Before ‘Little Girl Blue’: Janis Joplin’s Days in Texas

“I could tell by looking at her, that she was from alternative universe.”
 

By David BrownNovember 25, 2015 10:30 am,

This weekend, a new documentary is set to make its big screen debut. “Janis: Little Girl Blue” is an examination of the iconic rocker. Some have called her the first female rock ‘n’ roll superstar – known the world over as the quintessential 60s Bay Area acid queen.

Yet, she was in fact, the product of Port Arthur, Texas, a place where conformity was celebrated and where a young Janis Joplin never fit in.

Her search to find her place in the world eventually took her far from home, but as we discovered in interviews with those who knew her personally, there might never have been a “California Janis,” had things turned out differently the first time she left home.

Listen to the full audio in the player above. These are excepts for a public radio special “Piece of My Heart: The Story of Janis Joplin.” The film “Janis: Little Girl Blue” debuts in NYC this weekend, and will make its broadcast premiere on PBS’s American Masters in 2016.