accident came totally out of the blue… I was with my friends, in the park at night. We were having a light saber battle you know, because we’re geeks, and it turns out that light sabers make terrible flashlights. They basically blind you, and I have terrible night vision anyways. So, I couldn’t see where I was going, and I walked right off the trail and right off a cliff. So, one second I was on the ground, the next second I was in the air, the second after that I was on my knees.  I heard this noise that sounded exactly like a champagne cork popping, and that was my knees exploding!

So, that really doesn’t say a lot for the protective nature of “The Force”

Ha ha… And the worst part about it was that when I rolled down the cliff, it turned out that I was rolling through poison oak.  So I spent the next three weeks miserable, bed ridden, and covered in poison oak. I was the most miserable person on the planet!  And then I finally got my butt out of bed, and went to the doctor who told me that I needed to have surgery, and I have pretty much been recovering ever since. But, I have to say, I feel completely lucky that I didn’t die or became paralyzed. I’m very thankful for that. And I think that the Go-Go’s deciding not to break up yet may have been the happiest consequence of this accident.

What can we expect from this tour? It’s billed as a “Beauty & The Beat” tour. Will you play the whole record?

Well, yes, it is the 30th anniversary of the release of our first record Beauty & The Beat, and we have always, in every tour, taken liberally from the record. We play a lot of that material, and that’s not going to change, because most people believe that’s our best record.  So we will have plenty of music from that record, but we don’t intend on doing the whole record in it’s entirety. I mean, I guess we could do that, but it’s not in our plans.  We will play stuff from every record; maybe do a few new cover tunes. Cover tunes are always fun to play, to try new arrangements and Go-Go-fy it. There is even talk of doing a brand new song that nobody has heard before.  As a concert goer, I like to hear the old stuff, so I don’t want to pester people with a ton of new material, but it would be nice to play people something that they haven’t heard before.

Well, in 21 years The Go-Go’s have put out a handful of new tracks. for the greatest hits, and one studio album (God Bless The Go-Go’s), so I think we are ready for some new material.

You make us sound so pathetic… (chuckle) I guess we aren’t the most prolific band out there.

So what have you been working on lately? It seems that you have been very active lately, but is there any new material, not necessarily Go-Go’s material, coming out?

Is there any proof that I’ve been active? No. Kidding. I am so damn busy; I don’t even know what’s going on with my life. I just can’t say no to any project! I love working, and then I get overworked, then I get nervous and have a nervous breakdown. (giggle) But last year I spent a lot of time working in independent film. I’ve worked on three different movies coming out this year. One of them I was music director on, and another one I ended up assisting the producer. I really enjoy working in behind the scenes jobs. I’ve always been a behind the scenes girl, I love being a writer. Don’t get me wrong, I also love performing, too, but I love being able to contribute in other ways.  I’ve been doing that. I also started my own comic series called Lady Robotika, and I’ve started writing a musical based on that comic book series.  That’s kind of my little dream that someday that is going to get launched.  It really seems that all I ever do is work! I even have a recording studio at my house in San Francisco, so there’s recording always going on here. We even have outside bands coming in all the time to record. It’s nice, this really busy, really creative life that I lead.

Can you tell me more about the films that you are working on?

Of course! Two of them were made by San Francisco directors, which is kind of exciting. They are even neighbors of mine. The first one is called Doggie Boogie, directed by Romanus Wolter. It is a family comedy about competitive dog dancing. It’s a great movie! It looks so good, full of color and fancy. It’s the kind of movie that I’m hoping parents will love, because it’s not just for little kids. I’m really happy to part of it. That’s the film that I was music supervisor on. I wrote the theme song for it, and I got a chance to pick out the songs that will be part of the movie.

The next movie I worked on is called The Casserole Club. That one was directed by Steve Balderson, he’s based in Kansas. He makes a lot of movies, and he always works with the same people, which is kind of fun because I’m friends with the cast already.  This movie is a great story about a suburban neighborhood in the 1960’s where a group of people had a dinner club that somehow evolves into a swingers club. Some of its funny, some of it’s really sad…. You see all these marriages unravel as a result of their shenanigans. This was the one where I was assistant director.  He called me “His Girl Friday” because I did different jobs at once. I got act, but I also got to be seamstress, and prop master, and I did set design, and script runner and pretty much everything.

