By Jim Barber
A fixture, an irrepressible creative dynamo, a powerhouse performer and an important artist who has been a fixture on the Canadian music scene for almost 45 years, Lee Aaron is still a force to be reckoned with as a songwriter, vocalist, and truth teller.
With songs such as ‘Metal Queen,’ ‘Barely Holding On,’ ‘Only Human,’ ‘Whatcha Do To My Body,’ ‘Hands On,’ ‘and Sex With Love,’ Aaron was a ubiquitous presence on rock radio and music video television throughout the 1980s and into the 1990s. After experimenting with alt-rock in the 1990s and releasing an acclaimed jazz album, Slick Chick, in 2000, she returned to the rock and roll fold, with a renewed sense of purpose and a more vibrant style, highlighted by a string of six albums starting with Fire and Gasoline in 2016. Each album has continued to not only help return old audience members to the fold, reinvigorate those who never left, and bring many new adherents, but also generated pretty good physical sales as an independent artist in the age of digital downloads.
This summer, she is performing at a number of festivals, as well as opening for 1980s American rockers Night Ranger on Friday, July 25, at Casino Rama outside Orillia, Ontario. After that, she plays at the Saskatchewan Ex in Saskatoon on Aug. 2, before heading to the big stage in Minnedosa, Manitoba for the annual Rockin’ The Fields Festival the following day. In the fall, she already has a string of dates booked alongside the legendary Nazareth.
“Every year, every summer is a different story. The reality is there are only, like 100 festivals and about 700 bands that all want to play them. And you can’t really go back to the same festivals year after year. So, some summers are way busier for me than others. This summer I would say is a moderately busy one, but I also have a lot of other shows scattered throughout the year,” Aaron told Music Life Magazine from her home in British Columbia.
“I started playing in February and I sort of haven’t stopped. I have the shows in Rama and in Saskatoon and Rockin’ The Fields and then this fall I have quite a lot of shows with Nazareth when they head across Canada. It’s definitely busy.”
With 16 studio albums, thousands of concert appearances around the world, and an unlimited storehouse of memorable moments, Aaron has decided that now is the time to get her story – her whole story – down on paper.
“I’d always thought that many people, the public in general, especially in Canada and I guess throughout the world only know a surface version of my story. My husband [John Cody who is also her drummer] has said to me for 20 years, ‘if you write your story and you tell the truth, it’s going to be really interesting for people to read.’ So, when I received a star on Canada’s Walk of Fame [in 2023], I started to take it more seriously. It was a very interesting experience to watch a three-minute presentation, an overview of your career a third party puts together for a ceremony like that and it was extremely well done. It’s interesting to see how other people view you,” she said from her home in British Columbia.
“I had been working on these memoirs long prior to 2023 in dribs and drabs, because I’ve been so busy. But that event sort of lit the fire under me to complete them, to finally get them done because mine is not just a story of a girl in rock. It’s a story of having to fight a bunch of feminist battles throughout the 1980s to have my voice heard in the boardroom, in the studio, and on stage, to have a journey of paving a path for girls to pick up guitars and write angry songs in the 1990s. In the nineties, the world’s music culture was primed for that. There was Courtney Love and Hole, Veruca Salt, the Breeders and of course Alanis. The world was ready to hear women’s voices in a rock context, whereas in the 1980s it was all about battling just to be able to write my own songs.
“I would fight and tell them I am an artist; I have things to say. But back then it was more, ‘we have 10 songs from our publisher and we want you to record them, we see them as hits, and this is our vision for you. And here, wear these clothes,’ which usually entailed short shorts and as little else as possible, because women were so marketed in a sexualized fashion in the 1980s. So, I had multiple major obstacles to climb over that many people are not aware of. I think my story is a story of empowerment for anyone who’s had big challenges in their life and career.”
She said she believes the potential audience for this book goes beyond just young women trying to make a career in music and entertainment, that it’s a story of perseverance, of battling against outdated thinking and a patriarchal structure that holds many people back.
“People in the industry, rock and roll fans had only really a surface version of who I am. This memoir provides far greater insight into who I was as a person back then, and the choices and decisions that I made, and what informed those choices and decisions. But also, it’s about the girl that always wrote songs about being strong. As an artist throughout my career, I can’t count how many times I’ve been doing a show and had a young woman come up to me and say, ‘you know, I just love your Some Girls Do [1991] album, or that song ‘Tough Girls Don’t Cry,’ from Bodyrock [1989] got me through a tough time in my life and I’ve always been so inspired by you.’ I’ve always wanted to write material that embodied a lot of female empowerment and songs of inspiration and rising above challenges. I kind of look at my story as the same thing. Even for someone that was never into hard rock music, but say is a housewife who’s gone through a divorce, it can be a very inspiring read because of the fires that I walked through and of course there’s a happy ending, because I am happy,” she explained.
