Lorraine Lewis has never been hotter. After a stint fronting Vixen, the dynamic vocalist is back with a new lineup of her classic 80’s band Femme Fatale, a new modeling career, and much more! Lorraine recently took some time to talk about her plans for a busy 2025!
Please press the PLAY icon for the MisplacedStraws Lorraine Lewis interview –
On new music with Lou Gramm – . It’s just been an amazing journey to get to know Lou. He’s so fabulous. He’s an icon. His voice is amazing. It all came about because of Instagram, quite honestly. Basically, every Sunday I do a live Q&A. People always ask the question, “Who would you want to sing with? Who would you want to work with?” My answer’s always been the same. It’s always been, “Number one is Lou Gramm. Number two is Paul Rogers from Bad Company, and number three is David Lee Roth.” That’s always been my top three, and I’ve stuck with that for the past couple of years. Big Foreigner fan, big Lou Gramm fan, and I got contacted because of those Sunday Q&As.
I got contacted by his page and they asked what song I would want to do with Lou if we got a chance to work together. That just started the conversation that opened everything up. They wanted my phone number and said, “Can you be available Friday to have a phone call at 1:00 PM?” I said, “Yes”. Halfway thinking it was nonsense. You never know on the internet. But sure enough, at one o’clock on a Friday, he called me, and it was the voice of Lou. I said, “Hello, Mr. Gramm, it’s a pleasure and honor to meet you”. And he said, “Call me Lou”. So that started the conversation, and then we just started figuring out what songs we wanted to work on. The idea really has been to do three. So, I actually just talked with him yesterday. He called me, and I think that there are going to be some changes as far as the timing.
Originally, I was thinking we were going to potentially release something in June. I don’t think it’s going to happen in June. I think that things have been pushed and rescheduled. I think that he’s back on tour. I think he’s doing some He did some shows. Foreigner. So that’s something new that wasn’t in play last year. I am just, whatever Lou wants to do is what I will do because he’s the master for sure. But I had a great time working with him. Amazing voice got chills working with him and to have him compliment me on my voice was a dream come true. So, yeah, pretty excited about that. Working with him in general is amazing.
On the new lineup of Femme Fatale – Well, it’s all guys for one thing. I’ve had a wonderful time being with the ladies of Rock & Roll. Do not get me wrong. I’ve had a major blast. Femme Fatale originally was myself and four rock guys, and we’re getting back to the roots of that. Look, we can’t go back to the eighties. I don’t wanna do that, but I do want to be the front person, the leader of the pack that has these great rocking guys in back of me. So, we’re getting back to that look, getting back to that sound. I’m excited to play with guys again, quite honestly. I’ve been on stage the last couple of weeks at the, uh, Ultimate Jam Night at the Whisky, and I got to perform with a great rocking band with Sean McNabb on bass, just a plethora of just total rock stars backing me up. There’s just a difference in energy. I mean, it’s one thing to be with badass babes, a whole ‘nother ball game to be with rockstar dudes. There’s a power. There’s a power that comes with that and I love it. They’re super confident, they’re great players and the sound is great. We have a new single that’s ready to drop. I actually just sent it to a label this morning. I gotta be all quiet about all of that stuff. We’re in talks with some labels about Femme Fatale, and so in the meantime, I do have a band together right now.
My rhythm section is Matt Starr on drums, Sean McNabb on bass, and Joel Hoekstra is a guitarist that, he’s amazing. Joel is amazing. I have a track that is going to get mixed and mastered probably in the next week, with myself and Leather Leoni from Chastaine and we did a duet together, a rocking duet, our voices together, and Joel just laid guitar on that on Tuesday. I just heard what he did last night around midnight the tracks came in and I’m like, “Oh, damn”. What an amazing guitar player. What an amazing talent he’s been working with Cher. He does so many different things. I know he is working with Mike Clink. He’s very, very, very busy and I am lucky and honored to get him when I can get him. So that’s my lineup. Will it change from time to time due to people having commitments? So, look, if Cher needs Joel to be on stage with her, I will relinquish to Cher because Cher is the queen.
