Clementine Hall on Janis Joplin
By Margaret Moser, Fri., Aug. 20, 2004
"We heard exactly what we heard years later. Same voice. Nothing changed except she learned how to scream from Roky. Roky was trying to teach her how to do a scream. But she didn't learn to do it right. She didn't protect her throat, so she ended up losing a lot of her voice because of it. However, when she came back, we said, 'You're incredible! Like Bessie Smith.' She said, 'Don't say that. Don't bullshit me. I want the real truth.'
"She wore her black dress and hair in a bun, no make-up, grandmother shoes, a black dress shapeless like a bag the first time she was supposed to get up on the stage and sing. The image of Janis, she became the total opposite of that. Someday, I'd like to talk to Laura [Joplin], because I know so many stories no one else does. But I'm afraid to open those flood gates. I won't even see a movie about her; I'd burst into tears."