Speaker 1: Quest Love Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: Ladies and gentlemen puts up. This is Quest Love separate way,
Speaker 2: I believe. Is this our first Quest Love Supreme back
Speaker 2: together since since what like last April?
Speaker 1: Since the oscars, I feel like I've not spoken to me.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think this is the first one. Maybe we
Speaker 2: did like one episode or something like that. But yeah,
Speaker 2: I was about to say.
Speaker 1: Like this, it's been a long time. We've been doing
Speaker 1: a bunch of one on ones.
Speaker 2: But I'll start off our episode people by saying that
Speaker 2: because of the ungodly amount of hours that I've spent
Speaker 2: at the Windwood train station or taking the one of
Speaker 2: five and the one of three bus to my insurance
Speaker 2: job to pay for a demo, I feel just a
Speaker 2: little bit more connected to our guest today than any
Speaker 2: than any other guest that's.
Speaker 1: Been philadelph adjacent. I'll put it that way. Now, I
Speaker 1: got excited. I get excited when any Philly adjacent guest
Speaker 1: comes on too. Oh yeah, Quest of Supreme. Uh. And
Speaker 1: no matter how much New York tries to claim you.
Speaker 2: I know for a fact that you did hard time
Speaker 2: at Montgomery County. You know, once once in Philadelphia, always Philadelphia,
Speaker 2: AnyWho Philly.
Speaker 3: And I lived in Pittsburgh and I lived in Eerie. Oh, yes,
Speaker 3: lots of different Yes that's us.
Speaker 2: Yes, my mother is from Pittsburgh, so yeah, I am
Speaker 2: definitely a share of fair share.
Speaker 1: Family members that you know have have.
Speaker 2: Educated edumacated me on just life in Pittsburgh in general.
Speaker 2: I'll say that our guest today, of course, as a
Speaker 2: legendary singer, legendary songwriter, producer, let's not forget a kick
Speaker 2: caass guitarist, a member of two legendary units. First, of
Speaker 2: course coming to us as a member of the Runaways,
Speaker 2: a band who pretty much defied all logic and stuck
Speaker 2: to their guns and pretty much had inspired a generation
Speaker 2: of musicians and creators around the world.
Speaker 1: And of course the second band needs no introduction.
Speaker 2: Of course, I'm speaking of her namesake, Joe Jet and
Speaker 2: the Black Hearts Class of twenty fifteen Rock and Roll
Speaker 2: Hall of Fame. What can I say without her? You know,
Speaker 2: I don't even want to limit it to just there's
Speaker 2: no riot girl movement. There's just there's a whole portion
Speaker 2: of hard rock and punk and a lot of post
Speaker 2: late eighties early nineties bands that formed in LA that
Speaker 2: really want to existed without our guest today. So, without
Speaker 2: further ado, welcome Joone Jet to quest Love Supreme. So
Speaker 2: were you talking to us right now?
Speaker 3: Were you was fine? Home in New York and on
Speaker 3: Long Island at the beach. Yeah, well yeah, I live
Speaker 3: at the beach. Yeah, I'm looking right on the water though.
Speaker 1: All right.
Speaker 2: You know, I just I discovered I discovered in the pandemic.
Speaker 2: And I keep telling everyone, especially New york Er, is
Speaker 2: this and they don't believe me. New York doesn't realize
Speaker 2: they have their own Mahuland Drive and they have their
Speaker 2: own Venice Beach. Now, you know, I've not There was
Speaker 2: a point where I think the main train was going
Speaker 2: to shut down that leads to Williamsburg causing you know,
Speaker 2: it's going to shut down for like two years whatever
Speaker 2: while they did reconstruction, causing a whole burrow to literally
Speaker 2: relocate elsewhere. Like restaurants started shutting down and all of
Speaker 2: them basically relocated to Long Beach. So when a friend
Speaker 2: of mine made me visit out there, I didn't know
Speaker 2: what to expect, Like is personally expecting uh you know,
Speaker 2: kind of yah Hawkins, like post Benson herses, you know whatever. No,
Speaker 2: I went out there and it's like, yo, it is the.
Speaker 3: Shit it was. It was pretty beat up, like when
Speaker 3: I moved here in nineteen seventy nine.
Speaker 1: Oh so you're like a loyalist. You've been there for everything.
Speaker 3: So what do you do right after the Runaways broke
Speaker 3: pretty much right after the Runaways broke up with seventy
Speaker 3: nine that I'm not my partner Kenny Waguna.
Speaker 1: What do you make of it now?
Speaker 2: Because like literally it's like if I didn't have to
Speaker 2: be in Manhattan at like the drop of a dome, like.
Speaker 1: I would actually move out to Long Beach.
Speaker 2: Like it's it's they totally I don't want to say
Speaker 2: just regentified it, but they literally did it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, okay, you know they're making it. I don't know
Speaker 3: what you want to call it? Nice end quote, yeah, nicer.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I wasn't. I wasn't ready for that.
Speaker 3: So when I moved here, it was they just opened
Speaker 3: all the mental institutions or something. So when I got here,
Speaker 3: there were crazy people walking all over the place, and
Speaker 3: you could I could have bought my apartment for like
Speaker 3: twenty grand or something. But you know, those days are long.
Speaker 1: The price is definitely going up.
Speaker 3: So yeah, and now people want places like this so
Speaker 3: even more so.
Speaker 2: Yeah, anyone's like trying to sell their house right now
Speaker 2: in Long Beach can easily take in high six figures
Speaker 2: to almost a million.
Speaker 1: Definitely, That's that's where it is now. People are like
Speaker 1: headed out there.
Speaker 2: So I start off of each episode with the question, Uh,
Speaker 2: what do you remember what your first musical memory was?
Speaker 3: I can't. I can't be positive, but it would.
Speaker 2: Be just one that you remember, not the technical all right,
Speaker 2: all right, singing Mary had a little lambite eight months
Speaker 2: what I mean?
Speaker 3: But I think of my father playing classical music, or
Speaker 3: my parents listening to Johnny Mathis or something like that,
Speaker 3: Rank Sinatra.
Speaker 1: Okay, how long did you live in Uh? Well, technically
Speaker 1: you're born in well Winwood, right, Yeah.
Speaker 3: I was born a lack in all Hospital, so wherever
Speaker 3: that is. Yeah, I moved very early. I moved at
Speaker 3: like six months old and moved to Pittsburgh. So I
Speaker 3: can't really say I grew up in Philly. I was
Speaker 3: just born there.
Speaker 1: So when you have memories of your childhood, what's the
Speaker 1: city you think of?
Speaker 3: Maryland?
Speaker 1: Oh?
Speaker 3: Okay, I moved to Maryland from Erie, Pennsylvania when I
Speaker 3: was eight. When I was eight, so I moved. I
Speaker 3: lived in Maryland, Rockville, Maryland from eight to thirteen, so
Speaker 3: really formative years, you know, when you come into your
Speaker 3: own I guess, you know, go from being a kid
Speaker 3: to puberty and you know, all those big changes it happened,
Speaker 3: i'd say, eight to your teen years.
Speaker 2: What effect does that have on someone that you know,
Speaker 2: where you don't have actual roots, like you kind of
Speaker 2: move every other year, every two or three years, Like
Speaker 2: what effect does that have on you?
Speaker 1: As far as like.
