# QLS Classic : Joan Jett

An episode of [The Questlove Show](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1485250501), 11 Oct 2026, 1 h 01 min.

Audio: https://podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/86918ee4-4aa4-497b-995a-ae32006cd4b7/916ac14c-4948-4604-8b61-ae9900262ef6/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=ee132490-ba24-4965-b558-ae32006cd4c0

In this classic episode of Questlove Supreme from 2022, Joan Jett spoke about growing up moving between Pennsylvania, Maryland and Los Angeles, and how songs like T. Rex's "Bang a Gong" made her want to chase her dreams, even after a guitar teacher told her "girls don't play Rock & Roll." She recalls forming The Runaways as a teenager, starting with four bus rides to jam with drummer Sandy West, and the low point after the band broke up, which ended when she met Kenny Laguna and later turned a little-known Arrows B-side into the hit "I Love Rock 'n' Roll." Jett also discusses her influence on Riot Grrrl, her Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction, her new acoustic album, and her plans to keep stepping outside her comfort zone—maybe even with an R&B record. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

## Transcript

[0:00] Speaker 1: Questlove Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio. What's up, y'all?
[0:07] Speaker 2: All right, so every weekend as we prepare to give
[0:10] Speaker 2: you a new episode of the Questlove Show, we are
[0:13] Speaker 2: showcasing moments from.
[0:15] Speaker 1: Questlove Supreme catalog.
[0:16] Speaker 2: From damn near a decade, Fonte, Bahia, Sugar Steve, Unpaid Bill,
[0:22] Speaker 2: and Boss Bill and I use this platform to interview the.
[0:25] Speaker 1: Greatest in music, comedy, film, books, and activism.
[0:30] Speaker 2: The show evolved a lot over the years and really
[0:33] Speaker 2: became a place of joy as Questlove Supreme went to
[0:35] Speaker 2: Zoom over the pandemic. Please enjoy these episodes and get
[0:39] Speaker 2: information in the description.
[0:42] Speaker 1: QLS forever.
[0:56] Speaker 2: Ladies and gentlemen what's up this is quest love supreme
[0:59] Speaker 2: wait i believe is this our first quest love supreme
[1:03] Speaker 2: back together since since what like last april since the
[1:07] Speaker 2: oscars i feel like i've not spoken to you guys.
[1:11] Speaker 1: Yeah i think this is the first one maybe we
[1:13] Speaker 1: did like one episode or something like that but yeah
[1:15] Speaker 1: i was about to say like it's been uh a
[1:18] Speaker 1: long time we've been doing a bunch of 101s but.
[1:21] Speaker 2: I'll start off our episode, people, by saying that because
[1:24] Speaker 2: of the ungodly amount of hours that I've spent at
[1:28] Speaker 2: the Wynwood train station or taking the 105 and the
[1:32] Speaker 2: 103 bus to my insurance job to pay for a demo,
[1:37] Speaker 2: I feel just a little bit more connected to our
[1:41] Speaker 2: guest today than any other guest that's been Philadelphia adjacent.
[1:47] Speaker 1: I'll put it that way. No, I got excited. I
[1:51] Speaker 1: get excited when any Philly adjacent guest comes on.
[1:53] Speaker 2: To Questlove Supreme. And no matter how much New York
[1:58] Speaker 2: tries to claim you, I know for a fact that
[2:00] Speaker 2: you did hard time at Montgomery County. Once in Philadelphia
[2:06] Speaker 2: and always in Philadelphia.
[2:07] Speaker 1: Anywho.
[2:08] Speaker 3: Philly and I lived in Pittsburgh and I lived in Erie.
[2:11] Speaker 3: I lived in lots of different... Yeah, Yens. You're the
[2:14] Speaker 3: first person that's used Yens.
[2:18] Speaker 1: My mother is from Pittsburgh.
[2:20] Speaker 2: So yeah, I have a fair share of family members
[2:24] Speaker 2: that have educated me on just life in Pittsburgh in general.
[2:32] Speaker 2: I'll say that our guest today, of course, is a
[2:36] Speaker 2: legendary singer, legendary songwriter, producer. Let's not forget a kick-ass guitarist,
[2:42] Speaker 2: a member of two legendary units. The first, of course,
[2:47] Speaker 2: coming to us as a member of the Runaways, a
[2:50] Speaker 2: band who pretty much defied all logic and stuck to
[2:56] Speaker 2: their guns and pretty much had inspired a generation of
[3:00] Speaker 2: musicians and creators around the world. And of course, the
[3:04] Speaker 2: second band needs no introduction. Of course, I'm speaking of
[3:07] Speaker 2: her namesake, Joan Jett and the Blackhearts class of 2015
[3:11] Speaker 2: Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
[3:14] Speaker 1: What can I say?
[3:16] Speaker 2: Without her, you know, I don't even want to limit
[3:18] Speaker 2: it to just, there's no Riot Grrrl movement.
[3:20] Speaker 1: There's just, there's a whole.
[3:24] Speaker 2: Portion of hard rock and punk and a lot of
[3:28] Speaker 2: post late eighties, early nineties bands that formed in LA
[3:32] Speaker 2: that really wouldn't exist without our guest today. So without
[3:36] Speaker 2: further ado, welcome Joan Jett to Questlove Supreme. So were
[3:41] Speaker 2: you talking to us, right now, where you.
[3:45] Speaker 3: Speak to us from? I'm home in New York, out
[3:48] Speaker 3: on Long Island, at the beach.
[3:50] Speaker 1: You're still a Long Islander?
[3:52] Speaker 3: Yeah, well, yeah, I live at the beach. Yeah, I'm
[3:54] Speaker 3: like right on the water, though.
[3:58] Speaker 2: I discovered in the pandemic, and I keep telling everyone,
[4:04] Speaker 2: especially New Yorkers this, and they don't believe me, New
[4:07] Speaker 2: York doesn't realize they have their own Mulholland Drive, and
[4:11] Speaker 2: they have their own Venice Beach. Now, you know, I've not,
[4:17] Speaker 2: there was a point where I think the main train
[4:20] Speaker 2: was going to shut down that leads to Williamsburg causing,
[4:25] Speaker 2: you know, it was going to shut down for like
[4:27] Speaker 2: two years, whatever, while they did reconstruction, causing a whole
[4:30] Speaker 2: borough to literally relocate elsewhere. Like restaurants started shutting down and,
[4:37] Speaker 2: and all of them basically relocated to.
[4:41] Speaker 1: Long beach.
[4:42] Speaker 2: So when a friend of mine made me visit out there,
[4:45] Speaker 2: I didn't know what to expect.
[4:46] Speaker 1: Like I was personally expecting, uh, you know, kind of.
[4:53] Speaker 2: Hawkins like post Benson Hersey's, you know, whatever.
[4:58] Speaker 1: No, I went out there and it's like, yo, it
[5:02] Speaker 1: is the shit.
[5:04] Speaker 3: It was, it was pretty beat up. Like when I
[5:06] Speaker 3: moved here.
[5:07] Speaker 1: In 1979, uh, Oh, so you're like a loyalist. You've
[5:12] Speaker 1: been there through everything.
[5:13] Speaker 3: Yeah, I moved here right after the runaways broke. Pretty
[5:15] Speaker 3: much right after the runaways broke up, which is 79.
[5:17] Speaker 3: Then I met my partner, Kenny Laguna.
[5:21] Speaker 1: What do you make of it now?
[5:23] Speaker 2: Because, like, literally, it's... Like, if I didn't have to
[5:27] Speaker 2: be in Manhattan at, like, the drop of a dime, like,
[5:30] Speaker 2: I would actually move out to Long Beach.
[5:32] Speaker 1: Like, it's... They totally.
[5:34] Speaker 2: I don't want to say just re-gentrified it, but they
[5:38] Speaker 2: literally just.
[5:39] Speaker 3: yeah okay you know they're making it i don't know
[5:43] Speaker 3: what you want to call it nice in quote yeah nicer.
[5:48] Speaker 1: Yeah i wasn't i wasn't ready for that.
[5:50] Speaker 3: So when i moved here it was uh they just
[5:53] Speaker 3: opened all the mental institutions or something so when i
[5:57] Speaker 3: got here there were crazy people walking all over the
[5:59] Speaker 3: place and you could i could have bought my apartment
[6:02] Speaker 3: for like 20 grand or something but You know, those
[6:05] Speaker 3: days are long gone.
[6:06] Speaker 1: The price has definitely gone up.
[6:08] Speaker 3: Yeah. And now people want places like this. So even
[6:11] Speaker 3: more so.
[6:13] Speaker 1: Yeah. Anyone's like trying to sell their house right now
[6:16] Speaker 1: in Long Beach can easily kick in high six figures
[6:20] Speaker 1: to almost a million.
[6:22] Speaker 2: Definitely. That's where it is now. People are like headed
[6:26] Speaker 2: up there. So I start off each episode with the question.
[6:31] Speaker 2: What do you remember what your first musical memory was?
[6:36] Speaker 3: I can't be positive, but it would be.
[6:38] Speaker 2: Well, just one that you remember, not the technical one.
[6:41] Speaker 3: All right, all right.
[6:42] Speaker 1: Singing Mary Had a Little Lamb at eight months, is
[6:44] Speaker 1: what I mean.
[6:46] Speaker 3: But I think of my father playing classical music or
[6:50] Speaker 3: my parents listening to Johnny Mathis or something like that,
[6:53] Speaker 3: Frank Sinatra.
[6:55] Speaker 1: Okay. How long did you live in... Well, technically, you
[6:59] Speaker 1: were born in Wynwood, right?
[7:02] Speaker 3: Yeah, I was born in Lankanaw Hospital.
[7:04] Speaker 1: Lankanaw, yes.
[7:05] Speaker 3: So wherever that is.
[7:07] Speaker 1: Yeah. It was quasi.
[7:09] Speaker 3: I moved very early. I moved at like six months
[7:12] Speaker 3: old and moved to Pittsburgh. So I can't really say
[7:15] Speaker 3: I grew up in Philly. I was just born there.
