Joan Jett
By Eric Allen
Sep 1, 2009, 12:56

Joan Jett
Rock 'N' Roll All Over Again

Since bursting onto the punk rock scene with The Runaways in the late ‘70s, singer/guitarist Joan Jett has remained a constant over the course of four decades in the rock industry. Regardless of where you hear her songs — whether it’s a drunk girl singing “I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll” at karaoke or “Bad Reputation” in an American Chopper commercial — Jett is an effervescent goddess of rock ‘n’ roll. A goddess that will be playing at Pontiac’s Arts, Beats & Eats, this Saturday, September 5. Real Detroit Weekly talked with Jett about her new signature Gibson guitar, The Runaways and some of her favorite memories of her punk rock life.

You’ve been in the punk rock scene since it really started. Is there one memory of your involvement in the scene that you will never forget?
I’ll always remember — I can still see it in my mind right now — seeing The Clash in 1976, but it was right after their first album came out and I had that album so I knew all the songs. The Runaways were on tour … in Leeds and they did a show and it was at a small kind of ballroom with a wooden dance floor ... I remember this is the first time I saw a whole audience — and at the time they called it pogoing — everyone, the whole 2000 people, were jumping up and down at the same time and it felt like the floor was bending. I had gone over in The Runaways as a glam fan … I dressed kind of glammy … but when I came back from England I was in a lot of leather.

I know Gibson just gave you your own signature guitar, but you actually bought the guitar they based it off of Eric Carmen of The Raspberries. How did you happen to buy it from him and how does it feel to have your own signature guitar?
There was a convention of roadies in Cleveland that did the Agora circuit. They were called the Rowdy Roadies. One of the guys in the Rowdy Roadies had worked with The Raspberries and I was looking for another guitar because I had a Les Paul and it was so heavy. I love my Les Paul and I didn’t want to get rid of it, but it was killing me on stage. So I bought the guitar secondhand off of Eric Carmen and it is the ones he played on “Please Go All The Way” and all the hits. But, it’s really such an honor, it really is. A Gibson guitar? A Joan Jett Melody Maker? I’m so humbled by it that it’s so hard to talk about it much more than that.

How has it felt to revisit the memories of your youth with the current Runaways movie that is in production and does it ever make you wish that you guys got back together?
No, I never wish we got back together for a reunion. I just think The Runaways had to be teenagers and I think had we stayed together and grew up into our 20s it would have gotten goofy. It was definitely one of the highlights of my life — probably thee highlight of my life — you’re a teenager, you’re living your dream, you’re in a fucking rock ‘n’ roll band … I always look back on it with fond memories. | RDW