At 40, rocker Jett still soaring

Kirk Baird

Friday, July 6, 2001 | 9:24 a.m.

"I don't give a damn about my reputation," Joan Jett sang on her 1981 landmark punk/hard rock album "Bad Reputation."

In fact, nothing could be further from the truth. Jett, 40, is older, wise and, perhaps, more concerned with her public perception than ever before.

Jett and her longtime band, the Blackhearts, are playing shows throughout the summer and perform Saturday at the House of Blues. Jett said the notion that she's as tough as her leather-clad look and hard-rocking music is not entirely accurate.

"People are a little afraid and are intimidated (by my appearance). Tha image of being a tough rock person kind of scares people," Jett noted in a recent phone interview from her home in New York. "I'd like to think that I'm tough, but tough doesn't mean 'mean.' Tough just means that you stand up for what you believe in. I think that sometimes that translates into people thinking that I'm mean or intimidating I'm not."

Does that mean her tough-as-nails image bothers her?

"Yeah, a little bit," she said. "It's not a true perception. I can get angry and stuff when people treat me weird, like anybody can. But in general I think I'm a very pleasant person, and I like to get along with people and I like to make connections. To turn around and be mean to people you're trying to connect with doesn't make sense."

And there are other problems associated with her image as well.

"It's this 'Joan Jett' thing, like I'm not a real thing. A lot of people just call me Joan Jett like it's my only name ... my first name," Jett said. "To me it kind of makes you unreal.

"Take this for what it's worth, but sometimes I feel a little unreal, almost like a created character, when it's not. It's just you personified, your character. I do what I say and I say what I do. I'm a rock 'n' roller and I'm straight up ... sometimes that image can become bigger than the reality."

The reality for Jett began at 13, after she received a guitar as a Christmas gift. Captivated by the rawness and onstage presence of glitter rock artists such as the New York Dolls, T. Rex an Alice Cooper in the mid-1970s, Jett decided she wanted to be like them as well.

Two years later she helped form the all-female band the Runaways. The group featured future metal icon Lita Ford with Micki Steele on bass, who would later change her name to Michael and join the Bangles.

Despite their talent, the Runaways were largely ignored by the public and dismissed by critics as nothing more than a novelty act. After a raucous New Year's Eve show in 1979, the group broke up.

Jett continued on her own. After working with Los Angeles punk band the Germs as a producer, in 1980 Jett placed a couple of ads "looking for three good men" to form her own band. The Blackhearts were born.

With a band behind her, she got to work on her first solo project, "Joan Jett."

Initially available only in Europe, the album was released in the United States by one of its producers after no record label would pick it up. "Joan Jett" became the most successful indie rock record in history, and was subsequently picked up by a small independent label, Boardwalk, and released as "Bad Reputation" in early 1981.

Following heavy touring, she recorded her sophomore album, "I Love Rock 'n' Roll," which was released late that year.

Spurred on by the album's No. 1 single, "I Love Rock 'n' Roll," a cover of the Arrows' tune, as well as remakes of Tommy James' "Crimson and Clover" and Gary Glitter's "Do You Wanna Touch Me (Oh Yeah)," the record was a smash hit and made Jett a star.

But Jett's follow-up effort, "Glorious Results of a Misspent Youth," while musically evolved and a better overall album than anything she'd released before, failed to live up to expectations.

That pattern of ups and downs has dogged her career ever since. There have been other singles -- "I Hate Myself for Loving You" and a cover of AC/DC's "Dirty Deeds" -- and an acting career -- including her starring role in 1987's "Light of Day" with Michael J. Fox -- but little in the way of consistency.

As for now Jett is working on a new album with the Blackhearts ("not sure when it'll be out ...") and just finished an eight-month run as Columbia in the Broadway production of "The Rocky Horror Picture Show."

But no matter the ebb and flow of her career, there's no doubt about the influence she's had on others in the process.

Jett's hardcore rock 'n' roller persona and "take me as I am" demeanor served as inspiration for the early '90s punk-rock feminist movement, dubbed "riot grrrl."

And in a larger sense, she helped pave the way for any post-'80s female rocker, including riot grrrl acts such as L7, Babes in Toyland and Bikini Kill, all with whom she's collaborated.

"You get generations of girls growing up after me with a different view than maybe a lot of girls who grew up when I did," Jett said. "The girls didn't necessarily look around and say, 'Hey, I can play guitar.' I think now when you get girls who are teenagers ... it's that attitude that I can do this. You can achieve these goals outside of what society allows you to do."

In that respect, doesn't that make Jett a pioneer?

"I think the pioneer thing is easy to understand for me. And even role model is easy to understand. But when I get thrown is when people say words like 'idol,' " she said. "That to me is a little heavy."

As to persistent rumors about her sexuality, Jett's never publicly stated her gender preference. Some of the origins of those rumors, however, can be traced back to her support of gay rights organizations and her willingness to perform at their events.

"The way I look at it is everybody's people," she said. "You're just playing for your audience. And whether that audience is soldiers in Bosnia, because I played for them, too, but nobody calls me a soldier ... I don't really care what people call me. I think it's important to support people you want to support and not be afraid of being called names."

Her reputation be damned.