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The Rake So Little Time... STRAIGHT TALK JOAN JETT
from: rakemag.com
JOAN JETT, the tough-talking broad who once screeched "I don’t give a damn about my reputation," has been canonized by an entire generation of she-rockers. Everyone from Courtney Love to PJ Harvey cites her as a muse. And while Jett’s career has recently detoured through acting gigs and reworking some of her standards for movie projects, she and her BLACKHEARTS have recently been touring in support of an all-new record, SINNER, which was ten years in the making. Jett gave us a ring one recent afternoon to chat about her music, her career, and the current climate for women in rock.
So, after ten years with no album, JOAN JETT AND THE BLACKHEARTS are back with SINNER. What’s the deal with the name?
It’s really just a reflection of the times we’re living in. Everyone seems to be on one side or the other, and so it’s kind of interesting to realize that morality is so subjective. For example, a lot of people might judge me based on who I am, based on the way I look or whatever. But underneath, they may not know anything about me. But it’s not just with me. I’m thinking about other people, too, and my judgments of them.
We’re listening to some of the tracks on the new record and not discerning a great shift in musical style. However, with songs such as "Riddles" and "Change the World," it seems your lyrics are tackling a new topic: politics.
Politics and war—and hope, hopefully. These are certainly my first protest songs. It’s something I’ve kind of wanted to touch on for years, but I didn’t really know how to cross that bridge without being preachy or corny; I wanted it to be really organic. So [with "Riddles," a song that mixes in sound bites from Donald Rumsfeld and George W. Bush] I was able to write a song that’s not calling anyone a moron or anything; it’s just reflecting on something I see. And I want to see if other people see it, or if I’m just crazy.
What can people expect to hear at First Avenue on October 23?
There’ll be a lot from SINNER. But there’ll be a lot of our older songs, too.
So you’re not averse to playing the classics. Will you go as far back as The RUNAWAYS?
Yeah, actually, we’ll do a little RUNAWAYS, too. Why would I run from who I was or who I am? I’ll even play "I Love Rock-n-Roll"… I had to make peace with that a while ago.
Looking around at the situation today, the presence of women in rock seems to have dissipated some since the BLACKHEARTS’ heyday in the 1980s. What’s your assessment of the state of women in rock?
It’s really frustrating! For a while, you had bands like L7, Babes in Toyland, and Bikini Kill. I think girls are still a little hesitant because I think there’s this illusion of support and equality, and it’s not really the case. People say girls are equal and girls can do what they want, but most of the time, the girl is going to take a little shit from her parents or her girlfriends for trying to get into a band. There just doesn’t seem to be a lot of support for girls playing music—either from radio, or people just not being interested. I remember what a lot of people were saying about The RUNAWAYS, and it got to be really hard. Frankly, I think I had a point where I was lucky. The timing was right. I had a great song [The RUNAWAYS’ late 70s hit "Cherry Bomb"]. And I recognize that a lot of it was luck and timing. If it’d been even a year later, things might’ve been different.
So, what are you listening to these days?
I listen to a lot of the things I grew up listening to, which would be things like British glitter music, David Bowie, T. Rex, Gary Glitter, and then a lot of the punk rock stuff—The Replacements, Social Distortion, Fugazi.
JOAN JETT AND THE BLACKHEARTS perform at First Avenue on October 23.
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