Wendy O. Williams' "W.O.W." album, produced by Gene Simmons in 1984.

Wendy Orlean Williams (May 28, 1949 – April 6, 1998), better known as Wendy O. Williams, was the lead singer for the punk band the Plasmatics, whose stage theatrics included blowing up equipment, near nudity and chain-sawing guitars. Image File history File links Cover3299_21910. ... Image File history File links Cover3299_21910. ... Gene Simmons (born August 25, 1949) is an American hard rock bass guitarist and vocalist for the rock band Kiss. ... May 28 is the 148th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (149th in leap years). ... 1949 (MCMXLIX) was a common year starting on Saturday (the link is to a full 1949 calendar). ... April 6 is the 96th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (97th in leap years). ... 1998 (MCMXCVIII) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year of the Ocean [1]. // Coated in ice, power and telephone lines sag and often break, resulting in power outages. ... Punk rock is an anti-establishment music movement beginning around 1976 (although precursors can be found several years earlier), exemplified and popularised by The Ramones, the Sex Pistols, The Clash and The Damned. ... The Plasmatics were an American punk band, formed by Yale graduate and radical anti-artist Rod Swenson, around the late Wendy O. Williams. ... A chainsaw (also spelled chain saw) is a portable mechanical, motorized saw. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ...

Dubbed "The Queen of Shock Rock," Williams was widely considered the most controversial and radical woman singer of her day. She often sported a trademark Mohawk haircut. Diverse women. ... This article or section cites very few or no references or sources. ...

Williams was nominated in 1985 for a Grammy in the Best Female Rock Vocal category during the height of her band's popularity. Grammy Award statuette The Grammy Awards, presented by the Recording Academy (an association of Americans professionally involved in the recorded music industry) for outstanding achievements in the recording industry, is one of four major music awards shows held annually in the United States (the Billboard Music Awards, the American Music... The Grammy Award for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance has been awarded since 1980. ...

Biography

Williams was born in Webster, New York. She attended R.L. Thomas (public) High School in Webster at least partway through the tenth grade, but apparently left school before graduating. Webster is a town located in Monroe County, New York. ...

At the age of 16, she hitchhiked her way to Colorado where she earned money selling crocheted string bikinis. She headed for Florida and then to Europe, where she worked as macro-biotic cook in London and then as dancer with a gypsy dance troupe. By 1978, she was regularly performing in live sex shows, and soon began appearing in pornographic films, among them 1979's Candy Goes to Hollywood, famous for its "ping pong ball scene". Around that time, would-be Svengali Rod Swenson, also known as Captain Kink, recruited her to front his punk concept band, the Plasmatics. With their debut in New York City clubs in 1978, Williams quickly developed a reputation for obscenity and unruliness. Official language(s) English Capital Tallahassee Largest city Jacksonville Largest metro area Miami Area  Ranked 22nd  - Total 65,795[1] sq mi (170,304[1] km²)  - Width 361 miles (582 km)  - Length 447 miles (721 km)  - % water 17. ... World map showing the location of Europe. ... Regional competition level table tennis, showing table, net, and player getting ready to return the ball with a winning backhand topspin stroke. ... Svengali is the name of a fictional hypnotist in George du Mauriers 1894 novel, Trilby. ...

In Milwaukee, police arrested her in January of 1981 for simulating sex on stage. Charged with battery to an officer and obscene conduct, she was later cleared.

Wendy O. Williams and Lemmy in Stand By Your Man EP, 1982

Later that same year in Cleveland, Williams was acquitted of an obscenity charge for simulating sex on stage wearing only shaving cream. Then, in November, an Illinois judge sentenced her to one year supervision and fined her $35 for roughing up a freelance photographer who had attempted to take her picture as she jogged along the Chicago lakefront. ImageMetadata File history File links Download high resolution version (1205x1217, 321 KB) {{Albumcover]] Cover of Wendy O Williams and Motorheads EP Stand By Your Man. Alf 02:19, 13 July 2005 (UTC) File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to... ImageMetadata File history File links Download high resolution version (1205x1217, 321 KB) {{Albumcover]] Cover of Wendy O Williams and Motorheads EP Stand By Your Man. Alf 02:19, 13 July 2005 (UTC) File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to... Lemmy (born Ian Fraiser Kilmister on December 24, 1945, also known as Ian Willis and Lemmy Kilmister) is an English singer and bass guitarist, most famous for being the founding member of the heavy metal band Motörhead. ... Stand By Your Man is an EP by Motörhead and Wendy O. Williams, recorded and released in 1982 Tammy Wynettes country standard Stand by Your Man is given a surprising and brutal rendition in this collaboration by hard rocks legend Lemmy Kilmister and the porn star/queen...

Meanwhile, the Plasmatics toured the world, once getting banned in London, where the press dubbed them "anarchists."

During shooting of an appearance on NBC's SCTV comedy program in 1981, studio heads said they would not air Williams unless she changed out of a stage costume that revealed her nipples. Williams refused. The show's make-up artists found a compromise and painted her breasts black. This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...

