0:01

Hello everyone, and welcome to another episode

0:03

of Inside the Studio on iHeart Radio. My

0:06

name's Jordan runt Dog, But enough about me.

0:09

My guest today is the Queen of rock and roll. What

0:11

else can you say like a cherry bomb.

0:13

She exploded onto the music scene in the mid

0:15

seventies as a member of the pioneering all

0:17

women l a punk rock group, The Runaways,

0:20

before blazing a new trail with their own outfit,

0:22

the Black Hearts. But her bid to start

0:24

over wasn't easy. Twenty three record

0:26

labels passed on her future classic bad

0:29

reputation, so she and producer

0:31

Kenny Laguna released the record themselves, selling

0:33

it from the back of Kenny's car. Since

0:36

then, she's topped the charts, found at a record

0:38

label, and inspired countless women

0:41

and men to pick up a guitar. Now,

0:43

she's reflecting on her legacy on her new album

0:45

Change Up. True to its title,

0:48

the album's a radical departure, finding

0:50

the amped up icon, revisiting twenty

0:52

five career spanning cuts with an acoustic

0:54

guitar. Though initially hesitant

0:56

trader trademark electric acts for an acoustic

0:59

six string class you did the

1:01

new versions of songs like victim of circumstance,

1:04

soul mates of strangers, I Love Playing

1:06

with Fire, and even Cherry Bomb revealed

1:08

fresh nuances you may have missed in the original.

1:11

The pairing is unexpected, but once you hear it,

1:13

you wonder why she didn't try it years ago. Even

1:15

without a namp, she still rocks. It's

1:18

my honor to welcome Joan jay.

1:25

I love the new record you just released. Change

1:27

up a new record which you revisit

1:30

and reimagine twenty five of your songs

1:32

in an acoustic style. Uh.

1:34

Just before the pandemic, you completed a documentary

1:36

on your life, Bad Reputation. Did

1:38

that put you in a reflective mood? What made

1:40

you decide to take a look back and revisit

1:42

these songs in such a unique way. Oh,

1:45

I'm glad you brought that up. That's perfect

1:47

introduction to too. How

1:50

this How this happened? When

1:52

um for the pandemic, Like

1:55

you said, we put out a documentary called

1:57

Bad Reputation. It was actually

2:00

the brainchild of my niece,

2:03

Kerry Ann Brinkman, who runs

2:05

Black Heart, really runs our company now,

2:08

who was a three month old kid when I'm

2:10

when I met her. She's actually my niece,

2:13

And when we did

2:15

the documentary and we were doing the premiers

2:18

in Los Angeles, they wanted wanted

2:21

us to play a couple of songs for the

2:23

audience, you know, as a band. But

2:26

we couldn't really um set up

2:28

as an electric unit

2:30

there because it wasn't just wasn't you

2:33

know, a movie a movie theater wasn't really

2:35

set up for that, and we wanted to play

2:37

songs for the audience. So um

2:41

Kerry kind of suggested, let's do a

2:44

few acoustics, you know, but we'll

2:46

do the whole band, not just like me and

2:48

the guitar player, but the bass player

2:50

and the drummer. So it was we were all there

2:53

and we did a few songs, including

2:55

badtriputation, and recorded

2:58

it for posterity, know, but

3:01

it came affully well and I think, you

3:03

know, we didn't know what to expect before we did it,

3:05

and when we did it, it felt

3:07

great and didn't seem to lose

3:11

anything, you know, if

3:13

anything, it's kind of just I

3:15

don't know, just it was was very

3:18

interesting to us, you know, it was

3:20

fun. We enjoyed it. So, you

3:22

know, we did that. Then the pandemic happens

3:24

and you know which was I guess

3:26

a very introspective and quiet

3:28

and oh my god,

3:31

are we ever gonna work again kind of time.

3:33

UM,

3:36

So I think

3:38

the whole mood. I

3:40

don't know that it contributed necessarily,

3:42

but it's certainly didn't didn't

3:45

deter it, you know. And last

3:49

year UM one,

3:51

and this year is the fortieth

3:54

anniversary of both Bad Reputation

3:56

album and I Love rock and Roll album.

