Before the Go-Go’s, Gina Schock Played Drums for a John Waters Icon

Long before she held down the beat for the Go-Go’s, Gina Schock cut her teeth in a Baltimore punk band fronted by a John Waters regular. A rare photograph, recently published by Rolling Stone, shows Schock in 1978 alongside Edith Massey — the beloved actor from Pink Flamingos, Desperate Living, and Polyester — who also ran a thrift store in Fell’s Point called Edith’s Shopping Bag.

“Edie lived down the street from me,” Schock says. “She had a thrift store… I would go visit her because I just loved her. One day I went in and she said, ‘Oh, gee, I’m going to put together a punk rock band. You want to be in it?’ And I said, ‘Sure, of course.’ I was like, ‘Oh, my God, this might be my chance to get out of here.’”

The band, Edie and the Eggs, toured the country with Schock on drums. Massey, who Schock describes as “just a sweet little old lady,” required help getting strapped into the van and prepped for shows — a DIY operation far from the polished new wave the Go-Go’s would later perfect. The photograph and anecdote resurface as part of a broader look into Schock’s archive, revealing an origin story rooted in Baltimore’s collision of queer underground cinema, thrift-store culture, and raw punk impulse.

Schock joined the Go-Go’s in 1981, just as the band was breaking out. But that stint with Massey wasn’t a footnote; it was a working musician’s first real tour, a hands-on education far removed from any practice room. For a few years, before the platinum records, she was the drummer for an egg. That counts.