The Jenny Lewis Show

It is fitting that Jenny Lewis, a high roller in every sense, was born in Las Vegas. But she really came out of the Bakersfield sound—where Laurel Canyon meets the Grand Ole Opry, when Hank was on it. When she was very little, her parents—struggling performers living on welfare—started making money off her: first commercials, then sitcoms, then parts in movies. (Lewis is the only grown-up child star who distinguished herself in rock ’n’ roll, at least since Rick Nelson.) They were suddenly living large, and she became estranged from both of them. Her mother blew everything on drugs. Her father just blew everything. Before they passed, she reconciled and forgave. That’s just the way she is. But the wound must have festered.