4:00

So we wanted to sort of find

4:02

a way to to give the

4:04

fans some you know, maybe extra

4:08

tracks to listen, to listen to something

4:10

different to here, so to mark

4:12

the you know, the forty years and sort of

4:14

look back on some of the songs. And

4:17

we knew that that acoustic thing it just worked,

4:19

and we thought we'd do a few more. Um.

4:22

We went to the studio and

4:26

as we started playing a bunch of the songs,

4:29

we just kind of kept going and

4:31

did pretty much everything we could do live

4:33

that we know. UM,

4:36

and that became

4:39

change up. You know, he started saying, this feels

4:41

like an album. It feels like a good way also

4:44

to mark the forty years by

4:47

looking at a lot of the songs that um,

4:50

we've done that people might not know even

4:52

exist. You know, so this

4:55

was a great way to so and and a lot of the

4:57

lyrics actually still

5:00

are very relevant to the time. So that

5:03

was really interesting as well to kind

5:05

of see that and that

5:07

the that the lyrics are still relevant.

5:09

And two, um,

5:13

you know it's kind of I believe it's more it feels

5:15

more intimate to me. Yeah,

5:18

everything is stripped away. You know, it's like you're

5:20

really naked there when you're playing the acoustic

5:23

stuff. At least the way we recorded

5:25

it. You know, there's not a lot of effects

5:28

or things like that, so any

5:30

mistake is heard. And you

5:34

know, I think that's kind

5:36

of cool. You know, you don't want to sound

5:39

like you can't play, but you also don't want

5:41

it to be so pristine. I think that you that

5:44

it loses its human feel. Oh

5:46

absolutely, it feels really uh

5:48

you know, like hopefully like you're in the room.

5:51

And um, we want to be able to do some of this live

5:53

as well, so um, we'll

5:56

see, we're gonna we're gonna be doing that. Um

5:58

this weekend, we have a couple of gigs. We're gonna be

6:00

doing a little bit of both. So

6:04

intimate is the perfect word. I love how your

6:06

voice is front and center. I mean, I feel like,

6:08

well, by stripping back all the instrumentation to

6:10

these songs, did that allow you to find

6:12

something new in them? Whereas did anything surprise

6:15

you? I think, oh my god, this whole different song

6:17

was in the song I've been playing for so many years. Totally,

6:20

totally. I mean, it's sort of because

6:23

I wanted the vocal energy to sort

6:25

of match musical energy

6:27

that I had to pull back in some ways,

6:30

you know, and and find different ways to

6:32

sing some of the

6:34

songs. Um. You know, I didn't

6:36

want to sing them as hard or maybe as

6:38

high as the electric

6:41

versions called for. Um, you

6:43

know what I mean. So like one that's particularly

6:45

suck out to me is Victim of Circumstance.

6:50

Yeah, I mean the whole melody is, Um,

6:52

I guess it's a I guess it's a harmony to

6:54

the to the main melody. I don't really know,

6:56

because I haven't gone through it like that,

6:58

but um,

7:00

that just kind of popped out. I didn't know what

7:03

was gonna happen, because, you know, we're just sitting

7:05

down to play, and I wasn't even

7:08

because we weren't there yet knowing

7:11

that this is gonna be an album. You know, we were just cutting

7:13

some tracks to see what works at

7:15

what we could give to the fans.

7:17

So you know, my,

7:19

my, my,

7:21

um. Feelings

7:24

for wanting to do this increased

7:27

as we played this and as we found

7:29

these little nuggets.

7:31

It was like, wow, this

7:34

is really you know, this is gonna be fun.

7:37

Um. But it was hard too. It

7:40

was definitely hard because we wanted

7:42

to get it right. Um. But

7:45

songs like that Victim just

7:47

popped out, you know, and that doesn't always happen.

7:49

Sometimes you just have to really work for

7:52

it. But that melody is kind of flew

7:54

out of my mouth, and so

7:56

you know, that one, to me is the most obvious.

