Easy A

 “Easy operator come a knockin’ on my door” – Pour Some Sugar On Me, Def Leppard

Upon meeting Tom Cruise he wanted me to help him with ideas for movie and not just for himself, but his friends as well.  I knew that several of the bands or artists such as Billy Squier and Oingo Boingo had contributed songs to movies, such as ’82 Fast Times at Ridgemont High, and INXS later talked about contributing to the movie Pretty in Pink released in ’86.  

I started with what I knew and told him about spending part of my summers in singing school and then the other in a reading club at the local library from about 2nd grade.  We would have contests to see who could read the most books at our grade level.  When I was in about third or fourth grade, while searching for a new book to read, a garnet covered book with a large “A” stood out in a low stack.   It was The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne.  While reading The Scarlet Letter I realized there were words I did not know or understand, so I approached the librarian who directed me to the nearest dictionary.  There I sat for several afternoons in a row until I finished the book.

There is another Scarlet which has meaning to me and that is the iconic Southern female Scarlet O’Hara portrayed by Vivian Leigh in Gone With The Wind.  Mom and I would curl up on the sofa together every time it would come on television.  I’ve actually known a few Scarlets, figuratively speaking.

English actor Gary Oldman had been tapped to play the role of Sid Vicious in Kurt Cobain’s  brain-child, the ’86 movie (Love Kills) Sid & Nancy.  Actress Demi Moore had been tapped to star in ’85 St. Elmo’s Fire.  While trying to draw connections to me they found a town in lower Alabama named St. Elmo.  The town was named for an 1866 novel by Southern author Augusta Jane Evans of the same name.  While doing more research they came across the electrical weather phenomenon called St. Elmo’s Fire. 

Later both actors, Gary Oldman and Demi Moore, were then tapped to star in the ’95 movie The Scarlet Letter.  The Executive Producer being none other than Dodi Fayed who died in the car crash with Diana, Princess of Wales in ’97.  After seeing the movie I mentioned to Tom that I was a bit disappointed in the writer taking creative license with the script. 

Another Scarlet influenced the ’92 movie Basic Instinct and the fact that one day I accidently stabbed Kurt Cobain with a microwave meat thermometer.  Fortunately, it wasn’t a mortal wound.  The movie I am referring to is Australian-American filmmaker Fritz Lang’s 1945 Scarlet Street. 

The dance scene in Basic Instinct actually happened while I was dancing with Kurt Cobain and Michael Hutchence at a private party when the ’84 album Purple Rain was released and Prince & The Revolution performed. 

Kurt Cobain made reference to the Scarlet Street movie in his journal under the page titled H.R. Puffnstuff, “Marlen Dietritch, Lilly Marlene sings”.  He is referring to the German love song Lili Marlene.  The poem was originally titled “Das Mädchen unter der Laterne” (German for “the girl under the lantern”), but it became famous as “Lili Marleen”. 

Nirvana in 1993 on MTV Unplugged in New York, Kurt requested the stage be surrounded by “Madonna” lilies.  Not to mention the “Anarchy A” on the cheerleader’s uniforms in the music video for Smells Like Teen Spirit.

While getting to know Michael Hutchence, of INXS, he told me about Australia, slang words, vegemite, and the ’79 movie Mad Max film starring Mel Gibson.  One day I fell asleep on the sofa in a dressing room of the auditorium we were working in.  I woke to Hutch starring me in the face smiling and for some strange reason I exclaimed, “Max!”  As a side project in 1989 Hutch started a band by the name of Max Q. 

If you haven’t seen the 2010 movie Easy A, I can highly recommend it.

Kurt Cobain and Charles Barkley

“The Orange and Blue” also known as Auburn University in Auburn, Alabama

In 1983, basketball player Charles Barkley from Leeds, Alabama was on the Auburn University basketball team before going pro. 

After we met in ’83, Kurt Cobain wanting to make a public connection to me, made a connection to Barkley.  This is not only because Barkley grew up in a small town near where I grew up in Trussville, but also because there is a city near where Kurt grew up in Washington also named Auburn.

I’ve mentioned that Courtney Love showed up in our lives in late ’84 looking for a part in the movie (Love Kills) Sid & Nancy.  Kurt asked her to have a picture taken which she claims was taken while still a teenager at Hillcrest juvenile hall and I do believe that is Kurt in the picture with her.  Her hair is dyed red, almost the color of mine.

In 1993 Barkley was asked to appear on SNL with Nirvana.

 Kurt also made mention of me is in his journal “At peace ami. You’re a good one.”  Kurt was a self proclaimed bad speller.

