Gina Schock: The Go-Go's Drummer on Music & Female Empowerment

I first met Gina Schock in 1978 when she played with Edie and The Incredible Edible Eggs, a band that John Waters masterminded to promote his film Desperate Living. It was at The Warfield in San Francisco and it was unforgettable. A few months later Gina moved to LA from Baltimore and joined The Go-Go's and was propelled to fame.

I recently had the pleasure of interviewing Gina at her home over tea, wine, and apple turnovers to promote "Make Noise / Take Space" a symposium of powerhouse female drummers including Patty Schemel of Hole and Gaylynn McKinney of Chaka Kahn and Aretha Franklin fame, Michelle Cruz Gonzales of Spitboy, and Diane Vitalich from Ace of Cups. It’s a special event that’s part of her current show A View From The Throne at The Haight Street Art Center. The forum takes place this Friday, April 17 from 6-8pm.

Fudgie: Tell me about your friends Patty and Gaylynn.

Gina Schock: Patty Schemel, I adore her. Drummer in Hole... badass! I saw her play when they were touring, and she hits the drums hard. She has a very defined sound. What she used to do, I don't think she does anymore, but she didn't wear any shoes, she played barefoot... I was like, "Whoa, I don't know how you do that," but she did. I think she stopped doing that. Badass drummer, my kind of girl.

Gaylynn, on the other hand, I did a show with her years ago, and my jaw dropped when I saw her play. She's a jazz player, which I can't do. I don't even understand. She fucking will blow your mind if you see her play. I couldn't begin to understand where she's coming from, she's from another planet for me. Everybody in her family is a musician, so she's got it in her blood she can't help but play the way she does, she's phenomenal. She can play any style, any genre, and do it really well. What a player!

FF: Since your show at Haight Street Art Center encompasses all of the photos from your book Made In Hollywood and most of your ephemera that you have collected, let's delve back in time with this question: What was your favorite Go-Go's show ever

GS: Oh, God. I have a handful that were favorites for different reasons. Playing at the Hollywood Bowl was a major fucking thing because the Beatles played on that stage, and there I was playing that same stage. Then Madison Square Garden, my God, that was major too. What mattered most to me was playing at Merriweather Post Pavilion, in Columbia, MD where I saw my first show ever, Led Zeppelin opening for The Who – that's when I had an epiphany at the age of 11 and knew I wanted to become a musician – then 11, 12 years later, I played that same stage. That was mind-blowing, actually.

FF:  Wow.

GS: Oh, my God, yeah. So there's been a handful of things that were really big in my life that I'm super grateful for.

FF: Who was your favorite band to open for, and then who is your favorite band that opened for you?

GS: Oh, so of course, my favorite band that we opened for was The Police because that changed our lives. We were playing in clubs, small places, and then Miles Copeland, Stewart's brother, asked "Hey, you want to open for The Police?" And we said "Of course we do." So we stopped riding around in a van and went to a tour bus, and started opening for The Police. That's when everything changed because we were playing in arenas. We were playing in 18,000-seaters, opening for them, and people were actually there for the opener. They didn't just come for the main act. They didn't just come for The Police. They came for the whole show, and we were part of that. So that changed our lives. We started really selling records like crazy, then we were on Saturday Night Live, and it snowballed, we started selling millions of records. It was incredible. We went platinum from that tour with The Police.

GS: My favorite band that opened for us – INXS – I would watch them every night. I'd sit on the side and watch them play. We did a tour with them, and they opened for us on the whole tour. Those guys, everyone in the band, were all incredible players, great songs. Michael was such a showman. That band was really magic, so I wanted to watch. I didn't want to miss any of it because I knew they were going to be bigger than we were, and they were, all over the world, INXS, they were really awesome. Oh my God, great songs. and Michael Hutchence was something else. That guy captivated the audience, he was a king at what he did. I miss him so much. He was brilliant.

FF: What's the craziest thing that's ever happened to you in your life? Think about it for a minute because I know a lot of crazy things have happened to you.

GS: The craziest thing that ever happened to me in my life was being a kid growing up in Baltimore at the age of 11 seeing Led Zeppelin open for The Who and saying to myself at that moment, “I'm going to be that. I'm going to be on that stage. I'm going to do that” and then I did.

FF:  That is truly amazing. 

GS: So the craziest thing was believing that I could be on that stage and then it actually happening 11 years later. That's pretty crazy.

FF: It's wild – the definition of manifesting. But also I know your parents were super supportive of you.

GS: Yeah, because there I was, 21 years old, leaving Baltimore in my dad's pickup truck loaded with all my gear with my best friend, Babs, driving across the country, believing 100% that I'm going to be a rock star. My Mom and Dad must have been dying. You know, I mean, could you imagine me – the baby of the family leaving the nest like that out on a mission in the 1970's. That was my whole life and I had to go after that. I truly believed that I was going to be a rock star.

FF: Well, and you are. It's fantastic and it's great that your parents were so supportive.

GS: My mom and dad knew I was not like the typical kid growing up in Dundock, and they really allowed me to do what I believed I could do, you know? And here I am. We were in a super blue-collar neighborhood in a Baltimore suburb where you either worked at the GM plant or you worked on the waterfront or you worked at Bethlehem Steel. Dad worked on the waterfront. He was a Longshoreman.

FF: Yes, I remember him well.

