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Age is just a number for rock 'n' roll true believer JOAN JETT
from: recordnet.com
by Tony Sauro
This whole age thing is getting old for JOAN JETT.
As a teenager, she was ridiculed and dismissed - even spat upon - for having the audacity to play loud, raunchy rock 'n' roll. Now, people want to know how and why she's still willing and able to keep doing it.
After all, Jett - who shocked some as a 15-year-old member of Los Angeles' barrier-bashing RUNAWAYS in 1975 and defiantly acknowledged a "Bad Reputation" on her first solo album - turns 50 on Sept. 22.
CONCERT PREVIEW
JOAN JETT AND THE BLACKHEARTS
What: Stockton Asparagus Festival
When: 4 p.m. Saturday
Where: Main Stage, Weber Point Events Center
Admission: Free with festival admission
Information: (209) 644-3740, www.asparagusfest.com
Does she think about that much?
"No," said Jett, who still wears punk leathers and guarantees she'll be rocking loud and hard Saturday at the Stockton Asparagus Festival. "People focus so much on that now. I guess they always have. I've been dealing with it forever."
It started with the RUNAWAYS, the first successful all-female hard-rock band. Jett's group recorded two albums, toured the world and inspired other young women before breaking up in 1978.
She did think about it back then.
"As a kid ... I probably was pretty ageist," Jett said in an interview from an El Centro tour stop. "At that time, older people didn't get it. We were, like, in a gang that people didn't want to be a part of."
That "gang" broke up after four years, but Jett has kept on running - helping pioneer U.S. punk rock, defying male-dominated corporate control by forming her own label in 1983, cranking out nine punk-tinged hits, acting in movies ("Light of Day," 1987) and touring tirelessly with her BLACKHEARTS band. This will be fourth Stockton visit since 2002.
"Joan is always on the case," longtime manager and keyboard player KENNY LAGUNA said. "She always goes, goes, goes, and we're all going, 'Please, Joan. Please, Joan.'
"She still has the energy she had when she was young. She's very pure. You can't buy her integrity. She will not compromise."
Jett's been busier than ever this year.
Production on a movie about the RUNAWAYS ("Neon Angels") is under way; a greatest-hits CD/DVD (with a few new songs included) will be released this summer; she'll do four dates on Cyndi Lauper's True Colors tour; and still hosts a weekly Sirius satellite radio show ("Underground Garage").
Through BLACKHEART RECORDS, she continues to help develop young acts, including the Dollyrots, a Los Angeles punk-pop trio that last week played Stockton's Blackwater Cafe.
Jett even got to perform March 10 at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony, joining in on "Bits and Pieces" and "Glad All Over" as a tribute to the Dave Clark Five, a 1960s British band.
"I actually had a lot of fun," said Jett, who recorded a version of "Bits and Pieces" on her breakthrough "I Love Rock 'N' Roll" album in 1982. "It was an interesting show. Definitely interesting. It was great to meet the Dave Clark Five."
On a more somber note, she continues to visit U.S. troops whenever and wherever she can, despite her antiwar stance.
"I don't think it's something to brag about," said Jett, a politically savvy and articulate supporter of presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill. "It's something between me and them. It's tawdry to discuss it. I love to go to the (expletive) places, the dangerous places where most people won't go."
That type of commitment and sincerity seem to have contributed to her longevity.
"I really have a tough time analyzing stuff," said Jett, who was born Joan Marie Larkin in Ardmore, Pa. "All I can say is we've stayed a live act, which is, to me, extremely important.
"It's the only way I know. Maybe it's the personal relationship I've been able to create with fans. I've always continued to work, whether I've had hit-record success or not."
Jett, who hasn't had a top 40 hit in 18 years, remains stubbornly independent, and isn't planning to run away from the road anytime soon.
"It wasn't that hard," she said of pressures to conform. "Everybody wanted you to compromise, you know. Just change who you are. I guess I'd rather be less successful, or however you put it.
"In my terms, I'm definitely a success," Jett added. "I'm happy. I'm working. I enjoy my fans. I hope they enjoy me."
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