Her 1980 solo debut, initially self-titled and later re-released as ‘Bad Reputation’, was infamously rejected by 23 labels, before she and Laguna put it out on their own imprint, Blackheart Records, spawning her signature song in its no-bullshit title track. Laguna scooped Jett up after The Runaways imploded in 1979, helping her to go solo and form her backing band The Blackhearts. “OK! I’m outta here!” he bawls back, his screen turning black. “Kenny! We don’t need to see the circus, OK? It’s a fuckin’ interview!” Jett barks. At one point, she chastises Laguna for keeping his camera on, lounging in his bed while his granddaughter crashes around the living room next door. Speaking to them is like being spliced into a deleted scene from the film. In doing so, he can be more outrageous than Jett herself.įor anyone who’s seen the 2018 Jett documentary Bad Reputation, which depicts their four-decade relationship as being – in the words of one interviewee – “a marriage without the sex”, the duo’s constant affectionate bickering will be instantly recognisable. We’re joined on the call by her manager, producer and best friend Kenny Laguna, who’s currently in northern California and occasionally interjects to clarify details she can’t quite remember. The view is the calmest thing about our riotous, hour-long interview, which sees the 63-year-old rock’n’roll icon tear into her critics with reckless abandon, while also kicking through the rubble of the boundaries she’s smashed since forming her taboo-busting punk band The Runaways in 1975. The ocean’s there and planes are coming into JFK… It’s beautiful,” says Joan Jett as she continues to show NME the view from her home somewhere in New York state, before heading back inside and turning the camera on herself, revealing that instantly recognisable jagged black bob-cut and those cat-like almond eyes.

“I’m right on the beach, so it’s awesome. It’s a reassuring sight: steady, calming. The beach is deserted, waves crashing hypnotically into the surf.

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