Speaker 3: That's a good question. I wonder how much of it
Speaker 3: I'm doing psychology on myself. I was thinking about this
Speaker 3: the other day. How much of it is my was
Speaker 3: my lifestyle from a very early age, from being on
Speaker 3: the road, you know, just constantly moving and also but
Speaker 3: growing up that way too, never really being in one
Speaker 3: place very long longest with Maryland when I lived there
Speaker 3: five years. So maybe you don't really feel secure and
Speaker 3: making friendships or any kind of relationships. So you know,
Speaker 3: I don't know. Maybe I tend to keep people at
Speaker 3: arms length. Okay, no, it's something I'm unfriendly. It's just
Speaker 3: I'm a good with intimacy.
Speaker 1: I suppose that's real. Do you have siblings or like,
Speaker 1: what's the No, it's.
Speaker 3: It's well, I'm not good at faking it.
Speaker 1: Hey man, I feel you.
Speaker 3: I have a brother and I have a sister. They
Speaker 3: both still live in California. My brother's in San Diego,
Speaker 3: my sister's in North Hollywood.
Speaker 1: Are you the baby in the middle or the oldest?
Speaker 3: No, I'm oldest. Okay, I'm the oldest. I'm out here,
Speaker 3: oh instantly, you know, when I was sixteen pretty much,
Speaker 3: you know, and and I left and formed the band
Speaker 3: and not really at home much more after that. I
Speaker 3: think I see the I think I see the repercussions
Speaker 3: of that now later. But I don't know if that's
Speaker 3: my lifestyle or if it's from not really having that connective.
Speaker 2: Family thing as the result of moving. Was that because
Speaker 2: you were an army brat or just my father.
Speaker 3: Was you know, my father was an insurance man, so
Speaker 3: traveling insurance, traveling insurance man in the olden days. That
Speaker 3: is that a real thing? Or was that at a hostitle.
Speaker 2: I went out to Either way, I went out to
Speaker 2: it to uh when would to sell insurance?
Speaker 1: So I don't know, maybe I was like working for
Speaker 1: your father.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, but I guess you know, they have areas
Speaker 3: and they'd go and I don't know if it was
Speaker 3: a door to door. I really don't know. I didn't
Speaker 3: I didn't discuss it with them that much. But that's
Speaker 3: that's what my mother told me. Anyway, traveling traveling salesman. Okay,
Speaker 3: so we moved around.
Speaker 2: Yeah, do you remember the first album that you purchased
Speaker 2: with your own money?
Speaker 1: I should know this, right, or a single or a
Speaker 1: single well.
Speaker 3: Probably was an Osmond brother's record.
Speaker 1: Thank you. You know.
Speaker 3: Oftentimes, maybe I shouldn't be that honest.
Speaker 2: I was gonna say most most people get stuck with
Speaker 2: this because I think for a lot of us, the
Speaker 2: answer is always going to be an uncool answer, you know.
Speaker 2: I think for the shut up Steve, because no, I'm
Speaker 2: thinking my owners the coolest. But yeah, well no, you know,
Speaker 2: I would naturally tell people like, oh yeah, Jackson five
Speaker 2: or whatever.
Speaker 1: But the real answer was Neil saidaka, but how's that
Speaker 1: going to look in print? You know? Not great?
Speaker 3: Could have been the Chaps at five too. I mean
Speaker 3: you know what, I just I just got done watching
Speaker 3: the movie that you won thank you towards for I've been.
Speaker 3: It is so great, and it reminds me of growing
Speaker 3: up because I feel like the music I grew up
Speaker 3: listening to was a lot more diversified and a lot
Speaker 3: a lot blacker than people would I would even no,
Speaker 3: I suppose it just seemed to be a lot a
Speaker 3: lot of all those songs, all those bands that were
Speaker 3: in that very familiar with it all. But it feels
Speaker 3: like stuff I watched as a kid, right, you know,
Speaker 3: I don't know, I loved it.
Speaker 1: Thank you.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, I think for a lot of people,
Speaker 2: you know, especially with this movie, the kind of the
Speaker 2: underline or the undertone of it all is basically like
Speaker 2: this was you know, it was easily lost in history.
Speaker 2: It's set in basement for fifty years, so you know,
Speaker 2: for it to get out one was the miracle. But
Speaker 2: you know, to also just let the world know about,
Speaker 2: you know, contributions to culture.
Speaker 1: But thank you, thank you for absolutely. I appreciate that.
Speaker 3: Absolutely, But even more than just the music, I see,
Speaker 3: you know what they were saying about the change, you
Speaker 3: know that they wrote upon this this change that was
Speaker 3: happening in society and just the way people looked at
Speaker 3: themselves and stuff, and it was you know, really quite poignant,
Speaker 3: I thought, and really on.
Speaker 1: You know, I appreciate that.
Speaker 2: Did you come from a musical family like a cousin
Speaker 2: or any of those things?
Speaker 3: I really think everybody, I think if you gave them
Speaker 3: no to answer your question, no, nobody, not that they actualized.
Speaker 3: But I believe because my family all tended to be
Speaker 3: creative but never actualized it. You know, they were too
Speaker 3: fearful or didn't think it was their place or right.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 3: Look, I know my dad loved art and he loved
Speaker 3: the jaw or paint and you should have done that,
Speaker 3: you know. And you know my mom all those things.
Speaker 3: My brother I know that he would have liked to
Speaker 3: play an instrument but didn't pursue it. And I'm sure
Speaker 3: my sister, you know, she's an artist too, she makes
Speaker 3: things with her hands. So yeah, they all have that thing,
Speaker 3: but didn't really get the chance that I kind of
Speaker 3: just grabbed and took.
Speaker 2: All right, So what was the entry of or at
Speaker 2: least the moment that you felt like, Okay, this is
Speaker 2: what I want to do, like the curiosity factor?
Speaker 1: What was that moment for you?
Speaker 3: Hearing songs like the Bangagong by t Rex, just hearing
Speaker 3: certain songs on the radio all right now by the
Speaker 3: free because there was something that was a little out
Speaker 3: of tune with one of the guitars on the rhythm guitar,
Speaker 3: and something about that made me want to go, I
Speaker 3: want to make those sounds. It was something that connected
Speaker 3: with my bones, you know, with my crotch, and even
Speaker 3: as a little kid, I knew it. I didn't know
Speaker 3: what the word was, but I knew that it resonated
Speaker 3: deep inside me, you know, and I wanted to make
Speaker 3: those sounds. So I think, though, I'm I'm just lucky
Speaker 3: that the way my life moved, because it could have
Speaker 3: been anything. I could have moved on to another thing
Speaker 3: that I loved. I mean, I loved horses. I rode
Speaker 3: horses for a while. I mean the guitar. My family.
Speaker 3: I got this guitar. I tried to learn how to
Speaker 3: play it, but I didn't really have anyone to play with,
Speaker 3: so I kind of just learned the basic chords and
Speaker 3: put it down. Then my family moved to guitar. Yes
Speaker 3: it is, Yes it is.
Speaker 1: Everyone starts off with.
Speaker 3: And then my family moved to Los Angeles. So now
Speaker 3: I'm like, okay, now I'm going with a place where
Speaker 3: there's gotta be other girls that want to do what
Speaker 3: I'm doing. It's gotta be in Los Angeles. He's got
Speaker 3: to be other girls that want to play mock and roll.
Speaker 3: And you know, I was right, And I'm sure if
Speaker 3: i'd really looked around Maryland or you know, any of
Speaker 3: the big cities are going to DC, I would have
Speaker 3: found it too. But I just wasn't thinking that way
Speaker 3: because all my magazines that I was reading geared me
Speaker 3: towards Hollywood.
Speaker 2: Okay for you though, you know how usual or unusual
Speaker 2: especially you formative years, Like was guitar encouraged or you
Speaker 2: know oftentimes or was there someone like you might want
Speaker 2: to do piano or the clarinet or like something that.
