Known as the Queen of Rock ‘n’ Roll, Joan Jett is an American rock singer, songwriter, and guitarist born in 1958 in Wynnewood, Pennsylvania. With her family, Jett moved several times as she was growing up.
When she was 8, Jett attended her very first rock concert in Maryland for Black Sabbath and New York Dolls. Jett got her first guitar at the age of 14, and after her parents divorced, she began spending time in rock music clubs on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood.
It was at this time that she changed her name from Joan Larkin to Joan Jett, and began adopting a style inspired by Suzi Quatro, an American female rock singer and bassist.
“I asked my parents for a guitar for Christmas. It had to be an electric guitar,” Jett added, “And as a kid, you think you’re going to learn it all in one day, and I remember going in and (being) very exuberant and saying: “Teach me how to play rock ‘n’ roll.” And the guy looked at me like I was from another planet, you know?”
early 1975 in Los Angeles, Jett met record producer Kim Fowley, who was interested in creating a female rock band, so he introduced Jett to Sandy West, a drummer. Then they met three more musicians, guitarist Lita Ford, bassist Jackie Fox, and singer Cherie Currie, and the Runaways band took off, with Fowley as their manager and producer.
“I was 16. I was in school at the beginning of The Runaways, and I couldn’t continue traditional classes. The schedule was too crazy, and I was a senior at the time, and I decided to get my GED and get my diploma equivalent and get out early so I could go do all this stuff. I never left school. I actually enjoyed school. I think it’s important,” she said.
Jett co-wrote the band’s debut single, Cherry Bomb, she dyed her hair in black and had a special style with red or black leather outfits.
The Runaways played in clubs in the United States and later toured in other countries.
Between 1976 and 1978, The Runaways recorded four studio albums; Runaways and Queens of Noise were their most famous, but their young age and gender made it harder for them and attracted controversy.
In 1979, Jett decided to leave the band after some management tensions, and then the group officially disbanded.
Jett moved to London to start a solo career, first she recorded music with Steve Jones and Paul Cook, then she started working on her first solo album, but more than 20 labels turned her down.
Later, Jett teamed up with music producer Kenny Laguna and formed Blackheart Records, releasing Joan Jett in 1980. A year later, she signed with Boardwalk Records, and the album was re-released as Bad Reputation.
After that, Jett, with the Blackhearts, put together another album. I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll, which became a huge hit, and was at the top of the pop charts in early 1982.
Jett also tried acting, she had a role with Michael J. Fox and Gena Rowlands in American director Paul Schrader’s film Light of Day, playing the role of a bar band musician and single mother. She also sang the film’s title song.
In the 1990s, Jett’s career was revived by a feminist punk movement, the riot grrrl, that supported aggressive sound with passionate, socially conscious lyrics.
Bands such as Bikini Kill, L7, and Babes in Toyland recognized Jett as a pioneer for female rock musicians, and Jett began producing and performing with many of them.
At that time, Jett also had concerts to raise money for a private investigator to find Zapata’s attacker and to support Home Alive, a women’s self-defense organization in Seattle that was founded after Zapata’s death.
Through the late 1990s and early 21st century, Jett and the Blackhearts continued to release albums through Blackheart.
Jett and the Blackhearts were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2015.
This year, Jett completed her first UK tour in 16 years during July, with stops in Glasgow, Manchester, Leeds, and London, alongside an appearance at Wembley.
Jett and the Blackhearts canceled their remaining 2026 tour dates, including late summer and September festival appearances, after Jett had surgery for a fractured vertebra.
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