ROXY PETRUCCI (drummer, Madam X, Vixen) My sister and I started Madam X around 1981 in Detroit. We were doing Zeppelin, Sabbath, Priest, Anvil, Van Halen, the real cool stuff—the deep cuts. Like, we did Van Halen’s “Loss of Control” and “Tora! Tora!” We’d take those songs and make them even heavier, if that’s possible.
MAXINE PETRUCCI (guitarist, Madam X) We were playing clubs all across the East Coast, Midwest, Southwest, and we worked our way to California. It was like a two-year deal.
ROXY PETRUCCI Any money we made went straight back into the band because we were self-contained. We had a PA, we had our own lights, we had a semi, we had a 1970-something Camaro, and we’d take turns sitting on that hump in the back. It was brutal, but we didn’t care; we were having a blast.
BOBBY ROCK (drummer, Vinnie Vincent Invasion, Nelson) I was playing on the same circuit as Madam X. I used to go out and see them back in 1983. Roxy was playing her ass off back then. And don’t forget that this wasn’t just jumping up to play a forty-five-minute set. This was three to four hours a night.
MAXINE PETRUCCI In Texas I remember some guy was just screaming: “That’s not them really playing! That’s not them really playing!” And then he jumped on the stage to see if we were really plugged in. It was really strange. But it was like, Okay, I take that as a compliment. And a couple times we heard, “They must be transvestites. They’re guys that became women.” They couldn’t accept the fact that we were really girls doing it. And we were two little girls. We’re only like five-two!
ROXY PETRUCCI Rob Halford lived in Phoenix at the time and he’d occasionally go out to this club called Rockers where we were playing. He came backstage and he said, “Hey, do you mind if I sing with you guys?” We did “The Hellion,” “Electric Eye”—six or seven Priest songs. Rob looked to his left and there’s Maxine and he’s smiling like, Look at this chick! Then he turned around and looked at me and he’s like, And look at this chick!
MAXINE PETRUCCI We were spotted in L.A. by Bob Street, who worked for Jet Records. And he got Sharon Osbourne’s father, Don Arden, who ran the label and at the time managed Black Sabbath, Lita Ford, and Electric Light Orchestra, to come to see us at the Troubadour. There was only a handful of people there, but I think Blackie Lawless and Chris Holmes from W.A.S.P. were two of them. Don heard us playing our original, “High in High School,” along with all the covers we were doing. And he said, “I think you guys have a great song. I’d like to sign you.” And we were like, “Yeah!” He put us in the studio with Rick Derringer producing. The record We Reserve the Right came out in ’84.
ROXY PETRUCCI We were scheduled to play in Europe and we did. We played the Marquee, which was great. Ozzy showed up. We were supposed to play other places, too, but it just didn’t happen.
MAXINE PETRUCCI Jet Records got into some sort of trouble with the IRS or accounting, I don’t remember all the details, but basically the money ran out.
ROXY PETRUCCI I left Madam X and flew back to Michigan … and I wasn’t doing shit. Then I got a call from Janet Gardner, who had tracked me down through an employee at Jet. Janet sent me the Vixen demo and I listened to it. I thought, Wow, this is really good. So I flew back out to L.A., we jammed, and I knew these girls were serious. They’re good, they’ve got some good songs. What do I have to lose?
JANET GARDNER (singer, Guitarist, Vixen) Before I joined Vixen, I was playing in a cover band and we were doing some crappy show in the San Fernando Valley. On one of our breaks, some girl comes up to me and goes, “I know this band that’s looking for a singer that you would be perfect for. I know the manager. I’m gonna have him call you.” I’m like, “Wow. They have a manager. That’s pretty impressive!” He came to another show and said, “You’d be a good fit. Do you mind if they all come tomorrow?” The next night we were playing our show and I saw him but I didn’t really see … I was expecting long-haired, guy-looking people. He came up to me and he goes, “I brought the band.” I was like, “Really? I didn’t see anybody.” He goes, “Yeah, they’re right over there.” It was [Vixen guitarist] Jan Kuehnemund and a bunch of girls. I was like, “Oh … it’s a girl band.” He goes, “Yeah, but you have to keep an open mind.” I said, “Well, of course, but I don’t want to be in the Go-Go’s.”
SHARE ROSS (bassist, Vixen) I moved to L.A. in 1984 from Minnesota and was carving out a name for myself as a session player. I played with Australian pop singer Helen Reddy and was an on-call for the Drifters, the Temptations, the Coasters. I was also getting hired by all these bands and playing all over the Sunset Strip. Somewhere along the way Jan saw me play with a bunch of dudes at the Central, which is now the Viper Room. She came up to me afterwards and said, “Wow, you’re a really good bass player. If you ever want to check out my band, Vixen, give me a holler.” She wrote down her name and her number on a bar napkin, which I threw into my bag and promptly forgot about.
JANET GARDNER We started playing and touring, actually. We went out in an RV and went everywhere. Then at one point we were like, “We could do this forever or we could go home, make some new demos, and really hit the L.A. scene.” Because the people were getting signed out of there, obviously.
ROXY PETRUCCI Around this time, David Lee Roth was auditioning drummers for his solo band and I went down and auditioned. I didn’t even care if I got the gig. I just wanted the opportunity to jam with Billy Sheehan and Steve Vai, and I can say I did. Billy later told me that I was one of the top ten, which is pretty awesome. But Gregg Bissonette got the gig, as he should have.
JANET GARDNER Allen Kovac had managed Lita Ford at one point. There was that female-friendly vibe. So we sent him demos of what we were working on.
ALLEN KOVAC (manager, Vixen, L.A. Guns, Lita Ford) I just asked one question: “Can you guys play?” And when they said yes, I said, “This is awesome. There’s no rock bands that are all girls.” And I told them it’s a terrible business for females.
SHARE ROSS Around 1986 I realized I was not in the right scene; I was in the session player’s scene, not in the band scene. I started looking for bands to join and everybody that I talked to just laughed at me. “What? A chick in our band? Fuck off.” And they would laugh at me on the phone, like openly. “Hey John! There’s a chick on the phone who wants to be in our band!” They didn’t even want to know. So I dug out Jan’s phone number and picked up the phone. They had fired their bass player ten minutes prior to me calling.
JANET GARDNER We were starting to gain a really good following. The other bands would come see us. I remember one night Bret Michaels was there. Kevin DuBrow and Frankie Banali from Quiet Riot came a couple of times. One time Howard Leese from Heart was there. It was like, “I heard this chick band, whatever, blah, blah, blah. Let’s go check it out.” People were definitely showing their faces around us. But it was still hard to get a deal.
ROXY PETRUCCI Getting gigs was not a problem for Vixen. Getting a rec-ord deal was a problem for Vixen. And it wasn’t because of the songs, it was “We already have a female artist.” Allen Kovac ran into a lot of resistance. “We don’t know how a girl band’s gonna go over as far as their style of music” was another one.
SHARE ROSS “If they soften it and sound a lot more like the Bangles or the Go-Go’s we would consider it.” We also heard, “We would sign this if they would be willing to go onstage wearing lingerie and be little sex kittens.”
JANET GARDNER We actually got a couple of reviews that talked about Roxy’s boobs when she was playing drums. We were just too womanly. But we had the passion and the fire for it, so who cares?