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JOAN JETT on Dave Grohl, new album and 'Cherry Bomb'
from: app.com
By Alex Biese
JOAN JETT is a survivor.
The veteran rock 'n' roll icon and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Class of 2015 nominee, who first burst onto the scene as a member of '70s teen rock outfit the RUNAWAYS before skyrocketing to solo success in the '80s, released her 10th studio LP, the hard-rocking "Unvarnished," with her longtime backing band the BLACKHEARTS on her label BLACKHEART RECORDS late last year.
Featuring collaborations with the Foo Fighters' Dave Grohl and Laura Jane Grace of Against Me!, "Unvarnished" is anchored by the gritty but triumphant rocker "Make it Back," an anthem of recovery following 2012's superstorm Sandy.
Jett, a resident of Long Beach in New York's Nassau County, experienced Sandy's wrath firsthand.
"It was really scary, and Long Beach was devastated along with the towns all around us, and I'm sure all up and down the shore of New Jersey as we saw on the news," Jett recalled.
However, Jett said she was in turn inspired by the recovery efforts of working-class people in her community.
"We started seeing people helping people, giving of their clothes or of their food or cooking meals for each other," she said. "It was a distinct change from that sort of shock and not knowing what to do to all of a sudden feeling like people had a purpose.
"(We thought) 'OK, now we know what to do. We're not quite sure how to do it, but we know we've got to start building this back.' ... So, it was like a magical feeling, that in the midst of this devastation there was some kind of hope."
While the tracks on "Unvarnished" are inspired by Jett's personal experiences, there is an inspirational and universal quality throughout.
"To me, it's all about connection," Jett explained. "The whole thing, at its root, is really about connecting with people, whether you're just making them happy or your message is reaching them on a deeper level.
"Really, all of these things are universal. Going through something devastating like Hurricane Sandy, it doesn't have to be necessarily that for people to come together and pull themselves up. It could be many sort of instances, and it wouldn't have to be a collective thing, With 'Make it Back,' you could be talking about a personal relationship or something."
The season of Joan
Jett is staying plenty busy this fall: on Saturday, Oct. 11, she'll headline the sixth anniversary celebration of local scene fixture Rich Russo's "Anything Anything" radio program at the Count Basie Theatre in Red Bank.
On Oct. 18, she co-stars in the Lifetime TV movie "Big Driver." Based on a story by Stephen King, the film also stars Maria Bello and Olympia Dukakis.
And on Oct. 23 Jett will be honored as Rocker of the Year by Little Kids Rock, a nonprofit provider of music instruction and musical instruments to public school children.
Produced by the E Street Band's Steven Van Zandt and his wife, Maureen, the benefit show is hosted by the Hammerstein Ballroom at the Manhattan Center on West 34th Street in New York City. The evening will feature appearances by fellow E Streeter Jake Clemons, Darlene Love, Alice Cooper, Glenn Hansard, Tommy James and Green Day's Billie Joe Armstrong.
Over the years, Jett has forged a friendship and professional alliance with Grohl, collaborating with him on the "Unvarnished" highlight "Any Weather."
She's performed her classic cut "Bad Reputation" with Grohl's Foo Fighters a number of times over the years, will be featured in his upcoming series "Sonic Highways" premiering Oct. 17 on HBO, and even filled in for late frontman Kurt Cobain on "Smells Like Teen Spirit" when Grohl and his fellow surviving members of Nirvana were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame at Brooklyn's Barclays Center in April.
"He's just a rock 'n' roll fan, a music fan, and I think Dave's really showed that with how he's reached out across the board to so many varied musicians and worked with them over the past several years," she said. "To me, it kind of goes back to that word I said before, connection. The sense I get from Dave is that he has a really good time doing what he's doing. He always seems to be really enjoying what he's doing.
"And really, that's your goal in life, to be enjoying your work. So that is really an awesome thing to be around, a great energy. And, I like to think I love my work and I love what I do, so maybe that is a similar energy that we can relate to each other on."
KENNY LAGUNA, Jett's longtime collaborator and co-writer on songs such as "Bad Reputation," described the common bond between Jett and Grohl.
"Those two people, for being so incredibly famous â€" both of them had two careers, Joan with the RUNAWAYS and the BLACKHEARTS and him with Nirvana and the Foo Fighters â€" and successful to the hilt and the most down to earth people," Laguna said.
"And I tell you, the public persona, that's who Dave is, and that's who Joan is. The two of them, they get along so good together because they both have a humility that is very unique for people with that kind of success."
'Bomb' of the summer
Movie lovers heard from Jett this summer, as the RUNAWAYS' 1976 single "Cherry Bomb" was featured on the big-selling soundtrack of the year's highest-grossing movie, the Marvel/Disney space adventure "Guardians of the Galaxy."
Jett's fellow former RUNAWAYS Lita Ford and Cherie Currie will appear Oct. 24 to 26 at the Chiller Theatre Toy, Model and Film Expo at the Sheraton Parsippany. For her part, Jett has no problems expressing enthusiasm for the act that gave her her start.
"In the context of the RUNAWAYS, I have a little bit of an ego," she said. "I think we were a great rock 'n' roll band. At the very root, that's what it was. It was a great rock 'n' roll band, three-chord rock 'n' roll. All of the other stuff is add-on.
"But, if you take just 'Cherry Bomb' as a song, it's a great song, it's a straight-up great rock 'n' roll song. The lyrics are great, people can relate to it, it's catchy. And so, I'm very proud of all of the work that the RUNAWAYS did. And I don't know, maybe the guys that did 'Guardians of the Galaxy' are fans, but I'm very excited that 'Cherry Bomb' is featured so prominently and people are noticing it."
JOAN JETT AND THE BLACKHEARTS
WITH: Jesse Malin
WHEN: 8 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 11
WHERE: The Count Basie Theatre, 99 Monmouth St., Red Bank
TICKETS: $29 to $99 |
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