Ron Ott's Wendy O. Williams/Plasmatics Page

Ron's Plasmatics and Wendy O. Williams Page

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WHY I'M A PLASMATICS AND WENDY FAN:

When I started High School, my parents had just divorced. My Mom and me had moved, so I had to go to a new school system. Before I went to a parochial school, and now I was pushed into a normal High School. Needless to say, I had a tough time fitting in.

One of the biggest differences between me and the other kids, was that I hated stagnate top forty music. Growing up in a small town, that was all that was on the radio. I got into Punk Rock. My first exposure was seeing Fear on Saturday Night Live. The moment they started playing I fell in love with the power and energy of the music. I quickly started picking up all the Sex Pistols, Black Flag, Dead Kennedys, and Circle Jerks, I could find. The best thing about the music was the question authority, kill all the macho football player attitude that came busting out (They always picked on me!).

I love this picture of Wendy

My oldest brother Rod had moved to New York City at the time, and unbeknown to me was great friends with a bunch of punk rockers. I guess he usta hang out at Lydia Lunch's apartment. Anyway for Christmas 1980 he gave me my first Plasmatics album (New Hope for the Wretched). I looked at him sorta strange, he said, "They are all the rage with the punks in the big apple. Give them a try." I loved it, I bought/ordered every other Plasmatics albums I could find.

Soon I had, Meet the Plasmatics (1979), New Hope for the Wretched (1980), Beyond the Valley of 1984 (1981), Metal Priestess (1981), and Coup d'e Tat (1982). Plus a couple of singles, Concrete Shoes (1978), and Dreamlover (1979). I almost joined the Plasmatics secret service club., but I bought a book about them instead.

The Plasmatics rose to prominence in the late '70s with an outrageous stage show that carried the shock tactics of predecessor Alice Cooper to new heights and presaged current bands such as Marilyn Manson. Their concerts included visual effects ranging from guitars sliced by chainsaws to exploding vehicles, and Williams' stage costumes often incorporated bondage gear as well as electrical tape and whipped cream.

Wendy got arrested on January 19, 1981 at a bar called the Palms in Milwaukee. The Plasmatics were playing. Officers

"observed subject fondling her breasts, buttocks, and vaginal area with her hand, While subject was fondling her vaginal area, with her hand, she did it in a manner which simulated masturbation, Subject also was observed simulating masturbation and Sexual intercourse using the handle of a sledgehammer. She was charged with Conduct Prohibited on Licensed Premises, Resisting Arrest, and Battery. Apparently she wasn't very cooperative with police. Charges were later dropped. After word she went on T.V., with a black eye, and stated that the cops beat her.

After Punk Rock faded away. Wendy started her own Heavy Metal band. It was called W.O.W. She had Gene Simmons produce her albums. She released two, W.O.W. (1984) and Kommander of Koas (1986). After that she just disappeared. I heard that she tried her hand at rap, but it failed. In 1987 the Plasmatics got back together and produced Maggots. It was a rock opera about huge maggots eating the world. Then they disappeared again. I found this picture of an old Wendy after her rebel days and life had passed.

My favorite Plasmatics song is Summer Night. It's about going out on a date and fooling around trying to get attention from someone other than you came with. It ends with one murdered, and the other commits suicide, because of her loss. It has great lines like, "Three against one, and they had a knife. Did you know you risking you life to save your pride? In ten seconds they put out your light." My favorite Wendy O. Williams song is It's my Life. It was written by Gene Simmons, and is just basically your stay outa my way, I'm gonna do what ever I want anyway song.

QUICK WENDY O. WILLIAMS BIO:

Wendy was born on May 28th, 1949. From what I understand she had a pretty normal childhood. The only thing that I remember hearing is that she got kicked out the girlscouts for sleeping with the boyscouts. She moved to New York city where she meet Rod Swenson. He was looking for someone to perform a live sex act in one of the Times Square clubs. After meeting Wendy, they formed the Plasmatics.

The Plasmatics made their first public appearance at New York's legendary CBGB's on July 26,1978. The Plasmatics rose to fame from sensational beginnings at CBGB's where Wendy

and the band were known for fast aggressive music and on stage theatrics which included Wendy's regular chain-sawing of guitars and the detonation of speaker cabinets.

Joey Ramone said, "It was sex, it was violence, it was rock 'n' roll, it was explosives - it was great, it was pure insanity. They would always push the envelope. That's when rock 'n' roll was free and loose, exciting and loaded with character." A 1981 Creem magazine feature on the Plasmatics described the band as "the most visually bizarre and exciting group since Attila the Hun... "During the two-hour performance, she will systematically take a sledgehammer to a television set (made some nice sparks), annihilate an electric guitar and explode the Milwaukee cop car, reducing it to a pile of rubble," the magazine wrote of one of Williams' shows.

Williams made a run at a solo career after The Plasmatics split in '82, eventually scoring a Grammy nomination for Female Rock Vocal in 1985. Williams also tried her hand at movies and TV, including roles in Reform School Girls and on McGyver before leaving the entertainment world to work with animals.

On April 6th, 1998, she walked to to the forest preserve behind her Connecticut house, feed the squirrels, looked at the pictures of the squirrels that she had rehabilitated at her job, and then blew her brains out with a handgun. Thus ending her life. I'm very saddened by this, I feel she could have accomplished more if she hadn't let life hold her down. She could have come back, she could have been better than she ever was, but instead she gave up. According to Swenson, she had been despondent recently and had difficulty adjusting to life out of the spotlight. "This was something she had planned," Swenson told the media. "It was no spur-of-the-moment thing." Williams is survived by her mother and two sisters. She was 48.

Wendy O. Williams Suicide Note: The act of taking my own life is not something I am doing without a lot of thought. I don't believe that people should take their own lives without deep and thoughtful reflection over a considerable period of time. I do believe strongly, however, that the right to do so is one of the most fundamental rights that anyone in a free society should have. For me much of the world makes no sense, but my feelings about what I am doing ring loud and clear to an inner ear and a place where there is no self, only calm . Love always, Wendy.

I feel that you have the right to do or say anything that you want, as long as you are willing to accept the repercussions, but there is never a time were taking your own life, or someone else's is ok. I feel that she lived fast but then gave up when the going got tuff.

Plasmatics Singles
Plasmatics EPs
Plasmatics Albums
Wendy O. Williams Projects
Plasmatics Rock Opera		Plasmatics Re-Issue

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created: 2/25/1999