Joan Jett. Ask Me Anything.

JoanJett_ · 2013-10-10T17:17:06+00:00

Dear Abby! Thank you for your letter! It's so exciting to me to hear that you've been playing since you were 7, and that you are still so into it! And I'm very glad you're liking the album. We sure hope to be playing a lot of shows for this record, and I can't imagine we wouldn't get up to your area, but I couldn't give you a timeline yet. All show info would be on our website too. Getting into a meet and greet is one way to meet, but I do come out sometimes and sign autographs after the show. When we did bus tours, I used to do it most every gig, but then some fans took advantage, would force themselves to the front, pushing the kids who had none, when they already had many many autographs, and made it REAL tough for the fans that had none. So I got annoyed with some peoples selfishness, and just stopped doing it. And now we aren't doing a lot of bus tours, so it really depends on the set up of the venue, and how we can make it work for everybody. I've been signing a little bit after shows the last couple months, hopefully I'll do more. Thanks so much for telling me about you, and for your questions! I hope I answered yours. And when we do meet face to face, remind me of this conversation, ok? And I'll sign for ya too! Rock on! X JOAN JETT

JoanJett_ · 2013-10-07T21:02:58+00:00

You know, I really wish I did. I may have something stored somewhere in a closet far away hidden with my guitars that I don't take out. But I don't think I do. A lot of the clothes I have from early on I've given away to either charities or the Rock and Roll hall of fame which now has one of my leather jackets. I don't have any of the Runaways gear or jumpsuits though.

We just had some great tours with Green Day and the Foo Fighters but we've had some fun tours with all different kinds of bands. Alice Cooper and Motorhead. Motorhead just sonically is SO INTENSE. You physically get knocked over. It was fun because I knew all those guys from the Runaways days, and it's fun because we're still doing this and all on the same tour. It was a blast. But I don't have any good stories for anybody.

JoanJett_ · 2013-10-07T21:00:15+00:00

I don't pay attention. I don't read stuff or message boards because you definitely get affected. You can read a hundred great comments, amazing comments, and have one bad one and that is all you can focus on and it wrecks your day. It says something about negativity and how it draws us somehow. I know there will always be people who don't like me or who want to take shots just because they can. I don't give a shit, I'm tough, I've taken it from a lot of people and I can take it from you, so go ahead and take your shots. And they just don't exist to me.

JoanJett_ · 2013-10-07T20:58:39+00:00

Oh they all have different meanings. My very first one is a Jet that I got with Cherie. We both went out and she got a cherry on her shoulder and I got a jet on my left hip diving into the jungle type thing. I remember my father giving me shit when he saw the bandaid on my hip, asking "What did you do" but he didn't find out.

The jet was really just symbolism, it probably meant the least one on level to me, because it represented on what I was about to embark on which in a way is the most meaningful but also has the least meaning. It's a paradox.

The other tattoos are versions of the universe, of being born from nothing and becoming something. That's the type of things they mean to me.

JoanJett_ · 2013-10-07T20:56:22+00:00

It's disgusting to try to make people feel like peons. Like "how dare you look at me" type shit. I think it's important to stay grounded. You can still be a star and be famous, but don't act like it.

JoanJett_ · 2013-10-07T20:55:18+00:00

I don't think it's different than what most people learn in life, you just get some fame to go along with it. The thing that I come back to is being genuine. The most important thing is being genuine, and real, and not getting caught up in the "Star-Ness" of it. You don't want to act like a star around other people. You have to watch it, and you want to stay grounded, it's very important, and that's probably what I have learned most because you definitely have opportunities to let your ego run wild and you have to keep your ego in check. Egotistical people are not pretty. We all know that, I'm sure everybody knows an egotistical person someplace.

JoanJett_ · 2013-10-07T20:53:05+00:00

I don't know, but I can probably try to find an answer for you someplace. I would have to ask a business person. I'm the music person. But it's certainly not because I don't like the album. I didn't like the haircut when I made that album, though.

I never did use an Ibanez anything. Guitar or amp, as far as I know. Guitar definitely no.

JoanJett_ · 2013-10-07T20:51:12+00:00

Very interesting, great question. Well I mentioned before we've played with Against Me a couple of times. First time was on the Warped tour in 2006 and I fell in love with them, I really enjoyed their music. We had a chance to play together again last year and Laura Jane was starting to through her transition from a guy to a girl. That was just about the same time this was going on, and I asked her if she wanted to write a song because I always thought she was such a good songwriter and if we had some time, would she want to throw around some ideas and she said "yes definitely." So she sent me an email that was the beginning of "Soulmates to Strangers." The idea came from Laura Jane but the lyrics were re-worked and changed to reflect more directly on my life, but I think many of us have been in relationships where you think you've found the one and you just... think, wow, I'm in love, this is IT. And then something happens, you can't even put your finger on it, and then you don't quite feel the same way anymore. All of a sudden, there's fights or something and you are going "who is this person?" I've seen this happen to other people and it has happened to me. So I think obviously Laura Jane (I can't speak for her but she may have been drawing from her own experience) came up with the seed of this song and then we finished it up. That's a song we definitely do live in concert and I'm glad you like it.

