KATHLEEN HANNA’S STRIP SONGS

I once saw you do a cabaret performance where you told the story of how you wrote “Kurt smells like Teen Spirit” on a wall in Kurt Cobain’s house, inspiring the song title. You also mentioned that, in your career as a stripper, you had a Janet Jackson set?

I just did, like, “Black Cat.” When I first started dancing—when I was 17, working in a juice bar—I only had two cassettes to practice to. I had an old cassette player and 1 had Janet Jackson’s Control and Tracy Chapman, the first record, with “Fast Car” on it. I remember dancing in a full-length mirror in my apartment, like “Fast Car,” trying to strip to it.