Corin Tucker

Corin Lisa Tucker (born November 9, 1972) is an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist best known for her work with rock band Sleater-Kinney.

Tucker is also a member of the alternative rock supergroup Filthy Friends, and previously recorded with the indie rock group Heavens to Betsy and The Corin Tucker Band.

Entertainment Weekly writes, "Corin Tucker’s place in rock history is already set in stone, and her work in the riot grrrl era is pretty much peerless, thanks to the muscular guitar style, otherworldly wail, and knack for punchy, pounding three-minute blasts she brought to such great heights with riot queens Sleater-Kinney."

Rolling Stone called her “a punk-rock heroine." In 2023, Rolling Stone ranked Tucker at number 155 on its list of the 200 Greatest Singers of All Time.

Tucker was born in State College, Pennsylvania, and spent her childhood in Grand Forks, North Dakota.

There, her father was a college professor and her mother was a medical technician.

Her father is also a folk singer and musician.

She began studying piano when she was twelve.

In high school in Eugene, Oregon, she was in a band with friends called This That.

Tucker says she "grew up on the Beatles" but that "her mind was completely blown" when she heard R.E.M.'s album Murmur when she was eleven.

Her other musical influences include the Soundtrack from The Wizard of Oz, Joan Jett & the Blackhearts' I Love Rock 'N' Roll, The B52's, Pat Benatar's Get Nervous, Television's Marquee Moon, and Bikini Kill.

Her first concert was to see the band X in Eugene around 1987.

In 1990, Tucker attended Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington, where she studied film, political economy, and social change.

She was also exposed to the music scene in Olympia.

Tucker said, "I was 18 when I went to a show that Bratmobile and Bikini Kill played. It was February 14, 1991...It was the first time I'd seen feminism translated into an emotional language. …For young women to be doing that, basically teenagers on stage, to be taking that kind of stance, that kind of power, was blowing people's minds. And it totally blew my mind. I was like, 'O.K., that's it. That's it for me — I'm going in a band, right now.'" The result was the band Heavens to Betsy.

In her first year at Evergreen, Tucker made a documentary about women in music.

The documentary included footage of early shows by Bikini Kill and Bratmobile, and interviews with Beat Happening and Nirvana.

Starting in 1991, Tucker has been a singer, guitarist, and songwriter in several rock bands.

Tucker played the first public show of her career when the band performed at the International Pop Underground Convention in August 1991.

Heavens to Betsy recorded a split single with Bratmobile, and several singles for independent record labels.

The band released a self-titled demo in 1992, the four-song 7" record These Monsters Are Real in 1992, the album Calculated in 1994, and the 7" four-song Direction in 1994.

Tucker graduated from college in 1994.

She says her role models are Maya Angelou, Nora Ephron, and Patti Smith.

As Tucker puts its, "Women who have had really long careers and done a lot of different things."

Although she later relocated to Portland, Oregon, Tucker still describes herself as "a small-town girl" from Eugene.

The band broke up in 1994.

Rolling Stone wrote, "Heavens to Betsy [was] one of the standout acts connected to the riot-grrrl movement."

Heartless Martin, was Tucker's "one-off collaboration" with Becca Albee of Excuse 17.

Heartless Martin released a five-song EP, Tonigh.

After Heavens to Betsy split in 1994, Tucker formed Sleater-Kinney with Excuse 17 member Carrie Brownstein and friend Lora McFarlane.

Tucker wrote most of the lyrics, sang lead vocals, and played second guitar to Brownstein's lead, with the duo collaborating on music.

Janet Weiss eventually replaced McFarlane on drums.

In 1999, Esquire wrote that Tucker "has been the most interesting singer in pop music since 1991, when she first opened her mouth in public, in a two-woman drums-and-guitar punk band with the wonderful name of Heavens to Betsy."

Tucker is usually the front person and lead singer.

One reviewer noted, "Her voice is enormous, with a natural swing--the sort of swing that neither Tina Turner nor Mick Jagger has ever had, the ability to take a note and ring it like a bell in a tower."

Tucker was a founding member of the influential riot grrrl band Heavens to Betsy along with Tracy Sawyer, a longtime friend from Eugene, Oregon.

In 1999, Esquire said Sleater-Kinney was "the best band in the world."

They released seven albums over eleven years before going on hiatus in 2006.

On August 12, 2006, the band played what was supposed to be their final show at Crystal Ballroom in Portland.

However, the band reunited and recorded No Cities to Love in 2015, followed by The Center Won't Hold in 2019, and Path of Wellness in 2021.