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Pure Rock
from: Yuma Sun
Yes, JOAN JETT still loves rock and roll.
But don't take our word for it. Find out June 7 when the gal called the first lady of rock and roll comes to shake things down at Paradise Casino.
Still wondering how much this show is going to rock? In the mean time, take an original Blackheart's word for it.
"I guarantee Yuma is going to get a great rock show. We're gonna knock your socks off!"
So says KENNY LAGUNA, a music legend himself, who has performed on and produced every album JOAN JETT has ever made. Laguna and Jett have been on the road together for two decades now, and boy, he said the competition sure has changed.
"We're one of the last true rock bands around. It's like the last of the Mohicans!" Laguna said, laughing, during a phone interview from his East Coast home. "I defy anyone to tell me they've heard a better one."
JOAN JETT AND THE BLACKHEARTS will prove their stuff to Yuma twice that night, with shows at 7 and 9 p.m. Tickets, which are $15 and nearly gone, are available at D&H Music.
Laguna laughed at queries about when the band's current tour began.
"Twenty-one years ago!" he said in his trademark sweet, but wisecrackish way. "When I first met Joan, she was a real road dog, going absolutely everywhere. We did bus tours then for many years."
But now, he explained, band members want to be a bit closer to home these days and have a different system down.
"We record and write all the time and do weekend shows," Laguna said.
On the day of his interview with The Sun, Laguna was busy writing new tunes for the band. Jett, meanwhile, was in the studio recording with the rest of the BLACKHEARTS. All of them were also getting ready to do a show the next night with a fellow legendary musician, Bruce Springsteen.
Like any good friend, Laguna is extremely loyal when it comes to Jett. Just listen to how he describes his longtime pal.
"Joan just has a powerful presence and she is pure rock. I always call her the female Chuck Berry," he said. "She set the standards for women in rock at an early age. I really can't think of any other woman, except for Janis Joplin, who has done so much for rock."
Jett, a native of Philadelphia, began her music career in Los Angeles back in the 1970s, when she formed the group The RUNAWAYS. Although huge in Japan, the group never found much success in America. Instead, she debuted her own album, "Bad Reputation," in 1981. That recording did well, but it was the next one — "I Love Rock and Roll" — that made Jett as household name. That album quickly reached the Top Five on the charts, boating a No. 1 hit and several Top 40 favorites. "I Love Rock and Roll" went on to sell more than 10 million copies.
Jett released "Album" in 1983 and "Glorious Results of Misspent Youth" in 1984, just before taking a short break from music to co-star with Michael J. Fox in the film "Light of Day."
After the BLACKHEARTS went through a change in players, Jett returned with "Up Your Alley" in 1988. That album quickly went platinum, thanks in no small part to the hit "I Hate Myself for Loving You."
Jett spend most of the 1990s in a new role, one of producer and mentor for a number of now highly successful "riot grrrl groups." Her 1994 album "Pure and Simple" featured collaborations with bands like L7, Bikini Kill and Babes in Toyland.
As a group, JOAN JETT AND THE BLACKHEARTS' most recent album is "Fetish," which contained previously unreleased, live and newly recorded material. Their return to frequent performances around the world follow Jett's highly popular stint performing on Broadway in "The Rocky Horror Picture Show."
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