Corin Tucker

Corin Lisa Tucker (born November 9, 1972) is an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist best known for her work with rock band Sleater-Kinney. Tucker is also a member of the alternative rock supergroup Filthy Friends, and previously recorded with the punk band Heavens to Betsy as well as The Corin Tucker Band.

Entertainment Weekly writes, "Corin Tucker's place in rock history is already set in stone, and her work in the riot grrrl era is pretty much peerless, thanks to the muscular guitar style, otherworldly wail, and knack for punchy, pounding three-minute blasts she brought to such great heights with riot queens Sleater-Kinney." Rolling Stone called her "a punk-rock heroine." In 2023, Rolling Stone ranked Tucker at number 155 on its list of the 200 Greatest Singers of All Time.

Tucker was born in State College, Pennsylvania, and spent her childhood in Grand Forks, North Dakota. There, her father was a college professor and her mother was a medical technician. Her father is also a folk singer and musician. She began studying piano when she was twelve. In high school in Eugene, Oregon, she was in a band with friends called This That and the Other.

Tucker says she "grew up on the Beatles" but that "her mind was completely blown" when she heard R.E.M.'s album Murmur when she was 11. Her other musical influences include the Soundtrack from The Wizard of Oz, Joan Jett & the Blackhearts' I Love Rock 'N' Roll, The B-52's, Pat Benatar's Get Nervous, Television's Marquee Moon, and Bikini Kill. Her first concert was to see the band X in Eugene around 1987.

In 1990, Tucker attended Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington, where she studied film, political economy, and social change. She was also exposed to the music scene in Olympia. Tucker said, "I was 18 when I went to a show that Bratmobile and Bikini Kill played. It was February 14, 1991...It was the first time I'd seen feminism translated into an emotional language. For young women to be doing that, basically teenagers on stage, to be taking that kind of stance, that kind of power, was blowing people's minds. And it totally blew my mind. I was like, 'OK, that's it. That's it for me — I'm going in a band, right now.'" The result was the band Heavens to Betsy.

In her first year at Evergreen, Tucker made a documentary about women in music. The documentary included footage of early shows by Bikini Kill and Bratmobile, and interviews with Beat Happening and Nirvana. Tucker graduated from college in 1994.

She says her role models are Maya Angelou, Nora Ephron, and Patti Smith. As Tucker puts its, "Women who have had really long careers and done a lot of different things."

Although she later relocated to Portland, Oregon, Tucker still describes herself as "a small-town girl" from Eugene.