8:00

Oh I I love how just

8:02

the way that they're they're reimagined. I mean, songs like

8:04

Cherry Bomb that I've heard, you know, for so many

8:06

years and loved for so many years. For me, it's like a

8:08

whole new song. It's got this whole new almost like film

8:11

noir spooky vibe to it, which

8:13

is so cool. I'm so glad you said

8:15

that because that's exactly what I hear. I

8:18

hear it too, and it's like wow, you

8:20

know, it's a whole new thing for me, and it.

8:22

It feels great. The field

8:25

is different, and but

8:27

it's you know, it's kind of mysterious

8:30

and just what you said

8:32

it was a great description. But yeah,

8:34

so those little things are really

8:37

fun to find in these songs. And really

8:40

they all feel like that to me. You

8:42

know, some I think um

8:46

more than others, sound, you know, a little bit different.

8:49

You know, some of them you'll notice more

8:52

than others. I guess that's what I mean. And

8:55

there I mean, there are twenty five tracks on this album,

8:57

and there are the ones that you might expect bad Reppyta

9:00

Asian, Cherry Bomb, Crimson and Clover, but then

9:02

you have deeper cuts like Coney Island White

9:04

Fish, which you know, maybe

9:06

something is a little less expected. What was the process

9:08

like of choosing all these different songs throughout

9:11

Change Up? Well,

9:13

Uh, we, like

9:15

I said, we did, We looked pretty much

9:19

two most every

9:21

album, but really focusing on

9:24

some of the earlier ones and just what

9:27

we could what we had done live in the past,

9:29

and what we could what we could do

9:31

live, because we want

9:34

to be able to do it live as

9:36

well. We don't just put out a record that we can't

9:38

perform live. So Coney

9:41

Allen Whitefish is just straight up you

9:43

know, three chord progression and it's

9:45

fun. I think everybody knows

9:48

one, you know, and it's I

9:50

think it can be fun. It's a fun song to

9:52

sing, and it's also

9:55

you know, probably a little edgy for

9:57

some people, but it's fun,

9:59

it's fun to do, and it's you

10:01

know, it's on it's on primetime television for

10:03

pres Say so, you

10:19

you touched on this a little bit earlier, But

10:21

has the meaning of any of these songs changed

10:23

for you since you first made them? Do the words

10:26

the son of them hit you in a different way now than

10:28

they did maybe when you first wrote them.

10:31

Well, I

10:33

think, yeah,

10:36

yeah, things like um,

10:40

I just wanted to have the lyrics

10:43

reflect where I am

10:45

as a person, and you know that

10:47

I'm an older person, noel, and I'm not

10:50

eighteen, and I'm not um

10:54

you know in that in that headspace.

10:58

So any words that

11:00

I ran I can't really think off the top of my head.

11:02

I know there are a few in Cherry Bomb and you

11:05

know where I just had to make the lyrics

11:08

match me now, you know. I had to

11:11

change maybe some tenses or

11:13

various things that just made it feel right

11:16

to me. You know that. I wasn't

11:19

you know, singing

11:22

lyrics like I'm

11:24

going out to the club tonight. You've

11:26

You've talked in the past about sort of the two

11:29

elements or motivators of songwriting.

11:31

One is a connection with other people, and

11:33

then the second one as a as a release, more

11:36

of a catharsis for yourself. I was wondering,

11:38

just does one side went out over the other

11:40

for you? Is it more about connection for you or

11:42

more about getting these feelings out of

11:44

you when you write a song. Wow,

11:47

that's a good question. I don't know. I

11:49

think it's probably equal equal

11:52

parts. Um, yeah,

11:54

I think the connection is big. You know,

11:57

you have to find a because opining

12:01

about something and

12:04

avoid by by yourself. I mean,

12:06

you know who can relate to that? You know what I mean?

12:08

It's just like I mean, it's kind

12:10

of like what you what's the point I might as we to

12:13

sit in the room and prove on

12:15

what I'm doing, you know, for myself, for my

12:17

own sake, you know. So it's got to I

12:19

think, for to to mean something,

12:22

it's gotta to mean

12:24

something to your own self. You've got to be able to connect

12:27

something else beside yourself. If

12:30

that makes sense. I

12:33

mean, I don't know how it can mean anything

12:35

if it only means something see

12:38

you. I mean, I suppose you

12:40

can, but

12:43

I think that's not a way to

12:46

to Um, you know, for the most

12:48

part, it would be about connection and not just

12:51

in isolation. How's

12:53

the last two years been for you? I know, for a

12:55

lot of artists it's been tough to connect given

12:58

you know, the lockdown obvious see virtual

13:00

concerts and things have been nice. But how

13:03

how's the adjustment been the last couple of years for

13:05

you? It's it's been.

