Steven Tyler Opens Janie’s House Women’s Shelter
Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler was in do-good mode over the weekend when he attended the ribbon-cutting (actually scarf-cutting) ceremony for Janie’s House shelter in Atlanta.
The 30-resident facility, named after Aerosmith’s 1989 hit “Janie’s Got A Gun,” is designed to help sexually and/or physically abused and neglected women, and Tyler explained that it “takes young girls in. It’s got staff. It’s got some therapists. It’s got people for them to talk to, and it’s got people from them to (assist) in dealing with health issues.”
STEVEN'S IN THE MIX AND JANIE'S IN THE HOUSE!!! IVE NEVER WRITTEN A SONG AS BEAUTIFUL AS JANIE'S HOUSE...THIS WAS TWO YEARS IN THE MAKING!! SPENDING THE DAY WITH THESE GIRLS...IM JUST SO PROUD OF THEM! I'M JUST RELIEVED THEY HAVE A SAFE SPACE TO BE WHO THEY ARE #JANIESGOTAFUND pic.twitter.com/CLHjjMISWG
— Steven Tyler (@IamStevenT) December 8, 2017
Janie’s House is financed by the Janie’s Fund that Tyler launched during 2015 as “a big voice for abused girls,” and is part of the Youth Villages non-profit network.” Tyler tweeted that, “I’m just relieved (the women) have a safe place to be who they are” and said during the ceremony that, “This is something I thought about since I wrote ‘Janie’s Got A Gun’ — and didn’t know why. I didn’t know who Janie was or why she had a gun, and the voice inside my head said, ‘Keep going with this and fill in the blanks.’ For this place to be here and have it be called Janie’s House is just a dream come true. When I said “Janie’s Got a Gun’ and said, ‘No, no, no, Janie’s got a fund, I lost my mind.”
He added that, “There’s a lot of stuff you just can’t see with your plain eyes and you just can’t fix. It’s got to be something that’s…an inside job that takes stopping and that takes therapists to see the real problems to get to it from the inside out and get somebody good from the inside out is really an astounding thing. That way they’re good for the rest of their life on their own.”
Tyler performed his song “Janie’s House” during the event.
Aerosmith is currently back on hiatus after Tyler’s health problems forced the cancellation of several shows in Mexico and South America during the early fall.
On our 2nd anniversary, we are grateful for your support in helping girls heal. Keep up the great work, donate today https://t.co/QUPaenUI6W pic.twitter.com/dYJgap7Rj0
— Janies Fund (@JaniesFund) November 8, 2017
Gary Graff is an award-winning music journalist who not only covers music but has written books on Bob Seger, Neil Young and Bruce Springsteen.
