By Jae-Ha Kim
Rolling Stone
June 28, 1990
Loey Nelson still doesn’t know whether it was her voice or the Hank Williams songs she was performing at a club that prompted a fan, who said Nelson’s performance had made him change his mind about killing himself, to give her $3000 to make a demo tape.
But the gesture, which sounds like it came from an inverted rock & roll version of It’s a Wonderful Life, spurred Nelson to action.
“I had been writing songs and playing,” says Nelson, 28. “But sometimes you need somebody to push you in the right direction.”
Venus Killed the Moon is the result of that push. Written primarily by Nelson and produced by David Kershenbaum and Paul McKenna, the lush collection of songs is an impressive debut. Nelson’s lyrics speak of isolation and desperation as much as rejuvenation.
Born Lois Norquist, Nelson chose a childhood nickname and her mother’s maiden name as a declaration of independence from her five older, academically inclined siblings, among them the mayor of Milwaukee, John Norquist.
A college dropout, Nelson traveled around the country, working as a carny, living in a Hawaiian hippie commune and hawking monkey puppets on the streets of L.A.
“I don’t know if that’s completely legal,” she says, laughing, “but you can make pretty fast money that way.”
Although she no longer has to ply her goods on the street, Nelson hasn’t made enough money yet to do what she wants to do the most: pay back her benefactor.
“He doesn’t want to be paid back, but I’m dying to,” Nelson says. “He’s an exceptional human being. He’s almost like an angel.”
