In the ’80s, Wendy O. Williams took a sledgehammer to moral conservatism with a sound and stage show that united punk rock with destructive performance art and grindhouse sleaze. Born in western New York in 1949, Williams achieved infamy as the scantily clad, chainsaw-wielding screamer for the Plasmatics, who emerged from New York City’s punk scene to unleash a memorable debut, New Hope for the Wretched, in 1980. As the decade progressed, Williams’ vision for the band, as well as her concurrent solo career, only grew more audacious. While her first solo record, 1984’s W.O.W., dishes out crunchy heavy metal, the Plasmatics’ Maggots: The Record from 1987 is a thrashy concept album about environmental apocalypse. After dropping the proto-rap metal Deffest! And Baddest! in 1988, the singer withdrew from the public spotlight, passing away in 1998.