Joan Jett

The rock legend on aging gracefully and owning her bad reputation

- ANGIE MARTOCCIO

Last Word

Your new album, Changeup, includes an acoustic remake of “Bad Reputation.” Why do you think that song still resonates with people all these years later?

Everyone feels maybe they’ve got a bad reputation in one area of their life or another, or maybe [have been] unfairly accused — or just a misconception of who you are, and people throw that label at you. I always wore it as a badge of honor, because what people were saying to me was I had a bad reputation because I played an electric guitar and I had black hair and a leather jacket, and maybe I swore. . . . So I turned around the meaning of it, and I’m proud of my bad reputation, if that’s what it is — making people uncomfortable because you’re not used to seeing women do this or that. But it’s not just music. It’s every walk of life. When I speak to women and girls pursuing their dreams . . . there’s that hard glass ceiling. It’s still there. But we have good PR, so we feel like we’ve come farther than we really have.