The Wendy O. Williams Memorial Guestbook

From the first time I heard the Plasmatics I knew there was that something that inspired me, that fuelled my ambition to want that fame and freedom for myself. Yet it wasn't the nice guitar work, addictive tunes or anything else that attracted me to the band... It was that spirit of "be who you want to be" - "what you do is up to you" - that made me realize the Plasmatics stood out against conformity and provided some kind of REALISM in the face of the materialistic 80s.

Now I'm a second- or third- generation Plasmatics fan, not old enough to have seen the band in its original incarnation, go to gigs or really show any kind of solid SUPPORT, and when I discovered the band a couple of years ago it was already too late. Because the band had already retired from the music industry and Wendy - as she said herself - felt that "in effect she'd peaked". Revelling in past glories then, no one realized how much Wendy and the Plasmatics meant to me - didn't realize that my admiration went way beyond the shall we say one-sided fan/band relationship you usually have - when you discovered the band, you wanted to keep them to yourself and have the music blaring form every window in the world at the same time...

Wendy set a precedent for many of today's female performers, but all the Courtney Love emulators in the world will never be able to replace her...

Wendy was amazing. She let me feed a baby squirrel who hid in her shirt pocket. I wish she was still around to kick Courtney Love in the fucking teeth. She was a sweet, soft spoken woman who loved animals. I considered her my cool neighbor. Oh, and she just happened to be the best most outrageous and incredible frontwoman. Shit, I miss ya Wendy.... Love, Helen

Wendy O. Williams made me unafraid to be myself, and as a consquence empowered me to stand-up for me, to be true to what was inside me in a world where everything else seems to want to shut you down, numb you out, close you down. What I celebrate most about Wendy's life was that I know when she lived she really lived (which following someone else's entry is something I believe I heard Rod Swenson say in an interview somewhere). The quality of life is not measured in years it is measured in how you live when you live, and whether, in fact, just because you're walking around ("Brain Dead") you're really living at all ("You're the Living Dead", "You Ain't Got No Nothing"...."you sold your life in the discount store..."). That Wendy is no longer in the world, especially given all the fucking posers who are makes me cringe to say the least, but the joy and intensity with which she obviously lived, and what she gave to us of that lives on bigtime...unstoppable, unbeatable, irrepressible...Wendy you rule!! NOBODY COMES NEAR YOU!!! Long live the memory!

Breaks my heart that in all of last year's year-end retrospective issues, Wendy's name was mentioned only sparingly, never giving her the proper credit for breaking down gender barriers and indirectly launching a thousand other careers. Suffice to say, there wouldn't haven been any Courtneys or Marilyn Mansons had Wendy not been there first to lay down the REAL groundwork. When will she get her due recognition? With the possible exceptions of G.G. Allin and Iggy Pop, everyone else is a wanna be!

We'll miss you, Wendy! Long live the Plasmatics!