DESCRIPTION:
Memorial Tribute to Vixen founder and guitarist Jan Kuehnemund 1961-2013

Bio By She Rox All Female Bands: If there is any band that really is the little engine that could, it would be Vixen without any doubt, they began in the mid 1970's by founder and lead guitarist Jan Kuehnemund in St. Paul, Minnesota, while still in high school they made a name for themselves locally by playing the local circuit. By the early 1980's and already several line up changes later, founder Jan Kuehnemund moved to Los Angeles,California with the hopes of making it big and with a new lineup Vixen starred and played in the 1984 movie " Hardbodies" , the band continue to earn their rock and roll badges by touring and playing mostly headlining for record executives, however they continued to struggle to be signed and taken seriously, by 1988 with a revamped line up that left singer Janet Gardner and Jan Kuehnemund the only members left from the 1984 line up , they added hard rocking drummer Roxy Petrucci of Madam X fame, and when bassist Pia Maiocco left the band, they recruited classically trained Share Pederson on bass, this line up was the quintessential piece of the Vixen puzzle and the band finally landed a recording contract with EMI records and their 1988 self titled debut album was rushed to be released to the masses, garnered by two Top 40 hits written for the band, the album was a huge success and eventually went gold leaving Vixen the first all female hard rock band to date to gain commercial success. This also left Vixen vulnerable to being dismissed by many as all female hard rock bands were so few and far between, bands like Phantom Blue, Driven Steel, Girlschool, No Shame and even the Runaways of the 1970's still many critics felt rock and roll was strictly a boys club. People picked on any little thing said drummer Roxy Petrucci once and even rumors of Vixen not really playing on their album or their instruments,however were quickly put to rest when they played live and proved they were more then a contrived idea only to achieve commercial success. By their second full length album the strain of all the tribulation they endured began to take it's toll and the second album fell short of the debut and with the popularity of hard rock regressing towards grunge by 1992 they called it quits. Vixen reformed over the next two decades in various forms and lineups yet matured and more seasoned two more studio albums under the Vixen name would be released yet failed to achieve similar status equal to 1988's debut, partly due to numerous line up changes and refusal to play together as the original line up. It would not be until 2012 that original line up of Jan,Janet,Share and Roxy would announce the band would reform and tour permanently as Vixen, however the death of founder Jan Kuehnemund in October of 2013 left their fans reeling not only from the tragic news but the hopes of seeing the famous lineup together again.Vixen continues on with guitarist Gina Stile who replaced Jan in the 1998 version of Vixen,Stile also played in Poison Dollys and Thunderbox. Singer Janet Gardner says that is what Jan would have wanted, the band that she worked her whole life to make a success, to continue on. like us at https://www.facebook.com/She-Rox-All-Female-Bands-615368581896999/