“JOHNNY ARE YOU QUEER?”
OUT OF THE CLOSET
AT LAST: 80’s POP ICON JOSIE COTTON REVEALS TRUTH BEHIND THE RECORDING OF
“JOHNNY ARE YOU QUEER?”
Over a quarter century after a single word in a classic pop cult hit
launched and then plagued the promising career of Josie Cotton, “Johnny Are
You Queer” has re-entered the cultural zeitgeist via its placement in the
mega-popular film Jackass Number Two and now, as a track on iconic film
director and actor John Waters’ Valentine’s Day 2007 compilation A Date With
John Waters.
The controversial singer/songwriter—who caused a stir among religious
conservatives and the then-uptight gay community in New York--is happy to
declare, once and for all, yes, Johnny was not only queer, he was flamin’.
For the first time ever, she’s coming out with the long and spicy tale of
how she and the song first met and romanced.
“The Punk band Fear,” she says, “was the first to perform a version of the
song live. They made no mention of the Johnny character, there was just that
sing song melody in the verses to ‘You’re a f**in queer boy” screamed over
and over again in that jugular vein poppin’ Fear kind of way.”
Enter The Paine Brothers, Bobby and Larson, master songwriters and musical
trendsetters who had discovered The Go-Go’s during their first gig at the
now legendary Masque. They produced an album for Fear, but were also working
with the Go-Gos. They re-wrote “Johnny Are You Queer?” and had the all-girl
group perform it live.
When The Go-Go’s walked out on an extensive production contract, The Paines
forbade them to play “Johnny” anymore; the song, was now a free agent in
search of the right voice to bring it to the world. Enter Cotton, who met
Larson in a bank line in Hollywood.
The song became an underground legend, and as Cotton was recording her debut
album Convertible Music, “Johnny” hit #2 on Canadian radio, just under Joan
Jett’s “I Love Rock And Roll.” It was also in heavy rotation at KROQ and
blowing up around the world in dance clubs.
They turned to the upstart video channel MTV and were ready to make a video
when their label Elektra pulled the plug the night before the shoot. Cotton
says, “There is no arguing that someone had gotten cold feet and made a
corporate decision to make ‘Johnny’ go away.”
Last year Josie returned from self-imposed music industry exile with Movie
Disaster Music, her most critically acclaimed release to date. With momentum
in full gear, Josie is set to release Invasion of the B Girls, a campy
collection of B movie theme songs from movies such as Faster Pussycat Kill
Kill, She Devils On Wheels, Beyond the Valley of the Dolls, and Female
Trouble.