“I did write a tremendous amount about my childhood which was also challenging. I know when I am reading about say of one of my favourite artists or someone I’m interested in, I already know the arc of their successes right? What I find more interesting is maybe something that happened to them in their childhood that was really significant. I think when you’re willing to dig deep and tell a human story, which is what I’m trying to do with this memoir; a very human story about challenges I faced growing up, I think that’s far more relatable for people when people can identify with it and think, ‘oh this person had a very imperfect life as well and I can totally relate to that.’ I think when people can relate to your struggles, it’s a far better way of humanizing your story. I really do think people are far more interested in things they can relate to than all the awards that I’ve won, or all the rock stars that I’ve met. Most of that is not something people can identify with.
“And yeah, 100 per cent, writing about my childhood was really hard. It was hard to go back there because as we grow and mature … and I’ve been through a lot of therapy over the years to work through things, and one of my favourite psychiatrists, he always said that the things that work to keep you safe when you were a child will destroy your adulthood. They can destroy your adult relationships. So, it was pretty painful to go back and look at some of the things that happened. But it’s all part of the journey to where I am now.”
Aaron said she hopes to have the manuscript completed by the end of the calendar year, for publication in 2026, alongside a new greatest hits collection of music (more about that shortly). In the interim, and in between summer festival shows, she is not only battering the keys on her computer, but also reaching out to friends, family and colleagues both past and present to help round out the narrative in the memoir.
“I haven’t been posting nearly as much on socials lately because it’s just taken a lot of very focused, intense time to complete the book. And I’ve been speaking to a lot of people. I’ve spoken a few times to John Albani, who was my co-writing partner [and band member] for many years. I’ve also talked to my family, my parents, former bandmates and other people in the industry I worked with, because they remember things that I forgot,” she said.
“Their perspective on a particular tour or story might be completely different than mine. But, yeah, I am putting a lot of time and energy into it. And I try to be consistent with the work. Today, I’ve got a couple of appointments this afternoon, then we have a dinner date this evening, so today is not going to be a writing day. But tomorrow probably will be, although I never know when those productive hours hit. I know if I can get three to four really focused hours, even if that means that I get inspired at 11 o’clock at night and stay up until 2 a.m. or 3 a.m., that’s better for me than setting aside a bunch of hours in the afternoon and then sitting there twiddling my thumbs and looking at a screen because it’s not really working for me in that moment. I am a little bit of a night owl, so I like to work at night and often get very inspired when my house is very quiet. I try to say I’m going to spend this many or that many hours a day, but it doesn’t really matter when to me. If I get on a roll, I’ll just keep writing.”
The as-yet untitled memoir will add another layer to Aaron’s legacy, which begins in the very early 1980s when the teenaged singing sensation landed a record deal, began touring, and releasing albums, starting with the Lee Aaron Project in 1982, followed by the album that not only broke her into the hard rock and metal mainstream, but also created an image and identity in the public consciousness which has left behind lingering misrepresentations and somewhat tainted Aaron’s own view of her career.
“Just to be clear, I’m not close to wanting to retire yet. I still have my voice; I still have my health and my strength – 100 per cent. I’m still very inspired to keep writing and recording and performing. What’s happened for me, which has also been inspiring and motivating me to finish my memoirs, is just that the Lee Aaron narrative has shifted in the last decade or so when I started really telling the truth about how I felt about the early years of my career and some of the really awkward marketing I was subjected to. A lot of the perception that’s still out there that, well Lee Aaron was that rock chick from the 1980s; that tough talking girl who work the short skirts and blah, blah, blah. That’s such a superficial level of what I represented,” she said.
“It’s about my willingness to talk about the fact that, for example the song ‘Metal Queen’ was supposed to be about women being able to run the world. It was about the matriarchy, not the patriarchy. It was a very strong feminist statement at the time. But then in all the publications and stuff, here I am in my Xena outfit sandwiched in beside WASP who were putting bags over women’s heads and setting them on fire on stage, and bands like Motley Crue and Bon Jovi where women in all their videos and marketing material were in bikinis and getting all wet at a car wash or something like that. So, the message was kind of skewed and lost back then by virtue of where it landed in the 1980s.”
