Guitar Tricks Insider November / December Issue | Page 40

ON SONGWRITING
Jett admits the band was mismanaged.
“We weren’t told when we were doing things
wrong and why they were wrong, so we
were completely naive about a lot of things.”
Many of the former members of the band
and many others in the music business
have ill feeling about their late manager, the
notorious Kim Fowley. Joan Jett is not one
of them. “I thought he was a smart guy and
very funny, but I could see how he could
scare people. He never put words into the
Runaways mouths, like a lot of people think,
or told us how to dress or act. I’m glad I was
15 and 16 and able to see somebody like
that, because it gave me a better view of
Hollywood and the way things are.”
Moving from Fowley to Kenny Laguna simply
changed Jett’s life. He became her main
mentor, producer, and champion. “After the
Runaways broke up I was just hanging out in
LA. I still wanted to be in a band. I wanted
to be on the road. Kenny and (his wife)
Meryl gave me confidence and after a while I
started to become more serious. I began to
think of myself as an athlete would.”
As an honor student growing up in Maryland
and then California, Joan always had high
standards for herself. “I never cut classes.
I didn’t want to go to summer school.
Whatever year it was they came up with the
equivalency test, that was it. I was waiting
for the time I’d be old enough to take it. I
was always very determined and aggressive.”
Which could very well describe her guitar
playing style. “I know how to play well
enough to play with anybody. I just can’t
whip off the fast lead solos. I can, but I’ve
got no desire to whatsoever. I’m very much
into the rhythm. I love Pete Townshend. He’s
a rhythm guitarist who can play lead. He
can do both at the same time. So can Keith
Richards and Ron Wood. ‘Midnight Rambler’
from Get Your Ya-Ya’s Out encompasses to
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GUITAR TRICKS INSIDER
DIGITAL EDITION
me what rock and roll should sound like on
a live level. For a rhythm guitar player it just
seems to do everything.”
Just when people might have written Jett
off as a viable rocker, she came back in the
last ten years with a vengeance, touring with
Aerosmith, Def Leppard, Alice Cooper, The
Who, and Green Day, and producing two
fierce albums that rank with her best, Sinner
(06) and Unvarnished (13), including co-
writes with Riot Grrrl pioneer Kathleen Hanna
(Bikini Kill) and transgender rocker Laura
Jane Grace (Against Me). In 2015 she was
inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame,
along with Lou Reed, Stevie Ray Vaughan,
the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, Green Day,
and Bill Withers. Joan Jett is nothing if not a
rock and roll lifer.
Yet she still approaches writing and playing
with the same stunning modesty. “I just play
and if it sounds good I work it out,” she said.
“I’ll run over scales but I don’t even know if
they’re proper scales. I’ll mess around while
I’m listening to the TV at a very low volume.
I’ll just sit there and play chord progressions,
just different things going into different
things, until maybe I hear two or three
chords in a row that sound good or until a
melody pops into my head. I love to write
harmonies and melodies. Then you come
up with the chords underneath that. I’m
basically a riff writer and I’m really into open
tuning. I’ve been listening to a lot of blues
and open G and playing slide guitar. When
you’re in the studio you end up hearing each
song hundreds of times and I always get
ideas for guitar parts. I just think being on
the road has made me that much better of
a guitar player, because I notice I’m writing
harder guitar parts for myself to play while
I’m singing.” ■
NOVEMBER / DECEMBER