Page updated on May 31, 2020
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. JOAN JETT ADDRESSES THE CURRENT SITUATION OF STADIUM TOUR: "I WOULD NOT FEEL COMFORTABLE" from: metalcastle.net by Eray Erel
The American rock singer JOAN JETT sat with Trunk Nation's Sirius XM and shared her current thoughts about her upcoming shows by saying that she doesn't feel that it's right to play stadium shows during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
Although Motley Crue and Def Leppard postponed the Stadium Tour's July 2nd and August 28th shows, JOAN JETT's summer shows are still scheduled to take place across North America.
But during an interview, she touched those shows she will play with Motley Crue, Def Leppard, Poison and Tuk Smith & The Restless Hearts and said it will be dangerous during ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
"I would not feel comfortable, I just wouldn't. I wouldn't feel comfortable putting the band or my crew in that position. I don't really have that right to mess with their lives like that.
"I'm not saying it's an easy decision - I know people are struggling all over the country with what to do and how to do it."
Joan also said she looks forward to playing on stage again and that she heard some good ideas about playing again.
"Of course I want to play as soon as we can do it. I've heard there's some ideas like a drive-in where we could still see live music. That's a step I'd enjoy taking, but it's still not people together and that's going to take a while.
"When people feel safe to be together, I would hope that we'll all feel the same way. If things are safe, I'd be into it, but obviously that means testing but you've got to keep doing it."
The Stadium Tour is scheduled to kick off at TIAA Bank Field in Jacksonville on June 18.
JOAN JETT CELEBRATES 40 YEARS OF BAD REPUTATION ON VOLUME from: siriusxm.ca by ANDY BURNS
If you love rock and roll, you won't have to put a dime in any jukebox to celebrate the 40th anniversary of JOAN JETT's solo debut!
It's hard to believe but it was 40 years ago that Jett unleashed Bad Reputation, which would feature a host of Jett classics, including her cover of "Do You Wanna Touch Me (Oh Yeah)" and the track Bad Reputation, which would serve as the entrance music for UFC and WWE superstar Rhonda Rousey. Jett and her band the BLACKHEARTS would even perform the song live at Wrestlemania 35 when Rousey made her way to the ring in the main event.
This week, SiriusXM VOLUME‘s Mark Goodman and Alan Light sit down with JOAN JETT and producer KENNY LAGUNA on the 40th anniversary of Bad Reputation. You can hear it:
Wednesday, May 20th at 7 pm ET
Thursday, May 21st at 12 pm ET
Saturday, May 23rd at 7 pm ET
Sunday, May 24th at 3 pm at ET
Sunday, May 24th at 11 pm
L7 Shares New Video for "Fake Friends" Featuring JOAN JETT from: mxdwn.com by ARIEL KING
L7 released an official fan video for their track with JOAN JETT titled "Fake Friends," a song which had been first released by JOAN JETT AND THE BLACKHEARTS in 1983. The video flips through images of L7 fans at various shows, photos of L7 taken from the crowd, fan-made art of the band, and various tattoos.
The video was released on Black Heart Records Youtube channel, along with a caption thanking all "#L7RealFriends." It highlights fan submitted photos of their pets wearing L7 merchandise, hanging out backstage with the band and more. Fans spread all throughout the world are included, along with artwork they have made and their collections of L7's former physical releases.
"This is something positive the band can do for our fans in these uncertain times," Donita Sparks of L7 said in a statement. "When rock n' roll duty calls, L7 answers."
L7 gave the song a grunge twist with Jett joining them on vocals and guitar. The band signed to Jett's BLACKHEART RECORDS last year and released comeback album Scatter the Rats.
"To have Joan's vocals on this track along with mine is super surreal and cool," Sparks said in a press statement. "Our band has experienced many fake friends, especially when you're down. Some of these people you thought were your friends are nowhere to be found. Your phone calls aren't returned, etc. It's painful and it sucks. Then you find out who your true friends are."
L7's version of "Fake Friends" was released late last month along with "Witchy Burn," a rework of their song "Burn Baby." The two singles will be released as a 7" with "Fake Friends" on the A-side and "Witchy Burn" on the B-side.
The "Fake Friends" and "Witchy Burn" release was meant to coincide L7's New Zealand and Australia tour, which has been cancelled due to COVID-19. This led to L7 releasing the two singles earlier than planned, making way so they could work on more new music. Long Island Music Hall of Famers star in TV special honoring frontline workers from: newsday.com by David J. Criblez
Concerts may not be happening in Nassau or Suffolk, but the Long Island Music Hall of Fame is about to bring some big-name local artists to your living room.