The new hits package features re-imagined new recordings of her songs from the 1980s and into the 1990s, particularly the ones that were on the former Attic Records label. The package will also contain fan favourites and live concert staples from her most recent albums, which were released on her own label, starting with 2016’s Fire and Gasoline up to and including 2024’s Tattoo Me. Aaron doesn’t control the masters from her back catalogue and rather than fight the current owners through all the stressful, lengthy and expensive legal shenanigans that would entail, she decided to take her band, the one that has been playing all these songs on stage for nearly a decade, into the studio and record them as they are presented now.
“I don’t really have the emotional bandwidth to want to get into a big legal battle over it. But there is obviously demand for this music, and because I have such a fantastic band, we decided to just re-record some of the hits, some of the favourites. And we’re not secret about it. We’re not trying to re-record them and emulate exactly they way they were originally recorded. We’re just going to record them the way we play them now. So, it will be the best of my old catalog, reimagined, and the best of everything else I’ve recorded since then. I also have a couple of treasures still in my treasure trove: four songs that were not released on Elevate [2022]. I don’t know if I will put them all on this, but we’re probably going to include a couple. I also have some stuff from when we recorded some live songs at [famous Toronto night club] the El Mocambo. And I also think we’re going to record a brand new single and throw it on there as well. Also, like the memoir, I am not looking at this as a career topper or anything like that. It’s more like closing a chapter, and having a companion piece to go with the book. It’s telling people the story of my life in words and in music up until now – knowing that there’s a lot more to come.”
Besides husband Cody on drums, the current Lee Aaron band also includes premier Canadian shredder Sean Kelly, who has also worked, and continues to work, with artists such as Helix, Nelly Furtato, Crash Kelly and Emm Gryner, and long-time bassist Dave Reimer.
“I love my band right now. I’ve worked for years, since John Albani left in the mid-1990s to go to Nashville and open up a studio, to curate a group of musicians that I absolutely love and absolutely love playing and touring with. When the four of us get in a room together, magic happens. And we still have many albums left to go. So, this ‘Best of’ collection is just the end page of a chapter. It’s a really unique fan piece that my dedicated fans would want to own to mark the closure of a chapter while we move on to the next one.”
The cool thing about the future is that those chapters have yet to be written, and what words are to be scrawled on those pages can change and evolve. For Aaron, there’s still a lot to do, still an abundance of curiosity, creativity and inspiration waiting to be tapped into.
“I don’t have everything mapped out for the next decade but I know that I would like to get back to Europe and do some playing there, particularly England. I know that’s on our agenda. It’s just that post COVID it’s become almost prohibitive to get yourself over there in terms of flight costs and everything. But that’s something we’d like to do. And you know, I still love jazz. People ask me all the time, would I do another jazz album, and I don’t want to say too much because if I don’t do something, people will keep bringing it up, but I say never say never. I don’t know. I know Sean and I have talked about how much fun it would be to write a rock opera,” she said.
“That would be super fun but I don’t want fans to start asking, ‘when is the rock opera coming?’ because it’s just one of a bunch of ideas that we’re bouncing around. I certainly know we have more original Lee Aaron albums in us. My son, who is 19, and really, really into a lot of the 1980s and 1990s music recently said, ‘mom, I think you should lean into a heavier album. It would be really cool.’ He and I like a lot of similar stuff. He’s into a lot more of the bluesy heavy rock like Royal Blood and bands like that. So, maybe I’d do an album that might surprise some people a little bit. A lot of journalists and other people frequently say, ‘Lee why don’t you just make an album that sounds like the 1980s when you were really, really popular.’ Why would I do that? I’ve been there, done that. I’m far more interested in pushing the limits of what I feel I’m capable of into areas that make me feel like I’m growing and expanding as an artist. People tell me I should make another Bodyrock. I could, but it might not be that interesting to me, which means it wouldn’t be as authentic.
“Not very many Canadian artists have been able to make new records and actually have them sell to the point where they actually receive royalties in their bank account. I’ve been getting those payments. Nothing sells in the physical world the way it used to, but mine sell pretty good, and I feel really enthused about that. And when I play live, I’d say a good 1/3 of my set is new material and people know it and they’re singing along to it. So that’s inspiring for me.”
For more information on Lee Aaron’s upcoming shows, as well as updates on her memoir and greatest hists release, visit her social media channels or https://www.leeaaron.com.
- Jim Barber is a veteran award-winning journalist and author based in Napanee, Ontario, Canada, who has been writing about music and musicians for more than 30 years. Besides his journalistic endeavors, he works as a communications and marketing specialist and is an avid volunteer in his community. Contact him at jimbarberwritingservices@gmail.com.
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