13:07

It's weird, you know, it's very weird that

13:10

certainly the first year just not

13:12

knowing what you know, the serious unknowns

13:15

of it all. And and I know we're

13:17

still in that to to degree,

13:20

not knowing what when

13:22

well we know, if you know, it's probably going

13:24

to come back, but um, you know,

13:26

to what degree and all that. And

13:30

last year we did get out for a

13:33

month and a half I think when did concerts

13:35

and it was really great to be out and

13:38

and see people and see them

13:40

enjoying themselves, and um,

13:44

you know. So I'm

13:46

looking forward to it and I

13:49

just hope that it, you know, all

13:51

goes well and I

13:54

think I think it will, but you know,

13:56

it's well,

13:59

we'll see that everybody, I

14:01

mean people seem to be going to sporting events

14:03

and all sorts of other kinds of events

14:06

with require you know,

14:08

closeness, So we'll

14:10

see. And but I'm I'm definitely

14:12

looking forward to it. And we're gonna be doing different size

14:14

venues as well, because we're gonna be doing some

14:16

of our own shows and some

14:18

smaller buildings, and then the stadium

14:21

tour is going to be those huge

14:23

stadiums, and so it's gonna

14:25

be fun to try this and maybe

14:28

somebody's acoustic songs that

14:30

way as well, So we'll see what happens. Oh,

14:32

that's gonna be so cool to hear

14:35

you do those acoustic versions live. Would

14:37

you ever consider doing another

14:39

album of of acoustic tracks of maybe

14:41

new original songs. Is that something that that

14:43

you'd be interested in doing? Uh,

14:47

I don't know. I don't know honestly, if

14:49

I could get my you know, if I could

14:51

work myself up for that,

14:53

you know, I mean possibly, but I mean

14:55

never say never. But I

14:58

think you know, I'm an electric

15:01

I'm an electric guitar person at heart, and

15:03

I think that's where i'd want to go and

15:07

I want to stay. But I really enjoy visiting

15:10

this. You know, doing this acoustic itself

15:13

has been really interesting, and I'm

15:15

we're gonna think it's gonna be a lot of fun

15:18

because we're, like I said, it's kind of an

15:20

unknown you know, I haven't really done this

15:22

before, and I haven't played an

15:25

acoustic guitar in my whole life, and it's a whole

15:27

different it's a different thing than playing electric,

15:29

you know, And so I

15:32

think that there's it's it's just gonna be fun

15:34

because I'm sure there's gonna

15:37

be mistakes and goofs and

15:39

it's but I want to have a great

15:41

attitude about it. And

15:43

and the audience is in on it. You know, they're

15:46

seeing this process too, including

15:48

the change over from electric to acoustic,

15:51

and explaining to them what we're gonna do. I

15:53

want people to see that because

15:55

so much, you know, for for no

15:57

reason, it's like you know, you only see the

16:00

oh you you know, you don't want

16:02

to see any sort of blemishes,

16:04

and you know this, you want to we

16:06

want to. We want to show it all

16:08

and I think it'll be fun, and it evolves involves

16:11

the audience more and then they feel part

16:14

of it connected. Is that?

16:15

Yeah? Again, I

16:18

wanted to ask you more about what your relationship

16:20

is like to the acoustic guitar now because

16:22

you said in the past that you were I

16:25

don't want to put words in are outh but almost resistant to

16:27

it because of of teachers

16:29

when you first for learning that we're trying to kind

16:31

of push you more in that direction, which seems

16:34

crazy to me that people would

16:36

try to do that to you, but I guess

16:38

that was what people thought. Um.

16:41

But you know, how how do you feel about about the acoustic

16:43

guitar now? You sort of uh made

16:45

friends with it in a way totally.

