Lee Aaron- In the 80's Women in Hard Rock were Treated As a Novelty

Jimmy Kay from Canada's The Metal Voice (https://www.youtube.com/user/voicemetal) spoke to Canadian singer Lee Aaron at this years Heavy Montreal festival on July 28

Watch here
https://youtu.be/p8x43ANDFGM

When asked about the origins of the band name Lee Aaron
"When I was 15 years old  I was in a hard rock band  in high school and we were looking for a name and we wanted a name like Jethro Tull , Max Webster something that didn't really mean a particular person. So we put some names in a hat and we came up with Lee Aaron. Then after a year the name became synonymous with me, people thought I was Lee Aaron because I was the front woman."

When asked what were the challenges of being a woman in the hard rock world in the 1980's
"The challenges were, there were very few women doing it and it was much more of a sexist form of culture, so there was this pressure to look good and sing amazing and we were treated more of a novelty in the beginning. It was easy for people to get to interview you because you were an anomaly. At the same time the thing that has sustained my career over many years is the fact that I am actually a songwriter, I still have a voice and I am a producer."

When asked about her new album Diamond Baby Blues
"I guess because of the 80's challenges  I still write songs of  empowerment, so Diamond Baby Blues the new album of mine, that's song in particular Diamond Baby, it's a song about rising above obstacles and the fact that we are all diamonds in the raw and we all need to uncover our personal power."

When asked about the song Metal Queen
I throw the terms metal around loosely what's metal to one person is different to another. I consider myself to be more in the melodic rock with big guitars. So the song Metal Queen was a very melodic song , with a strong chorus. I think it was more the fact that I wrote a song called Metal Queen that label was put upon me. "

When asked about her bankruptcy in the Grunge era
"When grunge came along it kind of sidelined everybody career and that was a really tough time and I continued to make new music. But previous to that my manager and lawyer talked me into to go independent, my own label. I borrowed almost a half a million dollars and then grunge came along and I was 400.000 dollars in debt. So I had to decide to go If I should  go bankrupt and start fresh or do I spend the next ten years of my life to make music to pay off debts which is not inspiring. So I went bankrupt and it was like the Phoenix rising from the ashes for me. "

When asked if she would ever Consider doing a contemporary Metal Album
"My inclination is to never go down the straight and narrow path and to not be like everybody else, you never know, I'll say never say never but its not something I am strategically planning at this point. "