When was Joan Jett’s first time visiting South Padre Island?
The iconic rock star was scheduled to perform at the Island during a party on the beach north of Andy Bowie Park back in 1991.
Monitor staff writer Vilma Maldonado interviewed Jett ahead of the show; it would be the second time Maldonado interviewed the icon, the first being in 1985 when Jett performed in McAllen at the Villa Real Convention Center.
Whereas Maldonado had over an hour with her then, the second time around only provided a total of five minutes with Jett.
So by the time Maldonado asked Jett whether her Island visit would be the first time going there, she was met with someone interrupting: “Excuse me, Vilma, I have to cut in, because Joan had to go back into the studio. I hate to end it, but I think we’ve done enough. Is that okay with you?”
In the editor’s note for the interview, The Monitor said, “according to our clocks, the conversation lasted exactly five minutes, at which time the manager did indeed break in.”
Joan Jett and the Blackhearts would ultimately go on to perform a 19-song set on March 30, 1991 to a crowd of 1,200, according to archival Valley Morning Star reporting. Other acts performing that day included Holy Smoke, Kalamity Jane and the Chris Rivera Band.
The rock band kicked off the show with a cover of the Sex Pistols’ “Pretty Vacant” followed by The Runaways’ legendary hit “Cherry Bomb.” And of course, there were plenty of Jett’s iconic solo songs being played too, including two songs from the album “Notorious” that she would go on to release in August of that year. The show ended with an encore of “Bad Reputation.”
“She sounded harried. And she obviously didn’t want to bother with an interview,” Maldonado wrote after noting Jett was in the studio at the time. “Sadly, the amiable young woman whose enthusiasm was so contagious in 1985 was nowhere in evidence.”
So what exactly was said in those five minutes between Jett and Maldonado? Read for yourself below in this interview from The Monitor’s March 29, 1991 edition:
Joan Jett
By Vilma Maldonado | The Monitor (March 29, 1991)
Editor’s note: The Monitor interviewed rocker Joan Jett in New York by telephone this week. The interview could last only five minutes, her manager said. At the end of those five minutes, someone would interrupt the conversation. According to our clocks, the conversation lasted exactly five minutes, at which time the manager did indeed break in.
***
It was a marked departure from the laughing, up-and-coming rock star of 1985. On a Thursday in mid-June of that year, we spoke with Joan Jett at length, and found her amiable and open, a streetwise young woman who said what she thought.
Almost six years later, however, with a 1988 Top Ten single (“I Hate Myself for Loving You”) that went platinum and garnered a Grammy nomination, and a movie appearance and film soundtrack (Light of Day) behind her, Jett’s edge, charming before, seems to cut a little deeper now, perhaps in the wrong direction.
Granted, she was “in the studio” at the time. She sounded harried. And she obviously didn’t want to bother with an interview. Sadly, the amiable young woman whose enthusiasm was so contagious in 1985 was nowhere in evidence.
Following is a record of the five-minute conversation granted.
Q: What’s the name of your new record and when is it being released?
A: “We don’t have a name for it yet and I think it may come out in June.”
Q: Do you have anything to say to your fans?
A: “That I love them and that we keep making records so that we can travel to see them and promote our music.”
Q: In 1985 The Monitor interviewed you for over an hour. Today, five minutes. How has your life changed since then?
A: “I don’t know if I’m right or if I’m dreaming, but I get a sense, in the past couple of years, that people are starting to respect the Blackhearts a little bit more than then. And I don’t mean the fans, because they always seem to respect you, unless you do something stupid. “But I mean the press or other bands or the musicians, basically your peers. I seem to get the sense that whether or not they like us they respect us a little bit more.”
Q: How do you feel about the movie you did with Michael J. Fox (Light of Day)?
A: “I had a great time. You know, it wasn’t the most uplifting film, but it wasn’t intended to be, but I had an absolutely great time and I thought it was a really good film.”
Q: What are your future plans?
A: “Well, in the immediate future I would think to finish this record and get out on the road. I would think we are going to be out on the road for a long time; because, ah, hopefully this record will do well and that’ll mean a long, long tour in the states, not to mention spending a lot of time in Europe, Japan, Australia. We’ve been to Malaysia, so I think we’d go back to Southeast Asia.”
Q: Where do you go after South Padre Island?
A: “We go back to New York. We’re just really doing dates on the weekends, not really a tour. We’ve been off the road, pretty much, since the beginning of the year, which is a long time for us.”
Q: Do you travel 11 months out of the year?
A: “Yeah, when we’re not makin’ a record; I mean when we’re doin’ a touring work, yeah, we tour a lot.”
Q: Do you have a particular goal set for the number of LPs you release in a year?
A: “Ah, I don’t really think about it, you know, you get more like a feel thing. If I have one out in a year or year and a half — whatever happens. Because we tour so much, I mean, you know, we’re gonna go on tour, I would think, for about a year and a half at least, eight months in the States, three months in Europe, a month of Japan, Australia. I mean, you know, the list is endless, a month in South America — God knows what you can do in Eastern Europe now, so I mean, the opportunities are there.”
Q: Tell us your thoughts on South Padre Island’s “party smart” theme.
A: “‘Party smart.’ I think it’s a real good idea. You know, I mean, um, people have to be responsible. I know people wanna have a good time, but it’s, you know, you gotta be responsible and each person has to look at themselves and think what that means to them. Whether it means not driving high.”
Q: Is this your first time at the Island?
A: (Another voice interrupts on the extension)
“Excuse me, Vilma, I have to cut in, because Joan had to go back into the studio. I hate to end it, but I think we’ve done enough. Is that okay with you?”
***
We may never know the rest, unless one of the fans she loves so much asks her someday, when she’s out of the studio.
The post From the archives: A 5-minute phone call with Joan Jett appeared first on MyRGV.com.