16:47

I think I have because I think

16:50

I was very resistant. It was that, but

16:52

it was all It was much more mental

16:54

than it was a dislike

16:57

for an acoustic guitar, you

16:59

know what I mean. It was because

17:01

I was being told this is what you know, girls play

17:03

acoustic guitar. You know, it just sort of even

17:06

if it wasn't said out loud, it was imployed.

17:09

It was implied a lot. And so

17:13

therefore I really kept it on dis

17:15

since it was like out of sight, out of mind,

17:17

and you know, so I didn't own one. I didn't

17:20

any of that, so yeah, definitely

17:22

making friends with it. Uh.

17:26

They say that when you first are starting out on an

17:28

instrument, you're you're you're trying to be

17:30

someone else before you develop your own style.

17:32

You know, you're always your sort of imitating

17:34

while you're still learning who you are, what your

17:36

own sound is. Was that the case for

17:38

you? Were there people that you look towards to try

17:40

to try to emulate, like I know you've talked about

17:43

Paul Kossof from Free and All

17:45

Right now, I mean where there's some guitar heroes for

17:47

you when you first picked up the instrument. Well,

17:50

yeah, well was that particular song that

17:53

because it was a little out of out of tune

17:56

just one pass it was a slightly out of tune,

17:58

or at least it sounded like it to me, and

18:01

for some reason I liked that. But I'd

18:03

say, t Rex Mark

18:06

Boland, your version

18:08

of Jeepster, Oh my gosh, your version

18:10

of Jeepster for the Rock Hall was amazing,

18:12

Oh my gosh, thank you very much. Yeah,

18:14

but Mark Boland would have been, uh, the

18:17

one that I was trying to emulate,

18:19

one that I listened to when I started

18:21

to play guitar, and I

18:23

could kind of play you know, bang of

18:25

gong that you know, those easy

18:27

seemed easy for easier for me to

18:30

do those octaves that done

18:33

that stuff. So and

18:36

I had a crush on him, and I learned

18:38

how to scream. That's with his screams

18:41

were the ones that I would emulate

18:43

because you know, people ask,

18:46

you know, who are you trying to copy

18:48

when you scream? And that's that would be who

18:51

I was trying to copy. This

18:53

is I know Keeps just released

18:56

an acoustic album, but I have a very specific

18:58

question about an electric guitar. I just thought

19:00

of your your melody maker, you're Gibson.

19:03

I read that you got that from Eric Carmen

19:05

and that same guitar that you used on the

19:08

first two solo records or black

19:10

Heart's records, was the same one that he used

19:12

them the Raspberries. Is that is that true? That's

19:14

that's true? And you know what it was rumored

19:17

because we both used from the Runaways

19:19

days. We both had the same

19:22

road crew because the Raspberis

19:24

were in Ohio band and

19:27

we uh picked up

19:29

some road crew guys that we hired

19:32

um that were in the

19:34

Ohio. Um, what it's called

19:37

the Agora Ballrooms. There was like a

19:39

a bunch of ballrooms in the Ohio area

19:42

that was I guess the circuit.

19:44

And anyway, we had the same

19:47

guitar roadies, and I

19:50

was looking for an

19:52

electric guitar because I had only

19:54

had less Paul and it was

19:56

very heavy. Yeah, so but

19:59

I loved it. I didn't want to get rid of

20:01

it. I just needed something else to switch off

20:03

to. So I could, you know, have another guitar.

20:06

So I

20:08

was able to buy this guitar somehow. You know,

20:11

my crew guy. I

20:13

knew this guy in a band

20:15

who was trying to get rid of a guitar, and

20:18

it turns out it was Eric Carmen's

20:20

um. From him, you know, from him,

20:22

he wanted to sell it. He was focusing on

20:24

keyboards, so he sold the

20:26

guitar. And that's the guitar that played on Please

20:29

Go All the Way, and I

20:31

guess a couple of others right around that time,

20:34

and but also played on my first

20:36

two albums, so all bad

20:38

reputation, all of Oil of rock and Roll,

20:41

probably then a couple of the

20:43

next albums. So until I finally

20:45

just took it off the road, was afraid it

20:47

would get broken or stolen or something.

