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Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Class of 2015: JOAN JETT loves that her induction will be in Cleveland
from: cleveland.com
By Chuck Yarborough
CLEVELAND, Ohio - JOAN JETT loves that she and her band, the BLACKHEARTS, will be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame when the ceremonies are here. She and the city are intertwined like the fingers of lovers' hands.
"Where else should it be?" Jett said in a call to her New York office to discuss her induction into the Rock Hall on Saturday, April 18, in Public Hall.
"If I'm going to be inducted, Cleveland is where it should be," she said of the city and its people, for whom she feels such a connection.
"I guess I'm like them," Jett said. "I don't find Cleveland to be a kind of place that puts on any airs, and I don't either."
Plus, there's that history thing.
"We played in Cleveland with the RUNAWAYS at the Agora Ballroom many times. We found that people seemed to really like us there.
"I have warm feelings about Ohio and rock 'n' roll and how they really love it," she said.
Of course, it's not possible to talk to Jett about her Cleveland days without mentioning the 1987 flick "Light of Day," filmed here at the Euclid Tavern with Jett and Michael J. Fox starring as sibling rockers.
"To do 'Light of Day' with Michael J. Fox there was an awesome thing," Jett said, the smile at the memory evident in her voice. "We got together a band - Michael plays, and we had other instruments, so the actors could get a sense of what it's like to play in a band. That is a great thing to be able to do that."
It sort of helped her relive the feelings she had when, as a teenager (accounts vary as to whether she was 15, 16 or 17), she and drummer Sandy West founded the RUNAWAYS in the early 1970s with help from producer and mentor Kim Fowley.
Fowley died of bladder cancer in January, barely a month after the Rock Hall named Jett part of the Class of 2015. The others are Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble, the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, Green Day, Lou Reed (as a solo artist) and Bill Withers. The Beatles' Ringo Starr is going in again, this time with the award for musical excellence, and the "5" Royales are being inducted as early influences.
BLACKHEARTS bassist Gary Ryan, drummer Lee Crystal and guitarist Ricky Byrd will be joining Jett on the induction stage.
That Fowley, who introduced West to Jett and helped recruit RUNAWAYS Lita Ford, Cherie Curie and Jackie Fox, lived to see her induction with the BLACKHEARTS was special to Jett.
"It means a lot that he was alive to hear about it," said Jett, who's convinced her former band also should have a spot in the Rock Hall. "I don't know what he thought, though.
"It's just new to me because it just happened," said Jett in the interview, which took place only four days after the death of the RUNAWAYS' former manager and producer. "He taught me a lot and was a great songwriting partner, and I got a real kick out of him."
Jett isn't the first or only woman in the Rock Hall, and she won't be the last. But the numbers are decidedly Y-chromosome-heavy. The thought back then and even today is that rock is a man's world.
"You can't take anything for granted," Jett said. "You just have to put your head down and work. Even knowing the female thing has affected it, I can't be bitching.
"Look at the music scene today," she said. "It hasn't really changed for women playing rock 'n' roll."
KENNY LAGUNA, the producer, manager and friend who is today's version of the Kim Fowley support system, was part of the call and added his observations on the uphill battle women in rock face.
"We've seen statistics about women that, in alternative radio, it's 92 percent men," Laguna said. "In rock radio, this classic rock/oldies format that used to be cutting-edge is in the 90th percentile, too.
"They don't play two women in a row," Laguna said. "They'll play Janis Joplin once a month, Pat Benatar once or twice month. That's what we're dealing with as a starting point."
But rock itself is struggling, gender aside, Jett and Laguna agreed.
"Rock 'n' roll's not the super hip music that's being played," Jett said. "It's a struggle for ANY rock band to get attention.
"It's so entrenched," Jett said. "I don't know if you CAN fix it. How do you change what peoples' tastes and styles are, or change a whole trend of where music's going? How do you shift back to rock 'n' roll?"