GS: So here I come out of nowhere saying, you know, “I'm going to leave here and follow what I believe I can do." and then it happened. It's all nuts. Fudgie, it's all so nuts.

I don't even know what to say. When I talk about it, I could just – I could just burst into tears because I can't believe that my life has been what I only dreamt of being, actually happening. This is all I ever wanted to be. It's hard work, but I love what I do so much. I would work 24 hours a day to achieve whatever it is I'm trying to do. And, you know, right place, right time, all that sort of stuff just came together. There's this magical thing that happened, but it's against the odds. It's just nuts. I don't know how this happened, but I get up every day and can't believe the fucking great life I've lead.

FF: The life of a rock star.

GS: Yeah, it's fucking nuts, right? To think, you know, when I met you in '78 with Edie, coming out here with Edie and John.

FF: Right, before you were in the band. And then you wanted to move here, and then I had just moved to SF the year before and didn't know many live work places where you could rehearse. Then you got offered a place, and then you got in the Go-Go's, what, like, the next month or something because their drummer wasn't...

GS: Yeah, that girl, Alyssa, was not – she wasn't into it or something. I don't remember exactly what it was, but when I met Belinda and Jane and maybe Margot at my friend Doug's house, there was a party in Santa Monica at his house and his brother, Steve, was who I was living with. 

FF: The Gingers – weren't they Ginger twins?

GS: Yes, the two of them, remember, oh my God, they were in Hudsucker Proxy they're in Fast Times at Ridgemont High I love those guys. Anyway,  I was living with Steve at the time, and he's like, "My brother's having this party."  He lived in Santa Monica and he said "You've got to meet the Go-Go's and kick their drummer out." So I went and I met the girls, and we just connected right away and set up a time to get together to play. I had all my shit set up. I had a PA that I brought out in my dad's truck set up in Steve's house, all the amplifiers I owned and my drums. I invited them over, they had given me a tape the week before and I learned four or five songs, and they came in and we played them and we all looked at each other and knew that it was a good fit.

FF: That was back in the early days of punk where many artists just grabbed an instrument and learned to play as they go because music skills were secondary to the energy.

GS: That's right, nobody was judging. It wasn't a judgmental time. People did just pick up instruments but I came from a different place. I was a musician and I knew what I wanted to do, but the rest of the girls, well, they were just picking up instruments – but there was something there, you know?

FF: There's a big difference between picking up a guitar and learning three chords versus knowing drum licks and playing to keep the tempo steady. The rhythm section is very important.

GS: Sure, it's a foundation for the song. And like I've said a million times, I've never played drums just to play. I play to elevate the song. It's all about the song. Whatever the song is, I'm going to try to make the drums fit and make it better – have the drums be a statement that's going to drive that song solid and strong.

FF: And then I know that you cracked the whip on Jane and Belinda and said,  "If you want to be successful, we've got to rehearse. We can't just get up on stage and play."

GS: Yeah, because they were just having fun, and I was on a fucking mission, but we all learned from each other. I certainly learned from them, they learned from me. Then it all started to happen, Charlotte came in next as another experienced musician and everyone got more serious. People can say what they will about The GoGo's, but if you come and see us live, we'll knock your fucking pants off.

FF: Hell, yeah! -- Anything else you want to add?

GS: I want to say that I'm extremely happy about my show at the Haight Art Center. It is my life on display. It's everything that I've gathered over my lifetime, it's all there – all my photographs, all my ephemera, everything. It's there and you need to fucking come and see it because it's beautiful. It's a beautiful thing.

FF: It's an epic one-of-a-kind interactive show.

GS: Yeah. Kelly and Tina did a great job of putting it together. They just came over to my house and went through everything. I said, "Take whatever you want." They put it together, and it looks gorgeous. Jesus, I can't believe it. I go there and look at it and think "Oh, my God, that's my life, and that is the GoGos right there.” Oh, man, it's incredibly satisfying.

FF: And it's up for another month, right? It closes May 16. 

GS: Yeah. It's up for another month, but I mean, I'd love to take it on the road because I know people in LA and New York would love it. HSAC did a great job of curating this, and I'm very grateful.

FF: Not only do I love the show, but the crowd and the live music and everything about that opening night was amazing.

GS: I was so in the moment, it took me back fucking 30 or 40 years to when we started, and I felt like it was happening again in that exact time frame. It was like a fucking love fest. Everybody was grooving on each other.

FF: It was amazing because there were so many rooms filled with your collection, all beautifully curated.

GS: Oh, my God. I couldn't be happier. I'm very grateful for the whole thing. I just look at it, and I feel like that's my life. If you want to know what it feels like to be me, to be in a band, to come from a blue-collar background, make your way to fucking Hollywood, believe in yourself, that you're going to make it, then you look at what I've done because that's all there. It's there.

FF:  You are an American success story.

GS: Fuck, yeah. 

FF: Plus to be female in the music industry at that time was challenging.

GS: I know, that's like an extra.

FF:  Extra because you weren't taken seriously for many, many years. 

GS: It wasn't the typical path for a woman to be doing that, but I'm a musician first. I never thought about gender at all. It never entered my mind, I was just like "Music, it goes much further. It has nothing to do with gender." It's something that hits you, that appeals to you in a way that you can't put into words – it's inexplicable, it just moves you, and so you got to do whatever you have to do and that's what I did. Music can take you wherever you're open to let it take you. That, I know.

Find out more info about the show on the Haight Street Art Center’s website.