Joan Jett

Joan Jett
September 22, 1958
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

This triple Virgo is also a triple-threat trailblazer who helped break down rock's gender barriers, helped pioneer punk music and helped break new ground for satellite radio with 'Joan Jett's Radio Revolution.'

'Definitely by being a woman in rock, just by the nature of that, it's political in its own sense. I don't have to do much more than be myself.'

Joan Jett's Tarot Reading

Joan Jett was born Joan Marie Larkin in Philadelphia. When she was 12, she moved to Los Angeles. After her parents' divorce she took her mother's maiden name: Jett. In 1975, Jett, on rhythm guitar and vocals, and Sandy West on drums and vocals, formed a power trio -- The Runaways -- with lead singer and bassist Micki Steele. In 1976, 16-year-old lead guitarist Lita Ford and lead singer Cherie Currie joined the band. At age 15, Jett wrote the hit, 'Cherry Bomb' for their first album, The Runaways.

Can't stay at home, can't stay at school
Old folks say, ya poor little fool
Down the street I'm the girl next door
I'm the fox you've been waiting for.

Hello Daddy, hello Mom
I'm your ch ch ch ch ch cherry bomb
Hello world, I'm your wild girl
I'm your ch ch ch ch ch cherry bomb.

The Runaways toured the USA, opening for Cheap Trick, Van Halen and Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers. In 1977 they released their second album, Queens of Noise, and launched a world tour. By the time they hit Japan, they were so popular it was 'like Beatlemania.' Their third album, Live in Japan, was quickly followed by Waitin' for the Night. They did another world tour, this time with The Ramones. Their fifth album, And Now ... The Runaways, came out in 1978. After all this, the male-dominated music industry refused to give the girls the respect they deserved. The Runaways broke up in 1979.

Jett immediately began her solo career in England, producing an album for The Germs and doing three songs with former Sex Pistols, Paul Cook and Steve Jones. She returned to California to do a film based on the story of The Runaways. The project stalled, but Jett's star continued to rise. In 1984 the film was re-cut into an underground flick called DuBeat-Eo. Starring Jett, with actresses playing the other band mates, the film was produced by Alan Sacks of 'Welcome Back Kotter' fame. In the process, she met songwriter and producer Kenny Laguna and his wife, manager Meryl Laguna. The three began working together. Next came her new band: Joan Jett and the Blackhearts.

With her Sun in Virgo, Jett is charming, witty and emotionally warm. At heart she is unpretentious and unassuming. Talking about her Sirius radio show on Little Steven's Underground Garage, she confirmed this when she said, 'That's been interesting, and different. I never aspired to it. I'm really kind of shy, so for me to get on the radio and talk, I had to build up to it. But I'm having a good time, and I get to turn people on to different things!'

Her mind is sharp and analytical. With a keen eye for detail, she is most comfortable observing life from a distance. Hard-working and old-school, she can be relied upon to be professional and thorough in her work. She takes pride in a job well done. Attention to detail and careful craftsmanship are her forte. She can be extremely critical if things are not done exactly 'right' and she is concerned about things others might consider trifling. She can be harshly self-critical, as well, driven by a desire to refine and perfect. Highly discriminating, she could be especially particular about diet, cleanliness and health. In fact, she is a vegetarian who neither smokes nor drinks. She contributed back-cover comments to a vegan cookbook, saying, ''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.' Her tastes are understated but refined. She can be difficult to live with sometimes because of her fastidiousness. However, she has a very helpful nature and enjoys serving others. For more than twenty years, she has toured with the USO and supported the US Armed Forces in other ways. She is content to be in a supportive role and is devoted to those she cares for.

Sun trine Mars means she is a go-getter. She enjoys competition, and her resourcefulness and self-confidence make her a winner. On her official website she says, 'I went to a school reunion in Maryland not long ago and some people reminded me I had said I was going to go to California to become a rock 'n' roll star! I hadn't remembered that I had focused on it that early! To say that as a kid and actually do it is pretty cool. It just goes to show you that if you can believe in yourself, if you're lucky and have the right timing, you have a shot. I'm an example of what can be, if you don't give up!'

Contradicting previous elements in her chart, Sun conjunct Pluto/N. Node dictates that Jett feels a constant need to fight for leadership and has a great desire to be a public figure. It's no wonder she holds the number 32 spot on VH1's 100 Greatest Women of Rock and Roll. She fought for it every step of the way.

When she went solo, about two dozen record companies declined to sign her to a contract. Undaunted, she and writing partner and producer, Kenny Laguna created their own label, Blackheart Records, to release her album, Joan Jett. They pressed their own records and sold them out of the trunk of his 1976 Cadillac Coupe DeVille. An instant hit, they could hardly keep up with demand. Blackheart Records thrived and history was made: Jett became the first female performer to start her own record label. In 1981 Joan Jett and The Blackhearts (guitarist Ricky Byrd, bassist Gary Ryan and drummer Lee Crystal) released a new album, I Love Rock 'n' Roll. The title track rocketed to number 1 on the Billboard charts and stayed there for eight full weeks. The album sold ten million copies and 'I Love Rock 'n' Roll' became Billboard's number 28 song of all time. Blackheart Records just celebrated its 25th anniversary -- one of Jett's 'proudest accomplishments.' Today, Joan Jett and the Blackhearts' new video for 'Change The World' appears on Cadillac's website and her story is featured in the carmaker's new online promotion, My Cadillac Stories.