[7:18] Speaker 2: So when you have memories of your childhood, what's the
[7:21] Speaker 2: city you think of?
[7:23] Speaker 3: Maryland. Oh, okay. I moved to Maryland from Erie, Pennsylvania
[7:28] Speaker 3: when I was eight, when I was eight. So I moved,
[7:31] Speaker 3: I lived in, in Maryland, Rockville, Maryland. from eight to 13.
[7:36] Speaker 3: So really formative years, you know, when you come into
[7:40] Speaker 3: your own, I guess, you know, go from being a
[7:43] Speaker 3: kid to puberty and, you know, all those big changes
[7:46] Speaker 3: that happen from, I'd say to eight to your teen years.
[7:50] Speaker 2: What effect does that have on someone that, you know,
[7:53] Speaker 2: where you don't have actual roots, like you kind of
[7:57] Speaker 2: move every other year, every two or three years, like
[8:00] Speaker 2: what effect does that have on you as far as like.
[8:03] Speaker 3: That's a good question. I wonder how much of it,
[8:06] Speaker 3: I'm doing psychology on myself. I was thinking about this
[8:10] Speaker 3: the other day. How much of it was my lifestyle
[8:14] Speaker 3: from a very early age, from being on the road,
[8:17] Speaker 3: you know, just constantly moving. And also, but growing up
[8:20] Speaker 3: that way too, never really being in one place very long.
[8:25] Speaker 3: Longest was Maryland when I lived there five years. So
[8:28] Speaker 3: maybe you don't really feel secure I've been making friendships
[8:32] Speaker 3: or any kind of relationships. So, you know, I don't know.
[8:39] Speaker 3: Maybe I tend to keep people at arm's length. It's
[8:42] Speaker 3: not that I'm unfriendly. It's just I'm not good with intimacy,
[8:46] Speaker 3: I suppose.
[8:46] Speaker 1: That's real. Do you have siblings? No, it's a real answer.
[8:53] Speaker 3: Well, I'm not good at faking it.
[8:56] Speaker 1: Hey, man, I feel you.
[8:59] Speaker 3: I have a brother and I have a sister. They
[9:01] Speaker 3: both still live in California. My brother's in San Diego.
[9:05] Speaker 3: My sister's in North Hollywood.
[9:07] Speaker 1: Are you the baby in the middle or the oldest?
[9:09] Speaker 3: No, I'm oldest.
[9:11] Speaker 1: Okay. Okay.
[9:12] Speaker 3: I'm the oldest. I said, I'm out of here.
[9:14] Speaker 1: Oh, instantly when you.
[9:18] Speaker 3: You know, when I was 16, pretty much, you know,
[9:22] Speaker 3: and I left and formed a band and not really
[9:26] Speaker 3: at home much more after that. I think I see
[9:29] Speaker 3: the repercussions of that now later, but I don't know
[9:34] Speaker 3: if that's my lifestyle or if it's from not really
[9:38] Speaker 3: having that connective family thing.
[9:42] Speaker 2: As the result of moving, was that because you were
[9:45] Speaker 2: an army brat or just.
[9:49] Speaker 3: My father was an insurance man, so traveling insurance man
[9:54] Speaker 3: in the olden days that Is that a real thing
[9:56] Speaker 3: or was that a hustle?
[9:58] Speaker 1: I don't know. Hey, I went out to... Either way.
[10:02] Speaker 1: I went out to Wynwood to sell insurance. So I
[10:06] Speaker 1: don't know. Maybe I was like working for your father.
[10:08] Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah. But I guess, you know, they'd have areas
[10:11] Speaker 3: and they'd go and... I don't know if it was
[10:14] Speaker 3: a door-to-door. I really don't know. I didn't discuss it
[10:17] Speaker 3: with him that much. But that's what my... Mother told
[10:20] Speaker 3: me anyway, traveling salesman. So we moved around, yeah.
[10:25] Speaker 1: Do you remember the first album that you purchased with
[10:29] Speaker 1: your own money?
[10:31] Speaker 3: I should know this, right?
[10:32] Speaker 1: Or single.
[10:33] Speaker 3: It was probably an Osmond Brothers record.
[10:36] Speaker 1: Thank you. You know, oftentimes.
[10:39] Speaker 3: Maybe I shouldn't be that honest. No, no, no.
[10:42] Speaker 1: This is the show for it. You're getting too honest now.
[10:45] Speaker 1: I was going to say, most people get stumped with
[10:47] Speaker 1: this because.
[10:49] Speaker 2: I think for a lot of us, the answer is
[10:51] Speaker 2: always going to be an, an uncool answer.
[10:54] Speaker 1: You know, I think for the shut up, Steve, because he.
[10:57] Speaker 2: Knows I'm thinking of my, my own as the coolest,
[11:00] Speaker 2: but yeah.
[11:01] Speaker 1: Well, no, I, you know, I would naturally tell people like,
[11:03] Speaker 1: Oh yeah, Jackson five or whatever. But the, the, the
[11:06] Speaker 1: real answer was Neil Sedaka. How's that going to look
[11:11] Speaker 1: in print? You know what I mean? Not great.
[11:14] Speaker 3: Right. Mine could have been the Jackson five too. I mean,
[11:17] Speaker 3: you know what? I just, um, I just got done
[11:20] Speaker 3: watching the movie that you won awards for. I've been,
[11:26] Speaker 3: it is so great. And it reminds me of growing
[11:30] Speaker 3: up because I feel like the music I grew up
[11:35] Speaker 3: listening to was a lot more diversified and a lot,
[11:40] Speaker 3: a lot blacker than people would, would even know. I
[11:46] Speaker 3: suppose it just seemed to be a lot, a lot of,
[11:49] Speaker 3: All those songs, all those bands that were in that,
[11:53] Speaker 3: very familiar with it all. But it feels like stuff
[11:56] Speaker 3: I watched as a kid.
[11:58] Speaker 1: Right.
[11:59] Speaker 3: You know, I don't know. I loved it.
[12:01] Speaker 1: Thank you. Yeah.
[12:03] Speaker 2: You know, I think for a lot of people, you know,
[12:06] Speaker 2: especially with this movie, the kind of the underlying or
[12:11] Speaker 2: the undertone of it all is basically like this was
[12:15] Speaker 2: you know, it was easily lost in history.
[12:17] Speaker 1: It sat in someone's basement for 50 years.
[12:19] Speaker 2: So, you know, for it to, to, to get out
[12:22] Speaker 2: one was the miracle, but you know, to also just
[12:25] Speaker 2: let the world know about, you know, contributions to culture,
[12:28] Speaker 2: but thank you.
[12:29] Speaker 1: Thank you. I appreciate that.
[12:31] Speaker 3: Absolutely. But even more than just the music, I see,
[12:35] Speaker 3: you know, what they were saying about the change, you know,
[12:37] Speaker 3: that they were right upon this, this change that was
[12:40] Speaker 3: happening and, in society and just the way people looked
[12:43] Speaker 3: at themselves and stuff. And it was, you know, really
[12:48] Speaker 3: quite poignant, my thought. Thank you.
[12:52] Speaker 1: I appreciate that. Did you come from a musical family,
[12:55] Speaker 1: like a cousin or any of those things?
[12:57] Speaker 3: I really think everybody, I think if you gave them, no,
[13:01] Speaker 3: to answer your question, no, nobody, not that they actualized,
[13:05] Speaker 3: but I believe because my parents, family all tended to
[13:10] Speaker 3: be creative, but never actualized it. They were too fearful
[13:16] Speaker 3: or didn't think it was their place. I know my
[13:19] Speaker 3: dad loved art and he loved to draw or paint.
[13:23] Speaker 3: And he should have done that. And my mom, all
[13:27] Speaker 3: those things. My brother, I know that he would have
[13:30] Speaker 3: liked to play an instrument, but didn't pursue it. And
[13:33] Speaker 3: I'm sure my sister, she's an artist too. She makes
[13:36] Speaker 3: things with her hands. So, yeah, they all have that thing,
[13:41] Speaker 3: but didn't really get the chance that I kind of
[13:45] Speaker 3: just grabbed and took.
[13:47] Speaker 2: All right, so what was the entry of, or at
[13:51] Speaker 2: least the moment that you felt like, okay, this is
[13:54] Speaker 2: what I want to do, like the curiosity factor?
[13:56] Speaker 1: What was that moment for you?
[13:59] Speaker 3: Hearing songs like Bang-a-Gong by T-Rex, Just hearing certain songs
[14:07] Speaker 3: on the radio all right now by the free, because
[14:10] Speaker 3: there was something that was a little out of tune
[14:12] Speaker 3: with one of the guitars on the rhythm guitar. And
[14:15] Speaker 3: something about that made me want to go, I want
[14:17] Speaker 3: to make those sounds. It was something that connected with
[14:21] Speaker 3: my bones, you know, with my, my crotch. And even
[14:24] Speaker 3: as a little kid, I knew it. I didn't know
[14:27] Speaker 3: what the word was, but I knew that it resonated
[14:31] Speaker 3: deep inside me, you know? And I wanted to make
[14:34] Speaker 3: those sounds. So I think though, I'm just lucky that
[14:39] Speaker 3: the way my life moved, because it could have been anything.
[14:42] Speaker 3: I could have moved on to another thing that I love.
[14:45] Speaker 3: I mean, I loved horses. I rode horses for a while.
[14:48] Speaker 3: I mean, the guitar, my family, I got this guitar.
[14:52] Speaker 3: I tried to learn how to play it, but I
[14:55] Speaker 3: didn't really have anyone to play with. So I kind
[14:57] Speaker 3: of just learned the basic chords and put it down.
[15:00] Speaker 1: Then my family moved to- It's like the Sears catalog guitar.
[15:03] Speaker 4: Yes, it is.
[15:03] Speaker 3: Yes, it is.
[15:04] Speaker 1: Everyone starts off with, okay. Yep.
