Joan Jett is determined to “connect with and support” young female artists.
The 63-year-old star is close to the likes of Miley Cyrus, and Joan is always keen to offer advice and support to up-and-coming artists.
She explained: “I always try to make sure that I connect with and support [young women] in any way I can.
“Most of the time they’re going through the same things that I’ve been through many times over.”
However, Joan feels a bit uncomfortable talking about her own legacy in the music industry.
Joan – who is best known as the frontwoman of Joan Jett and the Blackhearts – told the Guardian newspaper: “When people say ‘punk queen’, I’m, like, you got Patti Smith, man, you can’t compete with that.
“I want to be ‘a’ one rather than ‘the’ one, otherwise the only way is down. There’s this Maya Angelou quote which says: ‘People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did but people will never forget how you made them feel.’ I just wanna make people feel good.”
Joan is the eldest of three siblings – but she credits her work ethic to her parents.
The singer – whose mother was a secretary and her father sold insurance – said: “I never saw them sitting around being lazy. They instilled in me that I could do whatever I wanted to do, but I’d have to work hard at it.”
Joan’s parents actually bought her a horse during her younger years, and that experience taught her some important life lessons.
She shared: “We weren’t a rich family so I don’t know how they did that. But I’d travel about 40 miles on the weekends and I would take lessons in exchange for cleaning the stables. And I learned something from that.”