There is one more connection to Auburn and that is to Michael Hutchence.  Hutch was born in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.  Auburn is a suburb in western Sydney and named after Oliver Goldsmith’s poem The Desserted Village, which describes ‘Auburn’ in England as the loveliest village of the plain.

My Immortal Origin

The title for the song My Immortal was inspired by Ludwig van Beethoven’s  unsent letter to the mysterious person he referred to as  Immortal Beloved written 6-7 July, 1812 at the Bohemian Spa in Teplitz.

Amy means Beloved and my Bohemian great great grandfather was named Ludwig.

(The document is part of my great grandmother’s death certificate showing her father’s name as Ludwig and her mother’s as Mary Maresh)

I have also found my great great grandfather on the 1800’s Texas Census showing his origins as Prussia.

Kurt Cobain knew the story of me meeting my Bohemian side of the family as a little girl.  I remembered when they spoke German it scared me.  Though having been in America for a while, they still wore a very traditional wardrobe.  This is why he would make the claim of being a Bohemian artist.

The lyrics were again inspired by someone I cared very deeply about, but it was an impossible relationship.

In 1994 Gary Oldman, who had starred in Kurt Cobain’s ’86 brain-child (Love Kills) Sid & Nancy and with Tom Cruise in the ’88 film The Firm, starred as Ludwig Van Beethoven in Immortal Beloved.

Courtney Love Kills Never Never Land – pt 2

She’s only fifteen
She’s the reason-the reason that I can’t sleep
You say illegal
I say legal’s never been my scene, oh yeah
I try like hell but I’m out of control 

“All In The Name of” Performed by Motley Crue

I was running late getting ready the day I met Tommy Lee of Motley Crue.  He asked Kurt what the problem had been.  I laughed and told him I had been watching Rocky & Bullwinkle.   He then gave me the nickname Bullwinkle.  This is where William Gray, formerly of Evanescence,  got the nickname Rocky. 

I am mentioned as Bullwinkle on the first page of Motley Crue’s trashy book “The Dirt”. 

Once he became famous, Kurt Cobain started wearing a t-shirt with Natasha Fatale, from Rocky & Bullwinkle.

February of ’83 Motley Crue, INXS, and Oingo Boingo all performed at the US Fest in California. 

Oingo Boingo had worked on the soundtrack along with Billy Squier for Fast Times at Ridgemont high which starred Sean Penn (Tom Cruise’s ’81 Taps co-star in Taps).  Inspired by Adam & The Ants and INXS sound and sitting between Michael Hutchence and Adam Ant, I came up with the songs for Oingo Boingo’s ’85 Deadman’s Party album.  Which inspired the movie Weird Science.  In fact, Marco Pirroni became a little upset when I started singing Deadman’s Party.  I told him, “No One Lives Forever” and immediately made up the song.

INXS through part of ’83 had been touring with Adam & The Ants.  Most know that the man responsible for The Sex Pistols success, Malcolm McLaren, was also manager for Adam & The Ants.  As I’ve mentioned before, Stuart Goddard known as Adam Ant is the one who wanted me to read news articles for ideas to write songs.  Inspiring movies along the way. 

After meeting, Kurt and I had been talking about the Sex Pistol’s band member Johnny Rotten when he got the idea for the movie which became (Love Kills) Sid & Nancy.   Ideas for the movie were being mapped out as early as ’83.  The band Queen then released a song in ’84 titled Love Kills.

The Clash’s Joe Strummer performed the title track for the ’86 movie titled “Love Kills” which is in direct relation to me.

Walking out of England thinking of you were king taking on this world

On that bus that goes through Mexico a killer love finds a sweet Mexican girl

But in Mississippi we rushed into the room

Down in Dixie you were crying for dope

Down in Alabama they like home cooked fare yea

So we are going to strap you to the fryin’ chair yea

In 1983 the first inmate to be electrocuted by the State of Alabama after the United States reinstituted the death penalty in 1976 was John Louis Evans.

(Adam Ant friend of   Michael Jackson)

Courtney Love Kills Never Never Land – pt 1

Oh where are you going

And where have you been?

To the land of Never Never

And back again!

(The article is about Michael Jackson deciding to publicly visit my hometown in ’84.)

“While sitting between Kurt Cobain and Michael Jackson talking about building a new theme park, it was Kurt who gave him the idea to call it Neverland.”

Michael Jackson was brought in to meet me in ’83.  I spent a day hanging out with friends that summer who introduced me to the Thriller album.  Once Joe Elliott found out he sent the word to Jackson’s handlers about me.  The meetings were all very clandestine with one of his brothers actually meeting to give his approval.   

At first, MJ and I would talk about shows that I had seen him on, like Donny and Marie.  He wanted to know what I thought about his music.  I love all kinds of music, but am a die-hard Rock fan at heart.  You could say that it was MJ’s influence which led me deeper into pop and rap music. 

