Maureen Herman

In August 2015, Herman was fired from the band, for originally unspecified reasons. In December 2015, Herman revealed that the reason she had been asked to leave the band was due to an article she had written for the website Boing Boing on the sexual assault of Runaways bassist Jackie Fox by manager Kim Fowley in 1975 and Joan Jett's denial of having witnessed it. Herman said that because of drummer Lori Barbero's business connections with Jett, namely Barbero producing an album for a band under Jett's record label, Blackheart Records, Herman was kicked out of the band for what Barbero believed to be hurting possible future business between Barbero and Jett.

In 2014, Herman rejoined the reunited Babes in Toyland.

In September 2009, Herman moved to Los Angeles to continue as executive director of Project Noise. The Foundation produced a short video for fellow nonprofit, Jail Guitar Doors.

In June 2008, Herman changed to an advisory position at Fuzz and founded non-profit venture Project Noise Foundation, which she started with former Fuzz colleague Chris Skarakis. In spring of 2008, Project Noise partnered with Morello, Amnesty International, and Axis of Justice on The Nightwatchman's Justice Tour, featuring artists Perry Farrell, Ben Harper, and Wayne Kramer, among others. The tour aimed to spotlight regional social justice causes and activism combined with music in two-day events across the U.S.

In June 2006, Herman joined San Francisco start-up Fuzz, a music, technology, and e-commerce platform and social networking community where she began as Senior Director of Business Development. In March 2008, Herman became editor-in-chief of Fuzz editorial section The Fix.

In late 2000, at age 34, Herman entered her first rehabilitation for alcoholism while living in New York City. The following year, Herman was in lower Manhattan during the September 11 attacks, an event which left her with post-traumatic stress disorder. She subsequently relocated to Nashville, Tennessee. During this period, she developed a crack cocaine addiction, which spanned several years. In June 2003, she suffered a gang rape which resulted in a pregnancy. She ultimately kept the child, and gave birth to a daughter, Anna, in 2004.

Herman went on to work as associate editor for Musician magazine and freelance journalist for Rolling Stone. In 1998, Herman started her own company, Pollyanna, which was involved in the music business in various forms, including management, booking, promotion, publicity, and music publishing. In 2000, she produced Hank Williams III's CMT-circulated video "You're the Reason", directed by P.W. Long.

Herman was again reunited with her Libertyville High School classmates Morello and Jones on 1993's Lollapalooza, when Babes in Toyland, Rage Against the Machine, and Tool were all playing the alternative rock tour that year.

Herman replaced former Babes in Toyland's Leon in 1992. Herman described her initiation into the band (Harmony Central, 8/23/00):

In 1989, Herman moved to Chicago, where she quickly became part of the burgeoning indie scene that included Steve Albini, The Jesus Lizard, Touch and Go Records, and the beginnings of the Billions Booking Agency. In 1992, while attending Columbia College Chicago and working in the English Department, Herman was invited to replace Babes in Toyland's departing bassist Michelle Leon. At the time, Herman was the bassist for Chicago band Cherry Rodriguez.

Through Shannon Selberg, vocalist for Minneapolis noise rock band Cows, Herman met the other members of Babes in Toyland prior to their formation as a band. In 1988, after her brother injured his hand in a restaurant pasta machine accident, Herman inherited his bass guitar and started her first band, M&M Stigmata. The band booked a show before writing any songs or having a practice. Babes in Toyland's Kat Bjelland was in attendance at the band's debut at Minneapolis' Uptown Bar, where the three-piece band's singer and guitarist showed up impaired and unable to play the guitar. Bjelland recorded the show, which was played with drums, bass, and vocals only.

She attended the University of Minnesota, with a major of Film Studies and minor in Journalism, and lived in Minneapolis. In January 1985, during freshman year winter break at University of Minnesota, Herman went back to Illinois to help produce a horror spoof, The Season of the Snow Bitch, with LHS alumni, notably Morello and Jones, whose band the Electric Sheep provided the soundtrack for the video.

Maureen Herman (born July 25, 1966) is an American writer and a musician known as the bassist for the Minneapolis-based band Babes in Toyland from 1992 until 1996 and from 2014 until August 2015.

Herman was born July 25, 1966 in Philadelphia but raised in Libertyville, Illinois, and attended Libertyville High School. She worked on the high school paper Drops of Ink with Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine and The Nightwatchman; Adam Jones of Tool; and Jim Naureckas, editor at Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR).