#blake sennett

Someday, we'll meet beyond the stars

And it will be away from here

Someday, we'll meet beyond the limits of who we are

Rilo Kiley

Treefort Music Hall

Boise, Idaho

I visit these mountains with frequency And I stand here with my arms out

Famous Muses & Groupies in Rock Music Pt. 21

MUSE: Winona Ryder (born Winona Laura Horowitz)

Winona was born on October 29th, 1971 in Winona, MN to authors Michael D. Horowitz and Cynthia Palmer. Her godfather and close friend of Michael is radical psychologist Timothy Leary. When Winona was 7 years old, the Horowitz family moved into the Rainbow commune in Mendocino County, CA where the kids were home schooled and lived without electricity. In 1983, Winona began attending the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco two years after her parents relocated them to Petaluma, CA. While she was performing in local stage productions, Winona also would send video auditions and screen tests to Hollywood for potential movie roles. This led to her landing her first studio film, Lucas (1986) and very quickly Winona became a teen movie queen in the late 1980s and early 1990s with Heathers (1989) and Mermaids (1990). As an adult, she continued success with Night on Earth (1991), Reality Bites (1994), The Crucible (1996) and Girl, Interrupted (1999). She was nominated for an Academy Award twice: first for Best Supporting Actress with The Age of Innocence (1993) and second for Best Actress with Little Women (1994). Winona has also consistently been an icon to middle school goth girls all over the world because of her character Lydia Deetz in Tim Burton’s cult classic Beetlejuice (1988); and because of her real-life preference for dark make-up and black clothes. Her career quickly took a dive in 2000 when she had a string of flops released and developed an alleged pill addiction that caused her to have an unprofessional reputation on film sets. This then led to an infamous, bizarre shoplifting scandal in 2001. Since 2009, Winona successfully rebirthed her public image with supporting roles in Hollywood features like Star Trek (2009), Black Swan (2010), When Love is Not Enough (2010) and Turks & Caicos (2014); as well as prominent parts on the series “Show Me a Hero” (2015) and “Stranger Things” (2016- ).

Besides being one of the most recognizable starlets of the late 20th century, Winona also has a rep for dating quite a few musicians back in the day. Her most famous relationship was with fellow Burton collaborator Johnny Depp when they were in a highly publicized romance from 1989 to 1993. Their time together included co-starring in Burton’s Edward Scissorhands (1990) and then becoming engaged the same year. Winona also claims she lost her virginity to Johnny, and of course, after they broke up, Johnny famously changed his tattoo ‘Winona Forever’ to just ‘wino forever.’ After Johnny, Winona grew an association for courting and inspiring many dudes in the alt-rock scene. As her former friend Courtney Love once crudely put it: “You’re no one in rock music until you’ve feuded with me or fucked Winona Ryder.”

Winona’s first rock boyfriend was Dave Pirner of Soul Asylum from 1993-1996. The two were apparently very into each other and quickly moved in together after meeting on the set of MTV’s “Unplugged.” Dave had a cameo in Winona’s movie Reality Bites, while Winona appeared in Asylum’s music video for ‘Without a Trace.’ Even though they were a public item, Winona also described their relationship as more of a friends-with-benefits situation than a traditional romance in a 2002 interview with W magazine.

Her second rock beau was Stephan Jenkins of Third Eye Blind very briefly in 1997, who suddenly left her for fellow Hollywood starlet Charlize Theron. Winona then dated movie star Matt Damon from December 1997 to summer 2000, and managed to be pretty lowkey with their relationship, so there aren’t any juicy stories on them surprisingly. During August 2000, Winona showed up at the Witnness Music Festival in County Mearth, Ireland as indie-alt star Beck’s plus-one. The couple had a brief hookup, with Winona rumored to being the basis on some of his 2002 album ‘Sea Change.’ (But Beck himself has said the album was about former girlfriend Leigh Limon.) In 2001, Winona began dating singer-songwriter Pete Yorn right after his first album ‘musicforthemorningafter’ debuted. Yet only a couple of months later Winona’s shoplifting incident occurred, and Pete bailed.

In 2003, Winona robbed the cradle a little bit when she had a passionate fling with 23-year-old Bright Eyes frontman Conor Oberst, who was 8 years younger than her. The pair was kind of a surprise when a year earlier Conor was quoted saying “I don’t think I would date Winona Ryder, she’s kind of old. I like Natalie Portman.” So maybe he was joking? Their courtship also included some paparazzi pics of the couple showing PDA. Blake Sennett of popular indie band Rilo Kiley ended up being Winona’s final musician boyfriend from 2007-2008. Like Conor, Blake was a bit younger and was rumored to be Winona’s second fiancé, but he denied it. Apparently Winona was very disappointed when he broke up with her. Since her rock love affairs, Winona also dated filmmaker Henry Alex Rubin and has been engaged and living with entrepreneur Scott Mackinlay Hahn since 2011.

Under the Blacklight, Rilo Kiley, Warner Bros. 2007. Purchased at Amoeba Records, LA, 2017. Purple jewel case.

Tracklist:

Silver Lining

Close Call

The Moneymaker

Breakin’ Up

Under the Blacklight

Dreamworld

Dejalo

15

Smoke Detector

The Angels Hung Around