[15:07] Speaker 3: Yep. And then my family moved to Los Angeles. So
[15:11] Speaker 3: now I'm like, okay, now I'm going to a place
[15:16] Speaker 3: where there's got to be other girls that want to
[15:18] Speaker 3: do what I'm doing. There's got to be, in Los Angeles,
[15:21] Speaker 3: there's got to be other girls that want to play
[15:24] Speaker 3: rock and roll. And, you know- I was right. And
[15:27] Speaker 3: I'm sure if I'd really looked around Maryland or, you know,
[15:30] Speaker 3: any of the big cities that are going to DC,
[15:32] Speaker 3: I would have found it too. But I just wasn't
[15:34] Speaker 3: thinking that way. Because all my magazines that I was
[15:37] Speaker 3: reading geared me towards Hollywood.
[15:39] Speaker 1: Okay.
[15:41] Speaker 2: For you though, you know, how usual or unusual, especially
[15:46] Speaker 2: in your formative years, like was guitar encouraged or, you know, oftentimes.
[15:54] Speaker 2: Or was there someone like, you might want to do
[15:56] Speaker 2: piano or the clarinet or like something that a girl
[16:00] Speaker 2: would want to do?
[16:01] Speaker 3: I did do the clarinet in school, you know, but
[16:04] Speaker 3: I wasn't very good at it and I wasn't that interested.
[16:08] Speaker 3: And now I wish I had paid attention, you know,
[16:12] Speaker 3: and that I'd learned to play just so I could
[16:14] Speaker 3: read music. But, you know, just to be able to
[16:17] Speaker 3: play other instruments. I was made to feel quite inadequate.
[16:21] Speaker 3: I just worked with the Trombone Shorty, and he made
[16:25] Speaker 3: me feel like, bro, you know? You see that guy on,
[16:29] Speaker 3: he's a little kid with a big trombone, you know?
[16:33] Speaker 3: But now he's an older guy, but he's just, you know,
[16:35] Speaker 3: he's one of those prodigy people.
[16:39] Speaker 4: So did you just learn to play just mainly by ear,
[16:41] Speaker 4: or you still don't read music now?
[16:43] Speaker 1: Just ear, that's what's up?
[16:44] Speaker 3: Yeah, just ear, with my records and stuff.
[16:48] Speaker 1: Were you encouraged? Because I think that- Yes, no, I wasn't.
[16:51] Speaker 2: Especially- Especially with anyone, with a woman grabbing an instrument
[16:57] Speaker 2: in the 60s and the 70s.
[17:00] Speaker 1: Hell, even 80s almost.
[17:02] Speaker 2: Like, I'm certain that there has to be some sort
[17:04] Speaker 2: of figure there that says women can't do that.
[17:07] Speaker 1: And women, you know.
[17:08] Speaker 3: Everybody said that. Nobody encouraged me.
[17:12] Speaker 1: Nobody.
[17:13] Speaker 3: Only my parents. You told me when I was a
[17:15] Speaker 3: little kid that I could be anything I wanted to be.
[17:18] Speaker 3: So now they couldn't turn around and say, well, you
[17:20] Speaker 3: can be anything except a guitar player. So, you know,
[17:23] Speaker 3: they just thought I'd grow out of it, that I'd
[17:25] Speaker 3: phase out of it and go on to something else,
[17:28] Speaker 3: which I think might have happened had I not moved
[17:30] Speaker 3: to California and been able to find other girls. Then
[17:34] Speaker 3: maybe I would have gone on to something else. But
[17:37] Speaker 3: that didn't happen. And I went to L.A. and nobody
[17:40] Speaker 3: thought it was a good idea. My guitar teacher said,
[17:43] Speaker 3: girls don't play rock and roll, which I knew right
[17:46] Speaker 3: away what he meant.
[17:46] Speaker 2: They want you to play acoustic instead.
[17:48] Speaker 3: Yeah.
[17:49] Speaker 1: Like follow Joni Mitchell or.
[17:50] Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, pretty much. Pretty much. But I knew exactly
[17:54] Speaker 3: what that meant. Girls don't play rock and roll. So
[17:57] Speaker 3: what are you saying to me? You're not saying girls
[18:00] Speaker 3: can't master the guitar because I'm in school. I'm playing clarinet.
[18:04] Speaker 3: There's girls next to me playing violin and cello, playing
[18:08] Speaker 3: Beethoven and Bach. So you're not saying that you can't
[18:10] Speaker 3: master the instrument. What you're saying is rock and roll
[18:13] Speaker 3: is sexual by its nature. So if women are playing
[18:18] Speaker 3: rock and roll. Yeah. and singing mock and roll, they're
[18:22] Speaker 3: singing about sexuality and they're owning it. And we're not
[18:27] Speaker 3: comfortable with that. And I knew that as a kid,
[18:31] Speaker 3: even then I knew that, that just, you weren't allowed
[18:34] Speaker 3: to do it, but it had something to do with sex.
[18:37] Speaker 3: And I was just like, no, you know, cause this
[18:39] Speaker 3: is so not about sex for me. I want to
[18:42] Speaker 3: be able to do this because I want to do it.
[18:44] Speaker 3: You know, Mick Jagger rides out on a big inflatable
[18:47] Speaker 3: penis I want to do what the Rolling Stones do.
[18:50] Speaker 3: You know, it had nothing to do with that. It
[18:52] Speaker 3: was about fairness. I know it doesn't make sense, but
[18:56] Speaker 3: it was.
[18:56] Speaker 1: About fairness and.
[18:58] Speaker 3: Quality and the right thing, what's right. I mean, I'm
[19:02] Speaker 3: not hurting people, you know. I'm playing rock and roll,
[19:05] Speaker 3: for Christ's sake. Give me a break. So that's the
[19:08] Speaker 3: kind of fire that would fuel me on through all
[19:12] Speaker 3: this stuff.
[19:17] Speaker 2: See, I've never had the pleasure of having a conversation
[19:21] Speaker 2: with anyone who, you know, is pretty much either first
[19:24] Speaker 2: out the gate or at least in the pioneering stages
[19:29] Speaker 2: of starting a movement to even ask them what their
[19:34] Speaker 2: mind state is, you know, because oftentimes, you know, our
[19:38] Speaker 2: greats leave and, you know, before we get to ask
[19:42] Speaker 2: them about their process. And so, you know, I always
[19:45] Speaker 2: wanted to know if, because even when I was in
[19:49] Speaker 2: high school, like someone, I think I was honest with
[19:52] Speaker 2: one teacher, like what I was going to do, like
[19:54] Speaker 2: I'm going to start a band with da-da-da-da-da. And, you know,
[19:56] Speaker 2: I went to high school with Boyz II Men and
[19:59] Speaker 2: they were just, yeah, they were like on fire and,
[20:03] Speaker 2: you know, sort of like, well, you know, are you
[20:06] Speaker 2: guys going to be Boyz II Men popular or are
[20:08] Speaker 2: you just going to.
[20:09] Speaker 1: Be one of these local acts. And, you know, I
[20:11] Speaker 1: wasn't thinking that deep about my process or anything.
[20:15] Speaker 3: Right, right.
[20:16] Speaker 1: I think he tried to talk me out of, like,
[20:19] Speaker 1: pursuing my career, so.
[20:21] Speaker 3: Yeah, see, I don't understand that about people. This is
[20:24] Speaker 3: what I want to know about people and dreams. You know,
[20:28] Speaker 3: you're sitting there shooting the shit with your friends and
[20:30] Speaker 3: you say what you said that you want to play
[20:32] Speaker 3: and someone tries to talk you out of it.
[20:34] Speaker 1: Right.
[20:35] Speaker 3: Why is everyone geared to try to talk you out
[20:37] Speaker 3: of it as opposed to saying, Yeah, man, that sounds interesting.
[20:41] Speaker 1: Go for it.
[20:41] Speaker 3: At least if you don't make it, you gave it
[20:44] Speaker 3: a shot. You gave your dream a shot. What is
[20:46] Speaker 3: that about people?
[20:48] Speaker 4: I think some people get offended or they get intimidated
[20:51] Speaker 4: when they see that your dreams don't include them.
[20:54] Speaker 1: And so they just try to shoot the shit down.
[20:56] Speaker 1: You know what I mean?
[20:57] Speaker 3: Right.
[20:57] Speaker 4: It's like if I run a hamburger stand, the last
[20:59] Speaker 4: thing I want you to do is become a vegan.
[21:01] Speaker 1: You know what I mean? Don't do that. You know
[21:05] Speaker 1: what I mean?
[21:05] Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah.
[21:05] Speaker 1: But I also think that oftentimes... We're just, I think in.
[21:10] Speaker 2: America, we often train ourselves to do the safe thing. Like,
[21:16] Speaker 2: I think hopefully my generation is the last generation which
[21:18] Speaker 2: will hear, like, fall back on something safe.
[21:22] Speaker 1: Like, I definitely heard that from every uncle. COVID in
[21:25] Speaker 1: the show, this ain't shit safe, cuz. Do what you
[21:27] Speaker 1: wanna do.
[21:27] Speaker 3: Right, right, right.
[21:28] Speaker 1: Totally. Exactly.
[21:30] Speaker 2: So what, okay, so you're a musician in Los Angeles
[21:34] Speaker 2: and you're young at the time. Had this been, you know, 20...
[21:38] Speaker 2: 2007 or whatever, you would have the aid of the
[21:42] Speaker 2: internet to help you. But what is the process of
[21:45] Speaker 2: finding what you're specifically looking for? Which I assume are
[21:52] Speaker 2: women that play instruments and are passionate about it just
[21:56] Speaker 2: as you are.
[21:57] Speaker 1: Like, so what's the process of searching for them?
[22:00] Speaker 2: And at any point where you just like, at least,
[22:03] Speaker 2: at least in the, the runaway stages where you like, okay, anyone, male,
[22:07] Speaker 2: female can join.
[22:09] Speaker 1: Or for you, was it like, I have to find
[22:11] Speaker 1: all women?
