In a recent chat with SiriusXM, Joan Jett explained why The Arrows cover “I Love Rock N’ Roll,” was rejected by her early band The Runaways.
“I didn’t offer ‘I Love Rock N’ Roll’ to [John] Alcock [who produced the final Runaways album, 1978’s ‘And Now… The Runaways’].
“I had it as an idea; The Runaways rejected it – early – you know, in ’77, that was pre-Alcock…
“That was my baby, I was saving that for whatever, but it wasn’t for John Alcock and The Runaways’ last album.”
Was that a pivot point for you, that song? When you first heard it, you were with The Runaways; were you, like, ‘Yeah, this is winding down. I’m gonna hold it for later.’?
“No, it wasn’t that; it was a completely rational reason why we didn’t do it. And I would have agreed, I totally kind of agreed with the girls.
“When I found the song, our first album [1976’s self-titled] had just come out and we covered Lou Reed‘s ‘Rock N’ Roll.’ So I didn’t want to just turn around and do another song with ‘rock ‘n’ roll’ in the title.
“They didn’t wanna do it, and I said, ‘I see what you mean, I’m just gonna hang on to it.'”