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JOAN JETT prefers 'playing all the crappy little clubs'
from: vancouversun.com
by Amanda Ash, Vancouver Sun
JOAN JETT AND THE BLACKHEARTS
When: Friday at 8 p.m.
Where: The PNE
Tickets: Included in $20 Fair Gate Pass, or $16.80 at www.pne.ca
JOAN JETT may be in her fifties, but that doesn't mean she's traded in her leather bustiers for cotton floral-print pantsuits.
Her voice says it all: Over the phone, calling from her home in New York, the infamous tomboy from '70s all-girl punk rock band the RUNAWAYS growls with a sense of authority. She speaks and you can't help but nod in agreement. Like the 15-year-old bruiser that first clawed her way into the world of rock 'n' roll, Jett still has a clear sense of who she is and what she's fighting for.
Which is why calling the 51-year-old a role model might be a bad idea.
"I could never say that about myself. To me that sounds conceited," Jett says in her raspy, East Coast voice. "It's like, 'Oh, I'm great I affected all these people, look what I did.' It's not for me to say, as far as I'm concerned, because any artist can think they change the world. I just want people to get something from [my music]."
Jett's world-changing status can be argued, though, if you've got the guts.
With the release of the biopic The RUNAWAYS (based on band mate and lead singer Cherie Currie's memoir Neon Angel), Jett's life and story has been splashed across the big screen, reaching a whole new generation of teenagers with the help of Twilight stars Kristen Stewart (as Jett) and Dakota Fanning (as Currie).
When you take a look at the past 30-some years of her life, it's hard not to look up to the shaggy haired firebrand. She has eight platinum and gold albums, nine Top 40 singles (including the hits Bad Reputation, I Love Rock 'N' Roll and Crimson And Clover), heads her own independent label BLACKHEART RECORDS, and is only one of two women to be named to Rolling Stone magazine's list of 100 greatest guitar players of all time.
Jett may not consider herself a role model, but she does see herself as a female who once struggled to break into a male-dominated industry and continues to fight for a woman's right to wield a guitar.
"I do certainly believe that's part of the reason that I'm here on this earth - to fight for girls to be able to do whatever they want to do, whether it's playing rock 'n' roll, playing guitar, becoming a scientist. ... Breaking any kind of barriers.
"I just never got why people said girls can't play rock 'n' roll. I thought, 'What are you talking about? I'm in school with girls playing violin and cello, and Beethoven and Bach. So what are you saying? Girls can't learn to play guitar?'
"No, what you're saying is rock 'n' roll is sexual music. And if girls play it, it means girls are owning their sexuality and that's threatening for a lot of people."
Although progressive in her beliefs, Jett does seem a bit stuck in her ways.
She admits she doesn't listen to any new or mainstream music, opting for tunes that she grew up with. She concedes that she'd never be able to compete in American Idol, simply because she's "not willing to try a whole bunch of different [genres]." And she would rather bust her butt touring and "playing all the crappy little clubs" than rely wholly on online social marketing.
Perhaps stuck in her ways is the wrong description. A more apt observation would be that Jett still has her eagle eyes zeroed in on her art rather than her surroundings.
"I'm not setting out to win anything. I just want to continue to make what fans think is great music. I kind of let the universe come to me," she says with a laugh. |
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