Joan Jett Quotes

I'd like to just be a little bit more open to making mistakes and not worrying about it so much. ~ Joan Jett

I don't look good in beige. ~ Joan Jett

You gotta not care about what people think in general about you. I'm not talking about bad stuff, if you're a nasty person, because I don't consider myself a mean person, I consider that I know what i want and I'm tough. But I'm very emotional and un-tough on a lot of levels, I cry very easily, I'm sensitive and I don't think that's a bad thing. ~ Joan Jett

I don't know if I miss it per se, but I do miss the fact that there just doesn't seem to be any rock 'n' roll out there anyplace. Everything does seem kind of tame. It's even hard in Manhattan to go out and find a good band to go see. ~ Joan Jett

A lot of the touring stuff has become a drag. Traveling itself is a drag. Anyone who's been to an airport knows that. ~ Joan Jett

God, I always just think of myself as a jeans and T-shirt kind of person. ~ Joan Jett

Nobody knows what anticipation is anymore. Everything is so immediate. ~ Joan Jett

I learned how to scream from Marc Bolan. ~ Joan Jett

If you are having trouble making a chord, get a book, that is how I learned. There are guitar tuning apps so you can tune your guitar, and just learn how to play along with your records. And it's great to be able to play along with another musician. That is like trial by fire. ~ Joan Jett

For me the challenge isn't to be different but to be consistent. ~ Joan Jett

I like to hang out with my friends. I love music. I like to go to the movies. I like to eat. I like to cook. ~ Joan Jett

In pop music, you say, 'You can do what you want to me.' Rock 'n' roll says, 'I'm gonna do what I want to you.' ~ Joan Jett

To reach the highest level you have to not just have a dream and focus but you also have to make sure you are writing great songs, and if you feel they're what you want to represent you, that is key. But getting out on the road is key. And get your music out there. Maybe something catches, maybe it gets picked up and used on television, you just never know. ~ Joan Jett

A girl can do what she wants to do / And that's what I'm gonna do, ~ Joan Jett

Well you know I've been in that place too where you worry about what everybody thinks of you, am I popular, do people care, are they looking at me, all that stuff. That's a drag, man. Having to worry about fitting in, am I cool enough to ANYTHING. ~ Joan Jett

Just be yourself and everything will fall in line, the way it's supposed to be. If you're yourself, that's the best thing you can do, because you can never go "damn if I'd only been myself." Live an authentic life and you don't have to worry about your reputation. ~ Joan Jett

As far as female vocalists, I love Heart, Joan Jett, Courtney Love, Laura Branigan, Linda Ronstadt, Barbra Streisand - or going back to when I was a child, Aileen Quinn, the original Annie. ~ Fergie

I hope one day people don't look at women like they're out of their minds when they want to pick up an instrument and play. And I think we're getting a lot closer to that. ~ Joan Jett

People don't want to see women doing things they don't think women should do. ~ Joan Jett

I sure saw a lot of kids that I'm sure didn't know a lot about us, or we were definitely new to them. The kids who came up to me afterward, we'd talk about music, sign a lot of autographs. So I'm sure we made a lot of new fans. ~ Joan Jett

I had a blast doing the Warped Tour, but it's good to be home, for sure. ~ Joan Jett

Fetish is a straight-up sex song. ~ Joan Jett

You want to have butterflies in your stomach, because if you don't, if you walk out onstage complacent, that's not a good thing. ~ Joan Jett

Being onstage is everything thats good about life. ~ Joan Jett

Something happens, you can't even put your finger on it, and then you don't quite feel the same way anymore. All of a sudden, there's fights or something and you are going "who is this person?" I've seen this happen to other people and it has happened to me. ~ Joan Jett

I don't wait till stage to use my sexuality. My zipper's down right now. I mean, I use it all the time. ~ Joan Jett

I think what people see in me is one slice of who I am. It does permeate my life in the sense that I don't like to be told what to do, or how to be, or how I can do it. But I'm probably a lot tamer than people would expect. ~ Joan Jett

I do not knowingly kill any living thing - including insects or rodents - and I thank my food for sustaining me. ~ Joan Jett

Beyond just writing about falling in love and out of love and wanting to do certain things and going out and partying and all the things that I grew up writing about, I want to write about deeper things. ~ Joan Jett

I grew up in a world that told girls they couldn't play rock and roll. ~ Joan Jett

You can't take up all the music bins at a CD retail outlet with Spice Girls CDs and leave nothing for the Joan Jett catalogue. ~ Greg Graffin

We were really grown up for our age and it was an incredible special band. ~ Joan Jett

You know I don't care if the world thinks I'm smart or not. ~ Joan Jett

The media says that equality for women has arrived, but if you look around, you still don't see girls playing guitars and having success with it. ~ Joan Jett

