Talking About The Music with Joan Jett

Last year Joan Jett put out an album which went gold and was, by at least one account (mine), one of the most thrilling straight-ahead rock 'n' roll records since Exile On Main Street. This year Joan is putting out a new album (Glorious Results Of A Misspent Youth) which is every bit as ballsy and brilliant as the last one, featuring one track ("Frustrated") which by all rights should become the new anthem of the terminally pissed-off. So why should this woman worry? Well, if you cast your tired memory banks all the way back to 1982, you'll recall that Joan Jett put out an album called / Love Rock 'N' Roll which sold god-knows-how-manymillions-of-copies worldwide and had a big-deal #1 platinum single. Because of this, a lot of people regard last year's Album—which never went above #20 on the charts and had no real single—as a relative bomb, making this new LP sortof-a comeback attempt. All of which pisses Joan Jett off. "You do an album that sells millions of copies and people expect you to come up with this thing that will sell as many every time," says Jett, sitting in the New York offices of her management company. "Do you realize how many albums a million is? To me, if you go gold consistently, that's success."

Leaning forward on the jet black couch in her manager's office, Joan begins to pick up speed. "Everybody looks at you and says, 'Write us another "I Love Rock 'N' Roll." ' I feel like shovin' 'em against a wall and saying, 'you write another "I Love Rock 'N' Roll." Why don't you sit down, figure out what the market's gonna be like three months from now—what everyone's gonna be into then, and write a song for it.' You can't do that. You have to write what you feel. Our attitude is—this is our music, accept it or don't accept it."