JOAN JETT WANTS TO BE YOUR DOG!

"I don't know, I guess 'cause I'm crazy."

At the tender age of 13, when most young girls are yelling and screaming over their rock idols, Joan Jett was one. As the rhythm guitarist for the all-girl rock band the Runaways, Joan released half a dozen albums, toured the world for five years and had a hit record before she was 21. How did she do it? At a time when there were virtually no female rockers to serve as role models for young girls, what made Joan dare to dream such a life for herself?

“I don’t know, I guess it’s ’cause I’m crazy,” the dark-eyed survivor says with typical self-effacement. “I remember going to rock concerts when I was very young. I was in the worst seat in the place and something like 20,000 kids were star ling up, screaming over Black Sabbath i couldn’t see the band, but I could hear the music and knew the kids were having a good time. I kept thinking ‘That’s what I want to do.’ I wanted to be on that stage, making all these kids yell!”

The fact that there were no women on that stage didn’t faze Joan. “That spurred me on all the more. I wanted to be the first. People used to laugh back then. They told the Runaways, ‘Girls can’t play rock ’n’ roll!’ They can’t??? I’ve got gold and platinum records of ‘I Love Rock N’ Roll’ on my wall that say they can.!”

After years of trail-blazing bravado and adolescent angst with the Runaways, Joan found herself bandless in 1978. “It was like my life was over. I was all alone,” she remembers. But raw determination has a way of nourishing itself back to health. And, of course, it helps to have friends. . . .

Joan met managers Kenny and Meryl Laguna in 1979, and a mutual love of simple, good-time rock ’n’ roll resulted in a high-spirited and unexpectedly wellreceived solo album, Bad Reputation. With the Laguna love and guidance, Joan formed the Blackheads and went for the jugular with 1981 ’s, multi-platinum I Love Rock And Roll. The subsequent Album and Glorious Results Of A Misspent Youth sustained Jett’s hot streak.

In 1986 more doors flew open for the feisty singer/guitarist when screenwriter/director Paul Schrader chose her to co-star with Michael J. Fox in Light Of Day. In addition to unveiling a new and provocative side to her talents, the picture offered Joan an opportunity to sing “Just Around The Corner To The Light Of Day” (written for the film by Bruce Springsteen) and “This Means War.”

“It was a good experience for me,” she says today. “I would certainly love to do another movie, but I really want to have a good role. I want another real acting part. We’re getting a lot of roles submitted, but they just don’t seem to be the right kind of thing. I liked making a film. I thought I would be very nervous, trying to remember lines, looking in the camera, being around famous actors. But I was very well prepared for my role. I’m used to working eighteen hours a day.”

Jett’s work on her current LP Up Your Alley included long songwriting sessions with hitmaking tunesmith Desmond Child (of Bon Jovi/Kiss/Cher fame). “Obviously Desmond has a talent for writing songs that are catchy,” Joan says. “Our chemistry really worked. We both felt it. There was an electricity in the room when we were writing. We wrote three songs including ‘I Hate Myself For Loving You.’ I also wrote songs with Rick Browde, who’s worked with Poison and the Scorpions, and my guitar player Ricky Byrd.

“I have actually had people ask me, ‘Do you feel like a man or a woman when you go onstage?’ ” sighs Jett. “Seriously, that is a real interview question. What if somebody went up to someone who was Jewish and said: ‘What is it like to be Jewish in rock ’n’ roll?’ I’m never asked typical road questions like, ‘What kind of amps do you use? What kind of strings do you use? What kind of picks?’ Why not ask me those things? I get insulted. When Keith Richards told Musician magazine that ho liked my band because we’re good rock ’n’ roll musicians, I felt great. Being a female can be a great asset, but it shouldn’t be the first thing people judge my music by. But you’ve just gotta laugh it off. I went through my punching stage in the Runaways. I’ve learned to laugh now.

“People think I’m going to rip everybody’s head off. They think that I’m mean and aggressive. I am aggressive, but not in a mean way. They think I’m a bitch, a real tough cookie. I guess they believe certain rock ’n’ roll myths about me. What bothers me about this is that they’re afraid to come up to me and talk. That makes me feel real bad because I love to talk to people, whether it’s on a plane or in a market or whatever. I’ll see some kid dare another kid to ask me for an autograph. When I give it to him, he’s amazed. ‘Oh?? You 'don’t mind!?’ Of course not! I love it. I don’t want people to be afraid of me. I want them to come up and say hi! The kids are everything to me.”