In 1984, the band appeared in the movie Hardbodies as Diaper Rash before moving to Los Angeles to further their career, playing in the pop rock genre.
Gardner described the pressure of recording as "We were just girls from Minnesota and Montana who loved playing live, so it was a bit of a rude awakening.
Vixen would go on worldwide tours in support of Ozzy Osbourne, Scorpions, and Bon Jovi along with their own headline shows.
They toured for another year alongside KISS and Deep Purple before the band split up in 1992 citing musical differences.
Roxy Petrucci's sister Maxine joined the group as bassist for a tour until they were sued by original member Jan Kuehnemund over trademark infringement involving the use of the Vixen name.
In 2001, Kuehnemund decided to reform the band this time with Gardner and Petrucci, adding Pat Holloway on bass.
The show featured a one-time reunion of the original group that aired in November 2004 coinciding with the re-release of the first two Vixen albums.
They originally named the band "VXN" but decided to change it to avoid any possible lawsuits, thus they became known as simply JanetShareRoxyGina (or JSRG for short).
[6] Gardner released a self-titled solo album, co-produced and written by her and her husband, Justin James, on Pavement Entertainment on August 18, 2017.
[7] In addition to vocals, she tripled as a bass guitarist and a drummer on her album, according to an interview with James,[8] who handled guitar duties.
[10] On January 16, 2019, Gardner confirmed in a Facebook post her resignation from Vixen[11] to devote more time to family and prioritize her budding role as a solo artist.
Her last appearance with the band was at the Mohegan Sun Casino Wolf Den in Uncasville, Connecticut, during the previous November.
[14] Gardner and James released Synergy in May 2020 under the different band name Gardner/James which confirmed her eponymous solo project was officially considered a duo.