Joan Jett and Kenny Laguna _ her longtime producer and songwriting partner, as well as the keyboardist in her band, the Blackhearts _ know they are still making good music. They just wish more people would get to hear it.
"We're trying to figure out a way to work on the single 'Fresh Start,' which I think is the best thing we've done in years and years," Laguna says of the theme song from the Jett documentary "Bad Reputation," released last year. "It's very hard for people of our era to get on mainstream radio. ... I don't resent it at all, like some of our friends. People who are so iconic, like the Stones or Bruce Springsteen _ they're not getting on the radio. When I was a kid and buying rock and roll records, my parents were freaked out that their idols were off the radio. No more Doris Day, sorry. That's what happens."
"We keep trying," adds Jett, 60, who has called Long Beach, N.Y., home for decades. "What else are you going to do? You just have to try. Keep fighting."