Laguna has an idea, and it's not surprising that it involves his friend, Jett.
"When you look at Joan's career, two times we blazed through the rock 'n' roll ceiling," said Laguna.
"When 'I Love Rock and Roll' came in, rock 'n' roll was being dismissed at Top 40 radio," Laguna said. "In the late '80s, when 'Hate Myself for Loving You' was out, we would be blocked from Top 40 if they added Paula Abdul.
"We tore it down with touring," he said.
You expect those kinds of comments from Laguna, who is a key part of Jett's support system. It was he, as a matter of fact, who confirmed to her that she'd actually been tapped for induction into the Rock Hall after several nominations.
"Obviously, Kenny is first and foremost," Jett said when asked about some of the people who've made her success possible. "Then there's the man we discussed earlier, Kim Fowley. Who knows where I'd be if I hadn't ever had a conversation with him about wanting to start a rock 'n' roll band."
But the foundation was there even before that, said Jett, who was born Joan Marie Larkin to James Larkin and Dorothy Jett Larkin and took her mother's maiden name as her professional name after her parents divorced.
"They enabled me to entertain the thought of being in a rock band or playing guitar," she said. "By not saying no, they were saying yes, and for me, that was very important."
Though neither parent played an instrument, they did have a gift that they passed along to their daughter that was a key character trait: tenacity.
"I always saw my parents work hard and not let on how tough it was," Jett said.
Most of all, though, is a headstrong aspect born of that tenacity that meant quitting in the face of naysayers and such was just not an option.
"It's not in my nature to be told what I can do," Jett said. "If you're not hurting anybody and you want to play rock 'n' roll, well, a lot of people would tell me that girls can't play guitar. They should be playing Beethoven, not rock 'n' roll, because rock 'n' roll is sexual, and up till now, girls weren't allowed to own their sexuality.
"Before long, I was in it so deep I didn't want to do anything else," she said.
But it's not like Jett is looking to change careers. "I do still enjoy it," she said. "The part that feels like a job is the traveling aspect, but getting onstage never feels like a job to me. It's an honor to be able to do this.
"People seem so stressed, but when they come to a show, I see people smiling, and it's a cathartic experience," Jett said. "I've been told all my life what my songs have gotten people through, and being able to be all those things for people is an incredible honor."
Jett has more than 40 years in the business, an incredible feat for someone who is only 56. That makes her an elder stateswoman of the rock 'n' roll world, and implies she's had a bit of influence over the course of that long career.
One such band is going in alongside her in the April 18 ceremonies: Green Day. Another is one she helped induct last year in New York: Nirvana. It was Jett who stepped up to the microphone, filling in for the late Kurt Cobain, at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York, and belted out Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit."
Her performance was one of the highlights of a long evening.
"I'd like to think so," she said when asked if she thought she'd been an influence on the guys in Nirvana - Cobain, bassist Krist Novoselic and drummer Dave Grohl, as well as guitarist Pat Smear. "But I'd never presume those guys were inspired by me.
"I think to a degree, we're all fans of each other," she said. "I've been lucky enough to work with the Foo Fighters [Grohl's current band] and Dave and talk about all this stuff. Obviously, working with those guys for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame was an incredible honor."
But, just to show she's human underneath that 5-foot-5 bit of toughness, she said she was thankful the call to fill in for Cobain came when it did.
"I'm glad they waited till 10 days before to ask me," she said, laughing. "I would've been scared to death."
Somehow, that's a little hard to believe. But even if it is true, it won't affect things at THIS ceremony. After all, given her movie resume, her reception at the inaugural Alternative Press Music Awards Show last summer and her sold-out opening of the Hard Rock Rocksino in December 2013, she's "home" when she comes here, no matter where she files her income taxes.
She's the one who sings "I Love Rock and Roll," so it's only natural that the home of rock 'n' roll loves JOAN JETT. |
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