The TV music program, "Supporting Health Care Heroes," featuring performances from more than a dozen LIMHOF inductees, will air on Optimum's News 12 Plus (Ch. 61) and FiOS (Ch. 530) on Sunday, May 31, at 8 p.m. News 12 features reporter Elisa DiStefano will host the 90-minute special honoring Long Island's COVID-19 front-line workers.
"We reached out to our inductees and received a terrific response," says LIMHOF chairman Ernie Canadeo. "The artists were excited and appreciative for the opportunity. They really went all out."
Those who submitted taped performances include JOAN JETT, Pat Benatar, Blue Oyster Cult, Taking Back Sunday, Kurtis Blow, Barnaby Bye, Gary U.S. Bonds, Elliott Murphy and Kenny Vance, plus members of the Stray Cats, Dream Theater, Vanilla Fudge and The Tokens.
"Many are exclusive performances," says Canadeo. "In fact, Kurtis Blow made a brand-new song just for this special, which is amazing."
One of the artists who delivers a moving performance is saxophonist Richie Cannata, formerly of the Billy Joel Band, who plays an instrumental version of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah." [more] from: longisland.com by Long Island
The Event Will Feature Such A-List Artists As Johnny Rzenick (Goo Goo Dolls), JOAN JETT, Scott Stapp, DMC (Run DMC), Kevin Martin (Candlebox) & More.
Long Island, NY's leading radio station network Connoisseur Media (94.3 The Shark, 103.1 MAX, WALK 97.5, KJOY 98.3) is shining a light on the mental effects of social distancing with a special live stream concert Sunday, May 17 at 7 PM ET to benefit The American Foundation For Suicide Prevention Long Island Chapter.
Broadcast on 94.3 The Shark's Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/943TheShark), the "Be Well Long Island" benefit concert will feature performances and appearances by such stars as Johnny Rzenick (Goo Goo Dolls), JOAN JETT, Scott Stapp, DMC (Run DMC), Kevin Martin (Candlebox), Fitz and The Tantrums, Vintage Trouble, Brian Quinn (Candlebox) & Danny Beissel (Featherborn) and many more.
"There are thousands of people suffering in silence right now," said Brian Orlando, 94.3 The Shark music director. "We at Connoisseur media want them to know that they're not alone. With music I never felt alone. On May 17th at 7 PM, we'll all be together speaking one language."
During the broadcast, artists will be performing some of their most iconic songs as well as offering messages of hope and inspiration. Viewers will have the ability to watch the show while also donating to The American Foundation For Suicide Prevention Long Island Chapter. [more] Those Slick Quarantine Band Performances Are Harder to Pull Off Than You Think from: billboard.com/ by Steve Knopper
From Dua Lipa to Blue Oyster Cult to JOAN JETT AND THE BLACKHEARTS, bands have been figuring out how to perform remotely during the pandemic.
Blue Öyster Cult has played its rampaging-beast classic "Godzilla" 2,270 times, in theaters and casinos, at state fairs and festivals -- the first time at the Maple Leaf Gardens, in Toronto, on June 21, 1977, and the last time at Robins Theatre, in Warren, Ohio, on March 8. But until late April, the pioneering hard-rock band's five members had never done it remotely from their homes, during quarantine, mixed together into a YouTube grid of separate rectangular boxes.
"We basically treated it like a gig," says Richie Castellano, the band's guitarist and keyboardist, who produced the "lock-down" version after the band canceled its On Tour Forever tour in March. "You fall into a groove with each other and you're able to easily get back to this place. It was like riding a bike."
Aside from family musicians who live together in self-isolation, bands have been unable to perform while social distancing since concerts shut down in mid-March. So, they have had to get technically creative to create the illusion of performance. JOAN JETT AND THE BLACKHEARTS did "Light of Day" this way in early April; 75 Boston Conservatory at Berklee students went viral with their boxed-in performance of Burt Bacharach's "What the World Needs Now" in late March; Dua Lipa performed "Don't Stop Now" with five backup musicians via video chat on The Late Late Show with James Corden shortly after that; and The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, which regularly splices The Roots into Brady Bunch-style boxes, recently brought in Sting for “Don’t Stand So Close to Me.â€
"I've seen more than a handful of comments on our YouTube channel: 'Wow, that's amazing, how did you guys do that all at once without screwing it up?'" says Steve Schenck, the band's manager, who estimates they've lost several million dollars from canceled tours. "They didn't. Obviously, that wasn't live." Jett and the BLACKHEARTS, with help from their label's president, Carianne Brinkman, "overcame technical hurdles" to create their performance, says the singer's longtime manager KENNY LAGUNA: "I was sure it was not possible to do."
