Joan Jett had a charming room at The Tropicana Motel back in 1977. One day I was over there taking some photos of Joan and I remember thinking to myself that this was going to be fucking memorable photograph. Was I right?
I adored photographing rock stars and celebrities at their hotels back in the seventies. It made for great imagery and the hotels welcomed the PR. Best of all, the magazines loved it! Every band had their favorite hotel to stay at, but by far the most popular with the punk and new wave bands was the old Tropicana Motel on Santa Monica Blvd in West Hollywood. Joan Jett loved the placed and she lived there on and off in 1978. Sadly, they torn the place down years ago and today it is a Ramada Plaza Suite Hotel. You can still go there and stand in the same location as Joan Jett.
Joan Jett had a stunningly beautiful teenage girlfriend named Lisa. Everyone called her Devil Worship. When I did this photo session at The Tropicana Motel back in 1978 she was on the phone with Lisa during part of the session or I entitle this photograph, “One The Phone With Lisa”.
I just knew that when I made this cool photo of Joan Jett in her dumpy Tropicana Motel room in 1977 room that it would become memorable. I was all of about 17!
Never before published photo of Joan Jett shoving a rather large sandwich from Duke’s into her face! Dukes was the legendary coffee shop at The Tropicana Motel where we were all regulars. I loved the giant Italian Burger. By the way, that is my friend Darcy Diamond sitting there next to Joni!
