Photo: Sally Aristei
Photo: Sally Aristei |
Leslie Nuchow wants to keep the tobacco companies out of the music industry.
"I had never been an anti-tobacco activist until I had a personal experience with how the tobacco industry is using music to lie to young people," she says.
In early 1997, the singer was approached by Virginia Slims' new record label WomanThing Music, which promotes tobacco use to young women by attaching packs of cigarettes to its CDs. Nuchow turned down the lucrative tobacco industry deal and instead created SLAM!, an organization dedicated to keeping tobacco money out of the music business.
Out of that grew SLAM! Records and a series of anti-tobacco SLAM! concerts. The singer recently released her "Tenderland" CD, the first one produced under her new record label. A portion of the proceeds from the CD's sale will go to organizations working against the tobacco industry.
Nuchow enjoys working with anti-tobacco groups and held two special performances with the American Lung Association during its annual state conference in San Diego in 1998.
"I just want young people to know they are smarter than the tobacco industry thinks they are," she says. "I want them to understand the deceptive tactics the tobacco industry uses to manipulate them."