|
All news is attributed to the source from which it was received so that readers may judge the validity of the statements for themselves.
Have Joan Jett news to report? Email us at jettfc@aol.com, and please include the source of the information so it can be validated.
JOAN JETT and KENNY LAGUNA: Visiting US Troops, Supporting Howard Dean, Planning Hit Record
from: chicagoinnerview.com
by: Melanie Falina
It can be said that behind every great, leather-clad woman is a great co-songwriting man. And just like any other society-conscious musical dynamic duo, they're on a mission to make the world a better place. Well... and to rock.
With plans for touring, recording a new album, generating a Top-40 hit and ardently supporting presidential candidate Howard Dean, JOAN JETT and her loyal collaborator of over 20 years, KENNY LAGUNA, have a busy new year mapped out for them. But it's a pace they're used to.
"We never really have a tour," explains Laguna in a wide-ranging, in-depth interview with Chicago Innerview, "but we have to call it a tour for the media folks and record companies to understand what is it. We do all things all the time. In years past, you wouldn't even see a break. We've been working on the [Jett album in progress] for six years. Normally, we're always writing, we're always recording, we're always doing concerts."
Laguna's professional music career began when he was a mere 12 years old performing at high school dances for WMCA, one of New York City's top radio stations throughout the entire 1960s. Some of the connections Laguna made at WMCA led to playing with and/or writing and producing for such bands as Tommy James and the Shondels, Tony Orlando, Music Explosion, Jay and the Americans, The Ohio Express, and Edwin Star.
In 1979, Laguna got a call from a friend who was publicist for the band The RUNAWAYS, a loud and heavy rock group made up of teenage girls. The RUNAWAYS, whose lead guitarist, Lita Ford, later went on to find solo success, had disbanded. Laguna was asked to help founding member JOAN JETT get out of a contract the rest of the group had already abandoned.
"When I saw her work I was blown away," says Laguna of Jett. "She was very tough too because I didn't want her to play the guitar on the basic tracks and she said, 'Well, forget it.' I asked her, 'What do you mean? You're totally broke, you've got nothing going on, I'm a big shot and I'm going to give you an opportunity.' And she said, 'I don't care, I'd rather work at McDonalds.' And I thought, 'Wow, dig this girl. She's got spunk in her.' And she was a teenager - a kid."
Laguna began working with Jett, and together they tried to lasso a recording contract to no avail. "Working with Joan has been kind of like a war because there's always been a huge amount of resistance to her in the industry…They said she's good but she should stop hiding behind that guitar. There was so much prejudice, like how [record companies] thought punks were Nazis. They're not Nazis, they're hippies! They're ugly, but they're hippies."
After being rejected by 23 record labels, Jett and Laguna created their own independent label, and their premiere release was the 1980 self-titled JOAN JETT. It was the most successful independent rock record of all time and it soon got picked up by Boardwalk Records and renamed Bad Reputation.
"A guy called me up for an interview one time and asked me how I came up with the idea [to create the indie label]. Nobody would sign us, it was the only way to get the record out," Laguna marvels.
The partnership blossomed into the sort of team Laguna was hoping to form after working sporadically with acts like The Who, Greg Kihn, and Bow Wow Wow. "I kept having hit records with people but then I wouldn't get to do the follow-ups. It wasn't because I didn't get along with them, but sometimes artists think, 'Now that I'm hot, I can go on.' But a relationship where we could just do it I thought would be more relaxing. So that was my concept - to stay with Joan and develop it."
Twenty-one albums and over two decades later, the Jett-Laguna team is still going strong. Yet, so are the opposing forces.
"The battle continues even now," says Laguna. "Every record we ever made, the labels just thought was garbage. [Jett's hit song] 'I Hate Myself For Loving You,' the guy said, 'That's not a hit!'" Laguna then adds, "Record companies are run by guys who couldn't get laid in high school."
One of Laguna's musical accomplishments has been the release of a CD anthology entitled Laguna Tunes which includes some of his outside projects over the years, including performers such as Darlene Love, Bill Medley of the Righteous Brothers, and others.
