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JOAN JETT Rocks Paso!
from: centralcoastrocks.com
Photo by D Willis
Like wine, some things just get better with age, and if you like your Rock n Roll aged to perfection but still tasting as fresh and sweet as it did three decades ago, you enjoyed a delicious treat if you saw JOAN JETT AND THE BLACKHEARTS Rock the California Mid State Fair, July 26th. Love was all around as Punks, Jocks and every other type representing five decades of Rock fans came together in thunderous unison to cheer on the First Lady of Rock n Roll.
Jett and The BLACKHEARTS are on tour to promote their latest CD "SINNER". Released last year the disc has spawned the hits "A.C.D.C." (check out the video w/Carmen Electra), "Change The World" and "Androgynous". Additional tunes "Riddles", "Everyone Knows" and "Watersign" make this CD nothing short of amazing, considering it is 25 years after Jett released her first hit with "I Love Rock n Roll". KENNY LAGUNA, Jett’s longtime partner and collaborator once again does a brilliant job on production duties updating the Blackheart sound while still keeping the signature Jett vibe intact.
Jett and her band actually raised the temperature, which was approaching the triple digit mark when they hit the stage for the first of two sets at 6:30PM. Fans from all over California packed both shows at the Fort Frontier Arena to capacity and were treated to hit after hit from three decades worth of material, from favorites "Bad Reputation, "Crimson and Clover", and "I Love Rock n Roll" to the newest classics "Fetish", "Change The World" and "A.C.D.C".
Like her music itself, JOAN JETT is timeless, as evidenced by her appearance. The toned abs, leather pants and eyeliner never looked so good on a woman in her 40s. It wasn’t surprising that Blender Magazine named her one of its "Sexiest Women". Jett is still relevant and thriving in today’s music scene also, so much so that she was able to headline last years Vans Warped Tour, which prominently features young up and coming Punk and Alternative acts. Rolling Stone Magazine listed Jett in their 2003 "Greatest 100 Guitarists of All Time". Look for JOAN JETT on tour throughout the summer and when she hooks up with Aerosmith for dates in September, and you can get your weekly dose of JOAN JETT’s Radio Revolution on Sirius Satellite Radio’s "Faction" every Sunday night on Sirius Satellite Radio.
Interview with KENNY LAGUNA
CentralCoastRocks.com: You started your career as a performer, having hits with music greats The Ohio Express and The Lemmon Peppers, Tell us about breaking into the music business at such a young age.
KENNY LAGUNA: Well, my big secret was geography. I lived in New York, I hustled around New York City. I started playing with famous bands when I was like 12 and 13, just backing them up at High School Hops, cause I knew all the songs so I worked for 20 bucks. One day I was walking around New York City, I had already been signed to United Artists Records, and then I found out United Artists bought Kama Sutra’s publishing. Kama Sutra had The Lovin’ Spoonful, The Sopwith Camel, The Shangri La’s, a bunch of cool things. I heard they were looking for a lead singer for The Critters, because Donald Ciccone, who was a legendary guy, the lead singer for the Critters, his father made him join the Navy while his record was Number 12.Very interesting. Old fashioned values. Everybody in his family joined the Navy, he had to join the Navy, didn’t matter he had a hit record, the countries at war, go join the Navy. Very admirable. So they hired me to do it, I never ended up doing that. But now I’m with Kama Sutra. Then the Lovin’ Spoonful got busted and they were no longer a viable act. So we retreated into Buddha Records, which was a part of Kama Sutra and we just clicked onto this nursery rhyme thing. We started doing "Yummy Yummy", "Chewy Chewy", "Simon Says", "123 Red Light", and we had all these hit records, that’s how I broke in.
CCRocks: At age 16 you were producing Bill Medley and churning out Bubblegum Hits, was there ever any resistance from people in the industry because of your young age?
Kenny: There was a couple things here and there, but not really. I was trusted to do a soundtrack for Andy Warhol when I was still a teenager, I think it’s a young business. I think if anything, the scary bit is when people get older and can’t be trusted, that’s more scary. That’s why I’m like an apparition, I’m still doing it. I’m over 30 now (Smiles)
CCRocks: You’ve produced Tony Orlando, Jay and The America’s and of course JOAN JETT. What are some of your favorite memories of being in the studio?
Kenny: I think my favorite memories are JOAN JETT’s….. she is cute. (Looks at Joan and smiles) There’s so many memories, favorite memories. Just funny things, some of the things are goof ball things. There’s a couple with Edwin Starr, the guy who did "25 Miles From Home", he saw God and sang the record the best you could ever sing a song and he was happy as hell. They accidentally unplugged before they recorded (Laughs). I remember everyone’s asking "Who’s gonna tell him?" "Who’s gonna tell him?" (Laughs), we don’t have it, we didn’t get it (Laughs). Meeting JOAN JETT and telling her she could overdub her guitar. When she was starving, her life was in the toilet, the luckiest thing to ever happen to her was having me bail her out of the situation and she told me to go fuck myself, if she didn’t play on the basic tracks there wasn’t going to be a record. I go, "What’s wrong with you, if I walk out of here, you got no career", she goes "Fine, I’ll have no career", she says, "I’m playing the guitar". Mony Mony, I remember us going up on the street and taking all the lunch revelers downstairs to sing the chorus. We had like 50 Suits up there singing "Mony Mony", that was a good one. It was a basement studio, Allegra where we cut that song.
CCRocks: You and Joan have had a long standing partnership; you have been there from the start of her solo career as a producer, co-collaborator and musician. Joan was basically turned down by every major record label, which led you to start up BLACKHEART RECORDS. Tell us about those early days starting out, You were basically selling records out of your trunk.
