Jan Terri

Endearingly bad amateur Italian-American singer/songwriter Jan Terri was born on June 17 in Chicago, Illinois. Short (5' 1"), plain, and dumpy, with a gratingly nasal off-key voice and a strangely engaging abrasive, yet earnest persona, Jan possesses a certain lovably ham-fisted charm that makes her essentially the latter-day equivalent to notorious 60's freak celebrity old lady singer Mrs. Miller. She grew up in the Chicago suburb of Franklin Park. Terri was in a jug band with her mother while her father used to perform in local bars in blackface as the "Black Elvis." After earning a B.A. in Broadcast Communications and a Management Certificate for Sound Engineering from Columbia College in 1983, Jan became a back-up singer for the country band The Windy City Cowboys. Alas, Terri was forced to put her musical career on hold because of family problems. She worked as an assistant manager at Montgomery Ward's and eventually got a job as a limousine driver in 1992. Jan started recording her own uproariously awful songs and making hilariously crude music videos of said songs. Moreover, Terri gave out VHS tapes of her videos to various clients at the limousine service in order to further her musical career. Jan befriended advertising executive Jim Thompson, who in turn gave her press kit to legendary shock rocker Marilyn Manson. Manson was so impressed with Terri's sweetly naive lyrics and winningly inept, yet heartfelt enthusiasm that he had her sing at a birthday show for his then girlfriend Rose McGowan on September 5, 1998. Jan subsequently was the opening act for Manson for a handful of concerts he did in Chicago from 1998 to 1999. In 2000 Terri appeared as herself on an episode of "The Daily Show." Her simply astonishing low-rent music videos for her gloriously ghastly songs "Baby Blues," "Losing You," "Rock and Roll Santa," "Get Down Goblin," "Journey to Mars," and "My Little Brother" are all available to be seen for free on YouTube and have thus enabled Jan to amass a sizable and well-deserved avid cult following.