Well before I was in a band, I wanted to be everything from a vet, an astronaut, an archeologist was a big one. It could be very wide-ranging because I had a lot of different interests including music so I'm very happy where I wound up. ~ Joan Jett

You follow any family around, you're going to see elation, you're going to see disharmony. ~ Joan Jett

I've been able to do a lot of things a lot of people haven't, that other people would dream of. I've been able to live out my fantasies, and dreams! So, I'm real lucky. ~ Joan Jett

Women are still second-class citizens. ~ Joan Jett

I want to be singing to everybody, and I want everybody to think that I'm singing to them. Guys, girls and everyone in between. ~ Joan Jett

Vegan With A Vengeance is on my kitchen shelf. This fun and creative book is delicious for people like me, who don't eat pets. ~ Joan Jett

Get a book, so you know where to put your fingers. Otherwise it would be tough to learn. Also you have to fight through getting callouses on your fingers because it hurts, you are pressing your fingers on metal strings, they will hurt at first until you start building up callouses. ~ Joan Jett

A lot of people ask me why I don't expand and explore other musical areas, but I like the plain three- and four-chord rock-and-roll that I call the the semi-blues. ~ Joan Jett

I think the one-on-one gigs connecting with the fans - is the most important thing. That will help build your fan base. They'll talk about you, and word spreads. Those things are just as important as knowing how to play an E chord. ~ Joan Jett

I remember times when I was at shows and the person onstage locked eyes with me. And in that moment, everything was right with the world. I think that's part of my job, to create these thousands of moments every night. And for the rest of their life, they can say, 'You guys looked at me,' or 'You sweated on me,' or 'I got your gum.' ~ Joan Jett

Pop music is not a threatening style of music. ~ Joan Jett

The better your base is, and the more you know from experience, the better off you'll be when you try and make the big move. ~ Joan Jett

The internet did not exist when I started out, the fact that bands can build a website and get all their information out there is really helpful. If you really love to play, I would say to keep doing it, because it's what you love and what you have to do. ~ Joan Jett

Even some rock star girls, which I didn't really know her name. I will probably find out and probably get slaughtered for not knowing her name, but she brought some of her clothes that she used to wear on stage. I wore one of the corsets and stuff. I don't know why I'm blanking. It was not Pat Benatar. It's like Debbie Gibson, Pat Benatar, Joan Jett, I know those girls. ~ Julianne Hough

You got nothing to lose, you don't lose when you lose fake friends. ~ Joan Jett

Partly, I like a bad reputation. But I also want a reputation of being a good person. ~ Joan Jett

My parents taught me I could be anything in the world I wanted to be. ~ Joan Jett

I'm concentrating on staying healthy, having peace, being happy, remembering what is important, taking in nature and animals, spending time reading, trying to understand the universe, where science and the spiritual meet. ~ Joan Jett

We always play clubs. It's not something that I feel above. Those are my favorite shows because they're intimate, they're tight, their sweaty, they're hot. You're close to the people. Those are my favorites. ~ Joan Jett

Happiness doesn't necessarily lie in material things. You just have to put yourself in a position to be happy. If you can do what you love for a living, that's a good start. ~ Joan Jett

A lot of the songs I've recorded are songs I write. ~ Joan Jett

I wouldn't say no to other kinds of musical opportunities. I guess that it just depends on what it was or what it required me to do, and if I felt that it compromised my own soul. ~ Joan Jett

Can't break free from the things that you do. I wanna walk, but I run back to you, that's why I hate myself for loving you. ~ Joan Jett

Def Leppard is obviously a different band that we are, but the music work well tighter. And the audiences seem work well together too. We are opening, but we're having a good time. ~ Joan Jett

I'm not necessarily intimidated by really jocky guys. I can talk football with them, you know what I mean? ~ Joan Jett

You can never say never. I'm not sure if I even want to. I just don't know. Some of it is just not able to be reached, you can't remember some of it and the people that could help you remember have passed away. It might have to remain a remain. ~ Joan Jett

Success isn't one straight line - it's a ladder, and there's always another rung above you to reach out for. Like anything else, there are ups and downs. ~ Joan Jett

The follow your dreams thing is really important because so many people are railroaded into taking other paths by their family, their friends, people who should be supportive going, 'What are you talking about?' Even just seemingly regular career paths, but if it's not what people expect for you they kind of react funny. ~ Joan Jett

There's nothing wrong with being single and not getting married and being, you know, just an old single lady. Who cares? ~ Joan Jett

I'm having fun opening up. Sort of struggling to get the audience into it. It's good. It makes you fight. Not fight like antagonistic. But fight for what you believe. ~ Joan Jett

I started The Runaways with Sandy West. We shared the dream of girls playing rock and roll. Sandy was an exuberant and powerful drummer. So underrated, she was the caliber of John Bonham. I am overcome from the loss of my friend. I always told her, we changed the world. ~ Joan Jett

