Joan Jett And The Blackhearts Bad Reputation Nation

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He Loves Rock N’ Roll:
KENNY LAGUNA Talks About His Life With JOAN JETT
from: classicrockrevisited.com
by Jeb Wright

KENNY LAGUNA was already a veteran of the rock n' roll business when he met a teenage guitar player named JOAN JETT. Kenny had played and recorded with many bands, most notably Tommy James & The Shondells during their heyday. In the 70's, Kenny took to producing and writing music. It was during this time that Kenny met Joan and they began a lifelong relationship. Jett was fresh out of the girl band The RUNAWAYS and was just beginning to find her sound and true identity. Under Laguna's tutelage, Jett began to blossom. Their first effort, Bad Reputation, saw them forging ahead and mixing modern day punk attitude with pop rock sensibility. No major hits surfaced but Joan's star was beginning to shine.

"I Love Rock N' Roll" was the title track of the next record and America took notice. Suddenly, Joan was thrust into the media spotlight. The song has become as American as apple pie. Kenny and Joan took advantage of the opportunity and Joan became famous and is now considered a major musical influence by today's punk bands. She is also an icon for women rockers. The band made it by touring, investing their own money and by hard work. Read on to learn more about JOAN JETT through the eyes of her songwriting partner, producer, band mate and friend KENNY LAGUNA. - Jeb Wright, July 2004

Jeb: You will be headlining the Wheatland Jam on Friday night in Kansas.
KENNY LAGUNA: Cool.

Jeb: What is your take on Midwest rock crowds?
Kenny: I think the American audience as a whole is all tuned in. There is not a place in the USA where I would say the crowds are just a bunch of duds. We do spend a lot of time touring in the middle of the country. In the winter sometimes the weather is horrible and there is a lot a bitching and complaining with the crew but we do whatever we can to make our tours stellar. We try to get to every city instead of going to just the top markets and then going back to make a record. A lot of the top acts just do that. We try to tour all of America. The audiences are great in Cleveland, New York, Kansas and everywhere. We love this rock n' roll shit.

Jeb: The reason you still tour though is because of the music. If the music was no good then no one would want to see you guys.
Kenny: I think Joan has made some cool records. I think the hardest record to make is a true rock n' roll record. You have to have some menace and you have to have some pop. I am talking about the Rolling Stones and Creedence Clearwater. They still rock but they give you a chorus you can go home singing.

Jeb: Did you believe that JOAN JETT would still be out there 25 years later? Did you have the vision of her being a star?
Kenny: I certainly did. I felt it the first day I met her. Sometimes you are wrong about these visions and these feelings, in fact you are usually wrong. But I felt Joan was unique. She could be poppy and still be angry and have menace. She had the angst that you need. She didn't have to be too poppy. When a lot of bands finally get on the radio they tend to make a different kind of record than they used to. Joan didn't do that. She makes JOAN JETT records. We have tried to have different kinds of hits but it does not work for her. She has to do a JOAN JETT record. The record that is the hit for Lita Ford or the Donnas does not really represent who they really are but it does for Joan. I wrote a song called "Good Music" that got on the Billboard Top 100. Smokey Robinson heard it. Everyone thought it would be a smash but it wasn't a JOAN JETT record. It was too far away from her and what makes her great.

Jeb: How young was Joan when you met her?
Kenny: She was 17.

Jeb: What made her stand out to you?
Kenny: We had written a song called "You Don't Know What You've Got" that was on the Bad Reputation album. She got on the microphone and she sang the song and I just looked at her because it was turning me on so much. I was just digging what I was hearing.

Jeb: How many times did that album get turned down?
Kenny: More than we documented. We had 23 major label rejections.

Jeb: Why didn't you give up and move on?
Kenny: I got angry and I was just sure that I was right. There was a following as well. It was like Woodstock when Joan played in New York. They would close highways when we played. I remember a record executive saying that Joan was just a good live act and that she was not a recording act. I thought this guy was nuts. We started making money. If you put 5000 in a venue then you are getting paid. The mainstream rock stations were not playing her at all but the truly alternative stations started playing her. "Do You Wanna Touch Me" and even "Bad Reputation" slowly started getting played. It was really a rare thing for a punk band to get airplay back then. About 100 stations took a chance with us when we were on the indi label and then finally our indi label started selling records. We still have that label today, it's called BLACKHEART RECORDS. We didn't start that label on purpose; we started it because we couldn't find a record deal.

