Candye Kane, an L.A.-raised and San Diego-based blues, swing and roots-rock performer who preached self-acceptance, and whose song “The Toughest Girl Alive” gained new meaning as she performed for years with cancer, died May 6 at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.
She had been ill with pancreatic neuroendocrine cancer for about eight years. She was 54.
Dubbed an “East L.A. white homegirl” by The Los Angeles Times in the 1980s, Kane had been a high school dropout and phone-sex operator before emerging as a musician and recording more than a dozen albums. Her music earned an international following and championed LGBT people and others.
She cited Patsy Cline as an inspiration, and she touted the universal appeal of what she called “the old twangy stuff” over newer, more polished versions of country music. Despite advancing cancer, Kane returned to the concert stage again and again, sometimes from her hospital bed. Her final performance was a New Year’s eve show at the Belly Up Tavern in Solana Beach. Her most recent U.S. tour was in December.
“I almost felt like she wanted to die on stage, because she loved what she was doing so much,” said San Diego pianist Sue Palmer, Kane’s accompanist from 1991 to 1999, who performed with her last year.
“For me, she really is an example of mind over matter,” said her son and drummer Evan Caleb Yearsley.
Born Candace Hogan on Nov. 13, 1961 in Ventura, she later legally changed her name to Candye Kane. At the time of her birth, Kane’s father was in jail for embezzlement. When she was 9, her mother taught her how to shoplift. She told The Times she took to rock oldies in part because “that’s what all the gangs and cholas listened to,” and singing them helped her deflect bullies.
At 14, she appeared on “The Gong Show,” and at 17, she was an unwed mother. She began making adult films and using intravenous drugs. She worked as a phone sex operator, stripper and Hustler model.
Later, she channeled these experiences into a pride-in-who-I-am message that she paired with sometimes risque song lyrics and bawdy performances. She played the piano with her breasts and told the times in 1997 that she sought to convey “it’s OK to feel good about sex and one’s body – even if you’re a big girl like me.”
“She had this healing impact and energy,” Yearsley said. “Being able to share time on the road with her, I really got to see her fans and how they reacted to who she was, her songs and what they meant to people.”
San Diego Ballet Artistic Director Javier Velasco, who directed and co-wrote a musical based on Kane’s life called “The Toughest Girl Alive,” praised her “amazing sense of inclusiveness.” The musical was performed in 2011 at San Diego’s MOXIE Theatre.
Kane moved to San Diego in 1986 and signed with Epic Records the same year. The deal ended in disappointment, and she signed with Austin-based Antone’s Records and frequently performed in San Diego venues. She also toured abroad, speaking freely of her cancer diagnosis on stage.
She is survived by sons Evan and Thomas; her mother and stepfather Janet and Eugene Caleb; her two half-siblings Christopher and Leslie Caleb; and her former husband Thomas Yearsley, the bass guitarist and singer in San Diego roots-rock band The Paladins.
– Los Angeles Times