As a matter of fact, Cher has been very, very monumental in my personal growth. As of late, over the last year, I would say, looking at Cher as a role model of sorts because she’s such a fierce, open book badass. I don’t know her personally, but I’ve definitely gotten some high fives, so to speak, of wanting to do certain things with my life and just looking at hers and her just, she’s just done things the way that she’s wanted to, and so I’ve loved that about her. So, yes. Joel needs to be with Cher. Totally understandable. So, I have other players lined up that would fill in for that. But that’s the lineup right now. I’m excited. Just like I said before, the power and when you have that kind of power behind you, for me, it just elevates me to another level. It’s like, “Oh, you did that. Well, let me go here”. That’s actually what it was like working with, with Lou. His placement and choice of notes on the song were not what I would’ve done. It opened me up to so much. Just ideas of, “Oh wow, how did he do that?” The way he phrases and his choice of when and notes and when to get a little grit in there is just magical. To be in the room with him and witness, I’m so grateful. Like, that’s fucking cool.
On playing the Jack Russell tribute – I performed two songs. It’s just amazing to be in California and have these opportunities. The Sunset Strip. That was my, my day back on the Sunset Strip with all the flyers and all the stories that you’ve heard and Poison taking over the Sunset Strip. I was there, so it’s really great to be able to play at the Whisky. I actually ran into Chuck Wright at NAMM and that’s how the door opened up for the Ultimate Jam Night. I hadn’t seen him in years. He’s been wanting me to play the Ultimate Jam for quite a few years. I did it once back when I had the all-female lineup. I hadn’t been back. He said, “Are you too busy to do this? Cause I would love to have you.” And I was like, “I’ll do it”. So that opened the door for that. Then I got a call from the organizers of the Jack Russell Memorial, and they asked me if I would do a couple of songs. And I was just so touched with that.
Jack was great. Every time I would see Jack, from traveling and being on the road, being at the same airports, always a gentleman, always sweet. He had a lot to carry through his life, and I think that he did it with grace and with style. I know that he had some challenges health wise, but whenever you saw him on stage and everyone would attest to this, he brought it, always brought it. He might be walking up to the microphone a little hunched over, but once he opened his mouth, it was spot on. That voice never left him. I was really honored to be able to be a part of it I did the “Angel Song” and I did “Call It Rock and Roll”. The crowd was great. The vibe was great. There was a lot of love in the room. Just everybody coming together to sus support this amazing talent. Old faces, new faces, the Sunset Strip is always the Sunset Strip. You get people there that were there 35 years ago walking in the doors, and it’s very, very cool for everybody to come together.
It was a great event. I didn’t know that they were doing, they did a live stream of it. I really didn’t know. Somebody sent it to me this morning. Then we all got up and did, um. Oh gosh, what’s the song? The Great White song that everybody sings, “Once Bitten, Twice Shy”, we all got up on stage together and we all supported each other and sang together. It was, it was very, very cool.
On her last show and leaving Vixen – That was a great show. That was a great night. That’s a beautiful venue. We had a blast that night. It was great to be able to perform the song “Red”, which we hadn’t done that many times. That felt really great. Just had a blast. I miss the girls. I think that they’re great. I enjoyed my time with them for sure. Did it turn out the way that I thought it was gonna turn out? No, but this gives me a chance to really be myself and do my own thing. I’m really grateful. It’s like I’m in like my third act, and it feels really good and it feels really right. Vixen has its own legacy, and I have my own, so it’s really great to be able to go back to my roots and really do what I love. I had such a great time touring with them and traveling and I wish them well, for sure.
On the reaction to her joining OnlyFans – I would say 98% positive. I don’t know that the 98% would, would publicly verbalize that because OnlyFans have such a taboo to so many people, so I don’t think that I’m gonna get huge endorsements publicly about what I’m doing. But behind the scenes and the phone calls that I’ve gotten and the text message that I’ve gotten, I actually have a very important producer that called me today. I was just on the phone with him a couple hours ago and he was like, “Right on. This is so cool. This is so out of the box. This is so brave, bold”, all of the adjectives that I love associated with my name at all. A lot of people have reached out to me personally and just said, “This is effing cool. I wish I had the guts”, or, and here’s the thing with OnlyFans is that it really can be whatever you want it to be. It’s not like it has to be pornographic. It doesn’t have to be if you don’t want it to be. I think that it just is synonymous, is that the word, with that and it, there definitely is that as well. I started following a girl. I did some research. Her name is Bentley. She’s like the number one creator on there. I wanted to see,’cause I was trying to figure it out and learn and this and that. I went to her page and it’s full-on porn. Boom right there. So I was like, “Oh, well that’s her thing. Cool. Not my thing”. I think that, for the most part, a lot of people associate it with that and they think that that’s all that it is. But it’s a way for me to connect with people and hear their stories, hear their fantasies. We all have ’em, and have fun with it and just not be afraid of it. That’s where the Cher comments come into play with me.
