Interview with Jackie Enx

Jackie Enx is a living embodiment of rhythm, rebellion, and reinvention. With sticks in her hands and fire in her heart, she has spent decades behind the drum kit powering some of rock’s loudest, grittiest, and most unfiltered anthems. As a founding member of Warrior and Rhino Bucket, Jackie helped define a sound that was unapologetically raw, unvarnished, and full of attitude. From the smoky clubs of Los Angeles to the world’s biggest stages, she has played with the kind of passion that makes drumming not just a skill, but an act of storytelling. Yet music is only one verse in her extraordinary song. Jackie’s fearless voice carried her into the world of broadcasting, where she became the co-host of The Queer Edge with Jack E. Jett, a groundbreaking radio show that was as irreverent as it was insightful. With her trademark humor and razor-sharp perspective, she dissected pop culture, poked fun at hypocrisy, and gave a microphone to voices often unheard.

 

She continues to inspire through her teaching, guiding young and old musicians alike with patience, humor, and the wisdom of someone who has lived every beat of her art. But perhaps what makes Jackie’s story truly extraordinary is the courage with which she has lived it. Her transition in the 1990s was not a carefully choreographed reinvention, but a leap into authenticity at a time when the world offered little understanding. She navigated the music industry, the media, and her personal life with the same fierce independence that once drove her drumming. Today, she stands as a testament to living honestly and loudly, to embracing identity not as a label but as a melody that never stops evolving. Jackie Enx is more than a musician, performer, or radio personality, she is proof that art, when lived fully, can become an act of defiance and grace at the same time. Whether on stage, on air, or behind the drum kit, Jackie continues to remind the world that life, like rock and roll, is best played loud, proud, and entirely on your own terms.

 

Monika: Today I have the immense pleasure and honor of speaking with Jackie Enx, an Irish-American trailblazer whose life beats to the rhythm of rock and reinvention. She is a celebrated radio personality, a powerhouse percussionist, a performer whose energy fills every stage she steps on, and a dedicated music instructor shaping the next generation of talent. Jackie is also a founding member of the legendary rock bands Warrior, signed to Virgin Records in the early 1980s, and Rhino Bucket, whose hard-hitting sound defined a generation of rock fans from the late 1980s through the 2000s. Jackie, thank you so much for being here. Welcome!

Jackie: Good evening, Monika. It’s wonderful to be here with you.

 

Jackie Enx solo at OPL (YouTube)

Monika: It has been more than 20 years since you left Rhino Bucket. What have you been up to since then, and are you currently working on any new musical projects?

Jackie: I’m always working on something new, I’ve always had a “next” mentality and I do work really hard at whatever I’m doing, and then it’s “next”. Right now I’m playing drums behind SHANE DWIGHT, who is a singer/songwriter out of Nashville, and I’m producing, arranging, and playing with an Irish band that has relocated to San Francisco called THE GUV’RMENT. In my heart I have always wanted to play with a few different bands, the most interesting to me right now would be THE QUIREBOYS, so every day I just try to stay ready for whatever it is that comes “next”.
Monika: As the drummer for Rhino Bucket, you contributed to the release of three albums: Rhino Bucket in 1990, Get Used To It in 1992, and Then It Got Ugly in 2006. Which of these albums do you hold in the highest regard?

Jackie: Actually four. I helped write and arrange the album called PAIN as well. I just didn’t play on it, so they got Simon Wright from AC/DC to bash away in my place. As far as which one I like best, that’s a hard one. All four are different, and all of them have some great songs and good memories attached. I’m very proud of all the BUCKET stuff, and we still talk, so who knows? There may be more in the future.

Monika: You left the band in 1993. What prompted you to make that decision at the time?

Jackie: Welllllll, I did have some “personal business” to attend to, didn’t I?
Monika: Absolutely, you did! You returned in 2006 to take part in the production of Then It Got Ugly and then left again in 2009. What led to your return after all those years?

Jackie: Yep, that was interesting. I started my transition with no thought of being with the BUCKET ever again. Not any bad feelings or anything, I just had “my thing” to get on with and didn’t see a way to make it all work. I got a phone call from them some six years after I had left and they asked if I would come down and help arrange some new songs for their new project. I tied my hair back, put on a very baggy sweatshirt with a very tight sports bra, and went down to the studio. They hadn’t seen me in a long time, and I hoped I would just fly under their radar. Please realize that they knew nothing of the transition.

Monika: How did your bandmates react when they learned about your transition?

Jackie: Anyway, we worked on their songs and near the end of the sessions, they asked if I wanted to come back and play drums. I asked if they would be okay with a girl drummer. They, of course, took that as a refusal on my part, but apparently once I “spilled the beans” and then revived everyone after they all fainted, they decided it was all cool, and away we went for the second time. Definitely brave and supportive on their part, and it was appreciated.

During a gig.

Monika: How did you become the co-host of The Queer Edge with Jack E. Jett, the popular radio talk show?

