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How JOAN JETT used teenage confidence to propel her to rock stardom
from: pe.com
By Stephanie Schulte
What may have been daunting to some teenagers was exhilarating for rock 'n' roll icon JOAN JETT when she launched into the music world in the mid '70s.
Not only did an adolescent Jett grab the guitar by the neck, she bucked societal conventions and helped knit together the groundbreaking all-girl punk group the RUNAWAYS before catapulting herself into leather gear and a successful career with JOAN JETT AND THE BLACKHEARTS.
People will have a chance to see JOAN JETT AND THE BLACKHEARTS perform the fiery anthems "I Love Rock 'n' Roll," "Bad Reputation" and "I Hate Myself For Loving You" at Morongo Casino, Resort & Spa in Cabazon on Friday, March 31.
"I was so excited and naive about everything," Jett, now 58, said about starting out at a young age during a recent telephone interview. "I definitely had that teenage exuberance that so many people have when they have a dream and combine it with the idea that you can do anything."
Jett said her parents played a big role in her confidence to pursue music and proved so by buying her an electric guitar for Christmas when she was 13 years old per her request.
"My parents ingrained in me when I was very young that I could do and be anything I wanted to be," she said. "So, it's a great thing but then you put your parents to the test and they have to live by their words or not."
Jett said she plodded along and taught herself how to play guitar and found it perplexing that she was watching girls in school playing classical music on cellos and violins, yet was hearing girls weren't supposed to play electric guitars.
"I immediately thought to myself 'What do you mean?'" She said. "What you're saying is we can master an instrument however we are not allowed by society's rules to play an electric guitar? And that kind of bothered me."
She kept strumming and singing and pushing forward, focusing on her passion for performing while non-conforming.
"When I reflect on that time I realize how close you can come close to screwing up," Jett said. "If you don't take the right steps you can take a step you can't come back from or you can come back but it takes a few years."
And upon further reflection, Jett said although she appreciates how technology and social media channels have grown through the years and allowed her to reach more people, she remains grateful she grew up in simpler times.
"You would go out in the morning with your friends and wouldn't talk to anybody but your friends until it was dinner time and your mother was yelling for you to come in," she said. "The only way you knew what was going on with your friends was through word of mouth or a landline."
These days she wonders how young entertainers deal with mean word-slinging that can come with the internet territory.
"Even if you are a super strong person, the internet can be a very intimidating thing," she said. "People can say a million good things about you but the one bad or terrible thing will be the thing that replays through your mind. And teenagers are already in a fragile mental state and I empathize with them."
Another thing Jett noticed has shifted since the boom in technology is the lack of gripping anticipation that accompanies the release of an artist's new album.
"When I was a kid and you knew a new record was coming out in a month the excitement would build to such a degree that it really meant something," she said. "And now, if people can't get it in 10 seconds, they move onto something else."
That lack of reaching everyone all at once also helped Jett fearlessly sharpen her craft when she was first getting started, she said.
"When I was coming up I had to get in front of people which made me hone my craft," she said. "We had a chance to make mistakes and mess up and become better musicians instead of being out there all at once."
If you go
When: 9 p.m. Friday, March 31.
Where: Morongo Casino, Resort & Spa, 49500 Seminole Drive, Cabazon.
Tickets: $45.
Information: 800-252-4499, morongocasinoresort.com. |
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