I do feel like I’m in my bad era, even though I’ve always been in your face. My performances have always been sexy and, and naughty, if you will. My video “Waiting For The Big One”, I mean, come on. The title itself, I don’t know that everybody realizes this, but that video. You’ll go back now and, and watch, but that video, that stage is a bed. Did that go over everybody’s head?
Marty Callner, who just passed away last week on the 17th of March. Dear, dear Marty Callner, who. This man, not only did he change my life because of the videos that he did, Marty was famous for, well he was famous for so many things, but one of his things in the eighties was that he was famous for making women beautiful. Tawny Kitaen on the Jaguar, Lita Ford, et cetera, et cetera. He gave that to me. He brought that out in me, and we had a major connection. It allowed me to feel free and sexy. In one of the videos. Is it “Fallen”? I think it’s “Falling”, might be “Waiting For The Big One”. My top actually falls down. It’s my bustier and it’s tight, and my boobs are just big and it’s not fitting that great, but I’m rocking and rolling, doing my thing and at one point it just popped like everything popped out of the top and I just covered up my boobs and I kept on singing and they left that they didn’t show the boobs, but Marty left me covering up and singing. He just had that knack for bringing out that in me and other women that he’s worked with.
But not only did Marty chang my life because of my videos. But Marty is who I went to. Ooh, I’m getting emotional. Marty’s who I went to when I had the idea for “Ex-Wives of Rock”. My reality show that I co-created with Lisa Brucker. We had the idea, we had been doing interviews, et cetera, et cetera, and. One day we were sitting around brainstorming like, “Who are we gonna take this idea to?” So, I started looking through my phone, who do we know in the business? Marty Callner. I reached out to Marty that day. We had a meeting. He loved the idea, he wanted to call it “Cuckoo Birds”. Marty believed in me always. And so. Because of that belief, that got “Ex-Wives of Rock” off the ground. We filmed with him. We did a sizzle reel with him. We had meetings with him, and he is very, very, very like the number one instrumental person that got that off the ground because of his belief in me. He started producing it. That sizzle reel we shopped around. It didn’t get picked up. Marty said, “:ook, I’m not gonna stand in your way. Do your thing. Take it, run with it. Do what you want. But I believe in the project”. We got it to only so far. And then he stepped away. That’s when we revamped a few things with the sizzle reel, and that’s when we sold it to Slice. But without Marty, that, that wouldn’t have happened. Marty did Cher’s videos. He did. If “I Could Turn Back Time”. So Marty’s a very, very important person in my life.
Going back to Cher, just living life to the fullest. She wishes that she would’ve been badder. When I heard her say that on camera, I was like, “Yeah, I kind of feel that way too”. Like a lot of people, and I said this in the, in the interview that I recently did, I think that they ran it with Brave Word. A lot of people, it’s like the attitude in general sometimes is once you hit 40, 50, you’re supposed to die or something. It’s like you’re over. You’re not sexy anymore, you’re not fun anymore, and I have news for you. I’m hella sexy and I know it. And part of that comes from me loving my life and being free and open in an open book. But also, as time goes on, you get more confident with your sexuality. Especially as women, I think you just get freer. So, I just feel like I’m in the prime of my life. So, to be 66 years old on OnlyFans, it just makes sense to me. As I’ve said in some of the other interviews, much later in, let’s say 50 years now. ’cause I did the math, and it all didn’t match up. But let’s say in 50 years and I’m in the old folk’s home, I’m gonna have some damn stories to tell. I feel like, honestly, and this is the first, first time I’m saying this, I feel like from here on out, I am living my life for those stories to tell.
To answer your question, the, the support has been great, but not everybody thinks it’s cool. There’s a lot of negativity out there. I stay away from it because I don’t really, need to hear about. Oldness, because I don’t feel old. I just feel me. Whatever that is.
On upcoming plans – I’m actually getting ready to jump into an interview with the show that I’m casting for Netflix and they just announced it today. It’s called The Red Balloon, I think. I just got a text message about it and so I get to talk about it. Viral Dating Show, “Pop The Balloon” is coming live to Netflix. So you heard it here first.