Speaker 3: I did okay in school, you know, but I wasn't
Speaker 3: very good at it, and I wasn't I wasn't that interested.
Speaker 3: And now I wish i'd now, I wish I had
Speaker 3: paid attention, you know. And then I had learned to
Speaker 3: play just so I could read music, but you know,
Speaker 3: just to be able to play other instruments. I was
Speaker 3: made to feel quite inadequate. I just worked with the
Speaker 3: trombone shorty and made me feel really you see that
Speaker 3: guy on he's with a little little kid with a
Speaker 3: big trombone, you know, but you know, now he's an
Speaker 3: older guy, but he's just you know, he's one of
Speaker 3: those prodigy people.
Speaker 4: So did you just learn to play just mainly about
Speaker 4: ear or you still don't read music?
Speaker 3: Now that's just you know, was my records and stuff?
Speaker 2: Were you encouraged because I think that yes, no, especially
Speaker 2: especially with anyone with a woman grabbing an instrument in
Speaker 2: the sixties and the seventies, hell even eighties, almost like
Speaker 2: I'm certain that there has to be some sort of
Speaker 2: figure there that says women can't do that, and women, you.
Speaker 3: Know, everybody said that. Nobody encouraged me. Nobody only my
Speaker 3: parents who told me when I was a little kid
Speaker 3: that I could be anything I wanted to be. So
Speaker 3: now they couldn't turn around and say, well, you could
Speaker 3: be anything except a guitar player. So you know, they
Speaker 3: just thought I'd grow out of it, that I'd phase
Speaker 3: out of it and go into something else, which I
Speaker 3: think I might have happened had I not moved to
Speaker 3: California and been able to find other other girls, and
Speaker 3: maybe I would have gone on to something else. But
Speaker 3: that didn't happen, and I went to LA and nobody
Speaker 3: thought it was a good idea. My guitar teacher said
Speaker 3: girls don't play rock and roll, which I knew right away.
Speaker 1: What he if, they want you to play acoustic instead? Yeah,
Speaker 1: like follow Mitchell.
Speaker 3: Or yeah, yeah, pretty much, pretty much. But I knew
Speaker 3: exactly what that meant. Girls don't play rock and roll.
Speaker 3: So what are you saying to me? You're saying girl,
Speaker 3: You're not saying girls can't master the guitar, because I'm
Speaker 3: in school, I'm playing clarinet. There's girls next to me
Speaker 3: playing violin and cello, playing Beethoven and box So you're
Speaker 3: not saying that you can't master the instrument. What you're
Speaker 3: saying is rock and roll is sexual by its nature.
Speaker 3: So if women are playing rock and roll and singing
Speaker 3: rock and roll, they're singing about sexuality and they're owning it.
Speaker 3: And we're not comfortable with that. And I knew that
Speaker 3: as a as a kid, even then, I knew that
Speaker 3: that just you weren't allowed to it. But I had
Speaker 3: something to do with sex, and I was just like, no,
Speaker 3: you know, because this is so not about sex.
Speaker 1: For me.
Speaker 3: I want to be able to do this because I
Speaker 3: want to do it. You know, Mick Jagger rides out
Speaker 3: on a big inflatable penis. I want to do what
Speaker 3: the Rolling Stones do? You know what I had nothing
Speaker 3: to do with with that. It was about fairness. I
Speaker 3: know it doesn't make sense, but it was about and
Speaker 3: the right thing. What's right. I mean, I'm not hurting people,
Speaker 3: you know, I'm playing rock them home for Price's sake,
Speaker 3: give me a break. So that that's the kind of
Speaker 3: fire that would fuel me on through through all this stuff.
Speaker 2: See, I never I never had the pleasure of having
Speaker 2: a conversation with anyone who you know, it's pretty much
Speaker 2: either first out the gate or at least in the
Speaker 2: pine pioneering stages of starting a movement, to to even
Speaker 2: ask them what their mind state is, you know, because
Speaker 2: oftentimes you know, our our greats leave and you know
Speaker 2: before we get to ask them about their process. And
Speaker 2: so you know, I always wanted to know if because
Speaker 2: even when I was in high school, like someone I
Speaker 2: think I was honest with one teacher like what I
Speaker 2: was going to do, Like I'm start a band with
Speaker 2: that da And you know, I went to high school
Speaker 2: with boys to men, and they were yeah, they were
Speaker 2: like on fire, and you know, I sort of like, well,
Speaker 2: you know, are you guys going to be boys to
Speaker 2: men popular?
Speaker 1: You're just gonna be one of these local accidents. You know.
Speaker 2: I wasn't thinking that deep about my process or anything.
Speaker 1: I think he tried to talk me out of like
Speaker 1: pursuing my career.
Speaker 3: So yeah, see, I don't understand that about people. This
Speaker 3: is what I want to know about people in dreams.
Speaker 3: You know, you're sitting here shooting the shit with your
Speaker 3: friends and you say what you said, do you want
Speaker 3: to play? And someone tries to talk you out of it?
Speaker 1: Right?
Speaker 3: Why is everyone dear to try to talk you out
Speaker 3: of it as opposed to saying, yeah, man, that sounds interesting,
Speaker 3: go for it. At least if you don't make it,
Speaker 3: you gave it a shot. You give you dream a shot.
Speaker 3: What is that about people?
Speaker 4: I think some people get infent or they get intimidated
Speaker 4: when they see that your dreams don't include them.
Speaker 1: And so they just have to shoot the shit down,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean.
Speaker 4: That's like if I run a Hamburger stand, the last
Speaker 4: thing I want you to do is become a vegan.
Speaker 1: You know what I mean? Don't don't do that, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean.
Speaker 2: But I also think that oftentimes we're just I think
Speaker 2: in America we often training ourselves to do this safe thing.
Speaker 2: Like I think hopefully my generation is the last generation.
Speaker 2: What you're here like fall back on something safe, Like
Speaker 2: I definitely learned that from every Uncle COVID.
Speaker 1: That showed us ain't shit safe because do what you
Speaker 1: want to know rightly exactly.
Speaker 2: So what Okay, so you're a musician in Los Angeles
Speaker 2: and you're young at the time. Had this been you know,
Speaker 2: twenty two thousand and seven or whatever, you would have
Speaker 2: the aide of the Internet to help you. But what
Speaker 2: is the process of finding what you're specifically looking for,
Speaker 2: which I assume are women that play instruments and are
Speaker 2: passionate about it just as you are, Like, so, what's
Speaker 2: the process of searching for them? And at any point
Speaker 2: where you just like, at least at least in the
Speaker 2: runaway stages where you like, okay, anyone male female can
Speaker 2: join or for you, is it like I have to
Speaker 2: find all women?
Speaker 3: No, And for the runaways, it was definitely an all
Speaker 3: women thing because you know, we hadn't hadn't really been
Speaker 3: done or you know, if it hadn't been done and
Speaker 3: been done years earlier with full grown women, but not
Speaker 3: teenage girls. And so I just had this thing and
Speaker 3: I wanted to do it, and I didn't see a
Speaker 3: good reason to change that that plan, you know, and
Speaker 3: give up so easy, you know, saying, oh, this might
Speaker 3: be hard, but you know, it's hard to think back
Speaker 3: and realize how different it was then than it is
Speaker 3: now and how you can reach out to people on
Speaker 3: the phone on the internet, right, I mean, you're talking
Speaker 3: we had rotary phones, you know, we're talking about phone booths.
Speaker 3: We're talking about you didn't get hold of people. You know,
Speaker 3: if you got hold of somebody, you met them at
Speaker 3: a certain time, on a certain corner, at a certain place.
