JAYNE COUNTY IN BUTT MAGAZINE!
TRANSSEXUAL PUNK GODDESS JAYNE COUNTY LOOKING AMAZING IN BUTT MAGAZINE!
When I was one of the resident drag go-go dancers at the Pyramid club, a headliner came to town that had the whole jaded dump buzzing: Jayne County. I'd seen her on the local news in Chattanooga announcing that Wayne County of The Electric Chairs had switched to Jayne.
I met her in the basement before her soundcheck and we hit it off immediately--for some reason she wanted some diet pills and for some reason I had them. And I've always hated diet pills and obviously, dieting. Jayne's from Georgia and I'm from Chattanooga, Tennessee, so we had that southern thang going. We've lived together, fought tooth and nail, but somehow got through it and whatever our friendship's ups and downs were, I have seldom seen a more riveting entertainer. Sadly, the brilliant footage of her was not featured in Wigstock: The Movie. I asked the director why and he said "She scares straight people." Totally perplexed, I said "I hadn't realized that placating straight people was the goal of the film!" Anyway, Jayne now lives back in Georgia and I recently visited with her when she came to see the play I was in in January. But luckily, Butt magazine has published this interview online from a previous issue so that you, too, can catch up with the diva. Here's a sample, courtesy of Butt.
JAYNE INTERVIEWED BY RUPERT SMITH
What do you think when you look back on
your career?
For a long time I was very bitter. I felt that
I’d not been given credit for what I’d done.
I was a pioneer in so many ways – I was
the first completely full-blown, in-your-
face queen to stand up on a rock ‘n’ roll
stage and say, ‘I am what I am, I don’t
give a damn.’ I influenced so many people,
from Bowie onwards. But for years I was
just dismissed as a crazy trannie freak.
How could someone like that possibly be
important? Rock ‘n’ roll is such a fucking
macho world, they don’t want people like
me around. But now, things have changed.
People look back at what I did in the ’70s
– and you can see it all there on YouTube,
which is fabulous – and they think, ‘My
god, Wayne County was a transgender rock
‘n’ roll artist when I was in my cradle!’ I’m
proud of what I’ve done. I made some great
records and I entertained a lot of people
with my shows. It’s nice that I’m finally
getting some credit for it.
JAYNE'S DAY LOOK IN GEORGIA
What do you consider to be the highlight
of your career?
Oh, where do I begin? The early ’70s, play-
ing at Max’s at the time of the New York
Dolls, that was great, a legendary time,
like ’20s Berlin. The punk era – doing the
Roxy in London in 1977, hanging out with
the Sex Pistols, then touring round every
club in Europe. And then the Squeezebox
years in ’90s New York, when the trannies
really crashed into the rock ‘n’ roll world,
and I finally felt the world had caught up
with me. They’ve made a documentary
about the Squeezebox, which was the best
rock club of all time, and I’m in it a lot. I’m
very proud of that.
How did being transgendered fit around
all that?
It was hard! I was in the public eye all the
time, right from the early days in New
York when I first started giving it some
serious thought. At first I was considered
to be a crazy drag queen, like a lot of the
Warhol girls – but for me, it went deeper
than that. I felt like a woman inside.
I started taking steps to make it real –
I took hormones, my body shape changed,
my tits grew. A lot of people in the rock
world found that very hard to take – people
that you’d expect to be a lot more liberal,
like Patti Smith, who was freaked out.
Others, like Debbie Harry and Dee Dee Ra-
mone, were really supportive. Then I had
my nose fixed, I changed my name from
Wayne to Jayne, and I started coming on
looking super-femme, really hot and sexy.
That was really hard for people to handle.
It was okay for me to be weird and funny,
but once I started looking like a woman –
oh boy. They didn’t know what to do with
me. I’m well aware that that damaged my
career – but I never thought about life in
those terms.
You never had a sex change, though.
No. I stopped short of surgery. That’s a
step too far for me; I don’t like to burn my
bridges. I decided that I was happy being
transgendered. A lot of girls have the
operation and regret it. It doesn’t solve any
problems. So I’m kind of in-between, which
suits me fine.
Have you given up rock ‘n’ roll forever?
Of course not. I still record here and there
– I did some tracks in Los Angeles with
Holly Woodlawn and Ginger Coyote, and
I’ve just done some sessions in New York
with the Lipstick Killers. Protest songs,
mostly, very basic, garage stuff.
Do you ever go to Atlanta?
Every once in a while. I’ll jump in the car,
get all dressed up and do a show in there.
It’s a real trans city, there’s a lot of punks
and rock ‘n’ rollers, and they have a lot of
respect for me. When I appear at the clubs
in Atlanta, they have conniptions! It’s like
fucking Madonna turning up!
What are you doing right now?
I’m cooking a duck. A whole duck. Peking
style. It’s something I always wanted to do,
and so I’m trying it.
Are your parents there, too?
Yes, my mother is in the next room watch-
ing Jeopardy, then she’ll watch the news.
She is a total news freak. She always
complains that she’s depressed – but what
do you expect if you watch the news all the
time!
And how are you dressed?
I’m wearing a Rolling Stones baseball cap,
a T-shirt with a cat on it, and Simpsons
baggy shorts. You should see me!
MORE JAYNE IN BUTT
When I was one of the resident drag go-go dancers at the Pyramid club, a headliner came to town that had the whole jaded dump buzzing: Jayne County. I'd seen her on the local news in Chattanooga announcing that Wayne County of The Electric Chairs had switched to Jayne.
