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Real Runaway Joan Jett is still rockin’ like it’s 1975

By SARA CARDACE

Last Updated: 2:51 PM, March 15, 2010

Posted: 1:37 AM, March 14, 2010

Comments: 12

Given the fact that she’s one of mainstream music’s most infamous bad girls, veteran rocker Joan Jett is surprisingly, well, sweet. When asked about the quiet life she splits between the West Village and a waterfront home in Long Beach, Long Island, she pauses for a moment before responding: “I don’t know if I get recognized necessarily, though I do get looked at a lot — but I don’t know if it’s because of who I am, or if people just think I look weird.”

Recent weeks have found her coming to the defense of tween phenom Kristen Stewart (who plays and covers songs by Jett in the new musical biopic “The Runaways”) and washing dogs for charity. She ends conversations with a gruff, but gentle, “Have a nice day, man.”

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At an impressionable 18 (inset at LA’s Starwood Club in 1976), Jett couldn’t have possibly predicted the staying power she’d have more than 30 years later. “I’ve been lucky that people still want to come to our shows,” she says.

The movie’s producers must be relieved — the spiky-haired, tat-sporting singer isn’t the kind of person you’d want to cross when making a movie based on her life story: Jett’s career, and almost eerily unchanging persona, could well be a model for what’s known in the popular vernacular as sticking to one’s guns. There’s the perennially slick bad-girl style (think Betty Rubble by way of David Bowie); the unwaveringly outspoken feminist views and, most importantly, a three-decades-strong fixation on rock ’n’ roll despite the financial drubbing the genre’s suffered at the hands of mainstream pop.

Still, while you can probably recite most of the lyrics to Jett’s biggest songs by heart — her cover of the Arrows’ “I Love Rock ’n’ Roll” and her own “Bad Reputation,” for starters — that may well be where your knowledge of the performer begins and ends. So where does that leave Jett? Well, somewhere on the fringes of the classic-rock mainstream, and it turns out that suits her just fine.

“I’m not looking for a huge profit; that’s not the motive,” explains the longtime New Yorker, who sounds as if she’s just made her way through a carton of menthols when she calls from a hotel room in Los Angeles, where she’s preparing for the movie’s big premiere. “The profit is when kids come up to me and say, ‘You inspired me to pick up a guitar.’ Or ‘I was having a really tough time and your music helped me through it’ . . . That’s currency to me. Obviously you can’t pay your rent with it, but that’s why I’m always out on the road . . . I’ve toured every year since 1975, and I’ve been lucky enough that people still want to come to our shows.”

A spate of pop cultural offerings due out this week is likely to give Jett’s bottom line a boost, whether or not she ever decides to take a break from the constant touring. The first — the biggie — is “The Runaways,” a modestly budgeted movie from director Floria Sigismondi about the pioneering all-girl punk band Jett formed in 1975 when she was just a teen. Jett executive-produced the movie, which stars Stewart — who told reporters, “Whenever I wasn’t coming from the right place, [Joan] was always like, ‘Kristen! P - - - y to the wood! F - - - the guitar!’” — and an almost-all-grown-up Fanning as Jett’s bandmate, Cherie Currie. “What drew me to the story,” says Sigismondi, “is the fact that Cherie and Joan were doing things that girls weren’t allowed to do, and the rebel in me was attracted to that. What makes it a good story for the big screen? Sex, drugs and rock ’n’ roll.”

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Bazwald927

03/15/2010 7:20 PM

What rock of today are you guys referring to that stinks? Wasn't aware of anyone really making any decent original rock and roll these days with the exception of a few alternative bands. I mean c'mon, New York City doesn't have a regular rock station - what does that tell you? Mass music-exec-manufactured, unoriginal, uncreative, boring, simpleton pop has completely taken over and is an inevitable consequence of the dumbing down of our society. Saw an interview with Phil Collins the other day - he said he would never gain the fame and notoriety he did back in the 80's today because he can't dance, he's ugly and he never did time. Nope - he just wrote, sang, and performed songs well which is the least important ingredient to becoming a success in the music industry these days...
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Mr. Hat

03/14/2010 5:25 PM

cool, i will check it out
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swift boater

03/14/2010 4:21 PM

Joan Jett is a lefty--with a difference: she loves America and supports it. Whenever the USO puts out the call to support our troops by putting on shows in war zones, she answers it. God bless Joan Jett (whether she likes it or not;).

O, and I saw Joan live downtown over 25 years ago. I also saw Springsteen live, and Bruce came up short in my opinion. Hardest rocker on the planet, male or female.
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Area51

03/14/2010 2:50 PM

Joan you look and sound great!
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Marshal Goldberg

03/14/2010 2:35 PM

Who the heck is the "famous Oriole screwball pitcher" Mike Playard??? Did you mean Mike Cuellar????
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Talkintoome

03/14/2010 12:49 PM

In 1969 the majority of the music was inspired by or WRIITEN by 1920's to 1950's Blues, Folk, Jazz, even pop standard artists. Look it up. Elmore James, Robert Johnson, Son House, Willie Dixon, Woody Guthrie, Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith,on and on. Look at the liner notes and song credits of most of the top British rock bands. In 1969, Papa John Creach was a member of Jefferson Airplane and he was in his late 50's or older. Louis Armstong had a #1 hit on the Pop Charts in 1968. So did Frank Sinatra. Speaking of Sinatra, Jim Morrison credited him with being his vocal inspiration! Enough of this generational "us against you" hissy fit. Our musical legacy is a blessing and it should be our guide for creating great music in the future. To simply dismiss a music form because of the era that it came from is both short sided and tragic. We cannot lay claim to a single music note today, without giving due to its originators.
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Darr247

03/14/2010 11:59 AM

In 1969 there weren't people with music from 1929 still touring playing original newer music either.

So, your analogy is major FAIL.
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DFoxed

03/14/2010 10:37 AM

Rock and Roll is so formulaic and sad nowadays.

In 1969 if people tried to foist 40 year old music on the public they'd be laughed out of town

But now that its called "Classic rock" it can be recycled forever, pushing anything new and different right out of the marketplace.