This singer was bullied by someone you know
Updated: Dec 8, 2023
Janis Joplin made her debut in 1967 at the Monterey Pop Festival with Big Brother and the Holding Company. She was called the “white soul singer” and she sang blues songs and old standards in a whole new way. With her unique raspy voice, songs like “Ball and Chain” and “Summertime” were reinvented by this singer from Port Arthur, Texas.
Janis often spoke about growing up in that Texas town. She was quick to mention she had few friends and was picked on relentlessly in school for "being different." Janis Joplin couldn’t wait to graduate and leave the town where she was continuously bullied and even assaulted by classmates.
If you’ve taken one of my Rock and Roll Professor classes on Influential Women in Music and Janis Joplin, you know some of the stories about her love of the blues and her tough life as a teen. Janis had unruly, red, frizzy hair, along with a terrible case of acne. She was a loner, interested in painting, literature and music.
She listened to black blues singers from the 1920s and 30s like Bessie Smith, Ida Cox, and Ma Rainey. And she also wasn’t interested in sports. In Texas, in the late 1950s, both of these were considered highly unusual behavior for any high school student, not just a self-proclaimed “hippie freak” like Joplin.
Joplin struggled most of her adult life with self-doubt and an inferiority complex which fueled her drug and alcohol use. Janis will die from an overdose in 1970 at the young age of 27, just a few months after this photo was taken.
In 1994, an autobiography came out that highlighted some of the bullying that Janis endured. One of the classmates who took credit for making her life miserable?
Well… there’s a pretty good chance you’ve heard of him. Sadly, he speaks proudly of his actions as one of her tormentors, even as an adult and role model to many.
Watch the short video below to hear the story. Which one of these high school classmates do you think they will still be talking about in 100 years? Let me know your thoughts in the comments.
Have a great weekend! Rob
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