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EYE WEEKLY
from: eyeweekly.com
by CHANDLER LEVACK
JOAN JETT was the dark rock 'n' roll heart of The RUNAWAYS, the band she formed with the help of svengali Kim Fowley when she was 16. Now 52, she's the patron saint of riot grrrls everywhere, having kick-started a women-in-rock revolution with a single power chord. EYE WEEKLY spoke to the icon about Floria Sigismondi's new RUNAWAYS biopic, her relationship with her bandmates and teaching star Kristen Stewart how to "fuck her guitar."
Has it been an emotional experience watching your story unfold onscreen with a bunch of people who are seeing this very dramatized version of your own life?
It's been really surreal, in a pleasant way, you know? There were a couple of moments that I got emotional -- not during the movie, but talking to people afterwards, to people who saw it that knew me then. It's most interesting to speak to people who really knew me well and hear what they thought. And they really believed Kristen [Stewart] as me, so that's impressive when it's coming from Pat Smear of The Germs, who was a friend of mine -- I produced their record for them, many years ago.
Have other members of The RUNAWAYS come to the premieres as well?
Well, Cherie [Currie, whose autobiography the film is based on] was obviously there. Sandy West has passed away. But you know, [Sandy's] family came, some of her sisters, so they felt Sandy would've been really happy and that she was there in spirit. You know that's really kind of bittersweet for me because Sandy would've really wanted this to happen, and I really wish she was here to see it. She's the one I started this whole thing with, and she would be so excited to see our music out there again. And just... [continue] the mission to to let girls know that it was OK to try different things. And not just music, any walk of life -- try not to be afraid. Or even if you're afraid to just jump into it.
Absolutely. That was one of the most striking things for me when I saw the film, I loved it and it made me instantly want to start a band.
[Laughs] Well, that's great! That's amazing! I think it's inspiring, you know. it's something you can do with your hands and it's fun. And you can make some noise and you can get your feelings out and it's social, because you're with other people. To me, one of the best things is playing live. There's nothing better. I like to play in big places -- it's been cool to see all those people out there -- but really, if I had my choice, I'd much rather play a small club. You know, where people are right up against the stage, and the stage is tiny and everyone is smushed together. I like that. Maybe it's because I'm used to it. It's where I'm comfortable and I like to sweat. So anyway... go form a band! You should do it, too!
You've been quoted as saying that in rock n' roll you own your own sexuality. Like, pop music is about "you can do what you want to me," but rock music is all about "I'm going to do what I want to you." How do you think that relates to Kristen's depiction of you? It's a very sexualized performance.
You think?
Yeah, I think so...
OK, it's good that you get that from her -- that part of the thing resonates with the teenagers that are seeing it. I just felt that as a kid, when I was there, that people don't respect the fact that kids feel these things. They expect them to just bottle it up and that it's super easy, and that there's a real easy solution to all this. Just do this, or just handle it this way, or just bottle it up until you're 18 or until you're 21 and then we don't have to be responsible for you. Kids feel these things and people are searching and people experiment. It's very natural for kids to be all over the place. And I think that, you know, certainly I was too. And I think Kristen did a great job of embodying that. I always told her that the guitar is very sexual, that when I play the guitar and the pickup where the sound comes from a guitar, you know... where the strings come over a guitar it's a pickup... do you know what's a pickup?
Yeah.
So my pickup is right on my pubic bone, it sits right there. So, sometimes, when it's sitting just right... I'm not saying it's a vibrator, but when you hit it right, it courses through your body in a way, that I guess is probably similar to sports, like a sports rush. Or just straight-up sexual. It's not straight-up horny.
Right. You don't rock it as a vibrator.
JJ: It's not that, it's not that. It's more of a super powerful feeling but it is definitely connected to your genitals, for sure. So for Kristen, I knew she was having to think about this a lot. And I know they didn't have a lot of time to learn things, so she's thinking about you know, where to stand or the lyrics, or whatever. And if I thought she needed a little encouragement, I would yell, "Kristen -- push it to the wood! Fuck your guitar!"
Really?
Yeah. And I didn't even know I had said this, I heard it from her. She said it in an interview that she did at Sundance, and it's really about, when you're standing there, the wood should be right against ya. And so that's the way I was teaching it -- that's who I am. You'll feel it when you're playing, you won't have to think. You know what I mean? It helps you not to think -- you don't want to be thinking. You just want to be doing. If you think, you'll fuck up.
Yeah exactly. It's like a sensory experience. Do you feel like there's an element of a love story in this movie between you and Cherie?