Speaker 3: You know, there was none of this.
Speaker 1: So Fante right here.
Speaker 2: Fante is is probably to his family base, probably most
Speaker 2: known for being one of the first musicians to really
Speaker 2: take a take advantage of the i'll say the positive aspect.
Speaker 1: Of internet colonization.
Speaker 2: One of the one of the bands that he started
Speaker 2: was a group called Foreign Exchange, in which where where's Nick?
Speaker 1: Now?
Speaker 4: He's in Wilma's Nick right, but we're like to ask me.
Speaker 4: At the time, he was in the Netherlands, and uh,
Speaker 4: we just recorded that. We met on okay player on
Speaker 4: a meror site, and we just started trading files online
Speaker 4: back and forth and we'd complete an album.
Speaker 1: We didn't meet each other until it was and that
Speaker 1: was until they didn't.
Speaker 2: Even meet yet before they made a classic album, you
Speaker 2: know what I mean.
Speaker 1: And so yeah, so you know what, what is the process.
Speaker 2: Of how do you find these these first of a
Speaker 2: feather if you will?
Speaker 3: Yes, in that time, I believe what we did is
Speaker 3: we put an ad in what was it the La Weekly,
Speaker 3: Okay maybe, and we went out to a lot of
Speaker 3: the clubs that I would hang out at and I
Speaker 3: would just survey the crowd and look for girls.
Speaker 1: This is around seventy four or seventy five.
Speaker 3: This would have been seventy five, okay, so like from
Speaker 3: a like after August, after August fifth.
Speaker 2: So all right, this is what I have to know.
Speaker 2: You're in You're in California. Were you a driver? Did
Speaker 2: you have a car?
Speaker 1: Oh?
Speaker 3: I didn't drive, no buses. I took a lot of buses.
Speaker 3: And also my mother was, you know, sort of complicit
Speaker 3: in all this, so she uh would drive me to rehearsal.
Speaker 3: She would take me to the club sometimes and pick
Speaker 3: me up late at night.
Speaker 2: Yeah, she So clubs weren't sweating like I mean, of course,
Speaker 2: now we live in a place where you got to
Speaker 2: show you know, damn near twelve forms of ID to
Speaker 2: get in anywhere, or it is your license.
Speaker 3: K cull I went to it was it was for teenagers.
Speaker 3: There was no booze, so to worry about that. So
Speaker 3: there was no booze there. And I don't think she
Speaker 3: was really thinking about drugs or anything like that.
Speaker 2: Who were your were you're any any of your contemporaries
Speaker 2: also sort of in that movement that later became names.
Speaker 1: Themselves like no not really once.
Speaker 2: Like Cherry and Lida, your band members sort of like
Speaker 2: come in to play.
Speaker 1: How did you know that? Okay, this is this is it?
Speaker 1: They're the ones?
Speaker 3: Well, we didn't have that many choices number one, you
Speaker 3: know what I mean. It was more like do we
Speaker 3: want to try? Well, first it was it was the
Speaker 3: drummer myself, Sandy West and I. We missed, yeah, and
Speaker 3: so we were solid as hell. Sandy and I. I
Speaker 3: took four buses to her house in Huntington Beach. Four yeah,
Speaker 3: four bosses, and I set up in her wreck room
Speaker 3: and we played you know, some just basic Chuck Berry
Speaker 3: rock and roll progression and said, you know, it was
Speaker 3: really good. Sandy played with a lot of guy you know,
Speaker 3: high school band kind of things, and so she was
Speaker 3: used to playing with bands, but usually guys. So we
Speaker 3: really locked in and we called Kim Falley who was
Speaker 3: our producer, who became our producer, and said, hey, check
Speaker 3: it out, put the phone down, played for him, said
Speaker 3: it sounds great. Let's go find other girls. So it
Speaker 3: was really you know, from there we started looking when
Speaker 3: start looking at clubs and I put an ad in
Speaker 3: a paper and stuff like that.
Speaker 1: Who came up with the name of Runaways?
Speaker 3: I did?
Speaker 1: Okay, so already at your marketing plan?
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, I've been thinking about this for
Speaker 3: a little while now, you know, a couple of months
Speaker 3: at least.
Speaker 2: Did you guys have a daily regiment or was just
Speaker 2: like when every time was free, then we'll rehearse or whatever.
Speaker 3: But yeah, I really tell the truth, I can't remember.
Speaker 1: Amazing.
Speaker 2: How can you be a kid and also start this
Speaker 2: very adult thing?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 1: All parents involved, like encouraging of this.
Speaker 3: Or no, our parents were involved, but a couple of
Speaker 3: the girls were a year younger than me, so they
Speaker 3: were like in eleventh grade, so they still had school
Speaker 3: to deal with. And yeah, not all the parents were
Speaker 3: throlled about it. But in the end, I don't no.
Speaker 3: I guess they didn't want to fight their daughters or something.
Speaker 3: But for school, I got good, pretty good grades, and
Speaker 3: I took my ged I was already in twelfth grade,
Speaker 3: but I wanted to get out a little bit early
Speaker 3: so we could go on the road.
Speaker 1: So, okay, I always wanted to know.
Speaker 2: I guess in me the the initial incarnation of the Runaways,
Speaker 2: like why weren't you the lead singer or why didn't
Speaker 2: you want to be the before?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I was way too shy at the time. And
Speaker 3: you know, I was way too shy. I had no confidence,
Speaker 3: you know, I just I had no confidence, and it
Speaker 3: was just really shy. It was amazing that I could
Speaker 3: do what I wanted, what I was doing, you know,
Speaker 3: just getting on on stage with the guitar.
Speaker 1: But did you have your voice then? You just kept
Speaker 1: it as a secret or.
Speaker 3: I sang back, I sang background vocals. Yeah I could sing.
Speaker 3: Yeah I could sing. I did wind up singing half
Speaker 3: of the leads on the first Runaways album because Shari
Speaker 3: didn't want to sing the rock and roll or the
Speaker 3: rock and roll harder songs. She felt that she didn't
Speaker 3: have the voice for it or didn't feel comfortable singing
Speaker 3: some of them. So the one she didn't feel comfortable singing,
Speaker 3: I sang the leads and I sang backup on everything else.
Speaker 3: So I did have a voice, but I just wasn't
Speaker 3: comfortable being the focal point.
Speaker 1: Man, gotcha.
Speaker 2: So at this point, at this point in developing the band,
Speaker 2: who are you looking up to? Because again, you guys
Speaker 2: have ushered in. You guys ushered in an era and
Speaker 2: you know, pretty much your band's existence just basically starts
Speaker 2: a domino effect on again people that come ten to
Speaker 2: fifteen years later. But you know, in seventy five, seventy six,
Speaker 2: when you guys are doing this band, like who's cool
Speaker 2: to you? Like are the Stones and Zeppelin? Sort of
Speaker 2: like ah, that's old whatever music? Like who who's grabbing
Speaker 2: your attention?
Speaker 1: Like?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, I know I was disappointed with the
Speaker 3: Stones and they started doing.
Speaker 1: Like you weren't an exil Lamain steep Stream.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I know I wanted them to.
Speaker 1: You didn't like something rock and roll.
Speaker 3: You know, I didn't like them doing some girls.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well it.
Speaker 3: Was it was fine, but you know, I don't know.
Speaker 3: I guess I wanted them to be playing something that
Speaker 3: I could really rock out to.
Speaker 1: You know, whatever, No one stays rebellious forever.
Speaker 3: I know. I know that it's a.
Speaker 1: Good seven year I.
Speaker 2: Get it now, before you start doing your classical record
Speaker 2: or whatever.
