July 2022 News

By Newsdesk | Photo by: Backstage Flash




All of these iconic '70s- and '80s-born bands continue to leave their undeniable mark on the pages of rock and roll history books. Both JOAN JETT and Def Leppard began their musical careers in the Seventies, while Poison and Motley Crue were not far behind, dominating the Los Angeles hard rock/ glam metal scene for years as they honed their skills on the Sunset Strip. Millions of fans around the world have been rocked to the core by all of these incredible musicians and are coming out strong to support the current stadium tour presented by Live Nation.

JOAN JETT began her musical journey in the late Seventies as a founding member of the RUNAWAYS and has never strayed from her hard-rocking beginnings. She is a gifted singer, songwriter, composer, guitar player, and actress. Her mezzo-soprano vocal range is unmistakable. She and her band were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2015. With the BLACKHEARTS, Jett is well known for her rendition of "I Love Rock & Roll," which landed her a number one spot on Billboard Hot 100 for seven weeks in 1982.

Def Leppard began in Sheffield, England, and established themselves early on as part of the new wave of British heavy metal. The band's explosive, hard-rocking metal and arena sound were all over the Eighties, releasing several albums and getting worldwide exposure on MTV, and the band has never let up their ambitious touring and recording work ethic. Hysteria, the band's fourth and more pop-oriented album, exploded worldwide in 1987. That album went 12x platinum in the United States and 13x platinum in Canada, selling twenty-five million copies worldwide and is one of the best-selling albums in rock and roll history.

Poison was birthed in 1983 out of Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, and achieved huge commercial success in the mid-'80s through the mid-'90s and has since sold over 50 million albums worldwide. After establishing a loyal following in Pennsylvania and honing their hard rock skills, they moved west to Los Angeles, where Poison's stage show attracted a lot of attention in West Hollywood. The story from here is simple: the band worked hard and rocked their fans to the bone. Songs like "Every Rose Has Its Thorn," "Talk Dirty To Me," and "Nothing But A Good Time" are just a few of the hits that propelled the band to superstardom.

Motley Crue absolutely dominated the '80s. They cut their teeth on the L.A. club circuit and probably left a few of those teeth on the streets of West Hollywood. No band rocked harder, lit themselves on fire, or had the ambition and desire to rock their audience to the core more than they did, leaving fans stunned, shocked, and completely mesmerized by their stage show. The list of accolades, record sales, mega tours, highs, lows, and all of the crazy shit that went down is and always will be monumental in the rock and roll history books. When you look at the monster hit songs this band has put out to the world, along with the talent and attitude behind them, that is the true essence of Motley Crue. They have lit the torch for generations of young musicians to follow and have opened doors that remain open and always will.

What an amazing night of music in Denver, Colorado, Thursday night (July 20), for The Stadium Tour. The sold-out crowd welcomed every band to thunderous applause as they each ripped through what many fans would call the soundtrack of their lives. The longevity of JOAN JETT, Poison, Def Leppard, and Motley Crue is staggering, to say the least. Each band and their songs remind us of different times in our lives, and the songs mean something special to so many. The music lives on, and it sounds fresh and vibrant as ever. The audience was fully into it, and many traveled from other states and have seen multiple shows on this tour. You could see the expressions on their faces and feel the energy as they belted out every word of their favorite tunes.

By Newsdesk




JOAN JETT was "disappointed" The RUNAWAYS had so many male fans.

The 63-year-old rocker - who was joined in the band by Sandy West, Micki Steele, Cherie Currie, and Jackie Fox - wanted to appeal to women but could understand why their female followers would be hesitant to mix with "leering" guys in the crowd.

She said: "I was disappointed to a degree that the audience was full of guys leering - but I also understood why.

I guess that had to be kind of scary for girls to go in there and watch to a degree - I wasn't in the audience but I can only imagine the guys had quite an… energy about them out there."

Joan felt it was important for her group to "give a voice" to unrepresented young women and got frustrated by the double standards that she faced.

She told MOJO: "Teenage girls think about sex, teenage girls talk about sex and just because it makes society uncomfortable doesn't mean they're going to stop.

"So you need to give voice to that because boys have a voice, being able to sing about their puberty, growing up, all that stuff.

"Mick Jagger can ride out on an inflatable penis... Not that I need to come out on an inflatable vagina - but I'm just saying I should be able to do it.

By Dean Budnick




JOAN JETT has finally gone acoustic. More than 45 years after her first studio recording with The RUNAWAYS, her new release, Changeup, presents 25 strippeddown tracks with her longtime band, the BLACKHEARTS.

"I've always kept the acoustic stuff at arm's length because, when I started out as a kid at age 13, all that society allowed girls to do was play acoustic guitar," she explains. "So I gravitated to the electric guitar and pushed away from the acoustic guitar because I was told that was the only thing that I could play. I didn't even own an acoustic guitar until about 10 years ago."

Jett and the BLACKHEARTS first performed acoustic material in conjunction with the release of the 2018 documentary film, Bad Reptutation, which examined her career. "When we did the premiere, they wanted us to play a few songs," she recalls. "We knew that doing it the electric way wasn't going to work, so our only option was to do a few things acoustically. It happened to go over very well but, most of all, it felt good to us. It was an experience in and of itself. We weren't planning to do an album.

"Then, last year, we had the 40th anniversary of the Bad Reputation album coming up," Jett continues. "That's when we thought of the acoustic gig and we said, 'Why don't we try to record a few songs for the fans and give that to them as a 40th anniversary surprise?' Once we got into the studio and started recording, it just sort of fell into place, and we ended up having an album's worth of material. Then, after we played it for our friends, we decided to put it out because they seemed to like it."

The Rock and Roll Hall of Famer will be touring stadiums throughout much of the summer with Def Leppard, Motley Crue and Poison. She notes, "I've always liked the smaller venues because I like to feel the sweat; I like to feel the audience. But there's nothing like walking onstage to 80,000 people screaming, singing and watching you. It can be pretty intimidating but, once you're out there, you've just gotta do it and there's something to be said for that."

As you began recording the material for Changeup, was there a particular song that you found to be a challenge?

By Raina Douris, Kimberly Junod





The thing about JOAN JETT is that she always seems to do exactly what people tell her not to. All throughout her trailblazing career, she's defied peoples' expectations of what a woman could do in music - both as an artist and as a businessperson - all in the pursuit of rock and roll. In this session, she joins me to talk about the new album she's released with her band, The BLACKHEARTS, called Changeup. It's a record that sees her reinterpreting her own past work on an acoustic guitar. She'll get into why she wanted to record an acoustic album, why she originally decided to pick up the electric guitar when she was a kid and all the ways she's flipped off a music industry that told her she couldn't do things because "she was a girl." You'll also hear JOAN JETT AND THE BLACKHEARTS play live in a performance recorded in front of an audience in Atlantic City, New Jersey.