The Go-Go's
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Go-Go's Drummer Gina Schock Still Has the Beat
Interview by Kelly Ladd
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| HardRock.com: How has God blessed the Go-Go's? |
| Gina: Jane, the guitar player in the band, came up with the idea. We had a bunch of ideas floating around and one day Jane came in while we were working on the record and had the idea "God Bless the Go-Go's." We thought it was great and came in with little mass cards of holy women and we loved the whole idea so we went with it. |
| HardRock.com: How do you think the Go-Go's sound influenced both 80's music and the music today? |
| Gina: Well, I'm not quite sure how we influenced music. I guess after we were successful there seemed to be more bands with girls in them getting signed. So perhaps in that way. |
| HardRock.com: Regarding the overall image of women in the media and music industry, what kind of impact do you think the Go-Go's made the first time around? |
| Gina: We made it perhaps a little easier for a record label to realize that girls could rock as hard as the guys could; could be musicians, could be good players, could be their own songwriters. There hadn't been many girls before us that were successful in that way. There hadn't been anybody really that wrote their own material because we weren't put together or anything. It was a pretty organic thing. We just sorta came together and decided to put a band together. |
| HardRock.com: Some may think that with Belinda appearing in Playboy, it downplays the image that the Go-Go's have created as being strong, independent women. Do you think this has affected the band's image in any way? |
| Gina: No, I think it has been a really good thing for our image actually. |
| HardRock.com: In what ways? |
| Gina: Because, first of all, like the majority of women that you would see in a magazine like Playboy, most of them aren't 40 years old. And so we thought that was a really good statement and like Belinda's pretty voluptuous, she's not a size zero girl. She's built like a woman. We thought that would be a good statement to make, a good statement to send to other women and to younger girls that you don't have to be super super skinny to look attractive. 'Cause a lot of how it is, you know, in most magazines, the models are very, very thin and we thought this would be a good way to get across a point that we think is important. And also Belinda looks great. I think it's a good thing for the band. |
| HardRock.com: You girls had the reputation of being really wild. Hard Rock wants to know: What are some of the craziest things you've done? |
| Gina: Oh my god! Ha. Um, I don't even know where to begin. |
| HardRock.com: Maybe onstage? Backstage? On a tour bus? |
| Gina: Well, Jesus, I don't know if we did anything that was like really crazy. We did like goofy things, you know? I don't know. I don't even think it would be that interesting. We do goofy stuff still, just to amuse ourselves, you know? When you are on the road for any amount of time, it can get quite boring. So we just do goofy things. Nothing really outrageous. Jesus, I don't know. Isn't that terrible? I'm like totally blank on this. |
| HardRock.com: On your web site it says you have taken a lot of heat from the Catholic League about dressing up as the Virgin Mary on your album cover. What have they said specifically, and what is your response? |
| Gina: We thought that was one of the most absurd things. I mean, what a silly thing to focus on. We just thought it was a funny cover. Us as holy women…it's ridiculous, right? And that is just an in-house joke with us and when the Catholic League got upset about it, like I said, we really thought it was absurd. We think they should spend their time on something important, instead of an album cover. |
| HardRock.com: Who is the sinner of the group and who is the saint? |
| Gina: We're all saints and sinners in this band. |
| HardRock.com: Picture this: You are now in the Hard Rock confessional. What do you want to confess? |
| Gina: Jesus Christ, I don't know. I'm a really good person. I haven't done anything bad. God, I'm Catholic. I haven't gone to confession in 50 million years. ****, I don't know. I don't have anything to confess, to tell you the truth. |
| HardRock.com: You're a saint? |
| Gina: (laughs) Well, what you see is what you get. |
| HardRock.com: Now that the drugs and alcohol have worn off, what is it like backstage at a Go-Go's concert? |
| Gina: Backstage we usually um, I mean, we've been doing this for 20 years. We do a lot of stretching. We do vocal exercises. We get ready for the show. And then afterwards we come back and meet some of our fans. It's pretty tame. |
| HardRock.com: A lot tamer than it was back in the 80's? |
| Gina: Oh sure. We're a lot smarter these days, you know. We've kinda wised up and grown up, you know. You don't want to be doing 20 years ago. That would be boring. That would be really sad. |
| HardRock.com: Today, in your personal lives, what is it that keeps you Go-going? |
| Gina: Probably keeping yourself kinda fit. Everybody in the band exercises a lot now, 'cause you have to…going on the road takes a lot out of you. But, I don't know. I like to garden. That's my little hobby. |
