For many, the undisputed queen of sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll, Janis Joplin was also the voice of a generation who, when she overdosed on heroin at the age of 27, became the posthumous icon of bad girl femininity for millions around the world. Drawing on hundreds of interviews this biography aims to render Joplin in all her complexity, revealing how this sweet-voiced girl from Texas recreated herself, first as a gravelly-voiced bluesy folksinger, and then as rock 'n' roll's first female superstar. Alice Echols examines the roots of Joplin's musicianship and her efforts to probe the outer limits of life; declaring herself the first white-black person and pursuing sex with men and women alike. Moving from the electric ballrooms of San Francisco to the mud-soaked fields of Woodstock, Joplin's story is also a chronicle of the revolutions of the 1960s - a generation's experiment with high-risk living and the exacting price they ultimately paid for this.