I met her in the basement before her soundcheck and we hit it off immediately--for some reason she wanted some diet pills and for some reason I had them. And I've always hated diet pills and obviously, dieting. Jayne's from Georgia and I'm from Chattanooga, Tennessee, so we had that southern thang going. We've lived together, fought tooth and nail, but somehow got through it and whatever our friendship's ups and downs were, I have seldom seen a more riveting entertainer. Sadly, the brilliant footage of her was not featured in Wigstock: The Movie. I asked the director why and he said "She scares straight people." Totally perplexed, I said "I hadn't realized that placating straight people was the goal of the film!" Anyway, Jayne now lives back in Georgia and I recently visited with her when she came to see the play I was in in January. But luckily, Butt magazine has published this interview online from a previous issue so that you, too, can catch up with the diva. Here's a sample, courtesy of Butt.
JAYNE INTERVIEWED BY RUPERT SMITH
What do you think when you look back on
your career?
For a long time I was very bitter. I felt that
I’d not been given credit for what I’d done.
I was a pioneer in so many ways – I was
the first completely full-blown, in-your-
face queen to stand up on a rock ‘n’ roll
stage and say, ‘I am what I am, I don’t
give a damn.’ I influenced so many people,
from Bowie onwards. But for years I was
just dismissed as a crazy trannie freak.
How could someone like that possibly be
important? Rock ‘n’ roll is such a fucking
macho world, they don’t want people like
me around. But now, things have changed.
People look back at what I did in the ’70s
– and you can see it all there on YouTube,
which is fabulous – and they think, ‘My
god, Wayne County was a transgender rock
‘n’ roll artist when I was in my cradle!’ I’m
proud of what I’ve done. I made some great
records and I entertained a lot of people
with my shows. It’s nice that I’m finally
getting some credit for it.
JAYNE'S DAY LOOK IN GEORGIA
What do you consider to be the highlight
of your career?
Oh, where do I begin? The early ’70s, play-
ing at Max’s at the time of the New York
Dolls, that was great, a legendary time,
like ’20s Berlin. The punk era – doing the
Roxy in London in 1977, hanging out with
the Sex Pistols, then touring round every
club in Europe. And then the Squeezebox
years in ’90s New York, when the trannies
really crashed into the rock ‘n’ roll world,
and I finally felt the world had caught up
with me. They’ve made a documentary
about the Squeezebox, which was the best
rock club of all time, and I’m in it a lot. I’m
very proud of that.
How did being transgendered fit around
all that?
It was hard! I was in the public eye all the
time, right from the early days in New
York when I first started giving it some
serious thought. At first I was considered
to be a crazy drag queen, like a lot of the
Warhol girls – but for me, it went deeper
than that. I felt like a woman inside.
I started taking steps to make it real –
I took hormones, my body shape changed,
my tits grew. A lot of people in the rock
world found that very hard to take – people
that you’d expect to be a lot more liberal,
like Patti Smith, who was freaked out.
Others, like Debbie Harry and Dee Dee Ra-
mone, were really supportive. Then I had
my nose fixed, I changed my name from
Wayne to Jayne, and I started coming on
looking super-femme, really hot and sexy.
That was really hard for people to handle.
It was okay for me to be weird and funny,
but once I started looking like a woman –
oh boy. They didn’t know what to do with
me. I’m well aware that that damaged my
career – but I never thought about life in
those terms.
You never had a sex change, though.
No. I stopped short of surgery. That’s a
step too far for me; I don’t like to burn my
bridges. I decided that I was happy being
transgendered. A lot of girls have the
operation and regret it. It doesn’t solve any
problems. So I’m kind of in-between, which
suits me fine.
Have you given up rock ‘n’ roll forever?
Of course not. I still record here and there
– I did some tracks in Los Angeles with
Holly Woodlawn and Ginger Coyote, and
I’ve just done some sessions in New York
with the Lipstick Killers. Protest songs,
mostly, very basic, garage stuff.
Do you ever go to Atlanta?
Every once in a while. I’ll jump in the car,
get all dressed up and do a show in there.
It’s a real trans city, there’s a lot of punks
and rock ‘n’ rollers, and they have a lot of
respect for me. When I appear at the clubs
in Atlanta, they have conniptions! It’s like
fucking Madonna turning up!
What are you doing right now?
I’m cooking a duck. A whole duck. Peking
style. It’s something I always wanted to do,
and so I’m trying it.
Are your parents there, too?
Yes, my mother is in the next room watch-
ing Jeopardy, then she’ll watch the news.
She is a total news freak. She always
complains that she’s depressed – but what
do you expect if you watch the news all the
time!
And how are you dressed?
I’m wearing a Rolling Stones baseball cap,
a T-shirt with a cat on it, and Simpsons
baggy shorts. You should see me!
MORE JAYNE IN BUTT
posted by Lady Bunny at Wednesday, April 08, 2009
3 Comments:
I still have old posters of Wayne/Jayen and her back street boys, I'll never evah forget when Jayne dress up as Patty Smith at Max's. That imitation was spot on, the songs were funny and rocking (I got fucked by the devil last night, and he sure fucked the hell out of me). I remember one night when she was dj'ing at Max's I gave her an old Alan Freed album and I knew it was going to someone who loved music and would appreciate it. So glad she is happy and well.
I still have old posters of Wayne/Jayen and her back street boys, I'll never evah forget when Jayne dress up as Patty Smith at Max's. That imitation was spot on, the songs were funny and rocking (I got fucked by the devil last night, and he sure fucked the hell out of me). I remember one night when she was dj'ing at Max's I gave her an old Alan Freed album and I knew it was going to someone who loved music and would appreciate it. So glad she is happy and well.
Good for her living her life as she sees fit. I am afraid that i came on the scene a lot later than her but it is people like her that has helped make the world we live in a better place. Thank you Jane. Devera
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