Joan Jett

The New York Times has hailed Joan Jett as the "godmother to female musicians with loud guitars and idealistic dreams." That moniker joins "the queen of punk," "the girl Elvis", ìthe female Chuck Berryî, "the original riot grrrl" and ìthe last rock starî as another way to describe the timeless appeal of a woman and her music. With a new Joan Jett and the Blackhearts album due in 2004, Joan is poised at a unique historic moment to honor her past and celebrate her future.

Joan stands today as a beacon of all that is possible from a life in music. She is a committed citizen of the world, whose music has connected her to the serious issues of today, such as the environment, human rights, cures for disease, The Widows and Orphans of the Police Honor Legion and especially the support of our troops.

At age 15, Joan formed The Runaways with three other girls, Sandy West, Lita Ford and Cherie Currie. Joan sang lead vocals, played rhythm guitar and wrote or co-wrote much of the band's material. The band recorded five LPs with one -- the live album -- becoming one of the biggest selling imports in U.S. and U.K. history. The band toured around the world and found massive success in Japan, where the group recorded the album ìLive in Japanî in 1977.

In the spring of 1979, Joan was in England pursuing a solo career. While there, she cut three songs with Sex Pistols Paul Cook and Steve Jones. Back in Los Angeles, Joan began to film a movie loosely based on The Runaways called, ìWe're All Crazee Now!î The movie was never released, but one good thing came out of the project; Joan met songwriter and producer, Kenny Laguna. "Her old manager called me and wanted to know if I would be willing to write some songs in a hurry with Joan Jett," recalled Kenny, "My partner and wife, Meryl, told me that Joan was significant so I went to Los Angeles and that's how I met her". The three became instant friends and decided to work together. Joan and Kenny began writing the songs and Meryl handled all art design and visuals.

Joan and Kenny entered The Who's Ramport Studios with Kenny at the helm. Joan's solo debut, simply titled, "Joan Jett", was released in Europe. In the states, no less than 23 major labels rejected the album. Joan and Kenny decided to release it independently on their own Blackheart Records label. Kenny remembers, "We couldn't think of anything else to do, but print up records ourselves, and that's how Blackheart Records started. It was more or less Joan's idea to do it ourselves." Joan inadvertently became the first female performer to start her own record label.

With Kenny's assistance, Joan formed The Blackhearts. The pair used their personal savings to press up records and set up their own system of independent distribution. Kenny was unable to keep up with demand for Joan's album. Eventually, old friend and founder of Casablanca Records, Neil Bogart, made a joint venture with Kenny and signed Joan to Neil's new label, Boardwalk Records. After a year of touring and recording, The Blackhearts new single, "I Love Rock 'N' Roll", went number one on the Billboard charts for 8 weeks in a row. It is Billboard's #28 song of all time.

A string of Top 40 hits followed, as well as sellout tours with The Police, Queen, and Aerosmith amongst others. Joan was the first American act of any kind to perform behind the Iron Curtain and the first English-speaking rock band to appear in Panama and the Dominican Republic.

After receiving her own MTV New Years Eve Special. Joan beat out a number of contenders to appear in the movie "Light of Day" with Michael J. Fox. Bruce Springsteen wrote the title song especially for her and Joanís performance was critically acclaimed.

Joan and The Blackhearts became the first rock band to perform a series of shows at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre on Broadway, breaking the record at the time for the fastest ticket sell-out ever. Joan's next release, "Up Your Alley" went multi-platinum and was followed by "The Hit List" which was an international hit.

In the 90's, Joan released "Pure and Simple" an album that boasted collaborations with riot grrrls Kathleen Hanna, Donita Sparks and Kat Bjelland. She made selected television appearances on such shows as "Highlander", "Walker, Texas Ranger" and "Late Night With David Letterman". She then appeared in a movie by the producers of Pulp Fiction called "Boogie Boy".

Joan made an album and did a tour with Evil Stig (Gits Live [as in give], backwards) to help fund the investigation of the murder of Gits lead singer, Mia Zapata. Joan made appearances on "America's Most Wanted" and "Unsolved Mysteries" to help keep the search going. The killer was arrested in 2003.

Joan has also remained actively involved in the sports world. Her cover of "Love is All Around" (the Mary Tyler Moore theme) became an anthem in women's sports and was used by the NCAA to promote the Women's Final Four. The song went into heavy radio play and became the number one requested song without an existing CD. Joan supplied theme songs for the premiere ESPN X-Games and has contributed music to all the games since. She also sang the national anthem by request of Baltimore Oriole Cal Ripkin Jr. at the game where he broke Lou Gehrig's record.

In 2001, Joan returned to the Great White Way to star in "The Rocky Horror Show", in the role of Columbia, for which she received rave reviews. She also appeared in the independent films, "By Hook or by Crook", "Mayor of the Sunset Strip" and "The Sweet Life", the latter of which won Best Romantic Comedy at the 2003 NY International Film and Video Festival. "Bad Reputation" became the theme song to the hit NBC show "Freaks and Geeks". Joan also made major musical contributions to hit films such as "Shrek" and "Charlie's Angels".

Joan Jett and Kenny Laguna support the U.S. military. The Blackhearts have been touring with the U.S.O./Armed Forces Entertainment for over twenty years. They have been traveling to war zones to bring the troops "a taste of home" whenever they can.

Her icon status as a pop culture symbol of what women can achieve continues to grow throughout the world. Her songs are like the background music of our lives and can be heard not only on radio, but also in scores of movies and television. Her many innovative music videos are a staple of MTV and VH-1. She produced The Germs seminal punk album "G.I.", as well as tracks for Bikini Kill and Dischord Records' Circus Lupus. Over the years she has invited everyone from R.E.M., Social Distortion and The Butthole Surfers to open for her. During Joan's career the range of people that she's worked with, or who have admired her and cited her as an inspiration, is an eclectic as it is boundless. She has had songs written both for her and about her.

Now, with 14 albums under their belts, Joan and Kenny still share a love for what brought them together in the first place: music. "We've been together so long that we have a real understanding about what kind of music we should do together; which is a little bit of my pop training and a little bit of her punk sensibility split somewhere down the middle." Since she was a teenager, Joan Jett has brought this honesty, purity and intensity to all things she believes in, especially music. The integrity of Joan Jett as a musician and artist is the bough that won't break, the backbone of today's rock & roll feminist revolution.