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Long live the Queen
With a new album, Jett expresses her enduring love for rock 'n' roll
from: timesunion.com
by Greg Haymes, Staff writer
"I love rock 'n' roll
So put another dime in the jukebox, baby
I love rock 'n' roll
So come and take your time and dance with me"
She has played "I Love Rock 'n' Roll" at every concert she's performed since the song became a No. 1 hit (and bona fide rock anthem classic) in 1981, and JOAN JETT still loves rock 'n' roll.
This year, the veteran rocker who helped break down the rock 'n' roll gender barriers pumped out a new CD, "SINNER" (her first in seven years), and hit the road for the summer as the headlining act on the annual Warped Tour, sharing the stage with musicians less than half her age. And the Queen of Punk and Rock is still out on the road, rumbling into Northern Lights in Clifton Park on Friday night with her longtime band, the BLACKHEARTS.
"I had so much fun on the Warped Tour," Jett exclaims. "I mean, I knew I was going to have fun, but it was even better than I imagined. It was everything that I thought it was going to be -- and more.
"There really was great camaraderie between the bands, and they were all very supportive of each other. The audiences were great, too, and we had a good crowd showing up for all of the shows, so hopefully we made some new fans."
It's difficult to believe that there could be music fans out there who don't know who Jett is. But Jett -- now 48 years old -- hasn't landed a Top 40 hit in 15 years, so there's a whole new generation of fans out there tapping into Jett's stripped-down, no-frills, glam-rock anthems, sung with her tough-as-nails snarl and sneer.
Milestones
This year marks a number of milestones for Jett. It's been 30 years since her pioneering all-girl rock band the RUNAWAYS released their first hit single, "Cherry Bomb," co-authored by Jett when she was 15 years old. It's also the 25th anniversary of her first solo album, "Bad Reputation."
But Jett's solo career almost never got off the ground at all. After the RUNAWAYS called it quits in 1979, Jett teamed up with producer-songwriter KENNY LAGUNA to record a demo tape that included "I Love Rock 'n' Roll," "Do You Want to Touch Me? (Oh Yeah)" and "Crimson and Clover," among others. The tape was rejected by 28 record companies, so Jett and Laguna (who also plays keyboards) formed their own independent record label, BLACKHEART RECORDS.
She's not bitter about it, and in fact, Jett thinks that pile of rejection slips may have been one of the best things that ever happened to her. "I didn't personally have to deal with the front-line rejection -- Kenny was dealing with that -- so I didn't really hear what they were saying about me or why they were turning me down," she recalls. "I was just making music with the band.
"But all of those rejections gave us a feeling of being underdogs -- which is what we were -- and that gave us a resilience," she says. "It allowed us to build our own audience and to build BLACKHEART RECORDS, which at the time wasn't even a real record label. I mean, we were just selling the records out of the trunk of the car."
Had one of those clueless major label record companies signed her on the dotted line, Jett imagines that her career would have taken a very different turn. "I think that they may have tried to make me drop the guitar. Or they would have tried to clean up my image a little bit," she offers with a rough-edged laugh. "Of course, I can only guess, and I'll never really know. But I'm glad that it all went down the way that it did, definitely."
No choice
Back then, of course, girls with guitars didn't play rock 'n' roll. They may have played folk music or pop ditties, but not rough 'n' tumble, go-for-the-throat, no-holds-barred rock 'n' roll.
For Jett, though, there wasn't any other choice.
"That music is connected to my body," Jett declares. "And that's why I think rock 'n' roll is so threatening -- it's connected to the body, to the crotch."
Throughout her career, Jett has sung primarily about love, sex and relationships, and that's still the case with her latest album, "SINNER." In addition to the 10 songs that she wrote or co-wrote (including four with Kathleen Hanna of the bands Bikini Kill and Le Tigre), Jett also walks the sexual orientation tightrope with a pair of gender-bending covers -- the Sweet's "A.C.D.C." and the Replacements' "Androgynous."
But Jett also directly addresses politics for the first time with "Riddles," the scathing track that kicks off the new album. "That song isn't an attack on this specific administration," she explains. "It's more about how politicians don't speak directly. Nothing is clear. Everything is a game.
"I mean, I'm glad that the Democrats gained some seats and some control, but they're just as vulnerable to corruption as the Republicans. They're all politicians in the end, so they've got to come through now. They can't just talk a good game. They've got to walk, too.
"I guess you could say that I'm optimistic about the current situation, but guardedly optimistic."
Finding joy
In Paul Schrader's 1987 film "Light of Day," Jett played the role of the guitarist-singer in a band, the Barbusters, and at one point she famously declares, "Music is all that matters. One hour on stage makes up for the other 23."
But don't confuse the film's character with Jett herself. "I don't know that I ever personally lived by those words," she points out. "I've got to find some joy in the other 23 hours, too.
"Maybe earlier in my life, I may have felt that way because, as a teenager, I was so focused on music and just the music, and I was working towards that all of the time.
"But I think now, I'm able to enjoy the other aspects of the day, too. I'm still not great at it, but I'm getting better."
True, incredible facts about Jett
(1) JOAN JETT is a devoted animal lover and vegetarian. She was nominated for PETA's Libby Award this year, honoring the best vegetarian artist. Jett is also endorsing PETA's protest against Butterball, in light of a recent investigation that uncovered cruel turkey slaughter methods.
(2) JOAN JETT AND THE BLACKHEARTS headlined the Warped Tour last summer, playing in the massive punk festival along with bands like NOFX, Aiden, AFI and Rise Against.
(3) "Radio Revolution," Jett's radio show with satellite provider Sirius, airs from 3 to 7 p.m. Saturdays, with rebroadcasts from 7 to 11 p.m. Sundays. Jett's manager-producer KENNY LAGUNA co-stars.
(4) The RUNAWAYS, the all-girl group Jett helped to form at age 15, released three albums prior to their breakup in 1979. Although all three records were very well received in Japan, the RUNAWAYS never broke out of the underground in the United States, in part because of an overhyped, sleazy image created by their manager, Kim Fowley.
(5) Jett performed in the Broadway production of "The Rocky Horror Show" in 2001. Her character, Columbia, was an updated, guitar-playing version of the tap-dancing character played by Little Nell in the original movie, "The Rocky Horror Picture Show."
(6) "(GI)," the only full-length album recorded by legendary Los Angeles underground punk band the Germs, was produced by Jett in 1979.
(7) "Bad Reputation," a Jett-penned composition that served as her first big solo hit in 1981, later became the theme song for the cult classic NBC-TV show "Freaks and Geeks," airing in 1999-2000.
(8) Chuck Norris and JOAN JETT once faced off in a martial arts battle in an episode of the TV show, "Walker, Texas Ranger." Norris won.
(9) Jett is a major sports fan. She recorded the theme song for WNBA team the New York Liberty and sang the national anthem for the Baltimore Orioles game on the night Cal Ripken Jr. tied Lou Gehrig's record for most consecutive games played.
(10) Jett played an evil immortal on the TV show "Highlander."
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