Biography
Beth Ditto first rose to attention as the defiant frontwoman of the Gossip, matching that recognition with her defiant stance on conventional ideas of women’s bodies and desire while also showcasing her viscerally unfiltered vocals. She entered the world as Mary Beth Patterson in 1981 and spent her early years inside a cramped Searcy, Arkansas home until she relocated to Washington upon turning eighteen. There she joined forces with guitarist Nathan Howdeshell, known publicly as Brace Paine, and drummer Hannah Blilie to launch the Gossip. Once NME crowned her “the coolest person in rock,” she appeared nude for that paper as well as the erotic publication On Our Backs and London’s style authority Love; soon afterward the band crossed into wider visibility via the title song of its third album, “Standing in the Way of Control,” a track Ditto penned to protest the federal prohibition on same-sex marriage. Her outsized, unyielding persona quickly elevated her to fashion-icon status, prompting an invitation to open Jean Paul Gaultier’s Spring Collection during Paris Fashion Week 2010 and the creation of an exclusive line for British retailer Evans. She contributed guest vocals to Calvin Johnson’s “Lightning Rod for Jesus,” Simian Mobile Disco’s “Cruel Intentions,” and a duet with Jarvis Cocker covering Heaven 17’s “Temptation,” then issued her self-titled solo EP in 2011. Around the same period she maintained an advice column for the British newspaper The Guardian, spearheaded an effort to eliminate the clothing size “zero,” and assembled the supergroup Crisis alongside Paul Weller and Graham Coxon to benefit a homeless-aid organization. Her 2012 memoir Coal to Diamonds, written in collaboration with Michelle Tea, appeared the same year the Gossip delivered their sixth and last album, Joyful Noise; the trio formally split in 2015 after Howdeshell moved back to Arkansas. Ditto reentered the musical sphere with the single “Fire,” included on her first full-length solo project Fake Sugar, which surfaced in June 2017 and reflected her return to Southern musical heritage alongside the punk, pop, and disco threads she had already woven with the Gossip.
Albums
Singles