[22:11] Speaker 3: No. And for the runaways, it was definitely an all
[22:15] Speaker 3: women thing because, you know, we hadn't, hadn't really been
[22:18] Speaker 3: done or, you know, if it hadn't been done, it'd
[22:21] Speaker 3: been done years earlier with full grown women, but not
[22:25] Speaker 3: teenage girls. And so I just had this thing and
[22:29] Speaker 3: I wanted to do it and I didn't see a
[22:31] Speaker 3: good reason to change that, that plan, you know, and
[22:35] Speaker 3: give up so easy, you know, saying, Oh, this might
[22:38] Speaker 3: be hard, but, you know, it's hard to think back
[22:41] Speaker 3: and realize how different it was then than it is
[22:45] Speaker 3: now and how easily you can reach out to people
[22:48] Speaker 3: on the phone, on the internet.
[22:50] Speaker 1: Right.
[22:50] Speaker 3: I mean, you're talking, we had rotary phones, you know,
[22:53] Speaker 3: we're talking about phone booths. We're talking about, you didn't
[22:56] Speaker 3: get ahold of people. You know, if you got ahold
[22:58] Speaker 3: of somebody, you met them at a certain time or
[23:01] Speaker 3: a certain corner or a certain place, you know, there
[23:04] Speaker 3: was none of this.
[23:05] Speaker 2: So Fonte right here, Fonte is, is, probably to his
[23:11] Speaker 2: fan base, probably most known for being one of the
[23:16] Speaker 2: first musicians to really take a, take, take advantage of the,
[23:21] Speaker 2: I'll say the positive aspect of internet colonization. Um, one
[23:26] Speaker 2: of the, one of the bands that he started was
[23:28] Speaker 2: a group called, um, foreign exchange in.
[23:30] Speaker 1: Which where, where's, uh, uh, Nick now he's in Wilmington.
[23:34] Speaker 3: Right.
[23:35] Speaker 4: But where was he? At the time he was in
[23:37] Speaker 4: the Netherlands and, uh, We just recorded that. We met
[23:40] Speaker 4: on OK Player on Amir's site. And we just started
[23:44] Speaker 4: trading files online.
[23:46] Speaker 1: Back and forth. And we completed an album. We didn't
[23:48] Speaker 1: meet each other until it was over. And that was
[23:51] Speaker 1: in 2002.
[23:51] Speaker 2: So they didn't even meet yet before they made a
[23:53] Speaker 2: classic album.
[23:54] Speaker 1: You know what I mean? Yeah.
[23:56] Speaker 2: So, you know, what is the process of how do
[23:59] Speaker 2: you find These birds of a feather, if you will.
[24:03] Speaker 1: Yes, in that time.
[24:05] Speaker 3: I believe what we did is we put an ad in,
[24:09] Speaker 3: what was it, the LA Weekly? Okay.
[24:12] Speaker 4: Maybe.
[24:13] Speaker 3: And we went out to a lot of the clubs
[24:17] Speaker 3: that I would hang out at. And I would just
[24:20] Speaker 3: survey the crowd and look for girls.
[24:24] Speaker 1: Wow.
[24:24] Speaker 3: This is around 74, 75?
[24:25] Speaker 1: This would have been 75.
[24:27] Speaker 3: 75. Okay, so you're like 16, 15, 16. Like after August,
[24:34] Speaker 3: after August 5th.
[24:36] Speaker 1: So, all right, this is what I have to know.
[24:38] Speaker 1: You're in California. Were you a driver? Did you have
[24:41] Speaker 1: a car?
[24:42] Speaker 3: Oh, I didn't drive, no. Buses, I took a lot
[24:46] Speaker 3: of buses. And also my mother was, you know, sort
[24:51] Speaker 3: of complicit in all this. So she would drive me
[24:55] Speaker 3: to rehearsal. She would take me to the club sometimes
[24:59] Speaker 3: and pick me up late at night. Yeah.
[25:03] Speaker 1: Yeah.
[25:03] Speaker 3: She.
[25:04] Speaker 1: So clubs weren't sweating.
[25:05] Speaker 2: Like, I mean, of course now we live in a
[25:07] Speaker 2: place where you got to show, you know, damn near
[25:10] Speaker 2: 12 forms of ID to get in anywhere or else
[25:13] Speaker 2: your license.
[25:14] Speaker 3: But the club I went to was for teenagers. There
[25:17] Speaker 3: was no booze. So my mom didn't have to worry
[25:20] Speaker 3: about that. So there was no booze there. And I
[25:22] Speaker 3: don't think she was really thinking about drugs or anything
[25:25] Speaker 3: like that.
[25:26] Speaker 2: Who were your, were your, any of your contemporaries also
[25:30] Speaker 2: sort of in that movement that later became names themselves?
[25:36] Speaker 3: No, not really.
[25:37] Speaker 2: Once, like Sherry and Lita, your band members sort of
[25:42] Speaker 2: like come into play.
[25:43] Speaker 1: How did you know that, okay, this is it. They're
[25:47] Speaker 1: the ones.
[25:47] Speaker 4: Yes.
[25:49] Speaker 3: Well, we didn't have that many choices, number one.
[25:51] Speaker 1: You know what I mean? Okay.
[25:54] Speaker 3: So it was more like, do we want to try? Well,
[25:57] Speaker 3: first it was the drummer and myself, Sandy West and I,
[26:00] Speaker 3: we met.
[26:00] Speaker 1: Oh, Sandy, right, okay.
[26:01] Speaker 3: Yeah, and so we were solid as hell, Sandy and I.
[26:05] Speaker 3: I took four buses to her house in Huntington Beach. Four? Yeah,
[26:10] Speaker 3: four buses. And I set up in her rec room
[26:13] Speaker 3: and we played, you know, some just basic Chuck Berry
[26:17] Speaker 3: rock and roll music. progression and said, you know, it
[26:21] Speaker 3: was really good. Sandy played with a lot of guy,
[26:24] Speaker 3: you know, high school band kind of things. And so
[26:26] Speaker 3: she was used to playing with bands, but usually guys.
[26:30] Speaker 3: So we really locked in and we called Kim Fowley,
[26:33] Speaker 3: who was our producer, who became our producer and said, Hey,
[26:37] Speaker 3: check it out. Put the phone down, played for him.
[26:40] Speaker 3: He said, it sounds great. Let's go find other girls.
[26:43] Speaker 3: So it was really, you know, from there, We started looking.
[26:47] Speaker 3: We started looking in clubs and I think put an
[26:49] Speaker 3: ad in a paper and stuff like that.
[26:52] Speaker 1: Who came up with the name The Runaways? I did. Okay.
[26:58] Speaker 2: So already you had your marketing plan.
[27:00] Speaker 3: Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I've been thinking about this for
[27:04] Speaker 3: a little while now, you know, a couple months at least.
[27:08] Speaker 2: Did you guys have a daily regimen or was this
[27:10] Speaker 2: like whenever time was free?
[27:12] Speaker 1: Then we'll rehearse or whatever.
[27:14] Speaker 3: But yeah, I really tell you the truth. I can't remember.
[27:17] Speaker 2: I mean, how can you be a kid and also
[27:20] Speaker 2: start this very adult thing?
[27:23] Speaker 1: Like we're all parents involved, like encouraging of this.
[27:26] Speaker 3: Or no, uh, our parents were involved, but, um, a
[27:30] Speaker 3: couple of the girls were a year younger than me.
[27:33] Speaker 3: So they were like in 11th grade. So they still
[27:37] Speaker 3: had school to deal with. And, um, Yeah, not all
[27:41] Speaker 3: the parents were thrilled about it. But in the end,
[27:46] Speaker 3: I don't know. I guess they didn't want to fight
[27:49] Speaker 3: their daughters or something. But for school, I got pretty
[27:53] Speaker 3: good grades. And I took my GED. I was already
[27:56] Speaker 3: in 12th grade, but I wanted to get out a
[27:59] Speaker 3: little bit early so we could go on the road. Okay.
[28:03] Speaker 2: I always wanted to know, I guess to me, the
[28:07] Speaker 2: initial incarnation of the Runaways.
[28:11] Speaker 1: Like, why weren't you the lead singer? Or why didn't
[28:15] Speaker 1: you want to be the focal point?
[28:16] Speaker 3: Yeah, I was way too shy at the time. And,
[28:20] Speaker 3: you know, I was way too shy. I had no confidence.
[28:24] Speaker 3: You know, I just had no confidence and was just
[28:28] Speaker 3: really shy. It was amazing that I could do what
[28:31] Speaker 3: I wanted, what I was doing, you know, just getting
[28:34] Speaker 3: on stage with the guitar.
[28:36] Speaker 1: But did you have your voice then, or you just
[28:39] Speaker 1: kept it a secret, or.
[28:41] Speaker 3: I sang background vocals. Yeah, I could sing. I did
[28:45] Speaker 3: wind up singing half of the leads on the first
[28:48] Speaker 3: Runaways album because Cherie didn't want to sing the rock
[28:53] Speaker 3: and roll harder songs. She felt that she didn't have
[28:58] Speaker 3: the voice for it or didn't feel comfortable singing some
[29:01] Speaker 3: of them. So the ones she didn't feel comfortable singing,
[29:04] Speaker 3: I sang the leads and I sang backup on everything else.
[29:08] Speaker 3: So I did have a voice, but I just wasn't
[29:11] Speaker 3: comfortable being the focal point.
[29:13] Speaker 1: Gotcha.
[29:14] Speaker 2: So at this point, at this point in developing the band, who,
[29:18] Speaker 2: who are you looking up to? Because again, you guys
[29:22] Speaker 2: have ushered in, you guys ushered in an era and,
[29:27] Speaker 2: you know, pretty much, uh, your, your band's existence just
[29:31] Speaker 2: basically starts a domino effect on, again, people that come
[29:35] Speaker 2: 10 to 15 years later, but you know, in 75, 76,
[29:41] Speaker 2: when you guys are doing this band, like who's, who's
[29:43] Speaker 2: cool to you? Like, are the Stones and Zeppelin sort
[29:47] Speaker 2: of like, ah, that's old, whatever music, like who, who's.
