Joan Jett And The Blackhearts

The story of Joan Jett begins with a young girl’s dream to play rock and roll music, who quickly becomes a Rock Star and takes that star to movies, tv, video, and finally, the Great White Way.

Joan Jett, the actress, is making her musical theater Broadway debut in The Rocky Horror Show, although Joan Jett, the musician, sold out an extended engagement at Broadway’s Lunt-Fontanne Theater several years ago.

While still in her early teens, Joan, often called “the girl Elvis”, founded the seminal allgirl rock group THE RUNAWAYS, whose hits such as “Cherry Bomb” made them an international sensation. Her next group, Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, sold millions of albums, has been a staple in the Top 10 chars and claims the #28 song of all time, “I Love Rock n’ Roll”, which was number 1 on the Billboard charts for 8 weeks after 23 major record labels refused to give her a deal.

Her songs are like the background music of our lives, and can be heard not only on radio, but also in scores of movies and television as well.

Joan’s film credits include a starring role in Paul Schrader’s LIGHT OF DAY, with Michael J. Fox, Jason Miller, Gena Rowlands, and Michael McKean, and she appeared in BOOGIE BOY, an independent film by PULP FICTION alums Craig Hamann and Roger Avary. Her “bad guy” credits include playing an evil immortal in the HIGHLANDER television series, and she played a contract killer and reached a pinnacle in action film when she got to fight a martial-arts battle to the death with the legendary Chuck Norris.

Joan’s many innovative music videos are a staple of MTV and VH-1.

This past season she was asked by the New York Liberty of the WNBA to record their team anthem and she continues to support women’s college and professional sports whenever possible.

No stranger to men’s sports, she sang the National Anthem in Camden Yards at her friend, Cal Ripken’s request the night he tied Lou Gehrig’s record, and took part in the ceremony in one of the rare events in history that momentous enough for both the president and vice president to attend.

Aside from being one of the most durable live concert attractions, Joan Jett is the first female rock recording artist to own her own record label and has set a standard for women in the industry.

With the New York Times recently hailing Joan Jett as the “godmother to female musicians with loud guitars and idealistic dreams”, that moniker joins “the queen of punk” “the girl Elvis” and “the original riot grrl” as another way to describe the timeless appeal of a woman and her music.

Joan Jett’s icon status as a pop culture symbol of what women can achieve continues to grow throughout the world. Fit To Be Tied is Joan’s first greatest hits CD, (out on Mercury) to the delight of all her fans. With a new Joan Jett and the Blackhearts album due on Warners in the fall, a Runaways retrospective due, and a role in the film “Boogie Boy” by Pulp Fiction alums Craig Hamann and Roger Avary, Joan Jett is poised on a unique historic moment to honor her past and celebrate her future.

Joan, perhaps the first female artist to own her own record label, has expanded that part of her universe by joining forces with her original record company, Mercury/Universal, to distribute Blackheart Records through a major label for the first time and to revitalize the already impressive catalog sales of The Runaways, by retooling and reconfiguring the works of Mercury’s original “bad girl” rock & roll band.

Along with the Blackhearts, longtime drummer-Thommy Price, guitarist-Doug Cangialosi and bass player-Sean Koos, Joan has almost completed Friend to Friend, an album of deep thoughts and hit tunes further enriched by the one/two punch of producers Ted Templeman and Kenny Laguna. Joining the fun are old friends like legendary songwriter Jim Vallance and new friends like riot grrl queen, Kathleen Hanna of Bikini Kill.

The Blackhearts recently contributed a track to the Iggy Pop tribute album to benefit Lifebeat, a music industry aids charity. Joan’s interest in charity and women’s causes allowed her to express her support of women’s college basketball by rocking up The Mary Tyler Moore Show theme song, “Love Is All Around”, which became an anthem and instant hit record.

Joan brings this honesty, purity and intensity to all things she believes in, especially music. She produced the Germs seminal punk album, GI as well as tracks for Bikini Kill and Dischord Records’ Circus Lupus. Over the years she has invited everyone from R.E.M. and Social Distortion to the Butthole Surfers and Lungfish to open for her. She recently joined the Indigo Girls on stage at Madison Square Garden for an encore of “Crimson and Clover”. The Lilith Fair artists and Nine Inch Nails cite her as an inspiration. The integrity of the woman and her music is the bough that won’t break, the backbone of today’s rock & roll feminist revolution.