How the girl who was called ugly became the sexiest woman alive

”She felt like an outsider. She couldn’t identify with the same goals and desires that a lot of her classmates had,” her sister said.

Sadly, the focus on her appearance would shadow her throughout her career, sometimes overshadowing her incredible talent. The scars and unconventional looks became part of her story. Many people doubted she belonged on stage because of her appearance, and she felt their judgment deeply.

Climb to fame
But there was one thing no one could resist with this woman.

And it’s what carried her to the highest heights: her voice.

The artist’s climb to fame began in January 1963, when she dropped out of college and hitched a ride to San Francisco, chasing her dream of making it as a performer.

She sang in coffeehouses and lived off handouts, and everyone who heard her recognized the raw talent that promised stardom. But in the early 1960s, most record label scouts were hunting for young, conventionally attractive women — a category she didn’t fit.

Her true gift shone in the folk scene, which was largely underground and untouched by commercial pressures.

Back in Austin, the star had gained a reputation for drinking. In San Francisco, that habit escalated, and she fell into the city’s drug scene. Speed was still legal and easy to get; when it became harder to find, she turned to heroin.

”I wanted to smoke dope, take dope, lick dope, suck dope, fuck dope, anything I could lay my hands on I wanted to do it,” she once told reporter.

Especially after she broke through, she began turning to heroin as a way to numb herself from all the pressures and the fear of what it was like being a solo artist at that stage of her career. Throughout her life, she experimented with other psychoactive drugs and drank heavily, her favorite being Southern Comfort.

After two years in San Francisco, the aspiring singer was a complete wreck.

By 1965, she had fled back to Texas, weighing just six stone. She spent a year at home getting herself together. Old classmates suddenly saw her in dresses and makeup, her hair neatly pulled into a bun. She went into therapy, re-enrolled in college, and even talked seriously about becoming a secretary.

But when a call came to lure her back to San Francisco to sing with a new band called Big Brother and the Holding Company, it was all over.

Icon of the counterculture movement
While she had been away, San Francisco had suddenly become the hippest city in the world, and she was about to become one of the biggest icons of the counterculture movement.

In June 1966, the band played the Monterey Pop Festival, originally booked for a low-profile afternoon slot. But the moment people heard her sing, the crowd went wild, and the band was quickly rescheduled to play a prime evening set the next day. Bob Dylan’s manager spotted them and signed them to Columbia Records for $250,000.

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