At 60, Joan Jett owns her icon status
Joan Jett is an icon.
Or, better put in her own words, “I don’t give a damn ’bout my reputation.”
A true rock ’n’ roll lifer whose existence changed rock ’n’ roll – from her early days with the Runaways through her live tours today – Jett turns 60 on Sept. 22. A founding member of the Runaways when she was just 15, Jett and her bandmates challenged what it meant for women to be in a punk band, with Jett emerging as their breakthrough star.
Joan’s gender in the day “was kind of a blessing in disguise because nobody wanted to sign me, so we wound up owning all our own stuff,” she told the Toronto Sun in 2016.
Instead, she has continued fearless as ever, advising her younger self in a Billboard interview to “keep more photos or video – I don’t think teenagers think that far ahead, I didn’t think about the future or ‘ When will I retire?’ I still haven’t thought about that. Other people keep going, so obviously I can.’ ”
Jett hasn’t just emerged as a rock ’n’ roll survivor, but rather as a founding member whose immense influence is felt on her 60th birthday. Armed with her Gibson guitar as the teenaged singer for the Runaways, Jett made a mark on punk music with her band, who have remained overlooked for their contributions to rock’s canon since her earliest days of their “Cherry Bomb” hit.
For Jett, the Runaways and her enduring solo career were a crash course in survival, her conditions unique to a female musician of that era.
“I’m sure every woman and girl who has gone through this has their own story of how people didn’t believe in them or how people belittled them,” she told the Sun. “But on the other hand you had just as many people who were supportive … so that was great to see I think from men who were a little more secure in their own selves, at least in my case, then they were able to appreciate a woman because they weren’t threatened by what we did.”
So Jett persisted, touring with band the Blackhearts and releasing works under her Blackheart Records, earning induction in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2015, with the likes of Dave Grohl and Miley Cyrus covering some of Jett’s eternal recordings including “Cherry Bomb” and “Bad Reputation.”
Beyond her remarkable rock ’n’ roll history – with anthems such as “I Love Rock ’n Roll,” Jett is one of the business’ most resilient figures, selling albums out of her car before achieving fame and continuing to tour into the most recent decade of her career when she could’ve just been on a cushy rocker hiatus. And through it all, she’s been a truth-teller about not only her own music, but her much-ballyhooed status as a woman in rock, which to her, didn’t matter until it did.
“You tell me one (expletive) record by a female rock artist that’s hard that’s played on the radio,” she told her fan club in the 1990s. “Musically, those bands exist. There are so many punk, hard rock and heavy metal girl bands, but radio doesn’t play them. When magazines publish these Women In Rock and Year of the Woman articles, it really gets annoying to see female artists misrepresented.”
Jett has never been one to be boiled down to her X chromosomes in her in music. With a new documentary “Bad Reputation” out Sept. 28 that honors her legacy – featuring names including Debbie Harry, Iggy Pop and Pete Townshend – Jett will continue to be celebrated in her 60th birthday month, not for her narrow achievements as a member of her gender but deservedly as a rock trailblazer.