In a new interview with Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame’s podcast “Music Makes Us”, hosted by Kathleen Hanna (BIKINI KILL, LE TIGRE),rock legend Joan Jett was asked if she thinks, when she looks at what’s happening in the U.S. right now, that music can still play a role in shaping how people respond to the world. Joan responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “Absolutely. Ask Bad Bunny [whose 2026 Super Bowl halftime performance concluded with a unity-focused message, ‘The only thing more powerful than hate is love’, while critics said the Puerto Rican star made no effort in his Spanish-only performance to include the 78% of American households that speak only English]. Even if he’s not saying something specifically with his lyrics, he’s using this huge platform that he’s been given to discuss issues that are really important to Americans and to more and more Americans as they’re realizing what’s happening — and around the world.”

Joan continued: “We just got back from New Zealand, and everybody was asking us, ‘What’s going on in your country?’ So everybody is interested, and I believe that you kind of, as a person with some kind of platform where you can speak to people — I’m not saying you have to go all in the way you would if you were sitting down having a face-to-face conversation. You can’t — you can’t utilize your time like that — but I think you can certainly have a few well-thought-out sentences to let people know when what’s going on and whatever it is you wanna say. But saying ‘shut up and sing’ has never really been what musicians or artists do, from way on back. When people talk to me about other songs that touched them, whether it was really bad times the music got them through or really good times, it shows that the music really connects and fills an important space, if you allow it, in people’s capacity to deal with all this stuff that we’re dealing with. I don’t know that our brains are meant to deal with so much input, which is probably part of the intent, that you can’t think about all this stuff, so you’re just gonna turn away and let somebody else deal with it. And I get that impulse too — I do — but I also don’t feel that I can do that.”

This past January, Jett joined other musicians to voice solidarity with those protesting the killing of two U.S. citizens by ICE agents in Minneapolis. Jett read out a statement during a show in Wānaka, on the South Island of New Zealand, during the third in a series of “Summer Concert” tour shows headlined by Iggy Pop.

“Many of us here and in the U.S. are horrified daily at what’s happening in my country, America, to America, by this trumped-up government regime,” Jett said at the time. “We in the U.S. do not have to accept what this administration is doing to Minneapolis, St Paul and other cities and towns all across North America.

“To our neighbors — north and south, and frankly, the whole world — we don’t accept it. We don’t accept the brutality, the lies, the loss of our simplest pleasures. So over the next year, as many of us in the States have been and will continue working hard to mitigate and lessen all the damage done, we’ll keep at it. The change is gonna come. Yes, it is.”

Back in October 2024, JOAN JETT & THE BLACKHEARTS showed their support for the Democratic party by sharing a new video using their 2023 song “If You’re Blue” to encourage folks to “Vote Blue” at the polls in that year’s election.

The line “we are the heirs to the greatest democracy in the world” was displayed across the screen at the opening of the clip. “It is now our turn to do what generations before us have done.” It was followed by a quote from then-U.S. vice president Kamala Harris appears, stating, “We must be worthy of this moment.”

The video cut to images of America, with words like “freedom”, “opportunity”, “compassion” and “dignity” flashing across the screen, along with phrases like “turn the page”, “our fight our future”, “the American dream belongs to all of us” and “when we fight, we win”, the latter being a slogan used by Harris.

In a statement at the time, Jett said: “I have been following presidential elections since learning about civics in junior high school. Every presidential election season, I’ve urged people to register and vote. Since 2000, I’ve felt the issues we face become increasingly consequential to our very core as Americans, and with each election, it is more urgent that we adopt policies that will keep America strong. More than ever, we need politicians who can implement massive positive change for our nation. We have come to that point where we’re not just voting for our party or a candidate, but on whether our democracy survives. And make no mistake! Kamala Harris and Tim Walz will guide us to a more positive future. A future we MUST look to for ourselves, our children, our country and our planet. So I’m asking you to please, register and vote Kamala Harris/Tim Walz and blue up and down the ballot to get something GOOD done in Washington DC. For the GOOD OF THE COUNTRY, VOTE BLUE.”