‘I can’t be the only one’: ‘Women Who Rock’ docuseries debuts

As a percussionist who grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area, Sheila Escovedo would ask visiting bands if she could play with them. Often the answer was negative.

“They looked at me like, ‘You’re a girl, go away.’ They waved their hands like ‘get out of here,’” recalls Escovedo. “They said, ‘You’re a girl, you can’t and you won’t and don’t even dream of it.'”

Escovedo, thankfully, dreamed it up and went on to become Sheila E., the Grammy-nominated gold-record drummer who collaborated with Prince, played at Oscars and supplied music for soundtracks, huge sporting events and world tours.

She and other women in the industry have faced similar disbelief and hostility.

“I think the common thread for women in general, and especially in the music business, is to stay true to who you are and allow that to be okay,” says the artist.

A deep dive into the lives of rock pioneers like Sheila E. forms the backbone of the riveting documentary series “Women Who Rock,” which premieres Sunday on Epix. Director Jessica Hopper says the four-episode series offers a look at much more than just rock stars.

“Just as you can’t separate art from artist, you can’t separate music from culture. If you tell these stories, you’re telling a larger story of America,” says Hopper.

The series includes appearances by Heart’s Nancy Wilson, Chaka Khan, Pat Benatar, Mavis Staples, Shania Twain, Macy Gray, Rickie Lee Jones, Norah Jones, Aimee Mann, Tori Amos, B-52’s Kate Pierson, Talking Heads’ Tina Weymouth , Nona Hendryx, Susanna Hoffs of The Bangles, Jody Watley, St. Vincent, Kathleen Hanna of Bikini Kill and Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth, among others.

“I loved hearing the other women talk about their experiences,” Hendryx told the AP. “There are so many that are standing on the breasts — I was going to say the shoulders — of many women who have come before them and fought battles they didn’t even know they were fighting.”

The series goes chronologically from the birth of rock ‘n’ roll, when women weren’t taken seriously, until today, when they have seized both the production credits and the technology to carve out their own independent paths. It has been an uphill climb for most.

“In the entertainment industry, I think women have been classically relegated to being second-class citizens who don’t have an ounce of opinion of their own about anything,” Wilson says in an interview with the AP. “So they have to mold them, inform them and tell them how to look, behave and sound.”

Heart, led by sisters Nancy and Ann Wilson, pushed back against such behavior by relying on their blood and military background for strength and paving a way in a male-dominated space with songs like “Barracuda” and “Alone.” Sheryl Crowe says in the series that Wilson was a beacon of how to rock and keep your femininity.

“We had this kind of almost regimented concept that we could do it. There would be no resistance,” says Nancy Wilson, on tour this summer as Nancy Wilson’s Heart. “We were just able to do it. We were young enough and good enough at a very young age not to be convinced that what we were was inappropriate.”

It may not be surprising that Staples kicks off the series. At the fulcrum of gospel, blues and R&B, she is the connection between Mahalia Jackson and Bob Dylan, Prince and Norah Jones. The fact that she was on board helped convince others.

“There are few people whose voices were as integral to changing the soundtrack in America as Mavis. So starting with Mavis really set the tone for how we would go through the rest of the series,” says Hopper.

The documentary highlights an impromptu sisterhood of artists, with Mary Clayton mentored by Odetta, Hendryx by Nina Simone and Khan hooking up with Staples. “Each one of these women really provides a stepping stone for the women we meet next,” says Hopper, who was a music journalist before moving on to directing and producing documentaries.

The series explores the rise of men and women together onstage in bands like The Pretenders, The B-52s, Talking Heads, and Blondie, and the exploitation of black female artists by the music industry, from gospel to disco. Audiences see how the MTV revolution gave value to the image in the 1980s and the subsequent arrival of solo superstars like Twain, Lady Gaga and Beyoncé.

In the second episode, which deals with the 1970s, stars such as Joni Mitchell, Carole King, and Stevie Nicks are described in the context of the equal rights amendment and Ruth Bader Ginsburg. The episode explores the importance of the CBGB punk club and how Patti Smith seemed to herald a world beyond the genre, while Blondie’s Debbie Harry added glamor to punk. “As far as I’m concerned, Debbie Harry invented ‘cool,’” says St. Vincent in the series.

Joan Jett remembers begging her parents for a guitar and finally getting one at age 13, spending her early days trying to bend the string over and over again. She asked her father to teach her rock and roll, but he replied that girls don’t do that. Instead, she tried to teach him “On Top of Old Smokey,” a folk classic.

“I wanted to hold a guitar and own it like the Rolling Stones do,” says Jett in the series. Over time, he kept thinking, “I can’t be the only one.” And he wasn’t.

At 16, Jett was in the pioneering all-female band The Runaways. But the industry never made it easy; he constantly put up obstacles and said, “You’re not allowed to.” Jett says that “killed” her.

Wilson feels that the progress women made in the ’70s stalled when MTV took hold and has only picked up since the 1990s, singling out artists like Phoebe Bridgers, Wet Leg, Lucius, Sharon Van Etten and Angel Olsen.

Brotherhood helped and so did the democracy of technology, allowing all artists to have the skills to design, produce and create their music, bypassing traditional gatekeepers. Another artist in the series is Oakland singer-songwriter Star Amerasu, a trans musician who makes her living through the crowdfunding platform Patreon.

Shelia E. is also trying to encourage the next generation of musicians. She surfs the Internet at least once a week, encouraging young women and especially girls.

“I send them a message on Instagram or Facebook and say, ‘Hey, keep doing what you’re doing. I’m your fan. You are amazing. Tell your parents they’re doing a great job,’” she says.