Mercury in Virgo dictates that she is a perfectionist with an aptitude for work that requires meticulous attention to detail. Very good at what she does, she can be critical of others' work if it does not meet her high standards. Interviewed by Pop Cult Magazine's John Sewell in an article entitled American Badass, Jett says, 'I get so tired of hearing women in pop music being called rock 'n' roll. You know, can you all please stop calling all the pop babes rock 'n' roll? It's really getting tiring hearing people like Britney Spears being called rock 'n' roll. Give me a break!'

Indeed, Sewell hits the nail on the head when he says, 'Jett forged the standard to which all electric guitar-wielding females aspire to this day. Jett was the first female American rock 'n' roller to gain widespread attention, chart-topping hits and the grudging respect of the male rock 'n' roll community. Without Jett's pioneering efforts, the face of rock would surely be different today.'

Mercury conjunct Venus gives her a fine sense of form, design and beauty. She has the ability to please and harmonize well with others and tends to ameliorate relationships between people. Her sense of humor, tact and personal charm are great advantages on a one-to-one level.

Venus in Virgo makes her quietly devoted and faithful to her loved ones. She is slightly apprehensive about expressing too much sentiment or emotion, and may underestimate her appeal or doubt her own worthiness to receive love. She touches on this in the song 'As I Am' on the album Pure and Simple.

But in a perfect world
There's no perfection
Cause in a world of dreams
You're only dreamin'
Don't make me feel like I can't make it.

As I am
Take me as I am
Now I'm only flesh and blood
Oh I wish that you could
Love me as I am
As I am
Now I'm doing the best I can
Try to understand
And love me as I am.

Venus square Saturn indicates that she is very serious and may find it difficult to enjoy herself in a lighthearted way. Perhaps due to painful separations in her early life, such as her parents' divorce, she is cautious about getting close to people and sharing her feelings. Though she craves love and affection, intimacy is difficult for her. Take song title, 'I Hate Myself for Loving You', for instance. Venus conjunct Sun/Pluto shows that she is creative and will invest profound emotion into her creations.

Mars in Gemini tells us that she is energetic and restless. She needs diversity, revolution and challenge. She often achieves her ends by speaking vigorously and convincingly for what she wants. Mars quincunx Jupiter reveals that while she enjoys challenging herself to extend her abilities or try new things, she is apt to bite off more than she can chew. Fortunately, when this happens she has enough resilience and optimism to get past any mishaps caused by overestimating her prowess.

Mars aspects Jupiter and Neptune reiterates that her competitive drive and larger-than-life ambitions are fueled by strong spiritual idealism or a grandiose notion of what she can actually accomplish. Mars quincunx Neptune suggests that she has a streak of the pacifist in her. However, with Mars square Pluto she has a powerful will and when she wants something, she pursues it passionately and relentlessly until she achieves it. For example, when she was just 17, she was headlining at New York City's famous punk dive, CBGB. Her opening acts were bands like Tom Petty, Talking Heads, Television and Cheap Trick.

Jupiter sextile Pluto means that her eagerness to embrace change and to undergo deep, transformative experiences for growth and self-improvement is one of her finest qualities. In one of those transformations, she added acting to her resume. Her first film was Light of Day with Gena Rowlands and Michael J. Fox. She appeared in independent films Sweet Life and Boogie Boy, as well as the television show 'Highlander.' She performed the title song on the '90s sitcom 'Ellen,' and played the part of Columbia in the Broadway production of The Rocky Horror Show.

Jupiter in Scorpio means she is not afraid of going to extremes or experiencing the depths. The mysterious, hidden side of life is very appealing to her, and her intuitive understanding of others' motivations is highly developed. Jupiter conjunct Neptune says she has an unrestrained, far-reaching outlook on life. She is likely to be an instrument for positive reform in the world.

About the early days of trying to break through the glass ceiling, she told Saturday Night Magazine's Taleen Kalenderian, 'You gotta remember we were teenagers, we were like 16, so we thought in our naivete that people were going to love it ... It was really an incredible feeling to have been rejected by the record industry and by certain segments of the press. They never saw the girls playing rock n' roll thing as being important or necessary and I did so after I did 'I Love Rock n' Roll,' it really felt great that I was right, that there were definitely people out there who wanted to hear this music.' And those people weren't just punks and rockers and riot girls. Baseball great, Baltimore Orioles' Cal Ripken Jr. asked Jett, with her amazing mezzo soprano vocal range, to sing the national anthem at the game where he broke Lou Gehrig's record.

She isn't slowing down. Joan Jett and The Blackhearts have released a new album, Sinner, on the Blackheart label. Their song, 'Bad Reputation' premiered as the theme song for The Learning Channel's 'American Chopper.'

'Me? Am I softening? Are you kidding? I think some people do let themselves go when they get older because they just get tired. But I haven't slowed down a bit'.