Aging & Wisdom Quote by Joan Jett

Joan Jett hears the reunion-industrial complex revving up and answers with a hard no, not out of diva preciousness but out of seasoned self-defense. The line lands like a riff: blunt, rhythmic, and tuned to the key of experience. “So now 20 years later” isn’t nostalgia; it’s a timestamp that exposes the bargain being offered. Time passes, brands linger, and suddenly the market wants a comeback not to honor the work but to create a spectacle.

The acid word is “shots.” She’s naming the media ecosystem as predatory, not merely critical: a culture that frames middle-aged women returning to the stage as a punchline. “Old babes” is doing double-duty. It throws back the patronizing way the press packages women musicians as pinups first, artists second, then re-packages them as cautionary tales once they age out of youth-as-currency. Jett repeats the term to show she knows the trap and refuses to pretend it’s flattering.

“I’ve been there” is the credibility stamp, but also a warning about narrative control. She’s not naïve about how headlines get written: reunion equals desperation, performance equals grasping, aging equals failure. The subtext is feminist without being lecture-y: men can be “legacy acts,” women get turned into “babes” who should know their place. Jett’s intent is to protect the dignity of the music and the people who made it, rejecting a culture that loves a comeback only if it can smuggle in contempt.