Jackie: I was working for Triangle Media, which was an LGBT radio and television company based in Palm Springs. I did sports and hosted a four-hour radio show every day that was broadcast on the internet and live in Seattle. It was called Sports Rage, and we looked at all the issues behind professional and amateur sports. After Triangle got their television station up and running, the CEO asked me to do a nightly sports show for him. I did all my own writing and editing, and Jack and I hit it off pretty much right away. When he got his own show on the network, he asked me to write for him, and then it morphed into a co-host situation. Queer Edge starring Jack E. Jett with Jackie Enx was born.

Monika: Was the idea for “Fun with Hypocrisy” your own, and how did you approach developing your radio shows?

Jackie: No, no, that was 100 percent Jack’s brainchild. He loved the idiocy in normal life, and we would often laugh at the world around us. No shortage of topics there! People be nitwits, ya know?!
Monika: In today’s world dominated by television and the internet, do you think radio can still survive and stay relevant?

Jackie: Believe it or not, I prefer radio to the other two. When you listen to the radio, your imagination fills in many of the blanks. What someone looks like, the colors of the field of play, or anything else that may be part of what you are listening to is imagined by you and described by the person on the radio. It is not spoon-fed. You need to think, you need to be involved if you really want to get something out of it. Lying on my bed in the dark listening to music or a great sports match is quite often better than sitting brain-dead in front of the television.

Monika: What are your thoughts on the influence of the internet and social media on our daily lives?

Jackie: As far as the internet, it’s obviously a great tool, but to sit and be on Facebook for six hours, I just find that absurd. I mean, come on people, there’s a big world to explore, stop watching and get out there! I’m of the belief that this whole “social networking” and “connectivity” is actually making us less social and we are more disconnected. That’s another subject for another time perhaps?
Monika: Did your transition change the way you see the world as an artist? 

Jackie: I wear prettier clothes now. Seriously, I don’t think it did for me, but I need to say that many of my longest-running and older friends don’t think I’m very different now than I was before. I watch sports, play music, ride motorcycles, race cars, and cheer on Liverpool FC and the San Francisco Giants.

With her dogs.

Monika: Has your artistic perception evolved over the years, and do you think your transition influenced that growth?

Jackie: I don’t think my artistic perception has changed either. I have gotten older, and I’d like to think I’ve simply matured. Did the transition help that? I’m sure it did, but I’ll never know what would have happened if I hadn’t gone through it. I am happy and thankful for all the things I have going in my life. One thing I’m especially proud of is that I teach young and older kids music, and I’m unaware of any parent or student being on guard or wary of me. I’m simply me. If a parent has pulled their child out of my class because they are afraid of my influence or for some other reason, I am unaware of it.

Monika: How do you feel society perceives you today, both as an artist and as a transgender woman?

Jackie: I truly believe that I am accepted for being a good person, whether I’m male, female, or whatever a non-understanding person may consider me. I don’t actually care what people may think of me gender-wise. I spend exactly zero percent of my time and effort trying to convince people to think a certain way about me gender-wise. I do care that they respect me as a person.
Monika: In recent years, contemporary music has seen a growing number of transgender female artists gaining recognition, including Mina Caputo of Life of Agony, Laura Jane Grace of Against Me!, Marissa Martinez of Cretin, Amber Taylor of The Sexual Side Effect, Namoli Brennet, Sissy Debut, Koko Jones, Jennifer Leitham, and many others. Do you think we will continue to see more transgender artists breaking into mainstream music?
Jackie: Unfortunately, I know none of those names. For me personally, I don’t want to be listened to because I’m a TG person. I’d love you to listen to my music because you like the music. If I hear any of those bands and artists mentioned above and like what they are doing creatively, I would find it a cool and happy bonus that they happen to be a TG person as well. If I like music, painting, poetry, or whatever, I don’t care who or what did it. Race, gender, for that matter species, if the aliens from Mars create something I like, I’m in!
Monika: How do you view the current situation of transgender women in American society?

Jackie: What is the situation? For me, I’m happy and blessed. I don’t get every gig I want, I don’t win every race I enter, and not everyone finds me attractive. Do you know anyone who does? This can get a little deep, but here’s my thing. I try to be just another person. I don’t strut around in micro miniskirts and five-inch heels. I don’t wear tons of makeup. 

Monika: What are your thoughts on the challenges faced by some members of the transgender community today?

Jackie: Quite often, when I see problems that some in the TG community are having, and I never go looking, I just happen to stumble upon them in the news, I see issues that are self-made. In a perfect world, we would all be accepted for who we feel we are. The problem is that this planet called Earth is far from a perfect world.

 

Doing her radio show in the mid-'90s.

 

Monika: How do you personally approach acceptance and identity as a transgender woman?

Jackie: In my personal opinion, I am a TG. I have learned to accept that very simple fact. I didn’t choose my birth gender, and neither did you. I’m not ever going to be accepted as a “normal woman” by some people. Oh well. I have so many more important things to focus on than trying to make others think the way I want them to. If someone wants to think I’m a dude, really? OK then, good luck with that! Obviously, they’re judging me based on things I had nothing to do with. If they want to think I’m TG, well, I am TG! Why do so many TG people seem to not want to be what they are? “Oh my God, they read me.” They read you as exactly what you truly are, a TG human being. Why is that so horrible?

END OF PART 1

PART 2

 

All photos: courtesy of Jackie Enx.

© 2015 - Monika Kowalska

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