No, I don't. At all. I just don't see it. Teally, I had a love story between all the girls, really. I loved what we were doing, and I loved them certainly as friends. But there was no romance involved in this; it was more friendship and support that we were doing something that we felt was important. And just being supportive as a friend, I thought I was being loving -- if you want to put it that way.
Do you think the lesbian sex scenes between Kristen and Dakota [Fanning] are going to overshadow the importance of the music in the film?
Well, I guess it's titillating, so people go there. But to over-focus on it, or interpret it, um, as sort of a love story... I don't see it. I just see it coming off as a thing that happened, you know? Cherie's character is also making out with a guy, right there, so if anything... Yeah, I think it can get too much attention but, really, at this point, it's there, so what am I going to do about it? Just keep trying to redirect it to the music. I mean, I always spoke about the music. These things that come up in the film were groomed from other sources, and not from me.
I guess the material it's focused on is from Cherie's memoir right?
Yeah, someplace. But I think you know, Floria was able to pull scenes from not just the book, but any interviews -- anything anybody did is full of material so...
There was a documentary a few years ago that was directed by [former RUNAWAYS bassist] Vicki Blue and that you didn't want to be apart of it, and therefore doesn't have any RUNAWAYS music on it. Why did you decide that this film was the one that you wanted to produce and have approval on?/
Well at first, when there were rumblings about [Floria's film], I just wasn't really interested. I guess I was just mostly fearful that all you can do is just fuck it up. And really, Hollywood's track record of making music films, rock n' roll films, is not a good one. And this band is so important to me... it's just scary. It's not like you're controlling it, you know? In my career right now, since The RUNAWAYS days, I really have control over what I do. I own my own record company, I have say over things. So this is giving up to a degree, a certain amount of control and that was really tough, especially with the subject matter. And you have to hope that everyone else is as a dedicated to getting it right as you are. And that the rock n' roll gods are going to make it happen, you know?
Yeah, totally.
So that's why I was fearful. When [producers] Art and John Linden -- Art Linden has a long track record of making very successful films, and John Lynch is a big 70s buff -- were talking about being interested in doing this, I had to really make a decision: are you going to do this, or are you not going to do it?So once I decided to say yes, I wanted to have as much involvement as possible. And I wanted to be able to help guide them to make sure it seemed real and authentic, and obviously help the actors in any way that's possible.
By the conclusion of the film, you're one of the few members of the band to overcome the endless exhaustion of The RUNAWAYS' 1977 Japan tour to work on your own music. How did you maintain that kind of resilience after Cherie quit the band?
I don't know, maybe we just had different goals initially. I think Sandy and I were definitely on the same page -- we wanted to help make it easier for girls to play rock n' roll. We wanted to do this! It was a fun experience, playing music in a band. And the more people who told us that we couldn't do it, we didn't understand why. Why? Why? What are you saying? So instead they'd take the shots, like, "You can't play." And it's like, what are you talking about? We're playing right now -- we're playing good, we're not playing shitty. You can use your ears. I know music is subjective, but you can still use your ears and tell The RUNAWAYS could play -- bottom line. Whether you like it or not is a different thing, but don't say we couldn't play. It's just not true.
But it's almost like you have to be a thousand times better than any guy, because you're going to take so much shit.
You're going to take so much shit -- and you just have to resign yourself to it sometimes, as a girl. I've been trying to figure out why there aren't more girls doing this. I don't know if it's that girls need the self-esteem more than boys do. And now you've got the internet, and with the anonymity of the internet so, people can really be mean. And they are. And so for a girl who's just trying to play music and being called all sorts of things, after a while you get tired of it. You go, "Man, I don't need to take this shit just for playing music -- I'll go and do something else with my life." I just think the grind becomes too much after awhile.
But I don't know -- I threw my lot in when I was 16. It was too late already. You know what I mean? It's like, this is my mission in life. And I can't really stop, I just have to keep going. I really wanted to do it, and after The RUNAWAYS I found someone who believed in me, and it was KENNY LAGUNA and he's still my songwriting partner, and my producer, and manager -- he got stuck being that because no one else wanted to deal with it. You need someone to believe in you and then it's easier to fight. It's easier to get up in the morning and say, "This is worth it." But sometimes it's hard to find that person. Sometimes it's a friend, sometimes it's your family, sometimes it's a lover -- though that's scary, because lovers can be fleeting. But you know, you need some form of support. And in The RUNAWAYS, it was each other.
On last question: have you and Cherie reconnected?
Oh totally. We reconnected in the mid-'90s. But yeah we've been speaking, certainly a lot more since this movie,, from the inception of the script and all that stuff. So we've been seeing a lot more of each other. And it's nice to see her again, it's really great. It's good to see her again.
The RUNAWAYS opens in Toronto this Friday (March 19).
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