Jayne County

Jayne County (also known as Wayne County and V. W. Rogers) was born in 1946 in Dallas, Georgia. She moved to New York in 1968 and was a regular at the Stonewall Inn and an active participant in the Stonewall Riots. In 1969, she began her career working with playwright Jackie Curtis and also with John Vaccaro and Tony Ingrassia of Theater of the Ridiculous. Andy Warhol cast County in his theatrical production of Pork, and, after the New York run, the play moved to London. While there, County met David Bowie and he signed her to his MainMan record label. County is best known as the vocalist in her bands Queen Elizabeth (1972), Wayne County and the Backstreet Boys (1974), and Wayne County and the Electric Chairs (1977). She was also the house DJ at Max’s Kansas City. In 1978, County appeared in Derek Jarman’s film Jubilee, in which she performed her song, Paranoia Paradise. County has released many records on several record labels. Her autobiography, Man Enough to be a Woman, was released in 1995, and in 1997, she was immortalized in Please Kill Me: The Uncensored History of Punk, Chapter 29: Fun with Dick and Jayne. In 2018, County presented the first retrospective exhibition of her visual artwork at PARTICIPANT INC in New York, curated by Michael Fox. County’s career spans five decades, and she has lived and worked in New York, London, Berlin, and currently lives in Georgia. County’s work has always protested the societal norms by which she has never been constrained.