Biography

Former girlfriend of controversial photographer Robert Mapplethorpe.

Was the inspiration for Gilda Radner's character Candy Slice on Saturday Night Live (1975).

She and husband, Fred 'Sonic' Smith, lived in St. Clair Shores, Michigan, an eastern suburb of Detroit, during their married years from 1980 to his death in 1994.

Former girlfriend of Actor, Screenwriter, & ex-drummer, Sam Shepard in 1971 when they co-wrote & acted in a play "Cowboy Mouth" at the American Place Theatre, New York City.

Was the first performer to sell out a poetry recital at New York's CBGB's music club.

[on friendship] Those who have suffered understand suffering and therefore extend their hand.

[on her tribute to Amy Winehouse with the song, "This is the Girl"] It was done really lovingly. As soon as I heard about when she died, I sat down and wrote her a little poem and my bass player wrote a piece of music that resonated the poem. It is a song I wish we never had to write.

[on Johnny Depp] I think, at heart, he is a musician. I've never really seen him without a guitar. He keeps two or three guitars with him most of the time. Sometimes, on a long drive, he'll have one in the car. That is how devoted to music he is.

Some of us are born rebellious. Like Jean Genet or Arthur Rimbaud, I roam these mean streets like a villain, a vagabond, an outcast, scavenging for the scraps that may perchance plummet off humanity's dirty plates, though often sometimes taking a cab to a restaurant is more convenient.

I wasn't writing my own songs yet, so I was using other people's songs as a vehicle. The reason we did "Land of a Thousand Dances" and "Gloria" on "Horses" was because I liked repetitious, three-chord rock songs but I didn't understand that I could write my own. I didn't realize that you could use those chords a million times.