‘If you want to know about sex, it’s in the songs’: Joan Jett on punk, privacy and almost joining the army

hen Joan Jett was 13 years old, she had her first lesson on the electric guitar her parents had given her for Christmas. “I went in there all excited and said to the teacher: ‘I wanna play rock’n’roll,’” she says. “And he said to me: ‘Girls don’t play rock’n’roll. Let me teach you [the folk song] On Top of Old Smokey instead.’” Jett never went back for a second lesson – instead, she bought a book and taught herself to play.

Jett spent much of the pandemic at home going stir-crazy, so she couldn’t be happier to be back on stage. “It’s the longest I’ve ever gone [not performing] since I started in the business. There’s this song that Kenny and I wrote many years ago called You Don’t Know What You’ve Got, and that’s actually the case. It was pretty distressing, but then it was a gift in other ways. It forced you to slow down, and a lot of people have trouble with that, me included.

The family later moved to LA, where Jett started hanging out at Rodney’s English Disco, a Hollywood nightclub that would play “glitter music” by the likes of the Sweet, David Bowie and T Rex. The music impresario Kim Fowley also frequented Rodney’s and put Jett, who was just 16, in touch with a young drummer, Sandy West. Jett went round to West’s house, they jammed for a bit and then called up Fowley and played a song down the phone.

In contrast to their chilly reception in the US, the Runaways were adored in Europe and, for a while, the band set up home on a houseboat in Chelsea in London. “England values rock’n’roll!” pipes up Laguna. “I mean, you guys make rock’n’roll stars knights, right? I guess we canonise our movie stars. The Sex Pistols went to No 1 with pretty raw songs in England, but in America they didn’t do anything.

When the Runaways split in 1979, musical differences were cited, though Jett was also uncomfortable at the way the band were being marketed. A photoshoot in which Currie was seen reclining in a corset was a particular source of ire. After the band went their separate ways, Jett started drinking heavily and developed a heart infection that landed her in hospital. During her recovery, she toyed with joining the army. “I knew I could use some discipline and direction,” she reflects.

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