20:50

But yeah, it's not amazing, and

20:53

I don't think confirmed it for a couple a

20:55

few years ago for sure that

20:57

it was definitely the case, because he had

21:00

heard that I heard my

21:02

guitar sold the Joan Jet and

21:05

and I had heard that, you

21:07

know, I heard that I bought her Karma's

21:10

guitar. But it was finally confirmed

21:12

that, yes, it was the guitar that

21:15

he played on and I played on. So

21:18

yeah, that's pretty I like that lineage.

21:22

That is so amazing, A lot a lot of history.

21:24

I just I was just visiting the Rock and Roll Hall

21:26

of Fame about two weeks ago, and

21:28

I saw your jacket from the cover of

21:31

I Love rock and Roll. I mean, it's just it's

21:33

so cool. Yeah. Watching

21:45

the Bad Reputation documentary, I mean, the

21:47

theme really just seemed to be endurance.

21:49

I mean, you went from from selling records out

21:52

of the back of Kenny's care Too to

21:54

being the head and founder of a label. I

21:56

mean, do those rejections,

21:59

you know, being rejected by twenty three different

22:01

labels, does that still feel your

22:03

fire? Do you still feel you work better when there's

22:05

something to sort of push up against or pushback against

22:08

an adversary. Yeah, I know what you're

22:10

saying. Yeah, to a degree. I mean, but

22:12

that's just sort of a built in thing

22:14

in in

22:16

in life, you know. And it's not just rock and roll

22:19

or music with that, you know, sort

22:21

of glass ceiling. Girls can only go this

22:23

far. You know. It's really every

22:26

every career path. You know. I speak to women

22:28

all the time, and they're like they can

22:30

totally relate to all

22:33

the things that I discussed. It happen, you

22:36

know, in the music business or show business,

22:38

and so it's

22:42

it's sort of sort of a universal struggle.

22:46

I don't want to say fight, but you know, it's something

22:48

that you you have to always work

22:51

for. You've plays the trail for

22:53

just so many I mean, are there

22:56

people out there now who you really feel are

22:58

are carrying the torch now? I mean you've worked

23:00

with Miley, cyrus L King,

23:02

I mean, so many great folks who are out there. Do you feel,

23:04

really, uh, carrying

23:06

the torch and paying it forward for

23:09

rock and roll? You know, I don't

23:12

get out to see enough bands

23:15

that you know, I should. I should, really, I

23:17

I'm not exposed

23:20

to a lot of rock and roll stuff. I'm not seeing

23:22

that so much. You know, Um,

23:26

I know what's out there though, because every place

23:28

I go they're they're girl

23:30

rock and roll bands. In fact, um

23:33

one of the bands on our

23:36

label Faya there

23:40

they were an all girl band. They

23:42

were girls in a coma and now they're

23:44

called Faya and they're

23:46

from San Antonio. There on the

23:49

on the road constantly make great records.

23:51

Also, um our

23:54

lighting designer as a band called

23:56

jack Knife Stiletto and

23:59

she has put out records UM

24:02

and touring and doing work

24:04

when she's not working with us.

24:06

So those are ones that I'm close

24:09

to and know

24:11

about and you know, so but

24:14

I know they're in every city, and I'm talking

24:16

about you know, sweaty white rock and roll

24:18

um stuff, and so I'd

24:22

like to see more of that, get

24:25

um sort of more eyeballs

24:28

wherever wherever it is, whether it's you

24:30

know, traditional press or online,

24:34

you know, because it's um

24:37

to me, it's rock and rolls are very valid

24:40

musical expression and still

24:43

out there, and uh so

24:45

I don't know if to still fight for

24:47

it right on. I got

24:50

a bunch of friends out here in Brooklyn that are are

24:52

playing d I Y Venues above a pickle

24:54

factory you know out in

24:56

uh in Bushwick. So yeah, still trying

24:58

to make music when they can. And uh

25:02

I guess my my my last question for you, mean,

25:05

you've been an inspiration to so many.

