The Obscure Music Icon Who Deserves Her Story to Be Told
The art of Duchess DeSade in her Persona and Presence
As I scrolled down the posts on Kirby White’s page, I saw a wall of see you on the other side and memories of moments shared. She died 90 days ago. Duchess DeSade is reunited again I thought. The story of the band that I always wanted to write might lost forever with Kirby.
Kirby never answered the questions I sent her about the history of Duchess DeSade. Without her answers, I couldn’t tell the story right. The information on the web about Duchess DeSade is Barbara’s obituary and benefit shows.
Duchess DeSade did a lot more than just die, but the interesting stuff started in the early 90’s pre-internet.
Kirby White and Barbara Planek were best friends before they were bandmates. Together they created and performed as the shock rock group Duchess DeSade.
Barbara was Duchess DeSade and fronted the band. Kirby played bass. The drummers and guitarists rotated. Duchess DeSade took the underground Los Angeles music scene by storm in the early 1990’s.
I met her at a party in 2015 as Barbara. There was chemistry between us. Neither one of was looking for a relationship. We both had too many things going on and both our lives were dumpster…