Speaker 3: No, I get it now, I believe me. But I
Speaker 3: think a lot. I think I really started looking to
Speaker 3: the punk rock stuff right away because the Ramones came out,
Speaker 3: I believe in nineteen seventy five, late seventy five, very
Speaker 3: first Ramones album and all the punk's rock stuff I
Speaker 3: was reading a lot about and I really gravitated very
Speaker 3: quickly to a lot of those bands because I felt,
Speaker 3: you know, kinship with a lot of them.
Speaker 2: I mean, there's always like groups or artists or albums
Speaker 2: that are always on someone's cannon, like.
Speaker 1: Their top five records of all the time.
Speaker 2: You always see the names whatever, and I never sometimes
Speaker 2: you don't do the investigation of it, and you know,
Speaker 2: of course I've always seen them Ramon's name everywhere. Finally,
Speaker 2: I listened down from from top to bottom, like two
Speaker 2: years ago and realized, like how genius and hard it
Speaker 2: is to really convey emotion and lyricism in less than
Speaker 2: two minutes.
Speaker 4: Hey, let's go yo a jam though, that's a jam exactly.
Speaker 2: So for you, were you seeing that there was a
Speaker 2: science here, like, you know, the type of rock that
Speaker 2: you were you were fed as a child is way
Speaker 2: different than the ideas that you're about to spew into
Speaker 2: the world. Like for you, it was like, look, we
Speaker 2: gotta don't boris get to the chorus two minutes.
Speaker 3: Right, Well, no, you gotta see. The thing was, it
Speaker 3: didn't really transfer that much into our music. Might might
Speaker 3: have translated a little bit to my songwriting, but you know,
Speaker 3: as a group, as a band, most of the girls
Speaker 3: weren't really into the punk rock the way I was.
Speaker 3: You know, they were much more they liked heavier bands,
Speaker 3: you know, more like you know or yeah, yeah, you
Speaker 3: know that heavier stuff, Rainbow you know, whichy blackmore that
Speaker 3: kind of stuff. So, you know, we didn't really see
Speaker 3: eye to eye on our hang out music. So we
Speaker 3: didn't you know, we had to come from a place
Speaker 3: when we met in the middle, So you know, I
Speaker 3: just stole considered what we did to be basic rock
Speaker 3: and roll.
Speaker 2: What was the division of labor as far as the
Speaker 2: songwriting is concerned and what you're going to cover or
Speaker 2: who's gonna write what? Like, who's who's the primary songwriter
Speaker 2: of the group?
Speaker 1: Was that your giant?
Speaker 3: I think I think it was May For the most part,
Speaker 3: it was May. I wrote either songs with Kim Valley
Speaker 3: as a lyricist, or I wrote songs by myself. I
Speaker 3: think I wrote a couple with some of the other girls,
Speaker 3: but not too many. And yeah, so I guess I
Speaker 3: was the primary one.
Speaker 2: Back then, Like it was sort of hard for you
Speaker 2: guys to break out in the States, but yet you
Speaker 2: know you're the magic's working instantaneously when you go overseas.
Speaker 1: Like how much of a mind fuck? Was that too?
Speaker 1: Kind of because that's very similar to hip hop?
Speaker 2: Like, you know, my band had to move to Europe
Speaker 2: for five years, right, just so that you know, in
Speaker 2: quote unquote pool of Hendrix and then come back to
Speaker 2: the Units States like that sort of thing. Like, but
Speaker 2: in your mind, was it a dream deferred or like, wait,
Speaker 2: what's going on here?
Speaker 1: Or what were your feelings.
Speaker 3: On I thought, well, you know, a lot of different
Speaker 3: a lot of different feelings. Yeah, one part of me
Speaker 3: had wished that we had the same sort of response
Speaker 3: in the States, but it was so different around the world.
Speaker 3: And Japan was like all girls and like the Beatles,
Speaker 3: like Mania, people fainting, girls fainting, and I think it,
Speaker 3: I think it kind of scared a couple of the
Speaker 3: other girls. I was exhilarated, but you know, there were
Speaker 3: people who were rocking the car, and we'd never really
Speaker 3: had that kind of experience at all. I mean, anybody
Speaker 3: in their right mind would probably should probably be scared,
Speaker 3: but I didn't get too scared. And then in Scandinavia,
Speaker 3: another place, all girls, all wearing real pacifiers and sucking
Speaker 3: on these pacifiers. Yeah, tell me about it. Yeah, I
Speaker 3: didn't get it, and I never found out what it was.
Speaker 3: I guess it was just some kind of fat or
Speaker 3: fashion that they were doing, but.
Speaker 1: On particular photo shooters.
Speaker 3: No, no, no, no, they were giving us the ideas,
Speaker 3: you know. But then then in England, you know, England
Speaker 3: gets you know, they I think they got the runaways
Speaker 3: of a lot more than Americans did, but they still,
Speaker 3: you know, the English love to take the piss out
Speaker 3: of you. So we took a lot of ship, but
Speaker 3: there were a lot of people I think there that
Speaker 3: liked us too. We did well in Germany and I
Speaker 3: think Europe did pretty well, but we didn't tour there
Speaker 3: a lot, so I don't know face to face and
Speaker 3: record stales I can never go by really, because you know.
Speaker 2: So retrospect, where would you categorize the genre? You know,
Speaker 2: are you guys at the forefront of the La punk movement?
Speaker 1: Were you just hard rock? Were you you kind of the.
Speaker 2: Towards barer for what will eventually become like the glam
Speaker 2: metal scene that would happen fifteen years later with those
Speaker 2: groups in LA.
Speaker 3: I mean I always just called it rock and roll,
Speaker 3: and I think what we did. I think what we
Speaker 3: did was punk rock to its core, you know, just
Speaker 3: doing dictating what you're gonna do and doing it and
Speaker 3: not listening to what anybody says, and I mean I thought,
Speaker 3: and doing that in the context of how society treated
Speaker 3: you at the time, I think it was the ultimate
Speaker 3: punk rock stuff. You know, even for the girls it
Speaker 3: didn't want to play in punk rock. They were being
Speaker 3: punk rock just by what they were doing. They didn't
Speaker 3: have to play it.
Speaker 1: So you guys pretty dissolved almost as quick as yeah,
Speaker 1: you came aboard.
Speaker 2: Do you remember how eventful or uneventful the last night
Speaker 2: of the group was before you realize that it's not
Speaker 2: happening anymore.
Speaker 3: I don't remember remember if it was. I know it
Speaker 3: wasn't a happy time, and we knew it was a
Speaker 3: New Year's seventy eight into seventy nine. It was our
Speaker 3: last gig, and we knew it was our last gig
Speaker 3: because we decided to disband after that because I didn't
Speaker 3: want you know, I felt like I said, that musical
Speaker 3: separation was there between girls want to play heavier music
Speaker 3: than me, and so I thought, man, I don't want
Speaker 3: to get fired from the band I started or something weird,
Speaker 3: So let me just quit and we'll just you guys
Speaker 3: can do your thing.
Speaker 2: And well, I can assume that leader was one that
Speaker 2: wanted to do heavier stuff, right.
Speaker 3: It was not animosity, It was not you know, it
Speaker 3: was not an anger or anything. We weren't going fuck you,
Speaker 3: fuck you, right, you know, it was just like because
Speaker 3: we had been friendly, we didn't want it to be
Speaker 3: weird and it's just like, just let me, I'll just go.
Speaker 3: You guys do your thing.