[29:52] Speaker 1: Grabbing your attention? Like, That's who's ass I want to kick.
[29:56] Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, I know I was disappointed with the
[29:59] Speaker 3: Stones when they started doing.
[30:00] Speaker 2: Like you weren't at Exile in Maine?
[30:03] Speaker 1: Yeah.
[30:05] Speaker 3: No, I wanted them to play rock and roll. I
[30:09] Speaker 3: didn't like them not playing rock and roll. Well, it
[30:14] Speaker 3: was fine, but you know... I don't know. I guess
[30:17] Speaker 3: I wanted them to be playing something that I could
[30:19] Speaker 3: really rock out to, you know, whatever.
[30:21] Speaker 1: No one stays rebellious forever.
[30:23] Speaker 3: I know. I know that.
[30:24] Speaker 1: There's a good seven year.
[30:26] Speaker 3: I get it now.
[30:27] Speaker 1: Before you start doing your classical record or whatever.
[30:30] Speaker 3: No, I get it now. Believe me. But I think
[30:34] Speaker 3: a lot. I think I really started looking to the
[30:36] Speaker 3: punk rock stuff right away because the Ramones came out,
[30:40] Speaker 3: I believe, in 1975, late 75.
[30:41] Speaker 1: Right.
[30:41] Speaker 3: Very first Ramones album. and all the punk rock stuff
[30:49] Speaker 3: I was reading a lot about. And I really gravitated
[30:52] Speaker 3: very quickly to a lot of those bands because I felt,
[30:56] Speaker 3: you know, kinship with a lot of them.
[30:59] Speaker 2: I mean, there's always like groups or artists or albums
[31:02] Speaker 2: that are always on someone's canon, like their top five
[31:06] Speaker 2: records of all time. You always see the names, whatever.
[31:09] Speaker 2: And I've never, sometimes you don't do the investigation of it. And,
[31:13] Speaker 2: you know, of course, I'm always seeing the Ramones named everywhere.
[31:17] Speaker 2: And finally I listened down from, from top to bottom,
[31:20] Speaker 2: like two years ago and realized like how, how genius
[31:25] Speaker 2: and hard it is to really convey emotion and, and
[31:30] Speaker 2: lyricism in less than two minutes.
[31:32] Speaker 1: Hey, let's go. Yo. That shit a jam though. That
[31:40] Speaker 1: shit jamming. Exactly. So for you, were you seeing that
[31:44] Speaker 1: there was a science here?
[31:45] Speaker 2: Like, You know, the type of rock that you were
[31:49] Speaker 2: fed as a child is way different than the ideas
[31:51] Speaker 2: that you're about to spew onto the world. Like, for you,
[31:55] Speaker 2: it's like, look, we gotta, don't bore us, get to
[31:57] Speaker 2: the chorus, two minutes.
[31:58] Speaker 3: Right, well, no, you gotta, see, the thing was, it
[32:03] Speaker 3: didn't really transfer that much into our music. It might
[32:07] Speaker 3: have translated a little bit to my songwriting, but, you know,
[32:10] Speaker 3: as a group, as a band, most of the girls
[32:15] Speaker 3: weren't really interested into the punk rock the way I was,
[32:18] Speaker 3: you know, they were much more, they liked heavier bands,
[32:21] Speaker 3: you know, more like, you know.
[32:24] Speaker 1: The more mainstream popular ones?
[32:26] Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah. You know, that heavier stuff. Rainbow, you know. Right.
[32:31] Speaker 3: Richie Blackmore, that kind of stuff. So, you know, we
[32:37] Speaker 3: didn't really see eye to eye on our hangout music.
[32:41] Speaker 3: So we didn't, you know, we had to come from
[32:43] Speaker 3: a place when we met in the middle. So, you know,
[32:45] Speaker 3: I just always considered what we did to be basic
[32:48] Speaker 3: rock and roll.
[32:50] Speaker 2: What was the division of labor as far as the
[32:51] Speaker 2: songwriting is concerned and what you're going to cover or
[32:56] Speaker 2: who's going to write what? Like who's the primary songwriter
[33:00] Speaker 2: of the group?
[33:00] Speaker 1: Was that your job?
[33:02] Speaker 3: I think it was me for the most part. It
[33:04] Speaker 3: was me. I wrote either songs with Kim Fowley as
[33:07] Speaker 3: a lyricist or I wrote songs by myself. I think
[33:11] Speaker 3: I wrote a couple with some of the other girls, but...
[33:14] Speaker 3: Not too many. And yeah, so I guess I was
[33:17] Speaker 3: the primary one.
[33:19] Speaker 2: Back then, like it was sort of hard for you
[33:21] Speaker 2: guys to break out in the States, but yet, you know, you're,
[33:25] Speaker 2: the magic's working instantaneously when you go overseas.
[33:29] Speaker 1: Like how much of a mindfuck was.
[33:31] Speaker 2: That to kind of, because that's very similar to hip hop.
[33:36] Speaker 1: Like, you know, my band had to move to Europe
[33:38] Speaker 1: for five years.
[33:39] Speaker 3: Right.
[33:40] Speaker 1: Just so that, you know, and quote unquote, Paula Hendricks.
[33:45] Speaker 1: And then come back to the United States, like that
[33:47] Speaker 1: sort of thing.
[33:47] Speaker 2: Like in your mind, was it a dream deferred or like, wait,
[33:51] Speaker 2: what's going on here?
[33:53] Speaker 1: Or what were your feelings on?
[33:55] Speaker 3: I thought, well, you know, a lot of different, a
[33:59] Speaker 3: lot of different feelings. Yeah. One part of me had
[34:02] Speaker 3: wished that we had the same sort of response in
[34:05] Speaker 3: the States, but it was so different around the world.
[34:08] Speaker 3: And Japan was like all girls and, like the Beatles,
[34:14] Speaker 3: like mania, people fainting, girls fainting. And I think it
[34:19] Speaker 3: kind of scared a couple of the other girls. I
[34:21] Speaker 3: was exhilarated, but, you know, people were rocking the car,
[34:24] Speaker 3: and we'd never really had that kind of experience at all.
[34:28] Speaker 3: I mean, anybody in their right mind should probably be scared,
[34:31] Speaker 3: but I didn't get too scared. And then in Scandinavia,
[34:36] Speaker 3: another place, all girls, all wearing real pacifiers and sucking
[34:42] Speaker 3: on these pacifiers.
[34:42] Speaker 1: Yeah.
[34:42] Speaker 3: Yeah. tell me about it yeah i didn't get it
[34:46] Speaker 3: and uh i never found out what it was i
[34:48] Speaker 3: guess it was just some kind of fad or fashion
[34:50] Speaker 3: that they were doing but pretty.
[34:53] Speaker 1: Much cherry had on a particular photo shoot or something no.
[34:56] Speaker 3: No no no they were giving us the ideas you
[34:59] Speaker 3: know um okay but then then in england you know
[35:03] Speaker 3: england gets you know they i think they got the
[35:08] Speaker 3: runaways of a lot more than Americans did, but they still,
[35:12] Speaker 3: you know, the English love to take the piss out
[35:14] Speaker 3: of you. So we took a lot of shit, but
[35:17] Speaker 3: there were a lot of people I think there that
[35:19] Speaker 3: liked us too. We did well in Germany and, and
[35:23] Speaker 3: I think Europe did pretty well, but we didn't tour
[35:25] Speaker 3: there a lot. So I don't know face to face
[35:29] Speaker 3: and record sales. I can never go by really because,
[35:32] Speaker 3: you know, So.
[35:33] Speaker 2: In retrospect, what would you categorize the genre? You know,
[35:38] Speaker 2: are you guys at the, the forefront of the LA
[35:41] Speaker 2: punk movement? Were you just hard rock? Were you kind
[35:47] Speaker 2: of the torchbearer for what will eventually become like the
[35:50] Speaker 2: glam metal scene that would happen 15 years later with
[35:54] Speaker 2: those groups in LA?
[35:55] Speaker 1: I mean, I.
[35:56] Speaker 3: Always just called it rock and roll. And I think
[35:59] Speaker 3: what we did, I think what we did was punk
[36:01] Speaker 3: rock to its core, you know, just doing dictating what
[36:05] Speaker 3: you're going to do and doing it and not listening
[36:08] Speaker 3: to what anybody says. And I mean, I thought, and
[36:12] Speaker 3: doing that in the context of how society treated you
[36:16] Speaker 3: at the time, I think it was the ultimate punk
[36:19] Speaker 3: rock stuff. You know, even for the girls, it didn't
[36:22] Speaker 3: want to claim punk rock. They were being punk rock
[36:24] Speaker 3: just by what they were doing. They didn't have to
[36:27] Speaker 3: play it.
[36:27] Speaker 1: So you guys pretty dissolved almost as quick as you.
[36:33] Speaker 2: Came aboard, um, Do you remember how eventful or uneventful
[36:38] Speaker 2: the last night of the group was before you realized
[36:43] Speaker 2: that it's not happening anymore?
[36:44] Speaker 3: I don't remember if it was. I know it wasn't
[36:48] Speaker 3: a happy time and we knew it was New Year's
[36:52] Speaker 3: 78 into 79 was our last gig. And we knew
[36:54] Speaker 3: it was our last gig because we decided to disband
[36:58] Speaker 3: after that because I didn't want, you know, I felt
[37:02] Speaker 3: like I said, that musical separation was there between girls
[37:05] Speaker 3: that want to play heavier music and me. And so
[37:09] Speaker 3: I thought, man, I don't want to get fired from
[37:11] Speaker 3: the band I started or something weird. So let me
[37:14] Speaker 3: just quit and we'll just, you guys can do your thing.
[37:18] Speaker 1: Well, I can assume that Lita was one that wanted
[37:21] Speaker 1: to do the heavier stuff, right?