In 1984 she released the "W.O.W." album, produced by Gene Simmons of KISS. KISS members Paul Stanley, Ace Frehley, Eric Carr and Vinnie Vincent also perform on the album. Gene Simmons (born August 25, 1949) is an American hard rock bass guitarist and vocalist for the rock band Kiss. ... Kiss is an American rock band formed in New York City in 1973. ... Stanley Harvey Eisen (born January 20, 1952, Manhattan, New York) known by his stage name Paul Stanley, is an American Hard rock guitarist and vocalist for the rock band Kiss. ... Paul Daniel Frehley, aka Ace Frehley (born April 27, 1951) is an American guitarist best known as a founding member and lead guitarist for the rock band KISS. Frehley played with the group from its inception in 1973 until his departure in 1982. ... Eric Carr (1950-1991) was the drummer in KISS from 1980 until his death in 1991. ... Vincent John Cusano (born August 6, 1952, in Bridgeport, Connecticut), is a virtuoso guitarist better known as Vinnie Vincent, and is most famous for his brief membership in the band Kiss. ...

The Plasmatics last tour was in 1988. In 1991, Williams moved to Storrs, Connecticut, where she lived with her long-time companion and former manager, Rod Swenson, and worked as an animal rehabilitator. Despite her reputation as a fearsome performer, Williams in her personal life was deeply devoted to the welfare of animals, a passion that included a vegetarian diet and working as a wildlife rehabilitator, while also personally being a natural foods activist. In one infamous TV talk show appearance on KPIX's The Morning Show, she openly accused Debbi Fields (of "Mrs. Fields" cookie fame) of being "no better than a heroin pusher" for using so much processed white sugar in her products. In 1992, Williams appeared as a guest vocalist with the band Consolidated on a brief track called "Wendy O Matik," a spoken-word critique of patriarchy in American society including the arts. Storrs, Connecticut - Near the Hawley Armory Gymnasium Storrs is a census-designated place and part of the town of Mansfield, Connecticut located in eastern Tolland County. ... For animals adapted to eat primarily plants, sometimes referred to as vegetarian animals, see Herbivore. ... KPIX (channel 5) is Viacoms CBS-owned and operated television station based in San Francisco, California. ... Recent photograph of Debbi Fields, founder of Mrs. ... This article deals with sugar as food and as an important, widely traded commodity; the word also has other uses; see Sugar (disambiguation) A sugar is a form of carbohydrate; the most commonly used sugar is a white crystalline solid, sucrose; used to alter the flavor and properties (mouthfeel, perservation... Consolidated was an American radical activist recording and performing group, formed in 1988 and best known in the early 1990s as an alternative dance/industrial music band. ... Play More Music is the third full-length album by industrial/hip hop artists Consolidated which was released in 1992. ... Patriarchy For other uses, see Patriarchy (disambiguation). ...

Williams died at age 48 in 1998 in a wooded area near her home of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. While some argued she committed suicide rather than compromise her art, Swenson reportedly described her as "despondent" at the time of her death. This is what she is said to have written in a suicide note regarding her decision: Suicide (Latin sui caedere, to kill oneself) is the act of intentionally taking ones own life. ... Kurt Cobains alleged suicide note. ...

I don't believe that people should take their own lives without deep and thoughtful reflection over a considerable period of time. I do believe strongly, however, that the right to do so is one of the most fundamental rights that anyone in a free society should have. For me much of the world makes no sense, but my feelings about what I am doing ring loud and clear to an inner ear and a place where there is no self, only calm.

On Motörhead's 1999 live album Everything Louder Than Everyone Else, before the song No Class, Motörhead vocalist and Williams' longtime friend Lemmy said that he wanted to dedicate this song officially to Wendy. 13:03, 14 May 2007 (UTC)IM540 Motörhead are a British heavy metal band formed in 1975 by bassist, singer and songwriter Lemmy (real name Ian Kilmister) after his ejection from the space-rock band Hawkwind. ... 1999 (MCMXCIX) was a common year starting on Friday, and was designated the International Year of Older Persons by the United Nations. ... Everything Louder Than Everyone Else is the third live album by the canonical heavy metal band Motörhead. ... Lemmy (born Ian Fraiser Kilmister on December 24, 1945, also known as Ian Willis and Lemmy Kilmister) is an English singer and bass guitarist, most famous for being the founding member of the heavy metal band Motörhead. ...

Discography

With the Plasmatics

• Butcher Baby/Fast Food Service (Live)/Concrete Shoes (Live) (7" single, 1978)
• Meet The Plasmatics (12" EP, 1979)
• Dream Lover/Corruption/Want You Baby (7" single, 1979)
• Butcher Baby/Tight Black Pants (Live) (7" single, 1980)
• Butcher Baby EP (12" EP, 1980)
• Monkey Suit/Squirm (Live) (7" single, 1980)
• New Hope For The Wretched (LP, 1980)
• Beyond The Valley Of 1984 (LP, 1981)
• Metal Priestess (12" EP, 1981)
• Coup D'Etat (LP, 1982)
• Maggots: The Record (LP, 1987)
• Coup De Grace (LP, 2000)
• Put Your Love In Me: Love Songs For The Apocalypse (LP, 2002)
• Final Days: Anthems For The Apocalypse (LP, 2002)

Solo

• Wendy And Lemmy (7" single, 1982)
• W.O.W. (LP, 1984)
• It's My Life/Priestess (7" single, 1984)
• Fuck 'N' Roll (Live) (Cassette EP, 1985)
• Kommander Of Kaos (LP, 1986)
• Deffest And Baddest (with Ultrafly And The Hometown Girls) (LP, 1987)
• Fuck You!!! And Loving It: A Retrospective (LP, 1988)

External links

• Rotten.com biography
• Wendy O. Williams at the Internet Movie Database
• Photos