Speaker 2: You know, it's weird before I got admit that in
Speaker 2: watching the documentary, I didn't realize that quote that Leader
Speaker 2: Ford was the Leader Ford and the Runaways, because I
Speaker 2: guess my my dealings with leaders any anytime, there was
Speaker 2: always a person that wanted to give I'm not even
Speaker 2: making any nugent comparisons, but if there was anyone that
Speaker 2: ever wanted to give like hip hop the middle finger
Speaker 2: with a quote.
Speaker 1: It was always Leader. For I knew her more for
Speaker 1: her disdain of hip hop than I lived for like
Speaker 1: what she actually did.
Speaker 3: Yeah, no, for real, Like I guess I should say
Speaker 3: I'm not surprised, but yeah, like I know her.
Speaker 2: For her quotes of like why she ateed hip hop?
Speaker 2: So I always knew that. Whenever I hear the name
Speaker 2: Leader for it, I'm like, what happened now? But then
Speaker 2: you know, But then when I started the thing, I
Speaker 2: was like, oh, she was a runaway.
Speaker 1: I get it now.
Speaker 3: So I don't want no guilt by association though, because.
Speaker 1: Hey man, we all know you made Light a Day.
Speaker 4: I used to watch that movie every day after school
Speaker 4: when I was in like third grade, So we.
Speaker 1: As a twenty one year old, are you feeling like Okay? Well,
Speaker 1: I did that? What do I do now? For you?
Speaker 1: It's just like on to the next, Like.
Speaker 3: Did you know I was feeling like it was time
Speaker 3: to die? It is what I was feeling like. I
Speaker 3: was feeling like the whole city of LA was laughing,
Speaker 3: going we told you it wouldn't work. We told you
Speaker 3: girls can't play rock and roll, you know, and I
Speaker 3: just was I was not taking care of myself. I
Speaker 3: was drinking too much. My dreams were crushed, you know,
Speaker 3: and I had no friends. You know. It was like
Speaker 3: everybody was gone, you know what I mean. They disappear
Speaker 3: on that level and you're just alone with your thoughts
Speaker 3: and your beer or whatever it was I was drinking.
Speaker 2: So how long did the sort of the feeling of
Speaker 2: funk last before you started your I assume that, you know,
Speaker 2: starting the Black Hearts was your eventual Yeah.
Speaker 3: Well, actually I met my partner, Kenny Luduna, my songwriting
Speaker 3: partner and my producer. He became my producer and manager
Speaker 3: because nobody else wanted to deal with me. We met
Speaker 3: to write songs for a movie that I had contracted
Speaker 3: to do before The Runaways broke up. I had to
Speaker 3: write six songs for a film, and so my manager
Speaker 3: at the time, a guy named Toby Mamis, knew Kenny
Speaker 3: and knew that he had worked with a lot of
Speaker 3: bubblegums bands in the sixties and knew that he could
Speaker 3: write songs quickly and should be easy to work with.
Speaker 3: So he called him and said, would you come out
Speaker 3: and meet Joan to do this project with her? And
Speaker 3: so Kenny did and we met and hit it off
Speaker 3: and really became good friends the first day. I don't
Speaker 3: know what it was that he saw in me, but
Speaker 3: he thought I was the real deal, I guess, And
Speaker 3: we wrote some songs and then I said would you
Speaker 3: produce these songs that we wrote together? And he did,
Speaker 3: and then you know, as we continue, I didn't have
Speaker 3: anybody to manage me, and so he had took that
Speaker 3: on too, thinking it would be easy that he could
Speaker 3: get me deals and all this and that. But no,
Speaker 3: he started getting those. You know, he knows a lot
Speaker 3: of people in the business, and people just told him no.
Speaker 3: And then I think it got to him where, oh
Speaker 3: my god, this is real, and then he got pissed
Speaker 3: because then he saw this sort of you know, just
Speaker 3: prejudice and misogyny, you know, straight out bullshit so I think,
Speaker 3: you know, that fight lit that fire in him to
Speaker 3: help fight for me.
Speaker 1: So it took about two years. First of all, whose
Speaker 1: idea was it to recover or to redo?
Speaker 2: I Love rock and Roll? I don't think many people
Speaker 2: know that that's a cover song.
Speaker 3: Yes, yes, I saw that song when I was in
Speaker 3: England with the Runaways and I saw this band on
Speaker 3: top of the Pops, the Arrows, and they were playing
Speaker 3: the B side to their hit, and the B side
Speaker 3: to their hit was I Love rock and Roll. I
Speaker 3: don't know what their hit was. The B side was
Speaker 3: I Love rock and Roll. And I'm like, wow, that
Speaker 3: sounds like a hit to me. And I went out
Speaker 3: to the record shop and bought the forty five, thinking,
Speaker 3: you know, the Runaways, maybe we could do this and
Speaker 3: it'll be a hit. But then I was reminded that
Speaker 3: by the other girls that we had done We covered
Speaker 3: Lou Reed's rock and Roll on the first album, on
Speaker 3: our first Runaways album, and you know, I guess I
Speaker 3: didn't want rock and roll and every title on every
Speaker 3: album kind of so sort of blew it off for
Speaker 3: a while and I just held on to the song,
Speaker 3: and then after the Runaways thought here we.
Speaker 2: Go see life lesson you gotta go with your gut.
Speaker 1: Yep, that's the second time you learned that lesson.
Speaker 2: So how different does life turn for you once that
Speaker 2: song makes you pretty much a household name?
Speaker 3: Well, just I think the the fame level rose, and
Speaker 3: we had more people at our gigs and stuff and
Speaker 3: made a little bit more money. Finally it could make
Speaker 3: a little bit more money. So those things change a
Speaker 3: little bit. But you know, for the most part.
Speaker 1: But is that also a scarier feeling?
Speaker 2: Because I think oftentimes when someone gets a success, the
Speaker 2: first thing in their head is, Oh God, how am
Speaker 2: I going to sustain this?
Speaker 1: How am I going to make it last? What's the
Speaker 1: next single?
Speaker 3: Yeah, there was part of that, but I wasn't like
Speaker 3: so far up there that it was. You know, when
Speaker 3: you're number one and you're I don't know, I guess
Speaker 3: you know on one level you can't stay there forever,
Speaker 3: and I guess you know, you know you have to
Speaker 3: have your next one. I guess initially we knew what
Speaker 3: that next one was going to be, which was Crimson
Speaker 3: and Clothes, right, And what was.
Speaker 1: It about that song that made you want to choose that?
Speaker 1: Damn it? My my only question of the day. Okay,
Speaker 1: it's a great you want to say it? What made
Speaker 1: you want to cover? How change in the Shandals? Answer
Speaker 1: the question, I turned a light on.
Speaker 3: Good and when I when I you know, when I
Speaker 3: met Kenny and I knew that he played those songs,
Speaker 3: and I'm like, so you played the money Mooney. He's
Speaker 3: like yeah, and I'm like, okay, so I want to
Speaker 3: cover Crimson Clover. I just thought, you know, it'd be
Speaker 3: weird because I didn't want to change the lyrics, and
Speaker 3: that was just the way I was. I wanted to,
Speaker 3: you know, push the envelope a little bit because I
Speaker 3: just wanted to.
Speaker 1: The original recording. So so I guess psychedelic and so
Speaker 1: what was you guys?
Speaker 3: Just my reason for different, I mean because Tommy's Tommy's
Speaker 3: like when they's I guess. Kenny told me when he
Speaker 3: was asked what is it about? You know, it was
Speaker 3: about LSD, you know, Glover, So it wasn't about really
Speaker 3: her so specifically, So when people ask people what I'm
Speaker 3: singing about, it's like, well, I mean, I guess I'm
Speaker 3: singing it more literally, but not specifically at anybody. You know,
Speaker 3: it's just being put out into the world is that
Speaker 3: it's those sentiments, but it's not directed specifically at a person.