"When I put out my album, it was not a commercial success but it was a critical success. Then I started looking at it and I went, 'Whoa, that is something,' because if I could have played on a Don Ho record, [a] Barbara Streisand record, and Johnny Mathis, not to mention the Ramones, Joan [Jett], Bow Wow Wow - it's big because the spectrum is great."
In addition to their musical endeavors, Jett and Laguna spend countless hours devoted to charity work. "I was one of the guys who started the T.J. Martell Foundation. Tony Martell was my good buddy and I was with him when his son died. So that was something Joan adopted."
Jett's and Laguna's participation in the T.J. Martell Foundation then led to helping out other charitable foundations, particularly ones that are under-manned, and to a longtime a dedication to U.S. troops.
"Joan's very sensitive about it, but we do a lot and we've always done a lot, and there's been no publicity," explains Laguna. "Joan's really not comfortable with the publicity because she doesn't want anybody, including herself, to question the motives. We've been doing it forever, but over the last few years all of a sudden it's not a bad thing. But there was a time when a lot of our peers were like, 'What are you guys doing?' because we're always out there. Sometimes we're dead set against the policy but we always went to the troops all over the world, and we've been to some of the more bizarre places where people don't even know we have troops."
He continues, "You know how many countries the United States military is in? One hundred and twenty. You know how many active missions are going on right this minute? Over 200. I mean, we are busy. These poor kids, they just stick them in some really strange places, places that don't have the normal facilities like we're used to in America, like bathrooms. But Joan - she's so tough it doesn't matter to her, whatever it takes. Between that, the regular concerts, and the charities, we just burn like crazy."
"One time we were walking for 22 days in a war zone, temperatures were below zero and there were no toilets. [To go to the bathroom] you have to get dressed, go outside, a guy with an M16 follows you to a hole in the ground. It's really awkward for a guy like me who lives in the New York metropolitan area. But I'm telling you, Joan's the tough one, she's always wiping my eyes when I start to cry," he laughs.
Having played in places like Bosnia, Afghanistan, Iraq, and Kuwait, Jett and Laguna have naturally found themselves in some dangerous environments.
"We've been in situations where the adrenalin has been so intense you can get high from it. And have we been shot at? Yes. But again, I feel blessed. I've lasted a long time and if these 19-year-old kids are going to have to be there, then I'm happy to be there."
In light of the recent news of the capture of Saddam Hussein, Laguna comments, "It is really fantastic that we got this bastard." But being true to his and Jett's support of Democrat Howard Dean, Laguna goes on to say, "This is going to be a political haven for the Republicans but we didn't stop anything from happening. The cells are out there…Terrorism is the best thing that can happen to Bush but the worse thing that can happen to America because it just keeps people distracted."
After JOAN JETT AND THE BLACKHEARTS' concert jaunt throughout the U.S. early in the year, they'll be heading off to Europe for the month of June, and then hitting up even more military bases in places like Alaska, Iraq, and Kuwait.
Laguna's goal for the New Year is to have another Top-40 hit song with Jett. "I just feel like every now and then you need to have a big hit," he says. "But Joan doesn't feel that need. She's got everything she wants. She's got her audience, a house on the beach, her four cats, and she's way into a lot of socially conscience things. She's going to get involved in politics this year and see if she can rescue our country. But I'd like to have one more [hit]…We're going to do a record that is designed for the mainstream.
"[Joan] just never had those needs, as long as she can make a living doing what she likes to do, musically, and being true to herself - she was there. She's had so many opportunities to sell out but she has a very high threshold. I have a very low threshold, so we try to compromise. I did bubblegum records but you could never get Joan to do that. It's like a sacred thing to her. Her principles are difficult, but they're also a blessing."
Laguna continues, "The best thing [about working with Joan] is that she's loyal and she doesn't blame other people when things are going wrong. A lot of artists do. She takes total responsibility for the things that don't work out."
JOAN JETT AND THE BLACKHEARTS will play at the Paramount Arts Center in Aurora Jan. 31.
|
| |
This Week:
No shows scheduled this week.
Click on the LIVE DATES link for upcoming shows |
Item Of The Month:
|