And the final movie I did was I Want To Get Married. That was written and directed by San Francisco based Billy Clift, who’s most recent film was Baby Jane, kind of a takeoff on Whatever Happened To Baby Jane?. This one is about a sweet, shy gay man that wants to get married. It kind of revolves around Prop 8, and so it’s a very sweet, kind movie. I was very happy to be part of it because it has such a great message.

Any idea as to when these might come out?

The Casserole Club is getting submitted to film festivals now, and will probably be hitting the festival circuit by this fall. The other films, I’m not sure about.  It’s such a long process, even for independent films, to get them on the screen.

Speaking of film… When I started asking people about this interview, folks were giving me questions, and this one was one that I really need to ask. Will you be involved in Bill & Ted 3?

I want to so badly!!! That would rule! I’d love to come back, either as Joan Of Arc, I mean Ms. Of Arc, or some other part, but it’s not my decision. I would love to do it, but I doubt it will happen.

How did you get involved with “The Golden Girls Christmas Episodes”?

Editor’s Note: Golden Girls Christmas Episodes is an annual theater event in San Francisco where drag queens reenact their favorite Golden Girls Christmas Episodes

I have a lot of friends that are drag queens. This event is, of course, four legendary San Francisco drag queens, and I am friends with Heklina, the boss of the production for many years, and she invited me to portray Angela Petrillo, Sophia’s sister from Italy. It was kind of a blast! It was my first live theater experience, and I was nervous the first night, but after that it was just fun! They have even asked me back for next year. The only thing we don’t know is what episodes we are going to do.

How many Golden Girls Christmas Episodes were there?

I think that there were only a couple…  There were a couple with Angela, but I’m kind of fuzzy on the details, but I know there weren’t that many. We did two episodes per show, and the 2nd episode was an episode that we turned into a Christmas special. For the first episode, the real Christmas special, I played a man, which was fun because I love doing drag king, I love it. In the 2nd episode, I played Angela and we made it Christmassy somehow. They can play with details to make it work out, and I hope they will find more episodes that have a good role for me to play.

How come Frosted never put out a second record?

That Frosted record sold 2,000 copies. There was only one person at that company that supported this record at all. It was very demoralizing. I can’t really operate in a vacuum. I guess I sound bitter, but if you get no support, it’s hard to just keep doing something.  I love that record, I totally stand by it. I think that it’s one of the best records that I’ve ever made. The next Frosted record ended up being a Jane Wiedlin solo album (Kiss Proof World.) It’s a little bit easier, if you aren’t going to rely on record companies, to be a solo artist, then it is to try to keep a band together. Especially if you need to keep them fed and happy, it’s just hard.

So, what does Jane Wiedlin listen to now?

God, I hate that question…  I listen to my friends, because I want to use people I know when I’m music supervisor. I listen to Gabby LaLa, a Bay Area artist and my friend Abby Travis, who is an LA artist, and there’s a great band out of Healdsburg, CA, called Crazy Famous. My boyfriend just produced their new record, and I am hearing that a lot in the house.  So, yeah, I like to listen to my friends.

What prompted you to move to San Francisco? It seems that The Go-Go’s were always an LA band, but I don’t think that any of you live in LA anymore…

Yeah, only one of us is still in LA, and that’s Charlotte (Caffey), still lives in the first house she ever bought in LA.  I’ve had 14 different homes since the early 80’s. I just moved every few years, but in 2010 I moved to San Francisco, and I think that it’s the smartest thing that I’ve ever done. I’ve always loved this city, and now I live here!

You’ve become one of those famous people that people think they’ve seen, but are never sure.

Yeah, I get that a lot, like “I think I just saw Jane Wiedlin in the Castro!” and I’m all, like, yeah, you did.

It’s you, and Robin Williams, and Jello Biafra. You should all just get together.

It’s the famous people club!  A lot of people seem to think that famous people only know other famous people, but I don’t really know any famous people. Well, I know The Go-Go’s, I guess they are famous.

I’ve seen you with Billie Joe (Armstrong) on stage

I haven’t seen him in years… I haven’t run into him since I moved here, but I think that’s because he’s more East Bay.

I run into Green Day members at Trader Joe’s all the time…

Trader Joe’s is where everyone runs into everyone else.

Tune in to Dead Serious radio tomorrow at 9:00pm EDT to hear an interview with Jane! 🙂

Casserole Club trailer…