Page updated on August 31, 2019
All news is attributed to the source from which it was received so that readers may judge the validity of the statements for themselves.
Have Joan Jett news to report? Email us at jettfc@aol.com, and please include the source of the information so it can be validated. Social Distortion throwing 40th anniversary show w/ JOAN JETT, The Distillers, The Kills, more from: brooklynvegan.com By Amanda Hatfield
SoCal punk greats Social Distortion are celebrating their 40th anniversary this fall, and they’re putting on a big show in their home state in October to celebrate. Happening October 26 at FivePoint Amphitheatre in Irvine, CA, Sounds From Behind The Orange Curtain, 40 Years of Social Distortion will include sets from JOAN JETT AND THE BLACKHEARTS, The Distillers, The Kills (performing their 2008 album Midnight Boom in full), Frank Turner and The Sleeping Souls, Eagles of Death Metal, The Black Lips, Plague Vendor, Bully, and Mannequin Pussy, as well as Social Distortion themselves.
Tickets to Sounds From Behind the Orange Curtain go on sale Thursday, 8/29 at 10 AM PDT.
Social Distortion are on a co-headlining tour with Flogging Molly through September, which includes an Asbury Park, NJ show this weekend at Stone Pony SummerStage on Saturday (August 31). Tickets are on sale now. JOAN JETT, Underwood to perform 'Sunday Night Football' open from: washingtonpost.com By Joe Reedy, AP | Photo by Virginia Sherwood/NBC Sports via AP
Fred Gaudelli knew NBC would have to come up with something grand for this season's "Sunday Night Football" opener given this is the NFL's 100th anniversary.
It didn't take long for the show's executive producer to arrive at something as Carrie Underwood came up with the perfect idea.
This season, the show will open with the original "Waiting All Day for Sunday Night" song, but this time Underwood will be joined by Rock & Roll Hall of Famer JOAN JETT. Jett's band, the BLACKHEARTS, also performs.
A preview of the new opener will air during Sunday's preseason game between Pittsburgh and Tennessee.
"Waiting All Day for Sunday Night" was adapted from Jett's 1988 hit "I Hate Myself for Loving You." Pink performed it first in 2006, followed by a country version sung by Faith Hill for six seasons and then Underwood, who did her own version from 2013 to 2015.
"It is a perfect way to celebrate the league's 100th season by going back to the beginning," Gaudelli said. "It is a perfect way to evolve and celebrate the song."
Gaudelli has known Jett and her manager, KENNY LAGUNA, for over 20 years. Their first collaboration came when Gaudelli was working for ESPN and Jett did a cover of "Real Wild Child" for the first X Games.
When Gaudelli moved to NBC in 2006 after the network acquired the Sunday night rights, he knew what he wanted as the theme song.
"We came up with different versions but when we called her and played a version, she said it was a great idea," Gaudelli said.
When Pink opted not do a second season, Gaudelli called Jett and asked her if she wanted to do the open in 2007, but she declined.
When Hill's version of the song debuted, Jett called Gaudelli and told him she always wanted to do a country version of "I Hate Myself for Loving You."
This is Underwood's seventh year as the featured performer for the opener. The seven-time Grammy winner sang "Oh Sunday Night" for two seasons and "Game On" last year. "Oh Sunday Night" was adapted from "Somethin' Bad," Underwood's duet with Miranda Lambert from 2014.
"I have always been a huge fan of Joan's, and I'm thrilled that she's joining us for the Sunday Night Football open," Underwood said in a statement. "What better way to pay homage to the original SNF opening song than by getting to play with her on primetime's biggest stage?"
The open, which will debut before the Sept. 7 game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and New England Patriots, was shot at Atlanta's Mercedes-Benz Stadium. It was the first time it has been shot at an NFL stadium instead of a sound stage.
This isn't Jett's first foray into sports this year. She performed "Bad Reputation" during Wrestlemania in New York in April. Rhonda Rousey has used the song as her walkout music in the WWE and when she fought in the UFC. How 'I Hate Myself For Loving You' Became JOAN JETT's Hugest Song from: ultimateclassicrock.com By Martin Kielty
When JOAN JETT AND THE BLACKHEARTS secured a moderate hit with their 1988 song "I Hate Myself for Loving You," they couldn't have predicted it would wind up being a football anthem and the best-paying composition of Jett's career.
The original version appeared on the band's sixth studio album, Up Your Alley. It started out with the title "I Hate Myself Because I Can't Get Laid," but that changed when Jett's producer, KENNY LAGUNA, caught up with acclaimed songwriter Desmond Child, author of the Kiss hit "I Was Made for Lovin' You" and Bon Jovi's "You Give Love a Bad Name," among many others.
"There was a friend of ours at Epic Records who was friends with Desmond," Laguna told Songfacts. "Before the Bon Jovi record came out, he played me the [Child-penned] song 'Livin on a Prayer.' I said, 'Whoa, I want to meet this guy,' so I started chasing Desmond around. He didn't want any part of it because he was busy looking for really important acts like Michael Bolton. I just chased him around until he couldn't take it anymore."
