The Runaways leader Joan Jett spoke in an interview with Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich and explained why the band broke up back in 1979.
She said that ‘I’m sure none of us wanted to…’
Here’s the statement:
“I think really after Cherie [Currie, vocals] left [in 1977], after Japan, we made another what I thought was a really good album called ‘Waitin’ for the Night’ [1977].
I just think it was a natural progression. I think as we each grew up and were figuring out more who we were as musicians, and really the kind of music we wanted to play, it started to diverge a little bit.
I was definitely more a straight-up punk-rock, rock ‘n’ roll thing. But you know, I’m fine with hard music. It’s just that I think Lita [Ford, guitar] and Sandy [West, drums] wanted to go in that direction much more than I did.
And the producer we were working with at the time, his name was John Alcock. I forget what his credits are, but he had worked with some hard bands, some heavy bands, I believe. And I think he was sort of perpetuating it, egging it on a little bit. But I don’t know that.
I just thought, ‘I’ve got a bad feeling. I don’t wanna get fired from a band that I started.’ We made one more album, called ‘And Now… The Runaways’ [1978]. But we just decided to sort of part ways. I’m sure none of us wanted to…
We all got along fine, so there wasn’t anything like that. It was not a personality thing. We just grew in different directions. I just thought, ‘I don’t wanna get fired from a band I started. Let’s just part ways.’
We had one last show, New Year’s Eve ’78 into ’79. It was in California. Either San Francisco or L.A. I think we had decided that was going to be it. But I’m not positive about that. If we didn’t, energetically we all knew that was it.”
Watch the entire interview below. Click here to source of the statement. (Blabbermouth)
