Monday, July 16, 2007

RIP Kelly Johnson, one of my original guitar idols

Kelly Johnson, founding member of Girlschool, and, if memory serves me correctly, the first woman to grace the cover of Guitar Player, died Sunday of spinal cancer. I bought "Screaming Blue Murder" at Rainbow Records in Morehead City when I was 15, and it made me realize that you didn't have to be a man to play guitar. I'm going to get all aging feminist on y'all and say that the girls who are in bands today don't realize how revolutionary it was for women to play metal -- or for that matter, any kind of rock -- back then. Kelly was a true original and will be missed.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Rainbow Records-now that takes me back!!