Exene Cervenka

Music career

Cervenka met John Doe at a poetry workshop at the Beyond Baroque Foundation in Venice, Los Angeles, where she began working. Doe and Billy Zoom founded X in 1977, with D.J. Bonebrake on drums; Doe asked Cervenka to join as co-lead vocalist, and the two became the band's primary songwriters. X released its debut album Los Angeles in 1980 and five more albums over the next six years. Cervenka learned guitar from Dave Alvin of the Blasters.

In 1982 she published Adulterers Anonymous, the first of four books with Lydia Lunch; the pair also released a spoken word album, Rude Hieroglyphics, in 1996 and toured. From 1996 to 1999 she co-owned the Los Angeles store You've Got Bad Taste with John Roecker. In 1999, as Exene Červenková, she appeared in the video Decoupage 2000: Return of the Goddess, reading her poem 'They Must Be Angels' and appearing in an interview skit.

Personal life

Cervenka married John Doe in 1980; they divorced in 1985. She met Viggo Mortensen in 1986 on the set of the comedy Salvation!, in which he played her husband; they married on July 8, 1987. Their son, Henry Blake Mortensen, was born on January 28, 1988. The family lived in Idaho for three years.

They separated in 1992 and divorced in 1997. She later married musician Jason Edge, who played in her band Original Sinners; they are now divorced. Having arrived from Illinois in 1969, Cervenka lived in St. Petersburg and other Central Florida locations during her teens, working odd jobs including in the toy department of Webb's City. She moved from Los Angeles to Jefferson City, Missouri, for four years, then returned to Southern California; she now lives in Orange County.

On June 2, 2009, she disclosed a multiple sclerosis diagnosis. Before that, she and X had supported Sweet Relief, a charity for uninsured artists begun by Victoria Williams after her own MS diagnosis. In 2011 Cervenka said she may have been misdiagnosed; she canceled a Spring 2011 tour due to MS problems. In 2015 John Doe said the MS diagnosis was incorrect and that other doctors had been unable to diagnose her.

Discography

Cervenka's recordings with X include the 1978 single 'Adult Books'/'We're Desperate', the 1980 compilation Yes L.A., the soundtrack to The Decline of Western Civilization (1980), and the albums Los Angeles (1980), Wild Gift (1981), Under the Big Black Sun (1982), More Fun in the New World (1983), Ain't Love Grand! (1985), See How We Are (1987), Live at the Whisky a Go-Go (1988), Hey Zeus! (1993), Unclogged (1995), Beyond and Back: The X Anthology (1997), The Best: Make the Music Go Bang! (2004), X – Live in Los Angeles (2005), Alphabetland (2020), and Smoke & Fiction (2024).

She also appears on the 1985 album Poor Little Critter on the Road and the 2005 album The Modern Sounds of the Knitters. Solo and collaborative releases include Old Wives' Tales (1989), Running Sacred (1990), the 7-inch Exene Cervenka (Wordcore Volume 7) (1994), Surface To Air Serpents (1995), Somewhere Gone (2009), and The Excitement of Maybe (2011). She recorded as Auntie Christ on Life Could Be a Dream (1997) and as Original Sinners on Original Sinners (2002) and Sev7en (2006).

Spoken word and poetry releases include Twin Sisters with Wanda Coleman (1985) and Rude Hieroglyphics with Lydia Lunch (1995). She contributed music to the film Across the Moon (1994) and the song 'The Future is a War' to the Honor the Earth Campaign benefit (1996) and the G.I. Jane soundtrack (1997).

Works or publications

Cervenka co-authored Adulterers Anonymous with Lydia Lunch (1982). She co-produced The 1984 Calendar of Olympic Games, Music & Orwellian Dates with M. Hyatt and 53 mail artists. She co-directed the short film Bad Day with Modi Frank (1986). Her poem appears in Poetry Loves Poetry: An Anthology of Los Angeles Poets (1985).

She published Virtual Unreality (1993) and contributed poems and articles to Details, Raygun, and L.A. Weekly (1993). She wrote the introduction to The Unsinkable Bambi Lake (1996) and the essay 'Halos Above Our Horns' in Make the Music Go Bang! (1997). Excerpts from Virtual Unreality appear in The Best of 2.13.61 Publications (1998). She published A Beer on Every Page (2002) and contributed the essay 'Slivery Moon' to We're Desperate: The Punk Photography of Jim Jocoy (2002).

Her short story 'Perfect World from Virtual Unreality' appears in Carved in Rock (2003). She co-authored Magical Meteorite Songwriting Device with Viggo Mortensen (2006). Her collages and journals were exhibited in America the Beautiful at the Santa Monica Museum of Art (2005) and DCKT Contemporary (2006); in A Fifth of Tomorrow at Western Project (2007) and DCKT Contemporary (2008); in We're Not The Jet Set with Wayne White at Western Project (2009); and in Hollywood Satan at Mark Moore Gallery (1998).