[37:22] Speaker 3: It was not animosity. It was not, you know, it
[37:24] Speaker 3: was not an anger or anything. We weren't going, fuck you,
[37:27] Speaker 3: fuck you.
[37:27] Speaker 1: Right.
[37:28] Speaker 3: You know, it was just like, since we had been friendly,
[37:31] Speaker 3: we didn't want it to be weird. And it's just like,
[37:33] Speaker 3: just let me, I'll just go. You guys do your thing.
[37:36] Speaker 1: You know, it's weird.
[37:37] Speaker 2: Before, I got to admit that in watching the documentary,
[37:42] Speaker 2: I didn't realize that, quote, that leader Ford was the
[37:45] Speaker 2: leader Ford in The Runaways. Because I guess my dealings
[37:50] Speaker 2: with leaders, any time there was always a person that
[37:53] Speaker 2: wanted to give, I'm not even making any new comparisons,
[37:58] Speaker 2: but if there was anyone that ever wanted to give, like,
[38:02] Speaker 2: Hip hop, the middle finger with a quote.
[38:04] Speaker 1: It was always Lita Ford. It was Lita Ford.
[38:07] Speaker 2: Really? I knew her more for her disdain of hip
[38:10] Speaker 2: hop than I did for like what she actually did.
[38:13] Speaker 1: Yeah, no, for real.
[38:15] Speaker 3: I guess I should say I'm not surprised.
[38:18] Speaker 2: Yeah, like I knew her for her quotes of like
[38:21] Speaker 2: why she hated hip hop.
[38:22] Speaker 1: So I always knew that Whenever I hear the name
[38:24] Speaker 1: Lita Ford, I'm like, uh-uh, what happened now? Oh, man.
[38:28] Speaker 2: But then when I started the thing, I was like, oh,
[38:31] Speaker 2: she was a runaway.
[38:31] Speaker 1: I get it now.
[38:32] Speaker 3: I don't want no guilt by association, though, because.
[38:36] Speaker 1: Hey, man, we all are beginners. You made light of day.
[38:39] Speaker 4: I used to watch that movie every day after school
[38:41] Speaker 4: when I was in, like, third grade.
[38:42] Speaker 1: Yo!
[38:49] Speaker 2: As a 21-year-old, are you feeling like, okay, well, I
[38:52] Speaker 2: did that. What do I do now for you? It's
[38:53] Speaker 2: just like on to the next.
[38:56] Speaker 3: No, I was feeling like it was time to die
[38:59] Speaker 3: is what I was feeling like. I was feeling like
[39:01] Speaker 3: the whole city of L.A. was laughing, going, we told
[39:05] Speaker 3: you it wouldn't work. We told you girls can't play
[39:08] Speaker 3: rock and roll. You know, and I just was, I
[39:11] Speaker 3: was not taking care of myself. I was drinking too much.
[39:15] Speaker 3: My dreams were crushed, you know, and And I had
[39:18] Speaker 3: no friends, you know, it was like everybody was gone.
[39:21] Speaker 3: You know what I mean? They disappear in that level
[39:24] Speaker 3: and you're just alone with your thoughts and your beer
[39:28] Speaker 3: or whatever it was I was drinking.
[39:30] Speaker 2: So how long did the sort of the feeling of
[39:33] Speaker 2: funk last before you started your, I assume that, you know,
[39:38] Speaker 2: starting the Blackhearts was your eventual.
[39:41] Speaker 3: Yeah. Well, actually I met my partner, Kenny Laguna, my
[39:45] Speaker 3: songwriting partner and he became my producer and manager because
[39:48] Speaker 3: nobody else wanted to deal with me. We met to
[39:51] Speaker 3: write songs for a movie that I had contracted to
[39:55] Speaker 3: do before The Runaways broke up. I had to write
[39:58] Speaker 3: six songs for a film. And so my manager at
[40:02] Speaker 3: the time, a guy named Toby Mamas, knew Kenny and
[40:06] Speaker 3: knew that he had worked with a lot of bubblegum
[40:08] Speaker 3: bands in the 60s and knew that he could write
[40:11] Speaker 3: songs quickly and should be easy to work with. So
[40:16] Speaker 3: he called him and said, would you come out and
[40:18] Speaker 3: meet Joan to do this project with her? And so
[40:21] Speaker 3: Kenny did, and we met and hit it off and
[40:28] Speaker 3: really became good friends the first day. I don't know
[40:33] Speaker 3: what it was that he saw in me, but he
[40:38] Speaker 3: thought I was the real deal, I guess. And we
[40:41] Speaker 3: wrote some songs and then I said, would you produce
[40:45] Speaker 3: these songs that we wrote together? And he did. And then,
[40:49] Speaker 3: you know, as we, continue. I didn't have anybody to
[40:53] Speaker 3: manage me. And so he had took that on to
[40:56] Speaker 3: thinking it would be easy that he could get me
[40:58] Speaker 3: deals and this and that.
[40:59] Speaker 1: Right.
[41:00] Speaker 3: But no, he started getting no's. You know, he knows
[41:02] Speaker 3: a lot of people in the business and people just
[41:06] Speaker 3: told him no. And then I think it got to
[41:08] Speaker 3: him where, oh, my God, this is real. And and
[41:11] Speaker 3: then he got pissed because then he saw the sort of,
[41:16] Speaker 3: you know, just prejudice and misogyny, you know, straight out bullshit.
[41:22] Speaker 3: So I think, you know, that lit that fire in
[41:25] Speaker 3: him to help fight for me.
[41:27] Speaker 1: So it took about two years.
[41:29] Speaker 2: First of all, whose idea was it to recover or
[41:32] Speaker 2: to redo I Love Rock and Roll? I don't think
[41:35] Speaker 2: many people know that that's a cover song.
[41:37] Speaker 3: Yes, yes. I saw that song when I was in
[41:42] Speaker 3: England with the Runaways and I saw this band on
[41:44] Speaker 3: top of the Pops called The Arrows and they were
[41:48] Speaker 3: playing b-side to their hit and the b-side to their
[41:52] Speaker 3: hit was i love rock and roll i don't know
[41:54] Speaker 3: what their hit was the b-side was i love rock
[41:57] Speaker 3: and roll and i'm like wow that sounds like a
[42:00] Speaker 3: hit to me and i went out to the record
[42:02] Speaker 3: shop and bought the 45 thinking you know the runaways
[42:05] Speaker 3: maybe we could do this and it'll be a hit
[42:08] Speaker 3: but then i was reminded that by the other girls
[42:12] Speaker 3: that we had done we'd covered lou reeds rock and
[42:16] Speaker 3: roll on the first album on our first runaways album
[42:18] Speaker 3: and you know I guess, didn't want rock and roll
[42:22] Speaker 3: in every title and every album, kind of. So sort
[42:26] Speaker 3: of blew it off for a while. And I just
[42:28] Speaker 3: held on to the song. And then after the Runaways, thought,
[42:32] Speaker 3: here we go.
[42:32] Speaker 1: See? Life lesson. You got to go with your gut.
[42:35] Speaker 3: Yep.
[42:36] Speaker 1: That's the second time you learned that lesson.
[42:39] Speaker 2: So how different does life turn for you once that
[42:45] Speaker 2: song makes you pretty much a household name?
[42:49] Speaker 3: Well, just I think the fame level rose and we
[42:54] Speaker 3: had more people at our gigs and stuff and made
[42:57] Speaker 3: a little bit more money. Finally, it could make a
[42:59] Speaker 3: little bit more money. So those things change a little bit. But,
[43:05] Speaker 3: you know, for the most part.
[43:06] Speaker 1: But is that also a scary feeling?
[43:08] Speaker 2: Because I think oftentimes when someone gets a success, the
[43:11] Speaker 2: first thing in their head is, oh, God, how am
[43:14] Speaker 2: I going to sustain this?
[43:15] Speaker 1: How am I going to make it last? What's the
[43:16] Speaker 1: next single? Yeah.
[43:19] Speaker 3: Yeah, there was part of that, but I wasn't like
[43:21] Speaker 3: so far up there that it was, you know, when
[43:24] Speaker 3: you're number one and you're, I don't know, I guess,
[43:28] Speaker 3: you know, on one level, you can't stay there forever.
[43:32] Speaker 3: And I guess, you know, you know, you have to
[43:34] Speaker 3: have your next one. I guess initially we knew what
[43:36] Speaker 3: that next one was going to be, which was Crimson
[43:38] Speaker 3: and Clover.
[43:39] Speaker 1: Crimson, yeah.
[43:40] Speaker 3: Right.
[43:41] Speaker 1: What was it about that song that made you want
[43:43] Speaker 1: to choose that? Damn it, Amiri, you took my only
[43:47] Speaker 1: question of the day. Okay. It's a great song. Go ahead, Steve.
[43:51] Speaker 3: You want to say it? Go ahead.
[43:54] Speaker 4: What made you want to cover Christian and Chloe with
[43:57] Speaker 4: Henry James and the Shondells?
[44:00] Speaker 1: No, answer the question. I got to turn the light on.
[44:02] Speaker 1: Go ahead.
[44:02] Speaker 3: And when I, when I, you know, when I met
[44:04] Speaker 3: Kenny and I knew that he played those songs and
[44:07] Speaker 3: I'm like, so you played the moany, moany, dun, dun, dun.
[44:10] Speaker 3: He said, yeah. And I'm like, okay. So, I want
[44:14] Speaker 3: to cover Crimson Clover. I just thought, you know, it'd
[44:17] Speaker 3: be weird because I didn't want to change the lyrics.
[44:21] Speaker 3: And that was just the way I was. I wanted to,
[44:25] Speaker 3: you know, push the envelope a little bit because I
[44:29] Speaker 3: just wanted to.
[44:30] Speaker 1: But the original recording, so, so I guess psychedelic. And
[44:36] Speaker 1: so what was you guys?
