Joan Jett Loves that she and her band The Blackhearts will be inducted into the Rock and Roll hall of fame when the ceremonies are in Cleveland, Ohio. Joan and seven others will be in the Rock Hall’s Class of 2015, and they will be inducted into the Hall in ceremonies in Cleveland in April.
“She and the city are intertwined like the fingers of lovers’ hands,” states Cleveland.com.
“Where else should it be?” Jett said in a call to her New York office to discuss her induction into the Hall of Fame on Saturday, April 18, in Public Hall.
“If I’m going to be inducted, Cleveland is where it should be,” she said of the city and its people, for whom she feels such a connection, according to Cleveland.com.
“I guess I’m like them,” Jett said. “I don’t find Cleveland to be a kind of place that puts on any airs, and I don’t either.”
She and Cleveland have a history. “We played in Cleveland with the Runaways at the Agora Ballroom many times. We found that people seemed to really like us there.
“I have warm feelings about Ohio and rock ‘n’ roll and how they really love it,” she said.
Jett was also in the 1987 movie “Light of Day,” which was filmed in Cleveland at the Euclid Tavern featuring Jett and Michael J. Fox as sibling rockers.
“To do ‘Light of Day’ with Michael J. Fox there was an awesome thing,” Jett said, with a smile. “We got together a band – Michael plays, and we had other instruments, so the actors could get a sense of what it’s like to play in a band. That is a great thing to be able to do that.”
She was asked how it affected her to work in the “man’s world” of Rock & Roll.
“You can’t take anything for granted,” Jett said. “You just have to put your head down and work. Even knowing the female thing has affected it, I can’t be bitching.”
Joan has a tenacity that meant quitting in the face of naysayers and such was just not an option.
“It’s not in my nature to be told what I can do,” Jett said. “If you’re not hurting anybody and you want to play rock ‘n’ roll, well, a lot of people would tell me that girls can’t play guitar. They should be playing Beethoven, not rock ‘n’ roll, because rock ‘n’ roll is sexual, and up till now, girls weren’t allowed to own their sexuality.”
“Before long, I was in it so deep I didn’t want to do anything else,” she said.
But Jett apparently isn’t looking to change careers. “I do still enjoy it,” she said. “The part that feels like a job is the traveling aspect, but getting onstage never feels like a job to me. It’s an honor to be able to do this.”
OK, Fine. 