Speaker 2: So at that particular point, coming into the early part
Speaker 2: of the eighties and whatnot, are do you have a
Speaker 2: peer group? Are there is there a trusted circle that
Speaker 2: you can howl around with, like normally you know, birds
Speaker 2: of a feather flock together as far as like people
Speaker 2: liking each other's music whatnot?
Speaker 1: Like was there a tight.
Speaker 2: Knit community in the sort of the la rock community
Speaker 2: by this point for you at least?
Speaker 1: Or were you still like.
Speaker 3: Oh, I was gone isolated out there. I was out
Speaker 3: of there. But in seventy nine.
Speaker 1: I came back to New York, Okay, into New York.
Speaker 1: So even in New York, like for that is there
Speaker 1: it was?
Speaker 3: I mean, no, I didn't hang out. I didn't really
Speaker 3: you know.
Speaker 2: I was also going to say, like everyone was sort
Speaker 2: of going new wave in New York and you're going
Speaker 2: straight rock and roll, Like were you a fish out
Speaker 2: of water?
Speaker 1: And like were you sort of upholding.
Speaker 2: A tradition that you felt would soon sort of take
Speaker 2: a back seat?
Speaker 3: You know, I don't know that I thought I had
Speaker 3: that much. Could I planned it out or thought about
Speaker 3: you know, what's the future of rock and roll? Or
Speaker 3: a lot scentthier. You know that there was a lot
Speaker 3: of sense music going on.
Speaker 2: Well, I mean, were you going to the Lower East
Speaker 2: Side and in the early eighties to see groups like
Speaker 2: Bad Brains or any like. Were you at all interested
Speaker 2: in the movement that was happening in the Lower East
Speaker 2: Side right?
Speaker 3: I was, Yes, I was interested, but I was working
Speaker 3: too much to be I was on the road the
Speaker 3: whole time. I don't even know if I was around
Speaker 3: most of the time. I mean literally on the road
Speaker 3: all the time, pretty much in nineteen eighty five, pretty much,
Speaker 3: I mean at least through November and then you know,
Speaker 3: depending on what the tour was, we were always working
Speaker 3: and then be off through January and then start working
Speaker 3: again in February. It was pretty pretty brutal. And I
Speaker 3: didn't realize that until the pandemic hit, okay, and then
Speaker 3: nothing was happening, And then I realized how much of
Speaker 3: my life I had been on the road constantly, and
Speaker 3: all these other things we talked about about, you know,
Speaker 3: feeling separate, you know, and being isolated. But I did,
Speaker 3: you know, I definitely have friends that I knew once,
Speaker 3: you know, once I was settled in New York and
Speaker 3: I had a routine and I still have that that
Speaker 3: sort of core. Few I can count on my one
Speaker 3: hand level of friends.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's that's real life. Like, yeah, real people have
Speaker 1: two to three people. Wait. I always wanted to know this.
Speaker 2: Okay, so from my from my point of view as
Speaker 2: a record collector, all right, I'll explain to you Fonte,
Speaker 2: Well you probably know already, but like for me, Boardwalk
Speaker 2: Records is almost akin to like Malaco Records.
Speaker 3: Oh wow, so.
Speaker 1: Exactly what you mean that said?
Speaker 2: I always wanted to know what was it about Boardwalk
Speaker 2: Records that made you choose that as your label, because
Speaker 2: I knew that sort of as kind of as as
Speaker 2: a second tier label for acts that were pop.
Speaker 1: It in the seventies for soul music.
Speaker 2: I know that Ohio players wound up on Boardwalk Records
Speaker 2: for like their eighties catalog.
Speaker 1: I remember the Five Stare.
Speaker 2: Steps morphed into Wow, the Invisible Man's Band, uh for
Speaker 2: the eighties or whatnot.
Speaker 3: Kenny would know so much about this because he, you know,
Speaker 3: I think he knew Neil Bogart before we got oh wow, wow,
Speaker 3: you know, so Kenny knew him pre pre Boardwalk.
Speaker 1: I didn't know that Neil boat Guard started Boardwalk Records.
Speaker 3: Yes, that Costa Blanco, Yeah right, and yeah, and he
Speaker 3: just liked me and wanted he really liked me a
Speaker 3: lot and wanted me to be able to put out
Speaker 3: my record. So he said, you know, we'll put it
Speaker 3: out and he and he did, and he died like
Speaker 3: the week before when number one and never got to
Speaker 3: see if the number one, which really bums me out
Speaker 3: because he was such he.
Speaker 1: Died in eighty one.
Speaker 3: But yeah, I.
Speaker 1: Did not know that.
Speaker 3: But yeah, he was a real believer and you know,
Speaker 3: one of those guys that it always looked great. It
Speaker 3: was all sharply dressed and just you know, believed in
Speaker 3: me and believed in Kenny, I think more than anything.
Speaker 2: Yeah, everyone that describes Neil Burgard describes it as like
Speaker 2: the last true like one of the last creatives.
Speaker 1: And that was a.
Speaker 2: Suit at least, I mean, I know the suit's a suit,
Speaker 2: but whatever.
Speaker 1: Yeah, But I don't know.
Speaker 2: For me though, I would say that, like you were
Speaker 2: so ahead of your time, was it weird to sort
Speaker 2: of have not a comebackup source but just to see
Speaker 2: well no, no, no, I'm just saying that a lot of
Speaker 2: these bands that started popping in the mid nineties late
Speaker 2: nineties started name checking like Jones, Jen Black Cars like
Speaker 2: or even with your work with the Runaways, like for you,
Speaker 2: did you not ever think that the day would come
Speaker 2: on which you would see.
Speaker 1: Kind of flowers the affects of.
Speaker 2: Your people that like grew up on your music or
Speaker 2: well especially like when the Riot girl uh with with
Speaker 2: Kathleen and yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, because they totally did tip their hat to me
Speaker 3: and I and I knew it so because you know,
Speaker 3: they told me so, and it was it was great.
Speaker 3: It was great to see that. I mean, I always
Speaker 3: knew that there, whether or not people admitted it, that
Speaker 3: we'd have some influence you know, in life and too
Speaker 3: music and and that, and it's really nice to see
Speaker 3: it confirmed and see people say it, you know, and
Speaker 3: not just girl bands but some guys too, and that's
Speaker 3: really nice.
Speaker 2: So yeah, I was going to say plenty of times
Speaker 2: where like Kirk has has name dropped you or you
Speaker 2: know or I know that role that was definitely a
Speaker 2: big fan.
Speaker 1: I was there at night and at the Rock and
Speaker 1: Roll Hall of Fame when he want.
Speaker 3: What a night?
Speaker 1: Yeah, So how did how did you know?
Speaker 2: Was that was that surprising to you when you got
Speaker 2: the news or you know, I know oftentimes every every
Speaker 2: person I know that gets inducted.
Speaker 1: In the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has the
Speaker 1: same sort of like.
Speaker 2: Neilistic if it happens, it happens whatever, you know, that
Speaker 2: sort of thing. But for you, was it when you
Speaker 2: got the news of you getting in, like what was
Speaker 2: the feeling behind it? No?
Speaker 3: I thought I was very happy, you know, of course
Speaker 3: I thought, but I see, I'm used. I'm kind of
Speaker 3: used to not being up for awards my whole life.