[44:39] Speaker 3: My reason for doing it. I mean, cause Tommy's Tommy's,
[44:43] Speaker 3: I guess Kenny told me when he asked, what is
[44:47] Speaker 3: it about? It was about LSD, Crimson Clover. So it
[44:52] Speaker 3: wasn't about really a her, specifically. So when people ask
[44:59] Speaker 3: me what I'm singing about, it's like, well, I mean,
[45:03] Speaker 3: I guess I'm singing it more literally, but not specifically
[45:07] Speaker 3: at anybody. It's just being put out into the world,
[45:11] Speaker 3: is that? It's those sentiments, but it's not directed specifically
[45:15] Speaker 3: at a person.
[45:17] Speaker 2: So at that particular point, coming into the early part
[45:20] Speaker 2: of the 80s and whatnot, do you have a peer group?
[45:24] Speaker 2: Is there a trusted circle that you can pal around with? Normally,
[45:31] Speaker 2: birds of a feather flock together as far as people
[45:34] Speaker 2: liking each other's music and whatnot. Was there a tight-knit
[45:38] Speaker 2: community in the sort of the LA rock community by
[45:41] Speaker 2: this point for you at least, or were you still like.
[45:45] Speaker 3: I was gone. I was out of there, but in 79,
[45:49] Speaker 3: I moved.
[45:50] Speaker 1: Came back to New York. Okay.
[45:52] Speaker 3: Went to New York.
[45:53] Speaker 2: So even in New York, like for that, is there,
[45:56] Speaker 2: it was.
[45:56] Speaker 3: I mean, no, I didn't hang out. I didn't really,
[45:59] Speaker 3: you know, I was also.
[46:02] Speaker 2: Going to say like, everyone was sort of going new
[46:05] Speaker 2: wave in New York and you're going.
[46:07] Speaker 1: Straight rock and roll.
[46:09] Speaker 2: Like were you a fish out of water and like,
[46:11] Speaker 2: were you sort of upholding a tradition that you felt
[46:16] Speaker 2: would soon sort of take a backseat?
[46:20] Speaker 3: You know, I don't know that I thought ahead that
[46:23] Speaker 3: much that I planned it out or thought about, you know,
[46:26] Speaker 3: what's the future of rock and roll or, um, a
[46:29] Speaker 3: lot synthier, you know, that there was a lot of
[46:32] Speaker 3: synth music going on.
[46:33] Speaker 2: Well, I mean, were you going to the, the, the
[46:36] Speaker 2: lower East side and, and, in the early 80s to
[46:39] Speaker 2: see groups like Bad Brains or any, like, were you
[46:43] Speaker 2: at all interested in the movement that was happening in
[46:46] Speaker 2: the Lower East Side?
[46:47] Speaker 1: Right, right.
[46:48] Speaker 3: I was, yes, I was interested, but I was working
[46:50] Speaker 3: too much to be, I was on the road the
[46:53] Speaker 3: whole time. I don't even know if I was around
[46:55] Speaker 3: most of the time. I mean, literally on the road
[46:59] Speaker 3: all the time. All right. Pretty much from 1980.
[47:01] Speaker 4: 365.
[47:01] Speaker 3: Through, pretty much, I mean, at least through November and then,
[47:11] Speaker 3: you know, depending on what the tour was, we're, we're
[47:13] Speaker 3: always working and then be off through January and then
[47:16] Speaker 3: start working again in February. It was pretty, pretty brutal.
[47:19] Speaker 3: And I didn't realize that till the pandemic hit.
[47:22] Speaker 1: Okay.
[47:23] Speaker 3: And then, and then nothing was happening. And then I
[47:25] Speaker 3: realized how much of my life I had been on
[47:28] Speaker 3: the road constantly and all these other things we talked about, about,
[47:33] Speaker 3: you know, feeling separate, you know, and, being isolated. And,
[47:39] Speaker 3: but I did, you know, I definitely have friends that
[47:42] Speaker 3: I knew once, you know, once I was settled in
[47:47] Speaker 3: New York and I had a routine and I still
[47:53] Speaker 3: have that, that sort of core few, I can count
[47:57] Speaker 3: on my one hand level of friends.
[48:00] Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah. That's, that's real life. Like real people only
[48:05] Speaker 1: have two to three people. Wait, I always wanted to
[48:08] Speaker 1: know this.
[48:10] Speaker 2: Okay, so from my point of view as a record collector,
[48:16] Speaker 2: all right, I'll explain to you, Fonte, you probably know already,
[48:20] Speaker 2: but for me, Boardwalk Records is almost akin to Malico Records.
[48:24] Speaker 3: Oh, wow.
[48:25] Speaker 1: I don't know exactly what you mean.
[48:29] Speaker 2: That said, I always wanted to know, what was it
[48:32] Speaker 2: about Boardwalk Records that made you choose that as your label?
[48:35] Speaker 2: Because I knew that sort of as kind of as,
[48:41] Speaker 2: as a second tier label for acts that were popping
[48:46] Speaker 2: in the seventies for soul music. Like I know that
[48:49] Speaker 2: Ohio players wound up on boardwalk records for like their
[48:52] Speaker 2: eighties catalog. Uh, I remember, uh, uh, the five stair
[48:56] Speaker 2: steps morphed into, uh, the invisible man's band, uh, before
[49:02] Speaker 2: the 80s or whatnot.
[49:04] Speaker 3: Kenny would know so much about this because he, you know,
[49:07] Speaker 3: I think he knew Neil Bogart before we got involved. Oh, wow.
[49:12] Speaker 3: You know, so Kenny knew him pre-Boardwalk.
[49:16] Speaker 2: I didn't know that Neil Bogart started Boardwalk Records.
[49:19] Speaker 3: Yes.
[49:21] Speaker 1: That explains the Ohio players.
[49:22] Speaker 3: Besides Casablanca, yeah. Right. Yeah, and he just liked me
[49:28] Speaker 3: and really liked me a lot and wanted me to
[49:30] Speaker 3: be able to put out my records. So he said,
[49:34] Speaker 3: you know, we'll put it out. And he did, and
[49:38] Speaker 3: he died like the week before it went number one
[49:41] Speaker 3: and never got to see it go number one, which
[49:43] Speaker 3: really bums me out because he was such.
[49:45] Speaker 1: He died in 81?
[49:47] Speaker 3: Yeah.
[49:47] Speaker 1: Oh man. Man, I did not know that.
[49:51] Speaker 3: But yeah, he was a real believer and one of
[49:55] Speaker 3: those guys that always looked great, was all sharply dressed
[49:59] Speaker 3: and just believed in me and believed in Kenny, I think,
[50:03] Speaker 3: more than anything.
[50:05] Speaker 2: Yeah, everyone that describes Neil Burgdart describes him as, like,
[50:09] Speaker 2: the last true, like, one of the last creatives.
[50:14] Speaker 1: And that was a suit, at least.
[50:16] Speaker 3: Right, right.
[50:17] Speaker 1: I mean, I know a suit's a suit, but whatever. Yeah,
[50:20] Speaker 1: but I don't know.
[50:22] Speaker 2: For me, though, I would say that, like, you were
[50:25] Speaker 2: so ahead of your time. Was it weird to sort
[50:30] Speaker 2: of have, not a comeback of sorts, but just to
[50:33] Speaker 2: see a lot of these?
[50:35] Speaker 1: Well, no, no, no.
[50:35] Speaker 2: I'm just saying that a lot of these bands that
[50:38] Speaker 2: started popping in the mid-90s, late 90s, started name-checking, like
[50:44] Speaker 2: Joan Jett.
[50:45] Speaker 1: And the Blackhawks, or even with your work with the Runaways.
[50:49] Speaker 2: For you, did you not ever think that the day
[50:52] Speaker 2: would come in which you would see kind of the
[50:56] Speaker 2: after effects of people that grew up on your music?
[51:02] Speaker 2: Especially when the Riot Grrrl with Kathleen.
[51:07] Speaker 3: And yeah well that was yeah because they totally did
[51:12] Speaker 3: tip their hat to me and I knew it so
[51:14] Speaker 3: because you know they told me so and it was
[51:18] Speaker 3: it was great it was great to see that I
[51:20] Speaker 3: mean I always knew that whether or not people admitted
[51:23] Speaker 3: it that we'd have some influence you know in life
[51:28] Speaker 3: and to music and that and it's really nice to
[51:32] Speaker 3: see it confirmed and see people say it You know,
[51:36] Speaker 3: and not just girl bands, but some guys, too. And
[51:38] Speaker 3: that's really nice.
[51:40] Speaker 2: Yeah, I was going to say, plenty of times where, like,
[51:43] Speaker 2: Kirk has name-dropped you or, you know, or I know
[51:48] Speaker 2: that Grohl was definitely a big fan.
[51:51] Speaker 1: I was there that night at the Rock and Roll
[51:53] Speaker 1: Hall of Fame. Oh, man.
[51:57] Speaker 3: What a night.
[51:58] Speaker 2: Yeah.
[51:59] Speaker 1: That was crazy.
[52:00] Speaker 2: So how did, you know, was that surprising to you
[52:04] Speaker 2: when you got the news or?
[52:06] Speaker 1: You know, I know oftentimes.
[52:08] Speaker 2: Every every person I know that gets inducted in the
[52:10] Speaker 2: Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has the same sort
[52:12] Speaker 2: of like nihilistic. If it happens, it happens, whatever, you know,
[52:16] Speaker 2: that sort of thing. But for you, was it when
[52:20] Speaker 2: you got the news of you getting in? Like, what
[52:23] Speaker 2: was the feeling behind it?
[52:24] Speaker 3: No, I thought I was very happy. You know, of course,
[52:26] Speaker 3: I thought. But see, I'm used I'm kind of used
[52:29] Speaker 3: to not being up for awards my whole life. It's
[52:32] Speaker 3: not really been what my career has been. about like
[52:36] Speaker 3: nominated for a lot of different things, you know, it's
[52:39] Speaker 3: not what's happened. So just the fact that I got nominated,
[52:42] Speaker 3: I thought was, was really nice, but I thought, you know,
[52:45] Speaker 3: I don't know, man, I don't know if I'm going
[52:49] Speaker 3: to win this, but, and I'll still, I still believe
[52:53] Speaker 3: this to my core that because Chris said it on
[52:56] Speaker 3: stage that night that they had, they felt they had
[53:00] Speaker 3: no choice, but to put me in, then they forced
[53:04] Speaker 3: their hand. So whether I would have really gotten in
[53:07] Speaker 3: or whether it was that, I don't know.
