Back in April, Blackheart Records teased that a new Joan Jett album would be coming this fall. Now we know when!

The album, to be called “Unvarnished,” will be released in OCTOBER. The first single, (“Any Weather” written with Dave Grohl), will be released in August!

Songs from the new album have slowly made it into the band’s live sets over the last couple of years (see here and here), but “Any Weather” has been under tight wraps since we first got wind of the song in March.

Here are snippets from a phone interview that Joan did about the new album with The Modesto Bee last month:

Even rockers have to grow up some time. That’s what Joan Jett has come to grips with as she’s hit her mid-50s and experienced the loss of both her parents and others close to her.

The “I Love Rock ‘N’ Roll” singer has taken a more serious tone in her upcoming album, “Unvarnished,” due for release in October.

“I’m in a different part of my life,” she said in a recent phone interview. “The songs aren’t all sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll. There comes a time when you have to go through stuff. For me — this isn’t very uplifting — but I call it the decade of death, losing people, companion animals very close to me, my parents, really heavy things.”

…

She’s looking forward to the release of her latest album and sharing its songs with her fans. The first single will be “Any Weather,” a song she co-wrote with Dave Grohl of the Foo Fighters. “It’s about a relationship — it doesn’t have to be romantic. It’s about how you can get through anything if there’s love.”

The other songs are mostly serious — including “Fragile” and “Hard to Grow Up.”

“Some things shock you into recognizing and realizing you’ve got to grow up,” she said. “Responsibilities fall to you. You’ve got to either step up or not. I want to be someone who steps up. You can’t think of just what you’re doing for the day — you have to think about survival for self and the rest of your family. You start thinking about your own mortality, what you’ve done in life.”

Looking back, she has a few regrets — she wishes she would have spent more time with her parents when they were alive. But she tries not to spend too much time with should haves, could haves and would haves.

“I like to think I’m a good person, I have a good heart, I’m not a mean person so I defend myself in the situations that call for it,” she said. “I think I’m an OK person when it comes to that stuff.”

Read more here: http://www.modbee.com/2013/07/17/2811752/joan-jett-landing-at-ironstone.html

Here’s Joan talking about the new album and singing “Make it Back” in San Diego last month. This could become my new theme song!

And here’s a video from earlier this month talking about the first single coming out next month — Joan also said that it would come out in August at the Mountainfest show in Morgantown, WV last Saturday. I was there, but I have no video of that announcement. You’ll just have to trust me! 🙂

GET READY, JETTHEADS!