Jane Wiedlin

Jane Marie Genevieve Wiedlin (born May 20, 1958) is an American musician and singer, best known as the co-founder, rhythm guitarist and backing vocalist of the new wave band The Go-Go's.

She is also the drummer and backup vocalist of the rock band The Hex Girls.

She also had a successful solo career.

She attended William Howard Taft High School in Los Angeles from 1972 to 1976.

According to Wiedlin, she was present "pretty much from the beginning" of the Los Angeles punk scene.

While attending college in the Los Angeles area for fashion design, she worked at a fashion-design house where she created song lyrics by scribbling ideas on clothing patterns.

Under the moniker Jane Drano, she would later design punk-style clothing that she sold at Granny Takes a Trip, a store on Sunset Boulevard.

She became part of the scene that spawned bands such as X, the Germs and the Weirdos.

Wiedlin and Belinda Carlisle formed the Go-Go's as a punk band in 1978, with Margot Olaverra on bass and Elissa Bello on drums.

The Go-Go's went on to become one of the most successful American bands of the 1980s, helping popularize new wave music with hits such as "We Got the Beat", "Our Lips Are Sealed", and "Vacation".

As a solo artist, Wiedlin had her biggest hit with the song "Rush Hour", which peaked at number 9 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Of her 1980s acting career, she has stated, "It turned out to be much harder than it looks, and as much as I enjoyed those experiences, I don't think I'm very good at it."

In 1981, Wiedlin and Terry Hall of Fun Boy Three and the Specials co-wrote "Our Lips Are Sealed".

The song peaked on the Billboard Hot 100 chart at No. 20, where it remained until 1982.

As an actress, she had roles as the singing telegram girl in Clue (1985) and as Joan of Arc in Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure (1989).

As a member of The Go-Go's, Wiedlin received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

She and the band were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2021.

Wiedlin was born in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin.

Her father, Robert Arthur Wiedlin Sr., an oral surgeon of German and Swiss ancestry, was born in Chicago, Illinois.

Her mother, Betty Jane (née Herro), was of Lebanese heritage.

Wiedlin's parents met while students at Marquette University.

She is one of five children, with a sister and three brothers, and was raised Catholic.

During Wiedlin's early childhood, her family lived in West Allis, a suburb of Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

When she was six, her father took a job with the United States Department of Veterans Affairs at a VA hospital in Los Angeles, and the family followed.

Wiedlin has said, "I remember my childhood as extremely idyllic."

She has also mentioned her adolescence with angst and hope by saying, "I was a depressed teenager. I thought life was completely pointless when I was in high school, but just a few short years later I was having the adventure of a lifetime in a successful rock band!"

Wiedlin has released four solo albums: Jane Wiedlin in 1985, Fur in 1988, Tangled in 1990 and Kissproof World in 2000.

Wiedlin's early acting credits include a brief appearance as an officer seen on a Starfleet Command video screen in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986), an ill-fated singing telegram girl in Clue (1985), the White Fairy in Golan-Globus's Sleeping Beauty (1987) and as Joan of Arc in Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure (1989).

After a series of reunions during the 1990s, Wiedlin, Carlisle, Caffey, Schock and Valentine reunited in 2000 to record God Bless the Go-Go's, their first studio album in 17 years.

The album's title and concept came from Wiedlin.

From 1995 to 1998, she was also a member of the band FroSTed, which released one album, Cold, in 1996.

In 2001, she had a regular role in MTV's Spyder Games, portraying the "ex-rock chick who runs the local coffee house" where the characters hang out.

In 2010, the Go-Go's announced their "Happily Ever After" farewell tour.

Although scheduled to begin in July, the tour was canceled because of ACL tears that Wiedlin had suffered in both knees after falling during a nighttime hike.

In 2017, Wiedlin teamed up with the American-born Italian multi-instrumentalist and songwriter Pietro Straccia to form a new psychedelic/pop/harmony and guitar-driven duo called Elettrodomestico.

The Go-Go's announced an 11-date reunion tour scheduled to begin in June 2020.

However, in May 2020 the tour was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In May 2021 it was announced that The Go-Go's would be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on October 30, 2021.

The band continued touring into 2022, before announcing their break up.

They did a one-off reunion in 2024, upon being inducted into the California Hall Of Fame.