Joan Jett

right|thumb|Jett performing live with the Gibson Melody Maker in Norway, during the 1980s With Laguna’s assistance, Jett formed the Blackhearts. Laguna recounted, “I told Joanie to forget the band and support herself on the advance money. There was enough for her but not for a band. She said she had to have a band. And I believe to this day that it was the Blackhearts, that concept, that made Joan Jett.” She placed an ad in the LA Weekly stating that she was “looking for three good men”. John Doe of X sat in on bass for the auditions held at S.I.R. studios in Los Angeles. He mentioned a local bass player, Gary Ryan, who had recently been crashing on his couch. Ryan was born Gary Moss, and adopted his stage name upon joining the Blackhearts in 1979, in part to cover up the fact that he was only 15 at the time. Ryan was part of the Los Angeles punk scene and had played bass with local artists Top Jimmy and Rik L. Rik. He had been a fan of the Runaways and Jett for years. Jett recognized him at the audition and he was in. Ryan in turn recommended guitarist Eric Ambel, who was also at the time part of Rik L. Rik. The final addition to the original Blackhearts was drummer Danny “Furious” O’Brien, formerly of the San Francisco band the Avengers. This lineup played several gigs at the Golden Bear, in Huntington Beach, California, and the Whisky a Go Go in Hollywood before embarking on their first European tour, which consisted of an extensive tour of the Netherlands and a few key shows in England, including the Marquee in London. Laguna fired O’Brien at the end of the tour, and upon returning to the States, Jett, Ryan, and Ambel moved to Long Beach, New York. Auditions were set up, and Lee Crystal, formerly of the Boyfriends and Sylvain Sylvain, became the new drummer. The band then toured throughout the US, slowly building a fan base, but struggling to remain financially afloat. Throughout 1980, the band was able to keep touring solely due to Laguna drawing on advances from outside projects. Jett and Laguna used their personal savings to press copies of the Joan Jett album and set up their own system of distribution, sometimes selling the albums out of the trunk of Laguna’s Cadillac at the end of each concert. Laguna was unable to keep up with demand for the album. Eventually, old friend and founder of Casablanca Records, Neil Bogart, made a joint venture with Laguna and signed Jett to his new label, Boardwalk Records and re-released the Joan Jett album as Bad Reputation. A spring 1981 concert at the Palladium in New York City proved to be a turning point. Described by music journalists as a career-defining performance by Jett, it helped solidify a strong New York City following for Joan Jett and the Blackhearts. After a year of touring and recording, the Blackhearts recorded a new album entitled I Love Rock ‘n Roll for the label. Ambel was replaced by local guitarist Ricky Byrd during the recording. Byrd recalled in an interview with Guitarhoo!, “One day I went to a studio to jam around a bit with Jett and everything clicked”. The first single from the album was the title track, “I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll”, which in the first half of 1982 was number one on the Billboard Hot 100 for seven weeks in a row. It is Billboard No. 56 song of all time and has also been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2016. Jett released Album (1983) and Glorious Results of a Misspent Youth (1984). A string of Top 40 hits followed, as well as sellout tours with the Police, Queen, and Aerosmith, among others. She was among the first English-speaking rock acts to appear in Panama and the Dominican Republic. According to Jett and Laguna, a riot occurred during their visit to Panama and Manuel Noriega requested Jett spend the night with him at the Presidential Palace. After receiving her own MTV New Year’s Eve special, Jett beat out a number of contenders to appear in the movie Light of Day with Michael J. Fox. Bruce Springsteen wrote the song “Light of Day” especially for the movie, and her performance was critically acclaimed. It was about this time that Ryan and Crystal left the Blackhearts. They were soon replaced by Thommy Price and Kasim Sulton. Later that year, Jett released Good Music, which featured appearances by the Beach Boys, the Sugarhill Gang, and singer Darlene Love. Joan Jett and the Blackhearts became the first rock band to perform a series of shows at the Lunt–Fontanne Theatre on Broadway, breaking the record at the time for the fastest ticket sell-out. Her next release, Up Your Alley, went multi-platinum. This album contains the single “I Hate Myself for Loving You”, which peaked at No. 8 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, and had been used as the theme song for Sunday Night Football NFL games in America (with altered lyrics, by two singers) during the 2006 and 2007 seasons. This was followed by The Hit List, which was an album consisting of cover songs. During this time, Jett co-wrote the song “House of Fire”, which appeared on Alice Cooper’s 1989 album Trash. In 1990, the band had a song on [[Days of Thunder (soundtrack)|Days of Thunder”’s soundtrack]], “Long Live the Night”, written by Jett with Randy Cantor and Michael Caruso. Her 1991 release, Notorious, which featured the Replacements’ Paul Westerberg and former Billy Idol bass player Phil Feit, was the last with Sony/CBS, as Jett switched to Warner Bros. A CD single of “Let’s Do It” featuring Jett and Westerberg was also released during this time, and appeared in the song credits for the movie Tank Girl. In 1993, Jett and Laguna released Flashback, a compilation of various songs on their own Blackheart Records. Jett produced several bands prior to releasing her debut, and her label Blackheart Records released recordings from varied artists such as thrash metal band Metal Church and rapper Big Daddy Kane. The press touted Jett as the “Godmother of Punk” and the “Original Riot Grrrl”. In 1994, the Blackhearts released the well-received Pure and Simple”, which featured tracks written with Babes in Toyland’s Kat Bjelland, L7’s Donita Sparks and Bikini Kill’s Kathleen Hanna. Jett has also been described as the Queen of Rock ‘n’ Roll. ==== Timeline of members ====

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