Joan Jett (born Joan Marie Larkin; September 22, 1958) is an American singer, songwriter, guitarist, businesswoman, and actress. Often referred to as the "Godmother of Punk" and "Queen of Rock and Roll", she is regarded as a rock icon and an influential figure in popular rock music.
Jett co-founded and performed with rock band the Runaways from 1975 to 1979, with whom she released four studio albums. After their breakup, she recorded her debut solo studio album and brought it to several record labels with record producer Kenny Laguna, all of whom rejected her. As a result, she formed her own independent record label Blackheart Records with Laguna. Her 1980 eponymous debut studio album (later reissued as Bad Reputation) became her first entry onto the U.S. Billboard 200, bolstered by the attention its title track received.
Following the success of her debut solo studio album, Jett founded her backing band, Joan Jett and the Blackhearts. Their first studio album, I Love Rock 'n Roll (1981), peaked at No. 2 on the U.S. Billboard 200. Its lead single, a cover version of Arrows's "I Love Rock 'n Roll", topped the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 and many international charts; it became Jett's signature song and was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2016. The album also produced her second top ten single "Crimson and Clover", a cover version of Tommy James and the Shondells' song.
Jett has released eleven more studio albums, of which Album (1983) and Up Your Alley (1988) earned gold and platinum certifications, respectively. Her 1988 single "I Hate Myself for Loving You" netted Jett her third top ten single on the Hot 100 and her first Grammy Award nomination for Best Rock Performance. Other Hot 100 singles include "Fake Friends", "Good Music", "Light of Day", "Little Liar", and cover versions of Gary Glitter's "Do You Wanna Touch Me (Oh Yeah)", AC/DC's "Dirty Deeds", and Sly and the Family Stone's "Everyday People".
Jett was included on Rolling Stone's 2003 and 2023 lists of the greatest guitarists of all time. In 2015, she and the Blackhearts were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Outside of music, she starred alongside Michael J. Fox in the musical drama film Light of Day (1987) and has appeared in several television series. She is also recognized for her activism and persona.
Joan Marie Larkin was born on September 22, 1958, at Lankenau Hospital in Wynnewood, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Philadelphia, to James and Dorothy Larkin. She is the oldest of three children. Her father was an insurance salesman and her mother was a secretary. Her family was Protestant, attending church and Sunday school, but were not strict in their religious beliefs.
In 1967, Jett's family moved to Rockville, Maryland, where she attended Randolph Junior High School and Wheaton High School. She got her first guitar at the age of 13. She took some guitar lessons, but soon quit because the instructor kept trying to teach her folk songs. Her family then moved to West Covina, California, in Los Angeles County, providing Jett with the opportunity to pursue her musical interests. Shortly after the move, her parents divorced and she changed her name to Joan Jett, because she thought it had more of a rock star sound than her birth name. She has admitted in recent years that "Jett" was not actually her mother's maiden name, even though that is what she used to tell people. In Los Angeles, Jett's favorite night spot was Rodney Bingenheimer's English Disco on the Sunset Strip, a venue that provided the glam rock style she loved.
At age 16, Jett became a founding member of the Runaways with drummer Sandy West. After the brief tenure of Micki Steele, who sang and played bass guitar, Jackie Fox, Lita Ford, and Cherie Currie soon joined to complete the band which created the classic lineup. While Currie initially fronted the band, Jett shared some lead vocals, played rhythm guitar, and wrote or co-wrote some of the band's material along with Ford, West, and Currie. This lineup recorded two studio albums.
The band toured around the world and became an opening act for Cheap Trick, the Ramones, Van Halen, and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. They found success abroad, especially in Japan. While the Runaways were popular in Europe, Asia, Australia, Canada, and South America, they could not garner the same level of success in the United States. After Currie left the band, the band released two more studio albums with Jett handling the lead vocals: Waitin' for the Night (1977) and And Now... The Runaways (1978). While touring England with the Runaways in 1976, Jett first heard the song "I Love Rock 'n' Roll" when she saw Arrows perform it on their weekly UK television series Arrows. Altogether, they produced five albums from 1975 until they disbanded in the spring of 1979.
In 1979, she returned to Los Angeles, where she began fulfilling an obligation of the Runaways to complete a film that was loosely based on the band's career titled We're All Crazee Now! Three actresses stood in for the departed band members, including Rainbeaux Smith, who was also a rock drummer. The plug was pulled on the project halfway through shooting after Jett fell ill, but in 1984, after she became famous, producers looked for a way to use the footage from the incomplete film. Parts of the original footage of Jett were eventually used in another project, an underground film called Du-beat-eo, which was produced by Alan Sacks but not commercially released.
In 1979, Jett was in England pursuing a solo career. She recorded three songs there with the Sex Pistols' drummer Paul Cook and guitarist Steve Jones, one of which was an early version of Arrows' "I Love Rock 'n' Roll". This version appears on Jett's compilation album Flashback (1993). While working on We're All Crazee Now!, Jett met songwriter, record producer and musician Kenny Laguna, who was hired by her manager Toby Mamis to help Jett with writing some tracks for the film. They became friends and decided to work together, and Jett relocated to Long Beach, New York, where Laguna was based.
Soon after, Jett produced the Germs' only studio album, GI. Jett produced several bands prior to releasing her debut, and her label Blackheart Records released recordings from varied artists such as heavy metal band Metal Church and rapper Big Daddy Kane.
Jett and Laguna entered the Who's Ramport Studios with Laguna at the helm, and Jett's eponymous debut solo studio album was released by Ariola in Europe on May 17, 1980. In the U.S., after the album was rejected by 23 major record labels, Jett and Laguna released it independently on their new Blackheart Records label, which they started with Laguna's daughter's college savings. Laguna remembers, "We couldn't think of anything else to do but print up records ourselves." With Laguna's assistance, Jett formed the Blackhearts. It has undergone many lineup changes since its inception, with Jett and Laguna being its only consistent members.
Jett's first appearance on film is in the British concert film Urgh! A Music War (1982), performing "Bad Reputation" with the Blackhearts at the Ritz in New York City. A spring 1981 concert at the Palladium in New York City proved to be a turning point. Described by music journalists as a career-defining performance by Jett, it helped solidify a strong New York City following for Joan Jett and the Blackhearts. After a year of touring and recording, the Blackhearts recorded a new studio album titled I Love Rock 'n Roll for the label. Ambel was replaced by local guitarist Ricky Byrd during the recording. Byrd recalled in an interview with Guitarhoo!: "One day I went to a studio to jam around a bit with Jett and everything clicked". The first single from the album was the title track, "I Love Rock 'n Roll", which in the first half of 1982 was No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for seven weeks in a row. It is Billboard's No. 56 song of all time and has also been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2016.
Jett released the studio albums Album (1983) and Glorious Results of a Misspent Youth (1984). A string of Top 40 hits followed, as well as sellout tours with the Police, Queen, and Aerosmith, among others. She was among the first English-speaking rock acts to appear in Panama and the Dominican Republic. According to Jett and Laguna, a riot occurred during their visit to Panama, and military officer and politician Manuel Noriega requested Jett spend the night with him at the Presidential Palace.