Kenny: Well my game, after Bubblegum died and I was no longer in a band, my game was joining with an artist. Joining a Rock n Roll band for three months and producing a record. And I met Joan, it was the same plan but I thought maybe I could get into a streak with her. I had a feeling I could have hits with her, right from the get go. I fell in love. I’d never met anybody like her. But I thought I would leave, I thought I’d just get involved with her for a little while, I said I’d help her get a record deal. I figured that would be a few months and then on to the next, and nobody would sign Joan so I got frustrated, I got involved. One thing led to another so we made this record on our own steam, with the credit that The Who gave us. Pete Townshend himself got involved, and then his manager who was one of my best friends, Bill Curbishley. They gave us credit in their studio, so we owed them like Sixty Five Thousand Dollars, and that was like in 1979, quite a lot of money. And they trusted us, and we managed to get a Europe deal and it took off from then.
CCRocks: You’ve been touring with Joan for some time, what shows stand out for you and Joan over the years?
Kenny: Oh, there’s several. There was a show when we first started to become international, or at least national, we were playing the clubs and then the ground swell kept coming. We had these dates with XTC, and she’s (Joan) blowing them off the stage, and they got hostile, and they were supposed to be the headliners but Joan was obviously the hotter act. We got to New York, we already had some problems with them because they were British and they played that gamesmanship between bands. We had a pretty tough Tour Manager, he took their Tour Manager and hung him on a fire extinguisher, just lifted him up and hung him on the fire extinguisher (Laughs), and then we get to New York and they tried what they could to be obnoxious. Joan played that show and was Thunderous, and XTC was really being blown off stage. It was at the Palladium, 14th Street in New York, when Joan got done playing everybody left (Laughs), XTC were playing to an empty house. Shea Stadium, that was amazing. That’s where we really kicked the Police’s ass. Of course they got even with us and changed the passes, all of our guests got thrown out, but they couldn’t change history. Seeing that whole Stadium cheering Joan singing "Do You Wanna Touch Me" and their all clapping hands, she’s making them clap their hands. Seeing a whole Stadium full of people and then JFK Stadium two days later in Philadelphia. Just watching 100, 000 people clapping their hands is untouchable, those two stick out.
CCRocks: Joan’s latest CD "SINNER" was released last year; it’s got some amazing songs on it. (Riddles, Naked, Everyone Knows, Change The World, Bad Time) What are your favorites from the disc?
Kenny: I like "Bad Time", that’s a good favorite of mine. "A.C.D.C", "Everyone Knows", personal favorites. I like "Watersign," it’s very dreamy, dramatic love song.
CCRocks: You and Joan have been longtime supporters of America’s troops, tell us about your relationship with them, and who are you supporting in 2008?
Kenny: Well, the troop thing, it’s a little difficult for both of us. I had gotten drafted probably 1970, some where around there. I had hit records and the label kinda got me out of it with their connections, and a lot of guys got killed, and I always felt guilty about it. So I was always doing what I could to try and make up for that decision, it wasn’t like I was for that war but I always felt like you had a responsibility to serve your country because in those days it wasn’t a choice of volunteer or not volunteer, you were going to get drafted. If I don’t go, some poor persons going to go in my stay, so I felt bad about it. Now Joan on the other hand, when we started Joan went like three and a half years straight on the tour. She had her band ready for suicide. And during that time we did world tours and we’d go to places like Madrid where there were American Bases. Wherever we’d go were there was an American Base they would come out and support Joan, and in return Joan would go on the Base. We actually got on these Bases by ourselves, we didn’t need anybody. Basically Joan related to these kids from America from when she was lonely and feeling displaced in a Foreign Country, we go for four or five months, you get disoriented, you miss home. And these kids were home sick too, we both gave each other that taste of home. So Joan got more and more involved that way, then when we started getting into wars, these were her buddies, these were her world wide buddies. We were the first Americans into Panama after they beat up Noriega. We got a call once, there was a tour going out to places like Pearl Harbor, Tokyo and a couple other places, and Joan said, look, if their in Tokyo and Pearl Harbor, ya’ know I wanna help them but, shouldn’t we be going to some places that are shitty? And the service said, "You want Shitty? "We’ll give you Shitty", and Joan became known as the person who would go to any place that sucked so bad nobody wanted to go. Places like Alaska, places like Honduras. We went to Guantanamo before it was even in the news, but we went to Guantanamo right after 911 and watched them build those cages that are now infamous. Places that really sucked, like Korea in the winter, but that’s how we did it. In 1994 we got involved in the USO during Fleet Week, and then we really started getting involved. So between the Armed Forces Network and USO Joan and I at one point were the non combatants that have been in more War Zones than any other non combatants. I’m sure by now some of the reporters are out doing us, but there was a time, before it was a thing to do. People were saying to us, "Why are you doing that?" and she (Joan) would say, hey, their kids, their fans just like anyone else and their out there on their own and we try to bring them a little joy. So I do it, I’m not defending anybody’s policy. Joan is an Anti-War activist who happens to have a decent relationship with Oliver North, which is hard to do. But he respects the fact that while she may be against the war, she will go visit the kids who have been sent there by politicians who’ve never served.
CCRocks: What are your plans for the rest of the year?
Kenny: Oh, we got plans. We’re going to finish up this Summer, which has been a hard one, but lucrative. Then we’re going to do key cities with Aerosmith, we’re doing like two weeks of all the big cities in the East. Chicago, Detroit, Washington D.C, Philly, Atlantic City, a few things like that, and then we’ll take off the last two weeks in October and head to England for an Arena Tour with Motorhead.
CCRocks: Final words for your fans?
Kenny: Throw these bums out when you vote next year. Throw these bums out, we need something. We need to stick together and admit that you guys all made a mistake when you voted for George Bush
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