“Tell me I can’t do something — you know I’m gonna be doing it,” rock icon Joan Jett says in the first look at the Kevin Kerslake-directed Bad Reputation biopic that traces her historic journey from teenage dreamer to rock and roll rulebreaker. The fast-paced, two-minute trailer for the documentary that will hit theaters, iTunes, Amazon and in-demand on Sept. 28 draws the line from Jett forming the Runaways in the 1970s, through her solo career and hit-filled 1980s run with the Blackhearts and her rise as a leather-clad godmother to several generations of rockers.
Like a super hero origin story, the trailer opens with the scene in which Jett gets her powers thanks to an villain who tries to block her from saving the world with her low-slung guitar heroics. The singer, 59, recalls a guitar teacher she approached at 13 who told her “girls don’t play rock and roll.” That was pretty much all it took for little Joan Marie Larkin to prove him wrong almost immediately. “I said ‘bull.'”
Turns out she was right. But as the trailer shows, it was not easy sledding breaking through the just-dudes rock club mentality, with some batteries and beer bottles tossed her way (along with heartless reviews from Rolling Stone magazine) on the climb up the ladder. Among those interviewed in the trailer — set to Jett’s iconic takes on “I Love Rock ‘N’ Roll” and “Crimson and Clover” — are Green Day singer Billie Joe Armstrong, Blondie’s Chris Stein, Jett’s longtime manager Kenny Laguna, Iggy Pop and Kathleen Hanna.
Check out the trailer below.
