Freda Love Smith

Drummer Freda Love Smith recently hung up her sticks after a long career playing in bands from Blake Babies to Antenna, Mysteries of Life and the Sunshine Boys. She also wrote Red Velvet Underground, a perfectly titled memoir that covers her rock ‘n’ roll life and her passion for cooking. Here she reflects on growing up in Bloomington, Indiana, and teaming up with John Strohm and, later in Boston, Juliana Hatfield to form Blake Babies. How did Allen Ginsberg come to name the band? Why didn’t that band last, and how did she feel about Hatfield’s solo success? What supernatural force named Antenna? How hard was the decision to retire? What’s she writing now? And why are rock ‘n’ food so entwined?