Joan Jett Had Some Feelings To Share About Rush
SPIN Magazine does a killer job of dusting off articles from their archives and this 1987 feature on Joan Jett has a real kicker.
The piece starts with Jett standing outside her tour bus after a gig in Albany, signing autographs for and talking rock with about 100 fans. You know, the exact type of behavior you’d expect from a rock star that knows it’s her fans who keep the wheels rolling.
Then the focus shifts to Jett’s days in The Runaways and the emotions that came with not being taken seriously and being written off as a teenage novelty act:
But Joan was dead serious. A journalist writing about the Runaways called her the “dark soul of the band”; the Keith Richards. One night Rush watched them play from the wings of the stage; Joan saw them laughing. “The assholes! They’re assholes, and I don’t care if you print that!”
Teenage Joan Jett calling Rush “assholes” is my new favorite rock beef, even if it’s from like 40 years ago. BOOM. Like a cherry bomb flushed down the toilet.
UPDATE: ROCK 92.9 listener Bob passed this news clipping from 1976 along after reading our story. Joan certainly looks excited to be there. Not.