The easiest way to make these kinds of performances is with access to trained sound engineers and state-of-the-art production software. Shelbie Rassler, a Boston Conservatory at Berklee senior, organized "What the World Needs Now" weeks before her virtual graduation; she made 200 Facebook requests for performances, and when 75 friends responded, she sent them a "mockup" arrangement she made via musical-notation software NotePerformer. Using Rassler's song sketch, the friends sang or played instruments using smartphones and laptop microphones, then sent tracks back to Rassler, who edited them in Logic Pro X. A mix-engineer friend helped with "making sure all the reverb was correct and EQing every track."
The musicians also sent video footage to Rassler, who had built rectangular templates via Photoshop. "That was a lot of fitting video into squares and cropping them and making sure the mouth of the person was in time with what they're singing," says Rassler, who spent 60 hours on the project. "I'm by no means a video editor, so this was quite an interesting challenge." [more] JACK-FM PRESENTS WILDFLOWER! OVER THE AIR FRIDAY AT 7 P.M. from: richardsontoday.com by JACK-FM
Jack-fm presents Wildflower! Arts & Music Festival Over the Air on Friday, May 15, 2020 at 7 p.m. The weekend event was cancelled this year due to COVID-19 concerns, but Richardson native and radio personality JT will help to keep its musical heart beating by hosting a special Wildflower! Over The Air show on 100.3 Jack-fm. The playlist will include artists from the festival line-up that would have performed this weekend.
"North Texas needs live music more than ever," said 100.3 Jack-fm radio host JT. "We partnered with the City of Richardson to try to bring some of that sense of the community we get every year from attending Wildflower! Arts & Music Festival."
Fans can tune-in and listen on Friday for songs by JOAN JETT AND THE BLACKHEARTS, Collective Soul, The Charlie Daniels Band, Loverboy, The Wailers, and more. Listeners can tune in live on 100.3 Jack-fm, or use a free RADIO.com app that's also available on Amazon's ALEXA to "open the radio.com app and play 100.3 Jack-fm."
"With the support of Jack-fm, Wildflower! is looking forward to providing this opportunity for our fans," said Serri Ayers, Superintendent of Community Events for Richardson Parks and Recreation. "We were heartbroken to have to call off the event and we are thankful for this partnership to have a way for the music community to come together and celebrate the essence of Wildflower!"
Follow Wildflower! Arts & Music Festival on social media with the official hashtag #WAMFest2020 or visit www.wildflowerfestival.com for more information. Donita Sparks talks about her online variety show and L7's new single with JOAN JETT from: csindy.com by Bill Forman
Last year, after a 20- year hiatus, L7's career finally seemed to be back on track. JOAN JETT had released the grrrl-punk band's Scatter the Rats reunion album on her BLACKHEART RECORDS label. To promote the album, an international tour was scheduled to kick off in Australia this month, followed by appearances in Europe and the States. Now, in the midst of a pandemic, all that has changed.
But L7 frontwoman Donita Sparks - whose career achievements have ranged from co-founding Rock for Choice to throwing her bloody tampons into the crowd during performances - is still keeping busy. Her most high-profile project at the moment - besides recording personalized video shoutouts for Cameo - is The Hi-Low Show With Donita Sparks, an online variety series that she hosts for Linda Perry and Kerry Brown's We Are Hear: On the Air network.
Sparks, who now lives in L.A.'s Echo Park neighborhood, spoke to us last week about a wide range of topics, including L7's newly released cover of "Fake Friends" with JOAN JETT, the concept behind her absurdist variety show, and her thoughts about Bikini Kill frontwoman Kathleen Hanna's "Riot Grrrl Manifesto."
Indy: How did you first hook up with Linda Perry and Kerry Brown to become part of their We Are Hear network?
Donita Sparks: We know Linda and Kerry, and we were already talking about some other projects with them. And then the virus hit, so those other projects were put on hold. And they said, "Hey, we're in talks with YouTube Live about doing benefit COVID programming, and do you want to do a show?" I told them I wasn't interested at all in doing any kind of musical performance or interview type show, but if they let me do my own thing, I'd do this. So now The Hi-Low Show is one of the more unique things on their channel. I've been asking my art-punk and performance artist friends to contribute work. We've had Lydia Lunch doing some poetry. We've also had Dani Miller from Surfbort, we've had David Yow from The Jesus Lizard, we've had Arrow de Wilde from Starcrawler, and we've had Teri Gender Bender from Le Butcherettes.
Now that the L7 tour is on hold, have you given any consideration to doing a one-off livestreaming performance? A number of bands have been collaborating remotely, although I imagine it's pretty hard to get much ambience or feedback that way?
