This article appeared in Beachcomber Magazine in October 2009. Although I missed Joan Jett's performance at the Destin Seafood Festival, I met up with her afterward and grabbed a photo. As you can see, she looked great. Me, not so much... - Chris
Joan Jett and the Blackhearts headline the Destin Seafood Festival Saturday night, Oct. 3. The Beat spoke to Jett recently about everything from her longtime collaboration with Kenny Laguna to her preference for live performances over studio recording.
“I liked her as a recording act when I first met her in 1979,” says Laguna, who tried to get Jett a record deal and was told by the head of Atlantic Records that she “shouldn’t hide behind a guitar.” “They would never say that about a guy.”
Laguna says Jett remains devoted to her live performances. “Her voice is never off, or her guitar playing,” he says. “Even Les Paul was in love with her playing. She makes eye contact with everyone (in the audience).”
Jett is most famous for her Billboard #1 hit “I Love Rock ‘n Roll” from 1982, but she has been making great music for years, most recently 2006’s Sinner. She and Laguna run Blackheart Records, home to Jett’s own recordings and notable albums by the Dollyrots (2007’s Because I’m Awesome) and Girl in a Coma (this year’s Trio B.C., on which Jett performs as well).
“Girl in a Coma is the best act I’ve run into in a while,” says Laguna. “The whole band is amazing.” He is not impressed by the “rock” acts on the radio these days. “Rock ‘n roll as an art form is not embraced by the radio. It’s all created crap. Some of these bands that are big and considered ‘rock’ are not really rock. There’s something insincere about it.
“Joan never made compromises or did things that would be considered short cuts to success. She turned down millions of dollars in endorsements. She’s very adamant about that.”
Jett and Laguna are executive-producing a new big screen biography of her first band the Runaways, and a brand new greatest hits CD is in the works. You can hear Jett’s immortal “Bad Reputation” on TV’s American Chopper and plenty of other classics everywhere else. Jett also appears in the new-to-DVD National Lampoon’s Endless Bummer, and it’s appropriate that the rock goddess would take on a role in a comedy about surfing—Jett and the band recently headlined the VANS Warped Tour.
You’re the first major female rock ‘n roller to own her own record label. What kinds of artists does Blackheart Records specifically look for?
I don’t know that we have a cut-and-dried plan. We sort of slant toward girls, but we sign bands with girls and guys. We do like all-girl bands. Rock ‘n roll—I can’t really define it. I’ll know it when I hear it.
Your partnership with Laguna is one of the longest lasting in the industry. Lennon-McCartney and Elton John-Bernie Taupin have nothing on you two.
I guess it’s true. It’s an abnormality, unfortunately. Kenny and I are friends first and foremost. We don’t compete—I’m happy if he gets credit. We’re not the same person. We fill in each other’s blanks. People get too caught up in the ego.
You seem to be everywhere these days. At first, I thought they were ripping you off with that Sunday Night Football theme, but I understand that’s not the case.
No, they wanted to use the song, change the words. I’m a sports fan. I thought, “Why not? Check it out, see what happens.” Faith Hill does a great job. I’m a Packers fan, but not by geography. As a little kid, I got into them because they were always muddy. As a six-year-old, that appealed to me. I do pay attention to the New York teams and root for them, but I’m not as emotionally attached.
Is the Destin gig going to be an in-and-out deal, or will you have some time to enjoy our beautiful beaches and exciting local music scene?
I don’t know that we’re gonna jump in and out. We might have a chance. There’s a band from Gainesville I like that we played with on the Warped Tour. Against Me! I gravitate towards their rhythm guitar player.
Your debut album Bad Reputation is an all-time classic, and Sinner is right up there with it. Are you currently working on new material?
You always are. I’m always writing. I think some of the new songs will end up on the new greatest hits. I’m always coming up with riffs and titles and putting them down and trying to put them together—like a puzzle, pretty much.
Your Fit to Be Tied: Great Hits of Joan Jett and the Blackhearts collection is one of my favorites. How will the new compilation top that, aside from including newer material?
We’re working on a lot of extra things for the fans. All the videos from the ‘80s, plus some we did for Sinner that people haven’t necessarily seen—“Androgynous” and “Change the World” and “A.C.D.C.”
What are your thoughts on the current music industry?
It’s in trouble. It’s a normal course of how things go, the cycles of business and technology—it’s happened all throughout the industrial age. New technology replaces the old. I think that’s what’s happening—when you talk about people making new material, it’s a new “file,” not a CD. I don’t know what to think about it. It’s different from when I started out. I try not to think of it as a good thing or a bad thing, but try to deal with it and navigate it and run a business in this sort of climate.
You’re one of the few rockers to have made a successful leap to films (notably Paul Schrader’s Light of Day). What projects attract you?
I like to do things that are as different for me as possible. Not always the kind of things people see me in. You have to get experience—I don’t mind playing the occasional rock star here and there, but I like to do things outside of what people think I can handle. Most of the things I’ve done have been some take on a musician.
