Nadoosh: Two women that I love and respect in the entertainment field (2)

Two women that I love and respect in the entertainment field (2)

2- Joan Jett

Joan Jett is my favorite Rock star and she is the one that I wish to see in a concert the most. I always thought of rock and roll as a nonsense noise, stupid people, drugs and devil worshipers but Joan Jett was the one that made me change this idea because of her talent and actions. Joan Jett is the perfect example about a person who really knows what he wants in his life. She always wanted to enjoy music and just music and that’s why music was the only thing she worked for in life. I respect her for several reasons. First, because she is considered the Queen of rock and roll and she is in my opinion the only female in the world who can really play and sing rock from the heart. Second, because she is not the kind of person who will change his style to please people. For example, In the 1980s recording companies asked her to change her style to get a record deal. By changing her style they meant stop playing the electric guitar that she described as part of her, to dress like a “lady” and to get plastic surgery to implant breasts!!!!. After 23 rejection her response was to start her own label which she became by it one of the first female musicians to start own her own label.

Joan Jett started her journey as a Rock and Roll star in 1975. She and the female Drummer Sandy West were the founding members of the First all girl rock band The Runaways. She played in this band on the rhythm guitar for 2 years and was the lead singer for 3 years and after that the band split up. Playing in The Runaways was never easy because the people at that time couldn’t accept that teenage girls could have the talent to play proper rock and roll. They got a lot of criticism and never got acceptance in the U.S unlike other countries like Japan who treated them with respect and considered them as a rock stars that are fit to even be bigger than the Beatles.

After The Runaways split up she met a man called Kenny Laguna who was the only one who believed in her and her talent and helped her to from her second and current band “Joan Jett and The Blackhearts”. She recorded a demo tape and sent it to 23 recording company and was rejected from all of them. The interesting part is that Joan Jett didn’t just give up, but she decided to start her own label and so she produced her album on her own. That was in 1981 when she got her first well known Hit “I Love Rock N’ Roll”. I love rock and roll was one of the songs that were rejected by the recording companies and it became number 1 hit on the bill board for 7 weeks. All of the songs that were in the rejected demo tape became also hits. She played a lot of sold out concerts and finally gained the respect she didn’t get when she was a member of The Runaways. To maintain this success and her vocal cords she stopped using drugs and drinking since she was 20 and became vegan after 10 years. She is 53 years now and believe it or not she is still playing and still as beautiful as she was in her 20s. In 2010 she was portrayed by the young actress Kristen Stewart in the movie The Runaways which talked about her first band.

in this ironic interview you could easily know what I mean by "a person who really know what he wants" because every single thing she said in this interview 30 years ago she did it