I've done some acting and a lot of different things, but mostly it's the music. ~ Joan Jett

We all make judgments on people, but some are much more brutal than others. It's easy to say, 'Ya know, I'm not crazy about what she's wearing,' but you don't have to be nasty about it, and you don't have to be public about it. ~ Joan Jett

I think it's what the times are demanding. If you're talking about the popular artists, they collaborate with a lot of different people and it seems to be in vogue now. It probably is indicative of the times. ~ Joan Jett

If you really believe in yourself, you cannot listen to other people. ~ Joan Jett

Disharmony is natural in any band. ~ Joan Jett

I'm really happy doing what I'm doing. I'm not looking to do anything else. I love what I do. I love music. I love playing. I love touring. ~ Joan Jett

I'll be working until I die. ~ Joan Jett

It's easier to sit there and say you don't like feminists because they don't have a sense of humor. ~ Joan Jett

Record stores are the backbone of the recorded music culture. It's where we go to network, browse around, and find new songs to love. The stores whose staff live for music have spread the word about exciting new things faster and with more essence than either radio or the press. Any artist that doesn't support the wonderful ma and pa record stores across America is contributing to our own extinction. ~ Joan Jett

That was exactly why people didn't want to give us any kind of life, because we were threatening their status quo, and they just didn't want to have room for girls playing rock 'n' roll. It bothered them. First, people just tried to get around it by saying, "Oh, wow, isn't that cute? Girls playing rock 'n' roll!," and when we said, "Yeah, right, this isn't a phase; it's what we want to do with our lives," it became, "Oh! You must be a bunch of sluts. You dykes, you whores." That's what it became. Then it became a name-calling contest. ~ Joan Jett

I leave for the show at least an hour ahead, and I do some vocal warm-ups, and that's pretty much it. ~ Joan Jett

I've always got something to say. ~ Joan Jett

Women play cellos and violins in symphony orchestras. They're playing Beethoven and Bach. What do you mean they can't play rock and roll? ~ Joan Jett

I think I was born strong-willed. That's not the kind of thing you can learn. The advantage is, you stick to what you believe in and rarely get pushed out of what you want to do. ~ Joan Jett

Things work in cycles. ~ Joan Jett

Girls have got balls. They're just a little higher up, that's all. ~ Joan Jett

If you're secure in yourself, and even if you're not secure in yourself, you don't need to bully. ~ Joan Jett

I plan to stay in music. I plan to keep making records. ~ Joan Jett

I feel like it's my job to carry the torch. ~ Joan Jett

And you have a record company behind it, this is a key too, you need people to fight for your records, at least a little bit. So if you have a great song, it's catchy, and you've got a little bit of help, I think that's all you need. But there hasn't been that in music. ~ Joan Jett

Cutting meat out of your diet is the best thing you can do for animals and your own health. ~ Joan Jett

I tend to keep my private life private. I think it's important to have mystique. It's important to keep people thinking and guessing, and you want everyone to think you're singing to them. ~ Joan Jett

Performance-wise, you really need to be down in the trenches; you need to do the hard work, for a lot of reasons: To build yourself as a performer, to get a sense of the audience, to work hard and to wonder, 'Do I really want to do this?' ~ Joan Jett

I wanted to be an actor, an astrologer, an astronaut; a lot of different things were going through my mind. But I also wanted to play guitar. I mentioned to my parents that I wanted an electric guitar for Christmas. They got me one! I sat there all Christmas morning making a lot of loud horrible noise. ~ Joan Jett

I think there's nothing better than seeing a three-chord straight up rock 'n' roll band in your face with sweaty music and three minute good songs. ~ Joan Jett

Factory farming is one of the biggest contributors to the most serious environmental problems. The meat industry causes more greenhouse gas emissions than all the cars, trucks, planes and ships in the world. ~ Joan Jett

People are very sincere in their praise, and you can't take it lightly. ~ Joan Jett

I don't like to say where I'll be in 10 years. ~ Joan Jett

I went to do Eclipse right after The Runaways, and I think the director of that movie might have said to another cast member that he had to beat the Joan Jett out of me. ~ Kristen Stewart

A girl playing rock and roll, it's saying I own my sexuality and I'm going to tell you what I'm going to do. And I think people just find that threatening. ~ Joan Jett

I left my family, and I left my brother and sister, and I went and lived my dream. I saw everybody, but is it ever enough? ~ Joan Jett

I think what I'm going to do is get more balance in my life to still be able to go out and play the hard rock 'n' roll and do what I like to do in music. ~ Joan Jett

The only good thing you ever said was goodbye. ~ Joan Jett

I know music is subjective. ~ Joan Jett

One of the mistakes I made was believing that the rock n' roll genre as a genre was much more free than the whole pop or R&B scene. ~ Joan Jett