WORDS BY JULIE BURNS
Just like Jerry Lee Lewis, one of the other few rockers ‘left standing’, Wanda Jackson is blessed with a feisty spirit. Like Lewis, she recently suffered a stroke – luckily caught in time – and has experienced up and down health of late. In April this year, Wanda told Rolling Stone that she was to retire “due to health and safety”. As a pioneering female performer, in the 50s she shared bills with the greats such as Elvis, who encouraged the young country singer to rip it up in the emergent world of rock’n’roll.
As a rare woman capable of both a cooler take on country and rocking up a storm, Wanda paved the way for other female entertainers to follow. She spent some 65 years on the road: first as a teenager, managed by her father, criss-crossing the States on gruelling one-nighters and package tours; then in Japan after gaining surprise star status, and latterly a renaissance on the European retro revival circuit. Between ‘54-’74, Wanda achieved 30 hits and 40 albums on the Country and Pop charts. “I wanted to work right up until I couldn’t,” she recently revealed. “That point has been reached.” Yet happily for her many fans worldwide, even this swansong statement isn’t final: for the still growling grandmother, now 81, the prospect of a sparky new album’s in the pipeline.