Kathleen Hanna: “Queen of the Riot Grrrls”
One of the most striking scenes in the movie is where Adam films you after you’ve taken some medication, and we see the side effects kick in. You’re in a really vulnerable state. I completely understand if you’d rather not go into the gory details, but because it’s not a disease a lot of people are too familiar with, could you talk a bit about some of the worst days struggling with it? It was way worse than that scene. That was nothing. If it goes long enough, Lyme disease can get into your brain and become neurological, and in my case, I have neurological Lyme. So I would have a lot of seizures. And I would go like this [jerks both of her shoulders back] over and over. It’s like a body twitch, a form of a seizure. My symptoms would change over time. I would have really bad arthritis in my legs. I would talk like I was having a stroke or like I was drunk. And the time in January of 2010 or 2011, it got to the point where I was having several seizures a day, and I was crawling to the bathroom. I couldn’t walk. I could only crawl. 
There’s a movie called Under Our Skin about Lyme disease. I had watched it, and there was one woman who had similar symptoms to me. I said to my husband, “Find out who her doctor is,” and he put me on the train and took me to DC to see that doctor. [Up until that point] I was being treated with oral antibiotics. I had the disease for such a long time that the meds were giving me Herxheimer reactions right after I would take them. A massive amount of toxins are dying off in your system all at once, so it gives you seizures and inflammation in the brain, very similar to meningitis. It really was terrible. The specialist put me on nine months of IV antibiotics, and he saved my life. And now you’ve completed the first tour for Run Fast. Given everything you’ve gone through, can you describe the feeling before that first headlining show at Union Pool? I’ve been nervous before every show I’ve ever done in my entire life. I get extremely insecure. I’ve worked really hard on my voice, and I have to think a lot about pitch and what I want to do. So there are a lot of technical things going on in my head while I’m singing these days. So, yeah, I was totally nervous. I mean, fucking Roger Clark from NY1 was there! Were there points over the last few years that you thought you wouldn’t be able to play again, or did you know, deep down, you’d be back at it, even if it… Killed me? [Laughs] I knew I was going to finish the record, and that was it. That’s what I was focused on, and that’s what gave me the hope to continue the treatments. I hate to sound so depressing… but I didn’t think I was going to be able to perform again, to be honest. I was like, “Finish the record, finish the film, and then it’s done. It’s wrapped up.” You’ve dabbled in painting, writing and lots of other arts. What is it about music that makes it the thing you always come back to? I guess it’s just, when I was a little kid, I used to wait for my parents to leave the house so I could sing in the living room; it had really good acoustics. I would sing “Silent Night” and “Away in a Manger.” I would sing—not the National Anthem—but what’s that one? Not “America the Beautiful,” but the other one? Maybe “Yankee Doodle”? I would sing these patriotic songs and Christmas songs because they were all I knew, and I really enjoyed it. I really did.
