

the chance to get to talk to someone like Sheryl Crow, who previously I had interviewed her, for like, a grand total of probably 10 minutes. I mean, there were women that I'd never gotten to interview before, some certainly not for a lack of trying, but you know. Who were you most excited to interview for this film? It was a lot of hard choices because all of these women have fascinating stories. To go, "OK, well, we're gonna condense Joni Mitchell into two and a half minutes." We could have done 20 minutes on Joni and every person that we interviewed talked about Joni. The is really almost more from just speaking as a fan, and that we just got such incredible interviews. It was a constant fight of "kill your darlings," as we say as writers. We jump around a little bit, but we move in a pretty straight, linear arc. History is history, if we're following it in a linear way – which we do here. They are all just titanically inspiring women. The daunting part was, kind of, 'How do we give all of these women their due?' – because they're all icons, they're all historically important women. Women Who Rock covers a lot of ground in only a few hours. Was it daunting to tackle such an expansive project like this? Hopper discusses Women Who Rock with UCR below. To encapsulate the history of women in rock 'n' roll was a near-impossible task, but one that Hopper says is crucial to understanding both the evolution of the genre as a whole and its trajectory today. Ever since she's been a leading force in feminist music writing. Women Who Rock, which is currently rolling out on Epix, is directed by Jessica Hopper, a music journalist who cut her teeth in the '90s.

Each speaks of the importance of seeing women persevere so that they could continue to carry the torch. Vincent Margo Price and Yola who speak in the film. Ricki Lee Jones recalls one instance where she was asked to sit on her boss' lap or else lose her job.Īt the same time, a continuous stream of individuality, innovation and inspiration runs through the series, as evidenced by the contemporary musicians like Annie Clark, better known as St. Chaka Khan recounts the pushback she received when she revealed she was pregnant: There was little room for a woman to be both a performing musician and a parent, though men did it frequently.

There's some brutal honesty in Women Who Rock. Along the way, they inspired the next generation and the one after that. From Mavis Staples with her compelling, gospel-infused voice, to Nancy Wilson hitting the strings of her guitar alongside a band of mostly men (besides her sister) in Heart, to Pat Benatar redefining the image of femininity as she became the first woman to appear on MTV, to Courtney Love of Hole venting her frustrations through song, each barrier broken led to another one to demolish. Women Who Rock is best described as a tower of building blocks.