From an early age, I not only wanted to be a classical pianist, but also a gymnast and dancer.  MJ and I would sometimes have dance offs just for fun.  He would watch me for the sole purpose of trying to pick up a new dance move.  For the record, I never had any formal training in dance other than a brief stint as a cheerleader on a drill team like the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders, but it was for a pee wee football team named the Rockets.  Yep, this inspired the song by Def Leppard called Rocket.

We talked about the singing school I attended in Dallas, Texas during the summers from the time I was four years old.  As a reward the whole group of kids were taken on a trip to Six Flags over Dallas at the end for a day.  MJ’s face brightened and you could see the wheels turning as I talked about it.  Kurt Cobain was pretty much my constant companion, he too could see the wheels turning.

Once the idea formed for an adventure park, Kurt told MJ about a place in Tacoma, Washington named Never Never Land he would visit as a child.     http://www.metroparkstacoma.org/page.php?id=241

(The park in Tacoma was demolished in 2010.)

MJ wanted animals at his park too.  Not sure why a chimp, but he was so little when MJ first brought him to meet me.  He told me he named him Bubbles for the stripper named Bubbles Cash who inspired the current day Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders.  Somewhere along the way Bubbles name was used in the song Joe Elliott and I had started working on after we first met named Pour Some Sugar On Me. 

Take a bottle, shake it up
Break the bubble, break it up

PSSOM took it’s name from the very core of our southern lifestyle from putting so much sugar in our iced tea you can stand a spoon up in it, the SEC Sugar Bowl hosted in New Orleans where I have family, to our sugar white sands along the Gulf Coast.

My mother is the quintessential southern lady hailing from a small town in Georgia.  There is even a pageant for Miss Georgia Peach which a cousin of mine won the title.  To the right is my parents car on their wedding day.  So, this was added to the lyrics for PSSOM

 You got the peaches, I got the cream

Kurt Cobain made reference to this song in the Nirvana song Mexican Seafood.

Ah, the itchy flakes

It is inflaming

To the gels and creams

Kurt also made reference to Michael Jackson’s Pepsi commercial incident where MJ’s hair caught fire in his published journal on the page titled Uncertainty.  “Jesus its hot!  My lashes and brows are curling up and melting emiting the worst smell of burnt hair”

Even Michael Hutchence of INXS had influence not only on the song PSSOM, but also making reference to knowing MJ by covering Nancy Sinatra & Lee Hazlewood’s hit song “Jackson” along with his backup singer New Zealander Jenny Morris.

Hutch’s influence on the song came in the form of me reading a press release about the band.  Next to the article was a title that caught my eye about the television show Highway to Heaven being preachy (which also helped to inspire the song Papa Don’t Preach).  The reason it was important is because my mom always put saccharine in orange juice.

 Sweet to taste, saccharine

(There is actually another story behind all the crotch grabbing, MJ in the Bad music video and Hutchence here, but I will save it for later.)

Kurt Cobain made reference to saccharine in his journal on the page titled Sexually Transmitted Diseases, “Saccharine Trust – Peace Frog”.  Actually, the reference was two-fold as the drummer for Saccharine Trust, Earl Liberty, joined the band Circle Jerks who were friends of Tommy Lee of Motley Crue and Kurt wanted to talk to them about working on the soundtrack for the movie about The Sex Pistols.  This movie turned into ’86 (Love Kills) Sid & Nancy.   The original title to the movie (Love Kills) took its name from Michael Hutchence’s contributions to Freedom Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (1982) – “Speed Kills”, “Forest Theme” (with Don Walker of Cold Chisel) and from my name, Amy, which means beLOVEd or to Love.  Not to mention we had already been working on the song named Love Bites, after I bit the heck out of Kurt’s arm one day.

The actress which would have a small role in Sid & Nancy started hanging around in late ’84.  Kurt came across an obituary with the name Courtney Love.  Before the credits were written for the movie he had her take the stage name.  There were a couple of reasons, the obituary was dated 2 days after my birthday, Jan 12th, which later was a day Kurt & Courtney said they met in ’89 at the Satyricon nightclub in Portland.

Origins of Evanescence

 Soon Joe Elliott brought band members of Adam & The Ants, INXS, Motley Crue, Gene Simmons, Tom Cruise, and Michael Jackson among many others to meet me.

It was upon meeting Stuart Goddard, lead singer for Adam & The Ants, in June of ’83 who encouraged me to read newspaper articles for inspiration to makeup songs.

Inspiration to write Like A Virgin, performed by Madonna, and the name of the band Evanescence came from the review of a Chorus Line by Frank Rich of the New York Times Oct ’83.