The naughty superhero

This winter, music lovers will have a chance to see and hear an award-winning singer and song-writer who, just a year ago, wasn't sure she'd live to see her next birthday.

The primary job of a superhero is to beat the odds. She must face super villains and win, not for the sake of ego, but for the sake of justice, honor, and sheer stubborn survival. To help get the job done, superheroes generally have cool names, like Batman, Spiderman, Zena the Warrior Princess, Candye Kane, and…whoops, wait, who was that last one? "Candye Kane" sounds like a little girl in a striped dress. Not the sort of moniker likely to strike fear into the heart of a criminal mastermind – luckily, fear and war craft are not her style. Candye Kane doesn't fly or command an arsenal of high-tech weaponry. Hers are the powers of a passionate and inspirational spirit. She's an internationally acclaimed singer and songwriter, with a twist.

There is no doubt about it though, when push comes to shove, Candye Kane knows how to come out swinging. Born and raised in east LA by a verbally abusive single mom who taught her to shoplift at the age of nine, Candye dabbled in gang culture and became an unwed mother at the age of 17. When she turned 18 she became a sex worker – appearing from 1983 to 1985 on the covers of more than 100 adult magazines. During this time she also starred in a number of hardcore adult videos. But she's no Barbie doll, and her big boobs are for real. She's what internet daters and porn surfers know as a "BBW" (Big Beautiful Woman).

For many who fall on hard times, sex work is a trap, but for Candye it was a way to stay off welfare and invest in what she really loved – her music. By the age of 21 she was, in the words of Wikipedia, "a punk rock anarchist" majoring in women's studies at Palomar Community College. Around this time, she caught the attention of executives at CBS/Epic who saw her, oddly enough, as a potential country singer. She was signed to a developmental deal, recorded her first demo with Grammy Winner Val Garay, and was poised to become a country music star. But then the executives discovered her off-color background and suddenly changed their tune. They would only sign her for a major contract if she agreed to renounce her past and lose weight. The papers were ready, but she didn't sign them. She walked away.

The blues turned out to be a much better home for a plus-sized gal with a checkered past and a rebel attitude. Instead of conforming to a system that, in her words, wanted to fix everything about her "that was unique, unusual and hence, broken," she began speaking out – and singing out – against the stereotypes and attitudes that keep so many people poor and miserable. Candye wasn't broken, she just refused to "dress for success." This cantankerous nature had been evident even in her childhood. In her blog she recalls one hot summer when she was a young girl:

Suddenly my mom was informing me that I had to wear a shirt from now on. My breasts were growing and it was 'inappropriate' for a young lady to run around shirtless. I spent the rest of the summer seated in front of the electric fan, stubbornly refusing to give into my mom's merciless demands, my raging hormones, and my blossoming mammaries.

Superheroes need to be passionate, powerful, creative, and more than a little stubborn. Candye Kane was all of the above. As an award-winning blues singer, she became a champion for the disenfranchised. She fought against size discrimination, for the equal rights of sex workers, and spoke out openly in support of alternative erotic lifestyles. As an outspoken, overweight, bisexual former porn star with world-class singing and song-writing abilities, Candye Kane gathered a rather cultish following. According to her bio, her fans are "a mixture of bikers, blues fans, punk rockers, drag queens, fat girls, queers, burlesque dancers, porn fans, sex workers, rockabilly and swing dancers, grey haired hippies, sex positive feminists and everyday folk of all ages." Although she's American, Candye Kane is perhaps even better known, and more readily accepted, in Europe. She toured worldwide more than 250 days a year.

But, of course, a superhero needs a super-villain. She'd been having severe abdominal pain two or three times a year for several years - landing her in hospitals all over the world including Belgium, Germany, Holland, Nebraska, Indiana and New Jersey. In 2008 (the same year she was nominated for a 2008 National Blues Foundation Award for Best Blues Contemporary Female) the villain's secret identity was exposed: Candye was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. She had lost other friends to this same form of cancer, so at first her future seemed bleak. "I still have to pinch myself," she says, amazed by her survival. "Cancer has made me appreciate the beautiful friendships and moments I have on this planet."

Today, she is not only alive, but she's once again touring the world. This summer she completed her tenth CD, and the title, in case you haven't already guessed, is "Superhero." The title of the album is also the name of one of the songs on the CD. It was the first song she wrote after her surgery in April 2008.

I was so fragile when I came home from the hospital and could barely open my mouth to speak audibly, much less sing. I had 150 stitches in my belly after an intense, eleven-hour surgery that removed parts of at least five of my organs. Frustrated at my inability to sing normally, I held my guitar and strummed it daily. I believe in the healing power of music and I knew the guitar vibrations would be good for my traumatized body in addition to helping me stay focused on music. Eventually, I was able to muster up the strength to sing just a little and I wrote “Super Hero.”

After her surgery, she lost a great deal of weight and wondered if her fat fans would desert her, especially after a blogger accused her of lying about her weight in her song, "200 pounds of fun." In her own mind, her image has not changed. "In my head, I still identify as a fat girl. I still shop in plus size shops and websites." Her ideals remain intact: "I haven’t changed my belief that beauty comes in all shapes, sizes, ages and sexual orientations. I still feel like an outsider and I will always identify with the disenfranchised."

Life has improved greatly over the past year for Candye, but the trauma of life-threatening cancer is not something easily overcome or forgotten. Her diet has changed radically, and she will have to monitor her health closely for the rest of her life. She still remembers the day the UPS man delivered a gift to her. Gifts are wonderful, of course, but the address label caught her off-guard. It was addressed to “cancer patient.” Those were dark times for her, but along with the trauma came a new sense of vision.

I realize now that every day I have here is special and sacred. There are no guarantees in life and so I cherish every day I am given.

Candye Kane will be back in America again this fall, and in December she will be in Ohio. On December 10th she will be performing at the Fat Fish Blue in Cleveland, and on the 11th at the Thirsty Ear Tavern in Columbus. (You can see her full schedule here or on her MySpace page.)

The role of the mythological superhero is to awaken and nurture the secret superhero within us all. Candye Kane's super power is, thus, the most awesome super power ever – the power to give hope and inspiration to those who are forgotten, denigrated, ill, or downtrodden in a world in which the greatest villain of all is despair.