Jeb: You got with Neal Bogart of Kiss fame and he put the album out later didn't he?
Kenny: He was the head of Buddha Records. I recorded with them when I was a kid. He then became a disco king and he signed Donna Summer. When punk was coming up, he started a new label. He really took a chance because he just like the names of the songs. Later on he got involved. He helped us a lot.

Jeb: You and Joan go beyond a working relationship. It sounds to me like you are really friends.
Kenny: We are best friends. We do things together all the time. We discuss politics and sports and all the stuff best friends do. I am really blessed. I am aware of how lucky I am.

Jeb: I Love Rock N' Roll was the album that put you on the map. The song was actually a remake. Who chose to do the song?
Kenny: Joan chose it. It was a B side for a band called the Arrows. Peter Meade was the Arrows Manager and he did a bunch of the High Numbers stuff that later became the Who. He saved my career by bringing me to England and getting me to work with the Who. I didn't work for Who themselves but they had a label that I did work for. They really did save my career. It took me fifteen years to make the connection between the Arrows and Peter Meade.

Jeb: How did "I Love Rock N' Roll" change the game?
Kenny: We were doing good already. Bad Reputation did pretty well. The 2nd album was different. There was nothing out like it all. I think we were really just a victim of circumstances. It went Top 10 on the rock chart. Neal Bogart was working "Little Drummer Boy" because he wanted us to have a Christmas hit. That is really hard to do with the way radio is set up. You hardly have time to get it on the air and have a hit and then Christmas is over. "I Love Rock N' Roll" was the first cut on the album and it started getting played. We knew it was a strong song but we didn't know if it was going to be a single because the head of the label said it was too hard to get played on the radio. Wherever it did get played it became the number one requested song right away. The minute people heard that song people went nuts. That really saved us as it was just that strong of a song. If we had been on Columbia Records then it might have been number one for another eight weeks. We were on a tiny label with no money and there was no promotion as we only had three promotional men. If we had been on Columbia then they would have had 100 people on it. Who knows what would have happened.

Jeb: I remember the first time I heard that song. For a song to cement itself into people's memories is amazing.
Kenny: I had another song that did that in my career. I had "Mony Mony" when I was with Tommy James and the Shondells. I played with him during his hits. I was not on "Hanky Panky" because he was about ten when he did that.

Jeb: Was it your idea to cover "Crimson And Clover?"
Kenny: We were at my house and Joan was listening to it. She started fooling around with it. One day we decided to do it at sound check and all the people who were in there cleaning up the club got all excited and started cheering. We thought that was really funny. She was just goofing around and it went over. It got a bigger reaction live than when we played "I Love Rock N' Roll." When she played "Crimson" people just went crazy. That record was recorded when we had no money. We rented one hour in the studio and recorded 12 songs. She went into an isolation booth to do the vocals and sang "Crimson And Clover" in one take. Those vocals on the record are the live recording of one take -- that is how good the band was. It was like something out of the 30's. No one records like that anymore.

Jeb: I have heard there is going to be a new record.
Kenny: It is fantastic. We have worked on it for five years. We didn't plan on doing a superstar record but we ended up doing some sides with Bob Rock, Jim Valance, Bikini Kill and there are more. There are just a bunch of great people. We interacted with different people from different eras.

Jeb: As a pro who has been in the business for 30 years, what is your take on why it is hard to get new classic rock music on the air?
Kenny: I think we have a good shot with this one. If we have a good enough record then we will have a hit. Joan doesn't have the same problem that Tommy James has. Tommy is a brilliant artist. It would not matter what kind of record he would make, there is just no place for Tommy James. Maybe one day he will make an unstoppable record and prove me wrong. I feel bad that it is that way but it is. Tommy does not get the chance that Madonna gets with her next single. I think Joan will get a shot.