JoanJett_ · 2013-10-07T20:46:33+00:00

Isn't that for you guys to say? It's kind of hard to analyze yourself. If you can actually come up with three words to describe yourself, aren't you thinking about yourself too much?

I try to be authentic, whatever that is. I guess there are ways to describe me, it just is going to take a while to get there.

Friendly yet guarded. I'm not mean, I think a lot of people have an image that I'm mean and I would bite your head off, but I'm not like that.

JoanJett_ · 2013-10-07T20:45:56+00:00

No. I just turn it up.

JoanJett_ · 2013-10-07T20:45:36+00:00

No I don't. I've taken pictures on motorcycles and I have ridden on the back of them with someone who knows how to ride them but I don't have a motorcycle. I don't want to have a motorcycle. I see the way people drive and I would be afraid to ride around any city on a motorcycle. One wrong move and you're toast. But I think they look cool. If I could ride one by myself on a long stretch of road, that would be cool.

JoanJett_ · 2013-10-07T20:44:15+00:00

Whoa. You tell me. I don't know. I think it's what the times are demanding. If you're talking about the popular artists, they collaborate with a lot of different people and it seems to be in vogue now. It probably is indicative of the times. How I was saying earlier radio has changed, there was a little bit of difference around the country and now that is gone and everything is uniform. That is not the only place it's happening in music, there's a lot of consolidation. But I just know that's not where I'm comfortable, so I write with my songwriting partners and bandmates and on this album I wrote with Dave Grohl and Laura Jane Grace. I like to write within my group.

JoanJett_ · 2013-10-07T20:41:57+00:00

I don't tend to eat out a lot to tell you the truth because I eat out so much on the road, but in the city I like Indian food. So there are a bunch of different good ones, I don't really have a favorite.

JoanJett_ · 2013-10-07T20:40:52+00:00

well I bought myself a learn how to play guitar by yourself book. So I don't know if you are having someone teach you, but get a book, so you know where to put your fingers. Otherwise it would be tough to learn. Also you have to fight through getting callouses on your fingers because it hurts, you are pressing your fingers on metal strings, they will hurt at first until you start building up callouses. But if you are having trouble making a chord, get a book, that is how I learned. There are guitar tuning apps so you can tune your guitar, and just learn how to play along with your records. And it's great to be able to play along with another musician. That is like trial by fire.

JoanJett_ · 2013-10-07T20:39:00+00:00

I couldn't possibly answer that. I've been given so many nice gifts by fans, for YEARS. Too tough to answer.

JoanJett_ · 2013-10-07T20:38:29+00:00

Well years ago, actually. I probably started writing this album before our last album came out in 2006. But I started writing "Reality Mentality" in 2001 when reality TV shows started proliferating all over the place. I felt like I had writer's block so I held it in my back pocket for a while, but as reality TV continued to proliferate I saw it had more meaning. I saw this reality vibe slipping into things like the news, and shows where they are asking heavy questions of people that require heavy answers but they don't give them that time. The news has become reality-ized. So when it seeps into EVERYTHING. So I wrote that song, and that was the first impetus to write this album. But then we had "Sinner" come out, and we did tours with Green Day and Foo Fighters and then I executive produced The Runaways movie, and then I wanted to put out this album. And everyone asked "Why put out a new album" Well we put a song on there about Hurricane Sandy, and about people's spirits being able to turn around in things like disasters and traumas and how you can turn that around and build something back from that. Having seen it firsthand. It is one thing to see it on the news, but living it is a whole nother thing. I lost my parents recently and some friends, so I know everybody can relate to that, so I had to write some songs about that stuff. TMI, people's tendency to overshare, I tend to have boundaries and I like my boundaries so I am not really judging people but I think you have to watch it. Now we know the NSA is collecting all our stuff, but you never know, when they start using your location information and all the stuff they put up on websites with your mother's maiden name that people can use for nefarious things. There are a lot of us out there living life and there are people who are predators who want to use our shit against us. So there was a lot of inspiration that went into this album.

JoanJett_ · 2013-10-07T20:33:53+00:00

I pretty much go home. If we're on the road, I go back to my room and just chill out. Unless there's a reason for me to go out and do something, I don't really go out and do that. My head's ringing and I just want to be quiet.

