Roxy Petrucci id a part of the documentary series, Nöthin’ But a Good Time: The Uncensored Story of ’80s Hair Metal. In it, she recounts the challenges that women faced while trying to make it big in the hair metal era.
“I wanted to play so hard that my hands would bleed, and they did. I would get blood on my snare all the time. I just thought the harder I hit, the more they were going to take me seriously,” Petrucci shares of going up against all-male bands of the era. “And the record companies just shied away like, ‘We already have a girl band.”
She also recalled a night at the Rainbow Ballroom with Motörhead lead singer Lemmy Kilmister, in which a musician who she declined to identify approached her.
“He says, ‘You know, you’re really good for a girl.’ ” she recalls, saying she wasn’t sure how to reply to the “backhanded compliment” and instead settled on a “thank you.”
Speaking of Vixen’s fans, she notes, “We had plenty of guys that came around too, and they were more shy than anything. Groupie girls are more aggressive, the guys weren’t like that. They were like, ‘Can I have your autograph? Can I have a hug?’ ” she shares.
Roxy Petrucci and her sister, Maxine Petrucci, first formed Madam X with vocalist Bret Kaiser and Chris Doliber. She left Madam X to join Vixen in 1986 and stayed until 1991. Roxy returned when Vixen reunited in 1997, bringing in her sister Maxine into the fold, but the lineup had to be dissolved the next year for legal reasons.
She later rejoined a Jan Kuehnemund-led Vixen, but the reunion ended in 2001. In 2004, VH1 approached the four members of the “classic lineup” to appear on their show, Bands Reunited. The show was recorded in August 2004, and broadcast in the U.S. in November 2004. Following the broadcast of the VH1 show, EMI’s American label Capitol re-released the first two Vixen albums, Vixen and Rev It Up.[citation needed]
In 2012, Janet Gardner, Share Pedersen, and Petrucci announced they and Gina Stile would form their band. Thus, they became known as JanetShareRoxyGina (or JSRG for short). JSRG began playing shows at the end of 2012, followed by touring on the Monsters of Rock cruise in March 2013 and performing at the tenth anniversary of the melodic rock festival Firefest in the UK later in October.
In December, JSRG evolved into Vixen to honor Kuehnemund’s posthumous legacy. Petrucci also played for Roktopuss with former Femme Fatale vocalist and future Vixen bandmate Lorraine Lewis, who succeeded Gardner on vocals in January 2019 after the latter stepped down.
Nöthin’ But a Good Time: The Uncensored Story of ’80s Hair Metal is now streaming on Paramount+.