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Punk icon JOAN JETT still going to bat for women in the rock world
from: calgaryherald.com
by Amanda Ash
JOAN JETT may be in her 50s, but that doesn't mean she's traded in her leather bustiers for 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 who 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 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)."
If you've got the guts, though, you can claim Jett has changed the world.
With the release of the biopic The RUNAWAYS (based on bandmate Cherie Currie's memoir Neon Angel), Jett's life and story have been splashed across the big screen, reaching a whole new generation of teenagers.
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 one of only two women on Rolling Stone magazine's list of 100 greatest guitar players of all time (the other is Joni Mitchell).
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."
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