here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\u201cI have an alter ego,\u201d Petrucci revealed. \u201cI\u2019m a classically-trained clarinetist. During the day, I would wear conservative clothes, my hair in a bun. I was first chair clarinetist. And then I\u2019d smack on the leather and go play clubs at night. That\u2019s what I\u2019ve been doing for the past forty-something years.\u201d Yes, she still plays the clarinet.<\/p>\n
It was, she recalled, difficult to get Vixen taken seriously in the beginning. Fronted by the late singer\/guitarist Jan Kuehnemund in St. Paul in the mid 1970s, Vixen was comprised of veterans of other all-girl rock bands.<\/p>\n
Not that there were all that many in existence, particularly in the Midwest. \u201cWe were inspired by Zeppelin,\u201d said Petrucci, \u201cand Aerosmith, bands like that. Ann and Nancy Wilson (of Heart) were around, too. They were great. The musicianship and the talent was off the charts.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe just wanted to model ourselves after people who were fantastic, and had great songs. And that\u2019s what we were about.\u201d<\/p>\n
Vixen was seen as a novelty at best (\u201cbut we already have a female band on the label \u2013 Lita Ford,\u201d Petrucci remembered hearing from one label). EMI Manhattan Records signed the group, put that first album out and sent them on the road. Vixen opened for Aerosmith, Deep Purple, Scorpions and Ozzy Osbourne, among others.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey put us on the bill because we were a girl band,\u201d the drummer said. \u201cBut the fact that we delivered \u2026 it didn\u2019t matter. We didn\u2019t care. It was \u2018Whatever \u2026 just get the booking.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cGreat songs, great stage presence. And the fact that the girls were beautiful definitely didn\u2019t hurt. Especially for back then.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 2026 Vixen also includes guitarist Britt Lightning, vocalist Rosa Laricchiuta and bassist Julia Lage. \u201cIt\u2019s been exciting for me,\u201d Petrucci said. \u201cThey bring new energy and it kicks me in the ass. I have to be on top of my game. You know, I\u2019ve been around a lot longer than them.\u201d<\/p>\n
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\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In its late 1980s\/early \u201890s heyday, the hard-rocking Minnesota band Vixen just missed the Top 20 with the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":294105,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[202,204,203,199,201,200],"class_list":["post-294104","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294104","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=294104"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294104\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/294105"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=294104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=294104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=294104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}