I have no desire to do that. I like my rock 'n' roll in a club with amplification and stage lights and a crowd that's energetic and pumped and drunk and screaming and, like, that's how I am. You know, if I were Janis Ian, I would do an acoustic performance. You know what I mean? If I were Roberta Flack, sure, why not? Somebody like Prince could pull that off on a piano, absolutely. But like, L7 doing our shit sort of stripped down? We're already pretty stripped down, and if you take away our distortion pedals and our drummer, then we're just completely crap. [Laughs.] So, we're not gonna fucking do that. You know what I mean? I mean, Bill, come on. [more] JOAN JETT: The Godmother of Pop-Punk from: pastemagazine.com by Geoffrey Himes
One of the highlights on Green Day's recent career-reviving album, Father of All Motherfuckers, is the song "Oh Yeah!" which takes its title, its earworm chorus and its sizzling guitar riff from the 1980 track "Do You Wanna Touch Me? (Oh Yeah)" by JOAN JETT AND THE BLACKHEARTS. Green Day's Billie Joe Armstrong wrote new verses to vent his disdain for social-media narcissism, but the chorus's shotgun marriage of melodic hook and slam-bang beat remains irresistible.
If they wanted to climb out of their 21st-century slump of straining-for-meaning concept albums, Green Day couldn't have adopted a better role model than Jett. She understood better than anyone that if you're going to strip rock 'n' roll down to its 4/4 basics, you'd better add a catchy sweetener. Otherwise you're going to sound merely mechanical, even if you get as loud as Jett's hard-rock peers in the '80s or as fast as Green Day's punk peers in the '90s.
Fortunately, both Armstrong and Jett have a rare gift for inventing-or borrowing-four-bar phrases that are familiar enough to feel comfortable, new enough to feel memorable and rhythmic enough to be heard in the hips as well as the ears. This is a different gift than that of, say, Paul McCartney or Taylor Swift, who can spin out a melody that stays interesting over 32 bars. This is distilling all the tuneful pleasure in a song into a few lines that can be pounded home without ever losing their appeal.
This was a talent that Green Day demonstrated on their brilliant first three albums for Reprise (1994's Dookie, 1995's Insomniac and 1997's Nimrod). It's a skill they foolishly laid aside for their overblown and overrated rock opera American Idiot and its hapless sequel, 21st Century Breakdown. It's a knack they've recovered on The Father of All Motherfuckers.
For the new record, the trio of Armstrong, drummer Tre Cool and bassist Mike Dirnt (together since 1991) slow the tempos a bit to put them more in Jett's ballpark and thus reveal her influence as never before. Most of the record bolsters a BLACKHEARTS' stomp with high-pitched vocals, handclaps and sparkles of electronica enhancing the hooks. Former glam-rocker Butch Walker was the co-producer, and he nudged the sound in Jett's direction.
Armstrong's lyrics are still those of a mallrat cynic ("I am a kid of a bad education," he sings on "Oh Yeah!" "The shooting star of a lowered expectation"), but the verbal pessimism is countered by the musical optimism of the choruses. On the title track and first single, for example, he invites a would-be lover to join him "in a bed of blood and money." The words are purposefully off-putting, but the rave-up music is powerfully seductive. [more] MOTLEY CRUE Release Statement On Future Of Stadium Tour with DEF LEPPARD, POISON, JOAN JETT from: metalinjection.net by ROBERT PASBANI
With the Stadium tour officially scheduled to kick off in two months around July 4th weekend, fans are still wondering what the status of their very expensive tickets are. Motley Crue have just released a statement to let people know that the status of their tour with Def Leppard, Poison and JOAN JETT...is going to be known by June 1st.
"We wanted to reach out to all of our amazing fans and let you know that we've been hard at work preparing an amazing show. Our priority during this unprecedented time is to make sure that we are being as thoughtful and responsible as possible in the decisions we are making regarding The Stadium Tour and that we are putting the fans' health, well being and safety first and foremost. We are currently weighing all options and are awaiting further direction from the powers that be. Our goal is to have an official update to everyone by June 1 outlining exactly how we will proceed. In the meantime, stay safe and healthy. We cant wait to see you all again."
While they are not outright saying it, it's clear all the shows will be postponed, likely to next summer. Even though some states seem amicable to reopening up, it's clear states where there are major infections like New York and California are still many months away from reopening. For a tour on this scale, it is not economically feasible to skip these major states, or even reroute these tours. Who knows if these stadiums will even be officially allowed to be open by the summer?
It should be noted that California governor Gavin Newsom and bioethicist Zeke Emanuel both expect touring to come back maybe sometime in 2021.
Fans should proceed expecting these shows not to happen. But what about their money? The problem is, since the shows aren't canceled or postoned yet, nobody can ask for refunds. Both Live Nation and AEG recently changed their policies offering refunds for postponed shows for only 30 days within the announcement of the postponement.
One thing is for sure - vocalist Vince Neil is gonna be friggin' ripped by the time this tour hits.
