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Once JOAN JETT got her shot, she was ready to rock
from: pjstar.com
by Danielle Hatch
More than 25 years ago, a young JOAN JETT and her producer and songwriting partner KENNY LAGUNA were pretty sure they had something special on a demo tape that included "I Love Rock 'N Roll" and "Do You Wanna Touch Me." Laguna, who was in Tommy James and The Shondells and had worked with everyone from The Who to The Ramones to Andy Warhol, set out to help get Jett signed. But after making the rounds to various record labels, no one was interested.
"We had the most powerful people in the record business presenting Joan, and nobody would do it," Laguna said. "We went into places like Atlantic Records. ... They said JOAN JETT didn't have the class to be on the label."
After being rejected by more than 20 major labels, Jett and Laguna pressed the albums themselves and sold them out of the trunk of Jett's Cadillac. The hurdles they faced in the record business aren't rare.
"You know, it's not like this just happened to Joan. It took a year ... before the major labels would even give The Beatles a shot," Laguna said. "(The record industry) has trouble hearing anything different. Most of the industry looks for what's on the radio now. I say that means they're six months behind already. If you're listening today and trying to copy it, you're already behind the eight ball, know what I mean? Why they didn't hear any of these hits, I don't know."
Now, everybody knows that girl who paved the way for female rockers in the 1980s, starting with "Cherry Bomb," the hit she sang with The RUNAWAYS.
Laguna said he knew when he first met Jett that she could stand out in the music industry.
"I thought she was really unique, really pretty. I just thought she was gorgeous, she was different," he said. "I had never seen a girl dressed like that - black leather jacket, she wore a lot of rouge on her face, and everything was very extreme.
But behind the "Bad Reputation" - the eyeliner and the spiky hair - is a vegan and an animal lover. Here are some interesting tidbits you might not know about the rock goddess, who is scheduled to perform with her band The BLACKHEARTS at 10:30 p.m. Saturday on the Peoria riverfront as part of Budweiser's Grand Nationals Weekend.
- The singer was born Joan Marie Larkin in Philadelphia. She changed her last name to her mother's maiden name after her parents divorced, according to Internet Movie Database.
- She's not as hardcore as she looks. Jett's a vegan and she doesn't drink or smoke. "She's very into animal rights," Laguna said. "She's very into charity - particularly children's charities. She never turns down an autograph, unless she's eating, and then they have to wait. ... She's not mean. People think she's mean because she's strong.
- Jett is one of only two women listed in Rolling Stone Magazine's 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time, coming in at No. 87. Joni Mitchell is No. 72.
- Before her music career, JOAN JETT wanted to be an actress. She appeared in the 1987 Michael J. Fox movie "Light of Day" and was in a Broadway production of "The Rocky Horror Picture Show." She's currently filming "Endless Bummer."
- She's brave. Jett has gone into war zones from Kosovo to Afghanistan to Iraq to entertain troops. She has been whisked from a riot in Panama and was the first American musician who traveled behind the Iron Curtain to play a concert in East Germany in 1982.
"She doesn't do it for publicity," Laguna said. "She's like Elvis to us. She goes out and serves her country."
- Jett isn't just out for her own musical career. BLACKHEART RECORDS Group, which she and Laguna started 26 years ago after their wild goose chase to find a label, has signed up-and-coming artists The Eyeliners, The Dollyrots, The Vacancies and Girl in a Coma.
"If we like the record, we just say you know what? We're going to help you solve this problem," Laguna said "That's really great, instead of watching somebody who deserves to have a record out go through the suffering we did." |
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