25:08

Is there a tribute that's meant the most to

25:10

you, Either an actual award or props

25:13

from a fellow artist, or even just something

25:15

that a fan said to you, you know, after a show

25:17

in the you know, behind the theater or something. Is

25:19

there something that you really when you're having a bad

25:21

day, you can think of that moment and

25:24

think, you know what that

25:26

really just sort of turns your day around. Um

25:32

No, I don't think. I don't think

25:34

really that I would look to you

25:36

know, awards or anything like that too

25:39

for to feel

25:42

better, to feel validated, because

25:45

I never did it for those reasons, you know. I

25:48

did it for the that

25:50

were that connection. Again, I

25:52

couldn't pick just one. There have been tons

25:57

of fans that have

25:59

said such moving things

26:01

to me. I mean, really it

26:04

really shows you. I mean, if you strip away

26:06

the you part of it, you know, nothing to

26:08

do with me, just that music is

26:11

so healing, and so is

26:14

medicine. You know, it gets people to really

26:17

tough stuff, and you're

26:19

like amazed that

26:21

that it's you that someone

26:25

chose to heal them or

26:27

whatever the music does for them. And it's it's

26:29

really very humbling to me at

26:31

its root, it's very that's very

26:33

humbling and really,

26:37

um you

26:39

know, musicians that tell me

26:42

that they are inspired by

26:44

me, it's just I'm I get

26:46

amazed, you know, whether it's somebody

26:48

that's known or not known. It's

26:51

it's a reciprocal thing. You know. It's like I

26:54

am inspired by them as well, you know. And

26:57

so but it's not I couldn't pick

26:59

one person for you in one situation.

27:02

And my friend Kenny,

27:05

you know, he validates me the fact

27:07

that he believed in me when he did

27:09

and nobody else did and nobody

27:11

would give me a shot, and that he you

27:14

know, put it all on the line. He put

27:17

is um you know, baby

27:20

infants college, child fund

27:23

into into me. You know, it's

27:25

like, um, so, you

27:29

know I knew he was all in, and that's

27:31

um. It can be a little scary

27:33

too, because it's like wow, You're

27:35

like, Wow, I better, I

27:38

better be good. I'm better

27:40

get out there and work, you know. But um so

27:43

that but that's the beginning of it. So, I mean, I would

27:45

have to say Kenny, Um, Kenny's

27:48

belief in the post Runaways

27:50

would be probably the starting

27:53

point, you know, for just

27:57

knowing even what that feels like to

27:59

have someone even me and and fight

28:01

for me and get piste off, you know, like like I

28:03

would get Piste off for

28:07

you know, saying, you know, some stupid

28:09

girl remarks or something, and

28:11

that to see that firing

28:14

him and him him realizing that, you

28:16

know, your friends weren't gonna help you, nobody

28:19

was gonna give you a break. Now

28:22

you're feeling when I'm feeling, what it feels

28:24

like to be a girl

28:26

or a woman in music and to

28:28

have that, you know, that hand in your face.

28:31

And you know, I think Kenny might have been

28:33

used to it to a degree in his

28:35

own career because you know, everything doesn't

28:38

always go great, you know. So he had had

28:40

a couple of downs, but he had quite

28:42

a lot of ups. So um,

28:45

you know I trusted him that

28:47

he knew what he was doing and he

28:49

paid attention when you

28:51

know he's in bands and to what's

28:53

going on. And uh

28:56

so you know I felt very

28:59

comfort it by that, you know that

29:03

he was all in and you know, he was a musician

29:05

and played with me, and I feel funny

29:07

talking about you when you're right there, but um,

29:11

that's true. I'm not

29:13

and I'm not saying it because he's sitting there either.

29:17

We should all be so lucky to have a friend

29:20

like that and someone to believe in us like that. It's a beautiful

29:22

answer. Thank you for that, you

29:25

know. I mean, I don't know what would be going on

29:27

if uh we

29:30

hadn't met, you know, for real? Huh,

29:34

Joan Jett, you are an inspiration. You're

29:36

a hero. Thank you so much for your time

29:38

today, and most importantly, thank you for your music. It's

29:40

been such an honor speaking you. Thank you, Juan,

29:43

Thank you so much for having me. We

29:49

hope you enjoyed this episode of Inside the Studio,

29:51

a production of I Heart Radio. For

29:53

more episodes of Inside the Studio or other

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