I did Rocky Horror on Broadway for eight months—that was a lot of fun. I remember the movie coming out in the mid ‘70s, and it coincided with the forming of the Runaways. It brought back a lot of good memories. The people that work on Broadway are so talented and work so hard. It’s a world unto itself. I was worried I couldn’t handle that when I got the part.
Everyone knows “I Love Rock and Roll,” your #1 hit from 1982. My personal favorite is “Fake Friends.” What are yours?
Jett: I don’t really have favorites, but I’d pick a lot that aren’t singles, particularly the album Pure and Simple from the ‘90s. Most of those songs I love, “Go Home” and “Rubber and Glue.”
---
LITTLE-KNOWN FACTS ABOUT JOAN JETT
- Jett left high school in the 11th grade to go on world tours with the Runaways. She studied while on the road and got her GED.
- Jett’s label Blackheart Records was formed only because no major or indie label was willing to take a chance on her, although she had already recorded and presented "I Love Rock and Roll," "Bad Reputation," "Do You Wanna Touch Me" and "Crimson and Clover."
- Jett was the first major artist from an English-speaking country to perform in Panama. She visited Roberto Duran in the hospital with his whole family and physically turned the big wheels to open the Panama Canal, a rare honor for anyone. While there, Jett appeared on a live Panamanian TV talk show, and thousands of Panamanians gathered outside the studio. When she tried to exit, a major riot ensued. Then-president Noriega called out his troops to get Jett back to safety. Later, he sent the presidential airplane to pick up Jett and take her to his palace for a presidential rendezvous. Jett was not eager for a night alone with El Presidente at his digs, so the U.S. military, fearing an international incident, whisked her out of the country.
- Jett was the first artist to buy S&M studs and leather and use it for rock and roll stage clothes. This look has become the standard for rock ‘n roll, punk and heavy metal fashion. She gave Sid Vicious the "ring" belt she bought at the Pleasure Chest in Hollywood, and he wore all the time.
- Jett was the first American of any kind to perform behind the Iron Curtain in satellite countries, when she went to the DDR (East Germany) in 1982. Jett was paid in antiques, caviar, and Russian vodka, none of which were useful to her.
- A punk producer of note, Jett produced the Germs' GI, the seminal American punk album, when she was still a teenager. She also produced Bikini Kill and Circus Lupus (for Fugazi's Dischord label). This year she produced the Vacancies’ A Beat Missing or a Silence Added, which has already made the college radio charts and is on the way to mainstream success.
- She is active in politics and was Howard Dean's first celebrity supporter. Jett stood on stage with him while he gave his notorious "I Have a Scream" speech in Iowa.
- Jett has been a big supporter of American troops throughout her career. Aside from a few war correspondents, she is the only noncombatant who has been in more active war zones than anyone else, including senators and congressmen. She was the first to entertain the troops in the Kosovo war, and the first noncombatant to sleep in the war zone during Operation Enduring Freedom. Jett was not only the first to go to Afghanistan (when she went deep "downrange" with no equipment other than a guitar and a battery amp with no band or crew), she was the second entertainer when she returned a few months later with her band. She is the only antiwar activist to be featured on Oliver North’s War Stories because—although she has a different political persuasion than most military people—she has been right there when called to support the troops, even when she does not agree with the policy. Her many activities with the troops are largely unnoticed, since she has not permitted any publicity to be done around these events.
- Jett sang the national anthem for her friend Cal Ripken when he tied and broke Lou Gehrig's "unbreakable" consecutive games played record in 1995. Jett sat with baseball legends Willie Mays, Joe DiMaggio and Frank Robinson, along with President Bill Clinton and Vice President Al Gore.
- She was the “wake-up call” on fight days for former heavyweight champ Mike Tyson from the sixth fight in his career on until Tyson changed management. They met doing the cover of In Fashion magazine for charity. The first fight for which Jett did not call Tyson to wake him on fight day was the boxer’s first loss, to Buster Douglas.
- On one trip to entertain the troops in Turkey and the Middle East, Jett was traveling with the Secretary of the Air Force. Jett had requested a trip to Jerusalem while she was playing on the USS Bataan in the harbor of Haifa. When the Israeli colonel guarding her was distracted by her band members, Jett wandered over to the Wailing Wall. Not acquainted with the culture—and looking rather androgynous while covered up with jackets on a cold December day—Jett accepted a yarmulke from one of the guards and pranced over to the men's side of the wailing wall to make a prayer. This intrusion of the sacred rules was a major no-no. Just as Jett noticed a bunch of women at another part of the wall, the Israeli colonel appeared. He was freaking out and screaming, "INTERNATIONAL INCIDENT!! INTERNATIONAL INCIDENT! " at Jett's manager. The American Marines watching this were getting ready to protect Jett from the hordes of orthodox worshippers who would surely try to exact retribution if they discovered the transgression. As a British filmmaker captured all of this, Jett's manager stealthily eased her out of harm’s way. The Israeli detail assigned to the trip agreed never to speak of this to anyone.