That meeting, sometime around 1986, led to Jett and Child revisiting "I Hate Myself Because I Can't Get Laid." Child's biggest suggestion was to change the lyrical approach. The song then received the title it became known for.
Jett had also acquired the services of former Rolling Stones guitarist Mick Taylor, who appeared on the recording. "It's a very minimalist type of solo, almost, but I've spoken with a few people who really like what I did," he told Jazzed. "I had been friendly with her guitarist, Ricky Byrd, who was a big fan of mine. … I'd jammed with JOAN JETT AND THE BLACKHEARTS at a gig in New York prior to doing that session."
Released as the first single from Up Your Alley, "I Hate Myself for Loving You" reached No. 8 and spent 26 weeks on the chart - six weeks longer than Jett's 1982 classic and highest-charting single "I Love Rock 'n' Roll." It helped Up Your Alley reach No. 19 and eventually go platinum.
But that success didn't come easy - Laguna recalled recalled having to fight for radio airplay. "We've had all those hits only because the public and the press supported Joan," he told Verbicide. "Radio played Joan because they had to play it. We would worm our way on the radio and the records were very active. … Radio loved Journey and those kinds of bands. REO Speedwagon. That ilk. They did well for all the call-out research and Joan never really researched well."
Laguna noted that, despite several hits, they were "cooling off" by the end of the '80s. "Then we couldn't get 'I Hate Myself for Loving You' on the radio, but it was No. 1 requested, so we were able to overcome a lot of that. But it took a long time to break that record. It's been like that. Partly because she's a rock 'n' roller, partly because she's a punk rocker and partly because she's a woman."
"I had no idea the song would be such a big hit record," Taylor added. "But there you go. I like working with different types of musicians." [more] 45 Black-Hearted Facts About JOAN JETT, The Queen Of Rock from: factinate.com By Mathew Burke
We love rock n roll, and no one rocks harder than JOAN JETT. After finding fame with the RUNAWAYS, JOAN JETT struck out with her own band, the BLACKHEARTS, scoring a string of hits that sealed her place in the rock pantheon. As a musician, songwriter, activist, and entrepreneur, Jett has been in inspiration to girls (and boys) who rock all around the world.
As she enters her sixth decade in the music industry, Jett shows no sings of slowingâ€"or quietingâ€"down. We don't give a damn about her bad reputation: here are 45 black-hearted facts about JOAN JETT.
1. The Jett Set
Born Joan Larkin, the singer took the name JOAN JETT after her parents' divorce. Jett was actually her mother's maiden name. She legally changed her name to JOAN JETT in the 1980s.
2. Going to California
Jett was born in Pennsylvania and spent her early childhood in Maryland. Her parents moved to West Covina, California while she was in high school.
3. An Axe to Grind
Jett was given her first guitar at the age of 13. When her guitar teacher insisted on teaching her folk songs, she quit taking lessons and began teaching herself. Jett must have been a pretty good teacher: in 2007, Rolling Stone magazine named her one of the top 100 rock n roll guitarists of all time.
4. It's Over When the Fat Lady Sings
Jett also took voice lessons. Her teacher, a professional opera singer, threw her out because of her punky clothes.
5. In the Club
While still in high school, Jett began hanging out at Rodney Bingenheimer's English Disco, a rock club on the Sunset Strip that specialized in the glam rock and protopunk Jett adored. The English Disco was a popular hangout for artists like Iggy Pop or the Gun Club, but also for underage girls: RUNAWAYS manager Kim Fowley later remarked the most popular drink at the English Disco was cherry cola. [more] JOAN JETT: Our 1987 Cover Story JOAN JETT has found it in a Gibson guitar, a black leather jacket, and in the faces of those who still believe rock 'n' roll can change the world. from: spin.com.com By Daisann McLane
This article originally appeared in the May 1987 issue of SPIN.
There is a lot of kindness and compassion in rock 'n' roll.
That may sound strange, but it's true.
-- Kim Fowley, former manager of JOAN JETT and the RUNAWAYS
Twenty degrees and ice everywhere you look and JOAN JETT is sitting on the steps of her tour bus parked outside the stage entrance of the Palace Theater in Albany, New York; the bus door's wide open. "Okay you guys," the road manager's saying. "Joanie'll talk to everybody, but you gotta get in line, right?" A hundred farm-fed faces in leather jackets, long-haired girls and longer-haired boys, huddle into the queue, and they wait. It's Tuesday night, and the only other action in this town is the tractor-trailers careening down I-90. Twelve, 12:30, and the kids keep up their vigil while Joan signs notebooks, records, headbands, ticket stubs. She's sharp, compact, and she looks you in the eye like she's known you since eighth grade.
"Joan, I'm in a band, and we're trying to rock 'n' roll, but it's hard." This is a girl about 16, who stood in front of Jett all through her show and shouted along to every word of every song the BLACKHEARTS played.
"Yeah, I know it's hard." Joan says in her gravel rasp that lets you know just how hard. "But the most important thing is to keep playing. Even if ya gotta play for nothin', or almost nothin'."