Speaker 3: It's not really been what my career has been about,
Speaker 3: like nominated for a lot of different things, you know,
Speaker 3: it's not what's happened. So just the fact that got
Speaker 3: nominated I thought, was it was really nice? But I thought,
Speaker 3: you know, I don't know, I don't know if I'm
Speaker 3: going to win this. But and I still believe this
Speaker 3: to my core that because christ said it on stage
Speaker 3: that night that they had they felt they had no
Speaker 3: choice but to put me in. Then they forced their hand.
Speaker 3: So whether whether I would have really gotten in or
Speaker 3: whether it was that, I don't know.
Speaker 1: I'll say this much because you know, I'm I'm part
Speaker 1: of that. I've been part of that.
Speaker 2: Well you know, I call the recreation of the twelve
Speaker 2: angry Men scene, but there's like thirty five of us
Speaker 2: arguing back and forth. You know, your name has definitely
Speaker 2: been at least for my first year there, which I
Speaker 2: think was like twenty eleven, has constantly been like champion
Speaker 2: and argued and and well that's well, you know, we
Speaker 2: were joking about it's only a matter of time before
Speaker 2: you do your classical record for your your soft album.
Speaker 2: But you know, the latest album released is your acoustic work,
Speaker 2: and you know, how did.
Speaker 1: That feel for you? Like for you is it a
Speaker 1: thing where you need a new challenge?
Speaker 3: And no, it was really it was a way to
Speaker 3: just we wanted to give the fans something different. I'd
Speaker 3: never looked because I had had such a weird relationship
Speaker 3: with guys telling me my guitar teacher saying girls can't
Speaker 3: play rock and roll. I always kept acoustic guitarists really
Speaker 3: at range length. I never owned one. I never wanted
Speaker 3: to own one until about you know, maybe ten years ago,
Speaker 3: maybe a little.
Speaker 2: Bit, but you mean ten years ago. You like finally
Speaker 2: like gave in was like all right, let me try
Speaker 2: acoustic guitar.
Speaker 3: Let me just have it, because I can't always hear
Speaker 3: my electric guitar, you know, if you're trying to write
Speaker 3: a riff and you really need to hear something right,
Speaker 3: you know. So I just had it, but not a
Speaker 3: good one. Little shitty wanted to be. Then a couple
Speaker 3: of years ago, we did a documentary called Bad Reputation.
Speaker 1: Yes, it came out.
Speaker 3: It was all about my career and my life and stuff.
Speaker 3: And when we did the premiere, they wanted us in LA.
Speaker 3: They wanted to see if we could perform a couple
Speaker 3: of the songs in the theater, and I knew we
Speaker 3: couldn't set up electric, and it suggested that maybe we
Speaker 3: tried some acousticsuff. So we did it, but with the
Speaker 3: whole band. So it was myself, my guitar player, acoustic bass,
Speaker 3: and our drummer, and we you know, played Bad Reputation
Speaker 3: and a couple of the songs and it felt really good. Actually,
Speaker 3: it felt a lot better than I thought it was
Speaker 3: gonna feel, and like you could transfer the energy. It's
Speaker 3: going to be different than electric, but it was still worked.
Speaker 3: So then last year twenty twenty one and twenty twenty
Speaker 3: two is the fortieth anniversary of both Bad Reputation Album
Speaker 3: and I Love a Role Album because one came out.
Speaker 3: They both came out in eighty one something like that.
Speaker 3: So we wanted to do some extra things for the
Speaker 3: fans and maybe record some acoustic stuff. So we thought, oh,
Speaker 3: we did that stuff for the premiere, let's go in
Speaker 3: the studio record a few songs. Once we got in
Speaker 3: there and started playing songs, we really just did everything
Speaker 3: we could do live. We just once we started recording,
Speaker 3: we just kept going. And we didn't really plan on
Speaker 3: having an album's worth or two of material, but I
Speaker 3: just wound up there and thought, what the hell put
Speaker 3: it out?
Speaker 1: Listen to that? How do you? How do you feel
Speaker 1: about it?
Speaker 3: Like your I feel good about it. I feel it's fun.
Speaker 3: It's different. We play some on stage, like we'll do
Speaker 3: our electric show and then come and then do instead
Speaker 3: of an encore, do like three or four acoustic songs
Speaker 3: that has been going over. Just started like a month
Speaker 3: ago and a half ago doing doing it, and see
Speaker 3: how we go over live, because you know, I don't know,
Speaker 3: listen in front of people, so they seem to like it.
Speaker 3: So we'll see what happens, and we'll see what happens
Speaker 3: with the stadium tour. You know, we're gonna see if
Speaker 3: we can work some into that.
Speaker 4: And if it doesn't, what are those guys like now,
Speaker 4: like Mottley Crue And I don't know.
Speaker 3: We we played with def lepper before and okay, uh,
Speaker 3: but I've never played with Motley Cruz, so I don't know.
Speaker 3: I have no idea what to expect, but it should
Speaker 3: be interesting.
Speaker 2: I learned this with Blue Oyster Call Deaf Lepperd's album
Speaker 2: covers were more scarier than def Lepperd was.
Speaker 1: The thing is like if Mutt Lane you know, Likett.
Speaker 2: Is too he's too Yeah, he's too polished in to
Speaker 2: really like I'm telling you people exactly if you listen
Speaker 2: to the love Bites whatever, like fucking harmonies like it's
Speaker 2: it's it's just more enhanced California harmonies to me, you
Speaker 2: know what I mean? And so I don't know. It's
Speaker 2: where I never truly saw. I mean, of course, you
Speaker 2: know they they create one anthem that will probably play
Speaker 2: in every gentleman's club.
Speaker 1: Now to the end of time.
Speaker 2: I just meant, you know, Sugar has has a kick
Speaker 2: ass rift to it, but I've never considered definitely.
Speaker 1: I mean I don't.
Speaker 2: I don't consider def lever metal the same way I
Speaker 2: don't consider the Police hard rock, you know what I mean?
Speaker 3: Well, people are loose with their terminology now, you know,
Speaker 3: don't you find? Well?
Speaker 2: Yeah, sometimes you were just find yeah exactly right now?
Speaker 2: Like where with his storied career and is there is
Speaker 2: there anything that you have yet to achieve or yet
Speaker 2: to you accomplished that you.
Speaker 3: Oh, I'm you know, I wouldn't know who who to
Speaker 3: say specifically, but I'm always interested in doing newing different things.
Speaker 3: I just actually did something. Did I mention that with
Speaker 3: Trombone Shorty?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 3: So you know it's it's it's new for me. I'm
Speaker 3: not always great with that because I'm good with knowing,
Speaker 3: you know, and being comfortable and doing what I know
Speaker 3: and that kind of stuff. So I have to try
Speaker 3: to get better with, you know, just jumping into the
Speaker 3: unknown and not being so.
Speaker 1: Getting out of comfort zone.
Speaker 3: Yeah yeah, but being okay with that and and being
Speaker 3: you know, you're gonna live, You're gonna be okay, don't worry.
Speaker 3: I don't know. I think I'm ready for my R
Speaker 3: and B album now, let's go there.
Speaker 1: It is there, it is, let's go.
Speaker 2: But Joe, thank you very much, uh yeah, for for
Speaker 2: for joining us and and and doing this with us.
Speaker 1: And you know, we appreciate your work. I've been a
Speaker 1: longtime fan of yours.
Speaker 3: Oh, thank you all. It's been a real pleasure, definitely
Speaker 3: for sure.
Speaker 1: Thank you.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Jon, you guys take care of.
Speaker 2: Turn on Court Love Supreme. We will see you guys
Speaker 2: on the next cover round, all right, Thank you.
Speaker 3: M H.
Speaker 1: West Lop. Supreme is a production of Iheartened Radio.
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