UNIVERSITY PROGRAM COUNCIL
JANIS JOPLIN
Memorial Coliseum
December 3, 1969
By Phillip Rawls
Janis Joplin appeared in Memorial Coliseum at The University of Alabama less than a year before she died.
Joplin was touring to promote “I’ve Got Dem Ol’ Kozmic Blues Again Mama,” her first solo album since leaving Big Brother and the Holding Company. She called her new group the Kozmic Blues Band. It featured keyboards and horns, unlike the guitar-oriented Big Brother.
While the band was new, the Tuscaloosa concert was classic Janis. The so-called Queen of Rock still had her unruly hair falling in her face as she sang. She still followed any comments to the audience with her raspy laugh and sly smile. And she still drank Southern Comfort straight from a bottle that sat atop an amp on the stage.
The audience got “Piece of My Heart,” “Cry Baby,” “Try,” “Summertime,” “Ball and Chain,” and more.
Rotary Connection, a Chicago band unfamiliar to many in the audience, opened the Tuscaloosa show and others on Joplin’s pre-Christmas swing through the South. Minnie Riperton, the band’s lead singer, is probably best known today as Maya Rudolph’s mother, but that night in Tuscaloosa she put on a vocal performance that required Joplin to bring the kind of career-changing show she gave in the concert movie “Monterey Pop.”
She did. She filled the stage with raw, explosive energy that was thrilling, titillating and totally captivating.
For many in the audience, it would be the last opportunity to see Joplin. She died on Oct. 4, 1970, at the age of 27.