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BayFest
from: lagniappemobile.com
by Stephen Centanni
When JOAN JETT AND THE BLACKHEARTS take the stage at BayFest, many audience members may be unaware that Jett is not the only rock icon performing. Longtime producer/band mate/friend KENNY LAGUNA will also be performing. Who is KENNY LAGUNA? Laguna has performed with a slough of bands including Tommy James and the Shondells ("Crimson and Clover") and has worked with many rock legends. He also (along with Jett) can be credited as a pioneer of the independent label concept with their BLACKHEART RECORDS still as strong as ever. When I spoke with Laguna, JOAN JETT AND THE BLACKHEARTS were recuperating from a performance with their tour mates Aerosmith.
SC: When you originally started working with Joan, it was as a producer. Then, you went on to be a member of the BLACKHEARTS. What was it that made you step from behind the scenes and get on stage as a performer?
KL: I started out in a little rock and roll band that had hit records in the sixties. We did a lot of ‘Bubblegum’ records. So, when I started out, it was really who I was. When I think of myself, I have a lot of hats and a lot of roles. I’ve done a lot of different things in my career. I started as a guy in a group. So, I have that in me. Then when Bubblegum died, I became a record producer, and I would kinda like join each band I was in for a short amount of time. Then, I would leave. A lot of the bands that I produced were guitar bands, so I just tended to the keyboards and kept them tucked in using their overtones in the guitar records that I was making. So, I was still active as a background singer.
Then, when we started with Joan, there was no band. So, I was singing with her on the records, and we’re doing all this stuff. When the BLACKHEARTS existed, I joined occasionally. Like when her guitar player in the ‘80s had a collapsed lung, so we were one man down. So, I got a keyboard, and I went up on stage and played with them for awhile, and that was one time. Then, when she was doing the stadiums with The Police, we kinda embellished the sound a little bit with another voice and another instrument.
SC: A lot of underground/garage bands take the same DIY attitude that you and Joan did when the BLACKHEARTS and BLACKHEART RECORDS was getting on its feet. What was it like back in the early days of BLACKHEART RECORDS?
KL: I was extraordinarily frustrated. First of all, I think Joan is really talented, and it was pretty obvious. We got a lot of resistance because she played the guitar, and some of these guys thought punks were evil and didn’t really get it. I didn’t really have a plan of doing it ourselves. We always dreamed of having a major label, but we were forced to do it this way. We couldn’t think of anything else to do. So, we just printed up some records and started selling them out of the back of our car. As a matter of fact, if you look at MyCaddilacStory.com, it actually tells the story.
We started it in a Caddy. The Caddy people, we know some of them, and we’re big Caddy supporters. It’s the only American luxury car, right? I feel it’s our patriotic duty. If you can afford to make a choice, choose an American product. You know, the Lincoln Town car is made in Canada now, so it’s like this is it. I think our Caddy is better than them all. It’s just a fantastic car, but that’s another subject. So, we’re out there working this record, and it was the right time and the right place. I didn’t know what I was doing. I had been in it a long and knew a lot of people. I started out when I was 14 years old, and I knew all these guys and started putting it together plus all the locals I had had hits with. Wiseguys kinda ran the labels, and we didn’t really get paid, but I had no regrets because they gave me a name just like they promised. I went back and saw a lot of those guys. Then, they took phone calls, and I was able to be plugged in properly to a network that was used to see if records were hits or not, and I was getting a pretty good edge on it. I don’t think that we got too much support from Mobile, Ala. until we were pretty hot, but we did get KLOL in Houston. We got a lot in California: KROQ, KNAC. BCN in Boston, WNEW in New York, MMR in Philadelphia; this is all on an indie label. This was unheard of, and these were monster labels. Suddenly, we started having a hit record. So, it was a shock.
This year, we started out with a record that I think is fantastic, "SINNER." When it came out, Columbia Records gave us an offer as far as distribution. As an indie label, we might have gone through Fontana, which is Universal’s pseudo-indie distributional. At the last second, Joanie and I had a conversation and said, ‘You know what? Let’s just do it ourselves.’ So, in that case, we did make that conscious decision with a lot of relationships. We go directly through TransWorld; we go directly to Best Buy; we go directly to Wal-Mart. So, our distribution is just as good as anyone we could have signed up with, and I’m battling with 500 records a week coming out. I think if you look around; we might be the only truly independent rock and roll label left. If you look at any of the labels, and I’m admire and revere a lot of them, but when you trace it back, it always goes back to Big Brother. Somewhere along the way, they’re distributed by the big guy.
SC: You’ve been quite an iconic figure in the rock industry since the early days. With the face of the music industry and radio changing every day, what are your feelings on the modern music industry?
KL: Just by accident, I think the new model for success is something we did anyway. We happened to be a label owned by an artist. If we have bad record sales, then we can subsidize it with licensing with touring with publishing and acting. I think that these people have to become media companies. I’ve made some really big deals this year, where we spent all the money trying to make somebody a star. Then, the manager gets 20 percent off the top; the agent gets 10% of the gigs. The merch company gets what they get. We get a small piece, but it’s our responsibility to do the whole star making. On a greater level, Columbia Records is not going to be able to put a million dollars into a baby band like they used to without getting a piece of the pie. Touring is going to be way bigger than the record sales now. The new model has to be, ‘OK, we’ll establish you, but we have to have a piece of the merchandising. We have to have a piece of your advertising benefits.’ Today is not like in my day when it was disgraced to have a commercial or be a part of the corporation. Today, it’s a disgrace not to be.
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