[53:10] Speaker 2: I'll say this much because, you know, I'm part of that,
[53:15] Speaker 2: I've been part of that, well, you know, I call
[53:17] Speaker 2: the recreation of the 12 angry men scene, but there's
[53:21] Speaker 2: like 35 of us arguing back and forth. You know,
[53:26] Speaker 2: your name has definitely been, at least for my first
[53:30] Speaker 2: year there, which I think was like 2011, has constantly
[53:35] Speaker 2: been like champion and argued and debated. Well, you know,
[53:41] Speaker 2: we were joking about it's only a matter of time
[53:44] Speaker 2: before you do your classical record or your soft album. But,
[53:48] Speaker 2: you know, the latest album you released is your acoustic work. And,
[53:55] Speaker 2: you know, how how did that feel for you? Like
[53:58] Speaker 2: for you, is it a thing where you need a
[54:01] Speaker 2: new challenge.
[54:02] Speaker 3: And No, it was really, it was a way to just,
[54:07] Speaker 3: we wanted to give the fans something different. Because I
[54:12] Speaker 3: had such a weird relationship with guys telling me, my
[54:16] Speaker 3: guitar teacher saying, girls can't play rock and roll. I
[54:19] Speaker 3: always kept acoustic guitars really at arm's length. I never
[54:23] Speaker 3: owned one. I never wanted to own one until about,
[54:26] Speaker 3: you know, maybe 10 years ago, maybe a little bit.
[54:29] Speaker 1: Less than that.
[54:32] Speaker 2: You mean 10 years ago, you finally gave in and
[54:34] Speaker 2: was like, all right, let me try acoustic guitar.
[54:36] Speaker 3: Let me just have it because I can't always hear
[54:38] Speaker 3: my electric guitar. If you're trying to write a riff
[54:41] Speaker 3: and you really need to hear something. So I just
[54:44] Speaker 3: had it, but not a good one. Just a little
[54:47] Speaker 3: shitty one. Then a couple of years ago, we did
[54:50] Speaker 3: a documentary called Bad Reputation.
[54:52] Speaker 1: Yes.
[54:53] Speaker 3: It came out. It was all about my career and
[54:55] Speaker 3: my life and stuff. And when we did the premiere-
[55:00] Speaker 3: they wanted us in LA. They wanted to see if
[55:02] Speaker 3: we could perform a couple of the songs in the theater.
[55:06] Speaker 3: And I knew we couldn't set up electric and we
[55:09] Speaker 3: suggested that maybe we try some acoustic stuff. So we,
[55:13] Speaker 3: we did it, but with the whole band. So it
[55:15] Speaker 3: was myself, my guitar player, acoustic bass, and our drummer.
[55:20] Speaker 3: And we, and we, you know, played bad rotation and
[55:22] Speaker 3: a couple of the songs and it felt really good. Actually.
[55:25] Speaker 3: It felt a lot better than I thought it was
[55:27] Speaker 3: going to feel. And, and like, you could transfer the energy.
[55:33] Speaker 3: It was going to be different than electric, but it
[55:36] Speaker 3: was still worked. So then last year, 2021 and 2022
[55:42] Speaker 3: is the 40th anniversary of both Bad Reputation album and
[55:46] Speaker 3: I Love Rock and Roll album. Because one came out,
[55:49] Speaker 3: they both came out in 81, I guess. Something like that.
[55:53] Speaker 3: So we wanted to do some extra things for the
[55:56] Speaker 3: fans and maybe record some acoustic stuff. So we thought, Oh,
[56:00] Speaker 3: we did that stuff for the premiere. Let's go in
[56:03] Speaker 3: the studio, record a few songs. Once we got in
[56:06] Speaker 3: there and started playing songs, we really just did everything
[56:09] Speaker 3: we could do live. We just, once we started recording,
[56:13] Speaker 3: we just kept going. And we didn't really plan on
[56:17] Speaker 3: having an album's worth or two of material, but just
[56:21] Speaker 3: wound up there and thought, what the hell? Put it out.
[56:27] Speaker 1: How do you, How do you feel about it? Like you're.
[56:31] Speaker 3: I feel good about it. I feel it's fun. It's different.
[56:34] Speaker 3: We play some on stage. Like we'll do our electric
[56:37] Speaker 3: show and then come and then do, instead of an encore,
[56:42] Speaker 3: do like three or four acoustic songs. And it's been
[56:46] Speaker 3: going over. We just started like a month ago, a
[56:48] Speaker 3: month and a half ago doing, doing it and see
[56:50] Speaker 3: how it would go over live. Cause you know, I
[56:52] Speaker 3: don't know unless I'm in front of people. So, so, uh,
[56:58] Speaker 3: they seem to like it. So we'll see what happens
[57:00] Speaker 3: and we'll see what happens with the stadium tour. You know,
[57:03] Speaker 3: we're going to see if we can work some into that.
[57:05] Speaker 3: And if it works great, if it doesn't.
[57:07] Speaker 1: What are those guys like now? Like Motley Crue and Poison?
[57:10] Speaker 3: I don't know. I've met Def Leppard. We played with
[57:14] Speaker 3: Def Leppard before.
[57:15] Speaker 1: Okay.
[57:17] Speaker 3: But I've never played with Motley Crue. So I don't know.
[57:20] Speaker 3: I have no idea what to expect, but it should
[57:22] Speaker 3: be interesting.
[57:23] Speaker 2: You know, it's weird to me. I learned this with
[57:26] Speaker 2: Blue Oyster Cult. The Def Leppard's album covers were more
[57:29] Speaker 2: scarier than Def Leppard was.
[57:31] Speaker 1: Yeah.
[57:32] Speaker 2: The thing is, like, if Mutt Lane, you know, like,
[57:35] Speaker 2: Mutt is too, he's too polished. Yeah, he's too polished
[57:40] Speaker 2: and clean to really, like, I'm telling you, it's more
[57:44] Speaker 2: the album cover.
[57:46] Speaker 1: Exactly.
[57:47] Speaker 2: Like, if you listen to Love Bites or whatever, like,
[57:49] Speaker 2: it's fucking harmonies, like, it's just more enhanced California harmonies
[57:53] Speaker 2: to me.
[57:54] Speaker 1: You know what I mean?
[57:55] Speaker 3: Right.
[57:55] Speaker 1: And so... I don't know, it's weird.
[57:57] Speaker 2: I never truly saw, I mean, of course, you know,
[58:02] Speaker 2: they create one anthem that will probably play in every
[58:06] Speaker 2: gentleman's club.
[58:09] Speaker 1: Now to the end of time.
[58:10] Speaker 3: Look how you know that, yeah.
[58:12] Speaker 1: Yeah.
[58:14] Speaker 2: No, I just mean, you know, Sugar has a kick-ass
[58:17] Speaker 2: riff to it, but I've never considered Def, I mean,
[58:21] Speaker 2: I don't consider Def Leppard metal the same way that
[58:23] Speaker 2: I don't consider the Police Heart rock.
[58:25] Speaker 1: You know what I mean?
[58:26] Speaker 3: Yeah. Well, people are loose with their terminology now, you know?
[58:30] Speaker 3: Don't you find?
[58:30] Speaker 1: Well, yeah, sometimes people are just lazy.
[58:32] Speaker 3: Classifying things.
[58:34] Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly.
[58:36] Speaker 2: Right now, like, where, with this storied career, and is
[58:42] Speaker 2: there anything that you have yet to achieve or yet
[58:46] Speaker 2: to accomplish that you wish to?
[58:51] Speaker 3: Oh, I'm, you know, I wouldn't know. who to say specifically,
[58:57] Speaker 3: but I'm always interested in doing new and different things.
[59:00] Speaker 3: I just actually did something, did I mention that? With
[59:03] Speaker 3: Trombone Shorty, yeah so you know it's new for me
[59:11] Speaker 3: I'm not always great with that because I'm good with
[59:13] Speaker 3: knowing you know being comfortable and doing what I know
[59:16] Speaker 3: and that kind of stuff so I have to try
[59:19] Speaker 3: to get better with you know just jumping into the
[59:22] Speaker 3: unknown and not being so.
[59:25] Speaker 2: Getting out of your comfort zone Yeah.
[59:30] Speaker 1: Yeah.
[59:30] Speaker 3: But being okay with that and, and being, you know,
[59:33] Speaker 3: you're going to live, you're going to be okay.
[59:34] Speaker 1: Don't worry.
[59:36] Speaker 3: I don't know. I think I'm ready for my R &
[59:37] Speaker 3: B album now.
[59:39] Speaker 1: Let's go. There it.
[59:43] Speaker 3: Is.
[59:43] Speaker 1: Let's go. But Joe, thank you very much. Yeah.
[59:47] Speaker 2: For, for, for joining us and doing this with us. And,
[59:51] Speaker 2: you know, we appreciate your work. I'm been a longtime
[59:54] Speaker 2: fan of yours.
[59:55] Speaker 3: Oh, thank you all. It's been a real pleasure. Definitely.
[59:58] Speaker 1: For sure. Thank you.
[59:59] Speaker 3: I'm a big fan, too.
[1:00:00] Speaker 1: Yeah, be safe out there, Joan.
[1:00:02] Speaker 3: Yeah, you guys take care, okay?
[1:00:03] Speaker 1: Absolutely.
[1:00:04] Speaker 2: Joan Jett on Questlove Supreme. We will see you guys
[1:00:07] Speaker 2: on the next go-round.
[1:00:08] Speaker 1: All right, thank you. Questlove Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio.
[1:00:29] Speaker 1: For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
[1:00:33] Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

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