Joan Jett may now be known as the Godmother of Punk. However, it was thanks to her chutzpah that the Runaways co-founder, rhythm guitarist, and I Love Rock ’n’ Roll hitmaker got to play electric guitar in the first place – especially after being told by her guitar teacher that she could only play folk music on an acoustic guitar.
“People will call us, just saying you couldn't do it. Girls can't play rock and roll,” she tells Kathleen Hannah on the Music Makes Us podcast. “All of it is just a joke, because I'm in school next to girls playing Beethoven and Bach on violins and clarinets, and they're saying girls can't play rock and roll.
“No, what they mean is girls aren't allowed to play rock and roll socially, because rock and roll is sexual by its nature,” she says matter-of-factly.
“I took the one lesson and left and never went back. I got to learn how to play guitar by myself and just played to my records. All those kinds of things, [I] always turned it into, ‘Okay, I'll show you.’ And then you find other people who can relate, and you have people to fight with.”
“I said, ‘I want to play electric guitar. I want to play rock and roll.’ They could hear me playing records – it was a variety of Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, T. Rex, [and] David Bowie. They bought me a guitar for Christmas – one of those Sears Silvertones,” recalls Jett, joining the ranks of guitarists like Paul Gilbert, Steve Cropper, and Bootsy Collins who all began their journey on Sears guitars.
“My mom would drive me to rehearsals, would take us to gigs, pick us up places… She was supportive,” she continues, “and I found out years later, after the fact, that my father would come to shows, Runaways shows – because I thought that he hated the whole thing, and maybe he did, but learned to love it – but he was in the back of the clubs and saw the Runaways shows.
“And I never really got to talk to him about it, but I know he was there,” she concludes.
Jett previously talked about the rejection she faced when she decided to go solo post-Runaways, with “23 rejection letters” from different labels to prove it. She eventually set up her own label, Blackheart Records, alongside collaborator Kenny Laguna, to release her self-titled debut record in the States.
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