Jeb: Bands like Blink 182 and the other new punk bands owe Joan a lot. She was clearly an influence to the whole genre that we see today.
Kenny: I have been very pleased with the new bands paying homage to Joan. They are very open with their acknowledgement of her as a an influence. The Distillers, White Stripes, Sugarcult and about 20 other new bands have communicated with us how much her music means to them.

Jeb: Does Joan recognize her influence to them or is she too humble?
Kenny: She is humble but at the same time it is undeniable. Joan was on the cover of the Alternative Press with the lead singer of Green Day and one of the No Doubt guys. Joan keeps her feet on the ground. She never has had a big head and she has always treated people nice. I try to get to her act like rock royalty but she is just a blue collar kid and she has just stayed that way.

Jeb: She gets good press now but a lot of people tore her apart in the early days.
Kenny: That's true. People couldn't understand what she was about. I even had my own prejudices. We were so programmed and conditioned to think of a woman's role in a certain kind of way back then. But she wrote those great guitar riffs. She came up with that killer sound on the guitar as well. All of that was all JOAN JETT. I was very pleased that Rolling Stone listed her as one of the Top 100 Guitar Player Of All Time. Her and Joni Mitchell were the only two women on the list. Thank God they put Joan in.

Jeb: Joan got some national weekly television support a few years back when "Bad Reputation" was the theme song to the show Freaks & Geeks.
Kenny: I loved that. "Bad Reputation" was never a single. It was never a promo and it was never anything. It just became part of the fabric of American music. I am very proud of that. It was never a single or a hit. It was just a great song. It is even in Shrek II.

Jeb: Joan also had a huge hit with "I Hate Myself For Lovin' You."
Kenny: We were left for dead again and we had to promote that record ourselves. The label was not behind us at all. I put up $300,000 of my own money to work that record and make it a hit. We hired our own indies and we went back to the streets. I spent three hundred grand and if it had not been a hit then I would have been fucked. I just felt like we had a hit.

Jeb: Why has Joan become a legacy when most other 80's acts have not?
Kenny: Joan created her own sound and did her own thing. In the case of some of the other folks, producers would come into the sessions with songs and they would just record them. Joan does her own thing. There is a certain amount of honesty in that. Our records are very cool. I think they become timeless. I think Joan has a lot of songs that are that cool.

Jeb: Joan seems very shy and private off stage. She really has never done too much to promote herself.
Kenny: Joan is not obsessed with being famous. When we started making $200 a week she was cool. She doesn't have material needs that engulf her, which is important. She is just happy being herself. She is happy doing charity. She is happy being around animals.

Jeb: She made the spotlight recently for getting in an altercation with a Republican over differences in politics.
Kenny: The political thing is brand new. We stayed out of politics for a long time because we didn't want people not buying our records because they disagreed with our politics. This year I think we both reached a point where we think the country needs to change directions. Joan does a lot of work with our military troops as well. People are out there saying how much they love our troops but they are really full of crap because they are not really taking care of these soldiers. We have had National Guard guys over there for year and their homes are being repossessed. I just think that is wrong. We have some credibility with the troops because we go over and play for them. Whether we like the war or not, we go. We risk our lives doing it. We go out to the front lines. We can hang with Ollie North even if we don't agree with his politics. He will respect us as well because of our attitude. Where there are American troops, Joan will go.

Jeb: Have you taken Joan under your wing? Do you take care of her and look out for her?
Kenny: I try to keep things good for her. I try to coach her to not get too emotional and say things that might alienate people from her. ABC came to Joan and said, "You must hate President Bush." Joan replied, "I don't hate him. I just don't agree with some of his policies." That is really the way to be as opposed to some actor who said, "Don't call Bush a moron because that is offensive to morons." I even take offense to that. Joan is basically a tolerant person. As Americans, we are all in this together.

Jeb: I get the sense you have taken on the roll of Joan's big brother.
Kenny: I reckon that is it. We protect her. It is hard being out on the road.

We hope you enjoy this new feature! Jim Tucker 07/10/2004

Laguna must be a class act because Joan is and has stuck with him all these years. JJ still kicks major ass and does a LOT of community type service shows as well. I wish them all the luck in the world.

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