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Rock icon flying high with new album, tour
from: sltrib.com
By Dan Nailen, The Salt Lake Tribune
Of the dozens of artists playing at the Vans Warped Tour Saturday, only one can truly be called an icon.
She started her own record label a decade before feminist icon Ani DiFranco did the same. She co-founded a Los Angeles all-girl rock outfit, The RUNAWAYS, nearly a decade before The Go-Go's hit it big. She produced the only album by influential L.A. punks The Germs, and as a teenager headlined clubs while bands like Talking Heads, Television and Tom Petty opened for her.
Ladies and gentlemen, reacquaint yourselves with JOAN JETT - feminist icon, DIY-rock pioneer and ass-kicking rock goddess.
Most people remember Jett for her monster 1982 hit, "I Love Rock 'n' Roll," a song that spent eight weeks atop the singles chart and drove the album of the same name to more than 10 million in sales. That album came out on BLACKHEART RECORDS, the label Jett started in 1981 when nearly 30 labels turned down her efforts to find a record deal. Twenty-five years later, Jett is back with a stellar new album, "SINNER," full of the gritty guitar-rock that is her calling card, and Warped Tour organizers came calling when they were looking for some authentic old-school rock and roll on this summer's edition of the traveling music and extreme-sports carnival.
The 47-year-old Jett sounds like she's having the time of her life taking the stage alongside bands with a fraction of her experience.
"I expected a punk-rock touring circus kind of thing, a rolling block party, and that's exactly what it is," Jett said. "But it's even better than I thought it would be. The atmosphere is very relaxed. The camaraderie between the acts is really awesome. For me, it's the best of both worlds; I get to play, and I get to hang out and see all this great music. It's absolutely one of the highlights of my career, for sure, and I've done a lot of sh-- in my life."
And how. Jett, in addition to three decades making records and touring, is a veteran of feature films and the Broadway stage. She hosts a show on Sirius satellite radio, produces upcoming bands and travels to the Middle East to perform for the troops despite her personal opposition to the war and the current administration.
"SINNER" has been the focus lately, and the new album has earned Jett more critical kudos than anything she's done in years. Kathleen Hanna, one of the "riot grrrls" heavily influenced by Jett's career, appears on several songs, and originals like "A.C.D.C." and "Riddles" fit easily next to well-chosen covers like The Replacements' "Androgynous."
Jett is thrilled with the new album, but sounds a bit perplexed that there aren't more women in the rock world at large, or part of the Warped Tour in particular.
"There are girl bands out there," Jett said. "And there are bands with girls in them. But it still seems, this far down the line, that they're only allowed to go so far. There's extreme resistance, and it's really tough for me and other people to figure out where it comes from. What is stopping it?
"Obviously, you have to be good. You should be. You should have great songs that are catchy, and have an engaging show. But beyond that, it still is tough. And there's resistance to girls playing rock and roll. I'm talking about real rock and roll. Dirty rock and roll. And I don't mean it has to be dirty lyrically, just gritty. Trashy."
As Jett sees it, there remains a double-standard in how musicians are seen when they strap on a guitar and rock a stage, and that's why choreographed and prefabricated pop stars are able to get attention when the women rockers aren't.
"Rock and roll, by its nature, is sexual," Jett said. "So a woman playing rock and roll is really saying to the world that she owns her sexuality, and she is going to tell everybody what she is going to do with it, not the other way around. I think pop music's attitude about that is more, 'You can do what you want with me.' Whereas rock and roll is, 'I'm going to show you what I'm going to do.' You certainly see it from the male perspective, so it's the same thing from the woman's perspective, but we're frightened by that sort of overtly sexual but in-charge woman. People are more comfortable with an overtly sexual, yet somewhat submissive woman."
That might be - just don't expect to find that kind of woman when Jett takes the Warped Tour stage Saturday.
Hear her roar
For a complete transcript of The Salt Lake Tribune's interview with JOAN JETT and sound clips from her new album, "SINNER," visit http://www.sltrib.com.
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