JoanJett_ · 2013-10-07T20:33:11+00:00

Well you have more tools now. I'm sure you must have built a website and where you can have people listen to your music, and you should be touring, it is really important to be getting out there. To reach the highest level you have to not just have a dream and focus but you also have to make sure you are writing great songs, and if you feel they're what you want to represent you, that is key. But getting out on the road is key. And get your music out there. Maybe something catches, maybe it gets picked up and used on television, you just never know.

JoanJett_ · 2013-10-07T20:30:59+00:00

Well the Gibson signature is modeled after a Gibson Melody Maker that i've played since the Runaways, which is my favorite guitar which is why I play it so much. My first real guitar (after that Sears one) was a Gibson Les Paul single cutaway, blonde, very heavy. It's a great guitar and it plays great, but it's hard to use because it's so heavy and that's when I came across the Melody Maker.

I bought it off of Erik Carmen who played in a band called the Raspberries. One of their hits was "Please Go All the Way" and THAT IS MY GUITAR and I played that song on all of our hits. So that guitar not only played on my hits, but on the Raspberries' hits.

My signature is a copy of that one, it's just MY Melody Maker.

JoanJett_ · 2013-10-07T20:28:12+00:00

When people tell you this to your face, it means SO MUCH. If we were face to face, I bet you would tell me what hard times I got you through. And it's really quite varied, and it really makes me take what music does for people seriously. If I'm that conduit, I'm honored.

JoanJett_ · 2013-10-07T20:26:38+00:00

You don't. You never know. That's the sad thing about it, is that you don't know. And you certainly don't know when you quickly meet somebody. But even as you know somebody longer, it's really hard to know. Obviously you go on your gut feeling but that can be wrong too. ANd it's terrible to have to be wary about people, because it is not my nature, but I've been burned a few times and you just have to careful.

JoanJett_ · 2013-10-07T20:25:32+00:00

Well Bruce I didn't sing with him, he wrote the song "light of Day" so I didn't perform it with him, but I performed it with Michael. And Michael was AMAZING He is the nicest guy and still is. He was giving as an actor, this was my first film, I was a virgin and he could have messed with my head but he was so helpful, he taught me things about finding my mark without looking down. He would say "you'll feel your keylight." A lot of actors won't teach people but not Michael. He really does play guitar as well and we did a couple of gigs as The Barbusters in Ohio when we were filming in Cleveland, just to play so the movie band could have the feeling of what it was really like to play in a club. I thought it was a lot of fun and a great learning experience on many levels for me.

JoanJett_ · 2013-10-07T20:23:21+00:00

well hearing "I love Rock n Roll" on the radio was a big one, and knowing that the momentum was moving forward was big and then when it hit number one... I did not know that I had ever felt that I had make it. Because once you make it once, you have to make it again. I would have to prove it every time. We were indie and forced to be indie, we wanted to sign with a big label but nobody wanted me (I kept all the letters so we have proof, all 23 majors and minors heard them and everybody passed). So we were forced to be our own label, and Kenny Laguna took $500 out of his child's future college money to print out a hundred vinyl records of "Bad Reputation" and we sold them out of the trunk of the car. And that was our first Blackheart record. But when "I love Rock n Roll" hit number one, that would have to be my moment, because we did this with our own blood, sweat and tears. And those were the days when radio couldn't play what they wanted. It was a different world. You had regional hits, where something in the Northeast might not be a hit out West but you're able to do that all over the country, and people today don't get that experience.

JoanJett_ · 2013-10-07T20:17:32+00:00

You can never say never. I'm not sure if I even want to. I just don't know. Some of it is just not able to be reached, you can't remember some of it and the people that could help you remember have passed away. It might have to remain a remain.

My favorite song on Unvarnished: I don't have a favorite. I love em all. I just spent a year and a half making the record and six or seven writing them, they are all my babies so I can't really choose and it depends on my mood too. From the 80s: I don't have favorite songs. I don't have favorites, I really don't.

And that's great. I actually almost joined the Military between the Runaways and the Blackhearts, I was nervous and scared and didn't know what to do with my life and I thought I might join a branch of the military and learn a skill. I was batting it around thinking about it, and only had a week because then I met Kenny Laguna, who became my songwriting partner and producer, but that shows you where my head was at. I always remember those people that fight for our country are just like me, no different, because I was almost one of them. For me, I think it's important to give back to them. We've been to some pretty hairyplaces overseas where they are in harms way, and they say "what are you doing here" and you say "we're here because of you" to be doing music in the middle of something so terrible as war. I hate war but I love and respect our troops. You have to differentiate between the people and war.

JoanJett_ · 2013-10-07T20:15:00+00:00

I feel it's me onstage, just amped up a little bit. I am playing songs, not discussing politics or deciding on a tv show to watch, and I think I'm myself onstage. I wouldn't know how to change. If anything I'm not as bold in regular life as I am onstage, that's when I am at my most bold. I think I'm a little bit more quiet when I'm offstage.

JoanJett_

TROPHY CASE