In 2011, she released her own 4-track Beth Ditto EP, produced by James Ford and Jas Shaw of Simian Mobile Disco, on the re-launched Deconstruction Records. In 2009, she sang on Simian Mobile Disco's track ' Cruel Intentions' for their album of collaborations Temporary Pleasure. In 2008, she contributed vocals to the Crisis charity single 'Consequences', a collaboration between various artists. In addition, she has been involved in other musical projects. She fronted the band Gossip from its formation in 1999 until its dissolution in 2016. At 18, she discovered bands like Nirvana, Pearl Jam, The Raincoats and Siouxsie and the Banshees. She moved to Olympia, Washington in 1999 then to Portland, Oregon in 2003, where she lives as of 2014. At age 13, she moved out of her mother's house and went to live with her aunt. She grew up Southern Baptist and Pentecostal, but is now an atheist. True story.Ditto grew up in a poor family in Arkansas in the southern United States, with her mother, various stepfathers, and six siblings – two older brothers, an older sister, two younger brothers and a younger sister. And then I'm like, 'Oh my god.' And then he goes and gets them, skins them, and fries them up, because he has the munchies. I was like, 'What are you doing?' And he's like 'What do you mean?' And I look out the door and he's shooting squirrels. We smoked out of a Coke can, and then he flung open the back side door and took out his BB gun and started shooting outside. 'The first time I ever got stoned was with my cousin. For one, I don't want to cook, and for two, I hate football. 'As a kid, I was always mad - just noticing the women at Thanksgiving, running around the kitchen, while the men were watching football. 'Being feminist and being queer came out of my pores,' she told Curve magazine.

They have toured with the likes of the White Stripes, Sonic Youth, Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Sleater Kinney. The band has been together for four years and the current line-up consists of Beth, Nathan and Hannah. Gossip is pretty indie and clearly not very Britney. I don't want to look like Britney Spears, I just don't want to. I spent so much of childhood trying to change, and I just got sick of it. 'I just like food too much, and I don't want to change. It's treated like no one in the world is like this, and it's the most shameful thing, but really most of us are fat asses, you know,' she told Pop Matters. 'People bitch about fat people who are quote unquote overweight, which is a term that I hate, because it sets a standard for people to be, but it's really funny to me that we are the majority in this country right now. I could never have that kind of meek, little wispy whimsical lavender and lace voice. But I was mostly into Mama Cass and Gladys Knight, and they all had big voices too just different than mine.

And I listened to a lot of soul music when I was growing up on my own accord. I tried in choir to make it smaller, and it just didn't work out. Super-bumpkin-style,' she told Pop Matters in March this year. Because it's almost like we were born in a barn. I think that's why people are so blown away by the Gossip. 'It comes from the South, being raised Southern Baptist and Pentecostal. Her lyrics are explicitly girl-love related and the band's latest single 'Standing in the way of control' is a fiery disco/punk/blues/soul attack on the Republicans' attitude to gay marriage. LONDON, England (CNN) - Beth Ditto, a rock singer who fronts the band Gossip ( Click here to see the band's MySpace site ) has topped the annual cool list released by NME, allegedly the coolest rock and roll magazine in Britain.ĭitto describes herself as a 'fat, feminist lesbian from Arkansas,' whose powerful voice has been compared to female greats such as Etta James, Janis Joplin and Tina Turner.

Beth ditto