Janis Joplin was a legendary singer, destined to change the world of blues, soul and rock music forever.
She was one of the greatest singers of the 20th century, with incredible success and an equally large group of followers. But she was also a lonely, sad woman, consumed by conflicting feelings and complexes, which disappeared every time she walked on a stage. Because then she became the strong and determined lioness that everyone knew. However, deep down she always remained an insecure woman, consumed by excesses.
THE TRUE STORY OF JANIS JOPLIN
January 19, 1943: A star was born in Port Arthur, Texas. In the small oil town, Dorothy East, an employee, and Seth Joplin, an engineer for the Texaco oil company, brought little Janis into the world, devoting all their attention to her. Her childhood grew up peacefully, amidst the first signs of a passion that would soon turn into a true calling.
At school she shows that she is inclined to every form of art, especially singing. But her schoolmates, from a young age, make fun of her. They make fun of her for her somewhat strong appearance and for choosing to wear less feminine clothes. They also did it because in those days, Janis did not hide her ideals of freedom and equality. The teasing quickly turns into complexes and anxieties, especially when her body changes at the age of fourteen. She gains weight and does not like herself. But she has music, and she takes refuge in it. Meanwhile, her parents deal with her other siblings, who take the attention and care once reserved for her.
But time passes and for Janis it is time to enroll in university. The problems continue, her lack of attractiveness becomes the object of ridicule among the boys on campus, who vote her as the “ugliest person”. Her parents are increasingly absent and she, once again, finds refuge in music, between isolation from the rest of the world and those wounds that become deeper and deeper with each passing day.
The intolerance of the Texas city where she was born and raised goes hand in hand with her desire for freedom and an almost obsessive need for redemption and acceptance. In 1963, Janis decides to drop out of college and move to San Francisco. The city welcomes her: she is finally free to express herself, without holding back. But her rebellion also includes drug and alcohol abuse. Even her early musical hits do not allow her to find the peace she was looking for. Her new friends are worried about her and, with a one-way ticket to Texas, invite her to come home to meet again. Janis does.
FIRST MUSICAL HITS
In 1966 Janis decided to return to San Francisco and joined Big Brother and The Holding Company, first playing the tambourine, then becoming a soloist. The audience cheered, Janis liked it. Confirmation came with her participation in the Monterey Festival, when in front of an audience, her wonderful voice touched the hearts of the listeners.
An unforgettable performance that prompted Columbia Records to sign her group. Janis is still immature, but she is unique, completely different from all the singers of that time. She becomes the leader, being more successful than the other members, who are all men. Cheap Thrills was released in August 1968. A few weeks and it occupies the first position in the rankings, holding that record for two months. The group won the Gold Disc, but that same year they broke up. A joint decision – they themselves would say – born of the awareness that Janis’s destiny was elsewhere. However, that choice, which was nothing more than a prelude to her solo career, plunges Janis into the mistakes of her youth: she begins to abuse alcohol and drugs again.
The dose of pain accumulated in previous years came rushing back with overwhelming force. Her vocal cords were strong, thunderous, and mature. She was still the insecure, suffering girl of the past. On stage she makes 25,000 people fall in love, then goes home alone.
SUCCESS, FAILURE AND LOVE
With the newly formed Cozmic Blues, the greatest blues voice in rock history reaches the rest of the world. Her solo album, “I got Dem Ol’Cozmic Blues Again Mama!”, divides critics and audiences. Janis is criticized, even harshly, and those weaknesses that have never disappeared come back to the surface with force. Friends are worried about her, but she fights her demons every day, or at least tries to.
A European tour begins in 1969, but the reception from the public is not what the singer hopes for. Participation in the Woodstock Festival also proves to be a failure: while waiting to go on stage – about 10 hours after the concert began – Janis takes a heavy dose of medication, which jeopardizes her career.
The performance is full of instability and the audience does not appreciate it. Following the story, she chooses to change her life: she moves to Brazil and abandons excesses. Here she meets David Niehaus and a great love will be born between the two. The man will support her and help her all the time to get rid of excesses, but without success.
LAST CHANCE
Janis returns to America and forms a new group – most recently – the Full Tilt Boogie Band. She is positive and optimistic and lives that moment of her life with enthusiasm, abandoning drugs for a while. In June 1970 she was the protagonist, with her group, of a tour organized on board a moving train, the Festival Express 1970.
Her performances are perfect and Janis is more carefree than ever, to the point that she even finds time to make love: 65 sexual intercourses in 5 days, as she says. The extraordinary success of that period brought Paul Allen Rothchild, the producer of The Doors, closer to Janis. Paul is convinced that she has changed and decides to give her a chance by pushing her to record another album: Pearl. But Mercedes Benz, one of the most significant songs from the posthumously released album, is the last that Janis Joplin records. On October 4, 1970, she was found dead in room 105 of the Hollywood Landmark Hotel in Los Angeles. The medical report leaves no doubt about the cause of death: a heroin overdose.
Thus dies at the age of 27, one of the most beautiful and intense voices of the music scene of all time. Janis joins the 27 club, inheriting the curse of other great artists who died at that age. The singer’s body was cremated at Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery, her ashes scattered in the Pacific Ocean to fulfill her desire to be free, because after all, she had always been that way.