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Black-leather Jett stars in Vans Warped Tour
She is one of the headlining acts at Thunderbird stadium
from: Vancouver Sun (canada.com)
by Kerry Gold
If, when you hear the name JOAN JETT, you
think black leather, perma-sneer and butt-kicking
attitude, the voice on the phone lives up to the
image.
Her speaking voice is as feminine as gravel in a
blender. And although she initially sounds
standoffish, it turns out that Jett is quite the
opposite. Even the thought of Britney Spears famously
citing Pat Benatar in response to a press conference
question about her decision to cover Jett's signature
hit I Love Rock 'n' Roll doesn't ruffle the iconic
singer-guitarist.
"Usually you cover songs that reflect something about
you or something you feel, whatever you know," says
Jett. "I didn't know that she loved rock 'n' roll. And
then when she made that statement, it confirmed it for
me. You can't take it seriously or be hurt by it at
all," she adds.
And judging from the current buzz, Jett's career will
outlast Spears' anyway. Not that I get a lot of time
with the 47-year-old who dares to claim one of the
headlining spots at this year's Vans Warped Tour today
at Thunderbird Stadium
(If you want to see Jett, you'll have to see most of
Warped -- concert times are determined by a draw,
which isn't done till day of show).
Jett's phone time is severely limited by the
management staffer who connects us and kindly
comments, "I'm trying to conserve her voice . . .
She's in great demand, you see."
Now that she's released a new record and is one of the
headlining acts on Vans Warped Tour, she's in demand.
That's right, the sea of 15-year-old boys who've come
for goth-inspired punk band AFI will get a lesson in
old-school rock 'n' roll, Jett style. Jett doesn't
appear to have aged much since she broke through with
her punk band the RUNAWAYS at the age of 15. And
judging from new release SINNER -- her first studio
album in 12 years -- the razor-sharp edge is still
very much intact, along with a short hairdo (the shag
is long gone) and well-toned biceps that are the
result of a couple of half-hearted workouts a week.
"I knew I would enjoy this because it's the kind of
music that I love and I grew up with, and I figured
the vibe would be very relaxed, and it is," she says
of her Warped Tour experience. "It's like a punk rock
circus, a rolling block party. Some of the bands that
have done this for several years, like NOFX and
Bouncing Souls, a lot of these guys are doing things
to make the time pass easier. Barbecues every night.
BMX bikes. Scooters. They've got hockey nets, weights,
a blow-up pool. All the comforts of home. It really is
like a block party. Then once in awhile they have a
poker game and they play for big bucks too."
The boy's club is comfortable territory for Jett. Her
defiance is two-pronged. She's long seemed impervious
to both sex role stereotypes and musical fashions.
Inspired by the New York Dolls as much as Led
Zeppelin, Jett founded her all-girl hard rock band the
RUNAWAYS in the mid-'70s. With wild-girl teen anthems
like Cherry Bomb she managed to generate the kind of
reputation that all but blacklisted her from the
industry.
(Around that time, she famously produced L.A. punk
band the Germs, which has added to her punk rock
cachet considerably).
Jett resurrected her career after writing a couple of
tracks with Sex Pistols Steve Jones and Paul Cook
before joining forces with co-writer and long-time
manager KENNY LAGUNA. On her own BLACKHEARTS record
label, she released the appropriately titled Bad
Reputation, which went platinum after the release of
the massive hit I Love Rock 'n' Roll.
Although Jett was a pioneer with authentic punk-rock
connections, the classic rock cover (of an Arrows
tune) was released at a time when radio hits were
anathema to the punk rock scene, and Jett found
herself the object of scorn at shows where punk rock
was on the menu.
She endured the backlash long enough that she found
herself less ridiculed than admired by a generation of
kids who'd only ever heard the tales about these tough
women of rock 'n' roll's past. She released a couple
of independent classic albums before signing with
major labels and releasing a string of hits like I
Hate Myself for Loving You, and in the mid '90s, she
collaborated with Riot Grrrl bands like Bikini Kill
and the Gits.
It seemed the girl rockers were loud and proud back
then. A decade later, it's a case of Where Are They
Now? Jett can only offer theories, like anybody else.
"Well, some people just finally gave up, you know,"
says Jett. "It's a hard life
. . . I think girls also live in a different place in
their hearts than boys, you know.
"They live more by their self-esteem and I think
sometimes they just don't like being called a [nasty
word for vagina], a whore, and a dike, for just trying
to play music. And it gets to 'You know what? That's
not the kind of life I want. I'm not willing to make
those sacrifices to my dignity to take that kind of
shit.' "
The next question, of course, is how does Jett manage
it? Instead of backing away, she continues to provoke
with sexually ambiguous songs such as her new cover of
Sweet's A.C.D.C. (Carmen Electra is in the video) and
Riddles, a song that disses President Bush. And then
there's the fact that she's playing the Vans Warped
Tour, where the majority of the girls work backstage.
"It only makes me madder," she says. "It makes me just
not want to give up my place. But you know, maybe it's
partly because I've done this since I was 15 and now
maybe I've figured out the reasons to some degree why
people say those things. They are just afraid and they
are threatened, you're trying to change what they
know, what they think a woman's place is -- it's scary
for a lot of people.
"But that doesn't mean I have to abdicate, and I'm not
gonna. And it's all I know how to do, so you know,
it's my cause in life to do this. I don't like to
differentiate so much. I like to just be thought of as
a musician who happens to be a woman -- that's what I
always said in the RUNAWAYS -- but it is very
frustrating to not see more of an open situation where
it's fair, you know, that girls are given an equal
shot, and if they fail it's because they don't have
the songs and they're not talented. That's fair.
"But for them to not even get that shot, it sucks. And
I don't know what it takes to change it, except more
girls doin' it."
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