This is just a public service announcement both to remind you that the Stern Grove Festival requires reservations this year and those reservations can only happen 12 days before each show, and that Joan Jett and the Blackhearts are playing August 1.
If you want to see Ms. Jett, you need to snag your tickets today starting at 2 p.m. And given her stature in the world of rock — having had a number-one Billboard hit with "I Love Rock and Roll" for seven weeks back in 1982 — and the world of rock lesbians, there should be a pretty swift clamor for these limited, free tickets.
Now, Jett has never come out and proclaimed her LGBTQ status, but in interviews in recent years she been less coy about it, showing off a tattoo to the New York Times in 2018 showing two women's symbols crossing each other and saying, "I don’t know how much more you can declare." She added, "It’s like, the more you want me to say it, the more I won’t say it. I’ll just do it."
And a documentary about her music career, Bad Reputation, screened at Outfest in LA that year.
Jett began her career as a founding member of the teen-girl band The Runaways in the 1970s, alongside Lita Ford, Sandy West, Jackie Fox, and Cherie Currie. After the band broke up in 1979, she went on to front the Blackhearts.
In recent years, Joan Jett & the Blackhearts have joined stadium tours with some of the rock legends of the 1980s — and a 2020 tour with Motley Crue, Def Leppard, and Poison has been postponed to next summer. In 2014, Jett served as lead singer with the remaining members of Nirvana, fronting the band for a performance of "Smells Like Teen Spirit" at the band's induction ceremony at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Joan Jett & the Blackhearts were inducted the following year.
Joan and the band will be performing Sunday, August 1 at Stern Grove with opener DJ Allyson Baker of Dirty Ghosts.
Get your reservations here starting at 2 p.m. for groups of up to four people.
Next up on the calendar is Thundercat on August 8, and Fitz & the Tantrums play on August 15.
Previously: Stern Grove Lineup Includes Perfume Genius, Too $hort, Thievery Corporation
Image via JoanJett.com