Joan Jett did not hold back when responding to comments Ted Nugent made back in December 2021 about her guitar playing and her inclusion on a Rolling Stone list of the greatest guitarists of all time.
For some context, Nugent made these comments during a YouTube livestream. He began his rant by praising a number of guitarists from Angus Young to Neal Schol to Tommy Shaw to Eddie Van Halen. He then said, “So I just mentioned some killer, monster guitar players, huh? Some of the best that ever lived. But when you see the ‘Rolling Stone’ magazine list of greatest guitar players, they list Joan Jett but not Tommy Shaw.”
Nugent continued, “How do you list the top 100 guitar players and not list Derek St. Holmes? How do you do that? You do that by lying. The same way you get Grandmaster Flash in the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame. You do that by lying. You have to be a liar. You have to have s— for brains and you have to be a soulless, soulless prick to put Joan Jett… [I] love Joan. Some of my greatest memories include lesbians. I love the lesbians; it’s a cocktail of wonderment.”
He added, “[I] love Joan Jett — ‘put another diamond in the jukebox, baby’; great rock and roller — but as a top 100 guitar player, but you don’t list Rickey Medlocke or Dave Amato [REO Speedwagon]. Really?…By the way, if Grandmaster Flash is in the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame and Joan Jett is on the list of top 100 guitar players, then I’m Caitlyn Jenner’s boy toy.”
When Nugent’s comments about how she didn’t belong on Rolling Stone‘s greatest guitarists list were brought up during her interview with NME, Jett responded, “Neither should he. Is that his implication that he should be on the list instead of me? Well, that’s just typical – it’s what I’ve dealt with my whole life, being written off. Ted Nugent has to live with being Ted Nugent. He has to be in that body, so that’s punishment enough.”
She continued, referring to claims he evaded the draft during the Vietnam War, “He’s not a tough guy. He plays tough guy, but this is the guy who s— his pants – literally – so he didn’t have to go in the Army…So this is the tough guy who’s running around America, stirring things up against each other?”