Joan Jett - Turners Shirt

Turner's T-Shirt seen here worn by Joan Jett.

Runaway Joan Jett and her all girl bandmates were still in their teens in 1975 when they first played the Whisky A Go-Go on the Sunset Strip, just a month after the band formed.

Back in 1966, before the Whisky got its liquor license, members of its house band, the Doors, bought their booze a block away at Gil Turner’s. By the time The Runaways punk-rocked the Whisky, you could belly up to the bar on the mezzanine, unless, like them, you were under 21.

From the Whisky’s menu, though, Joan Jett could order her very own beverage, the “Joan Jett Take-off,” aka Coca-Cola. Still, who’s to say she went to Turner’s only for the snacks? She confesses to drinking during her Runaway days.

Poetic license aside, just listen to bandmate Cherie Currie singing in “Dead End Justice” about her and Joan’s breakout from juvi after being locked up for underage drinking.

Not enough of America looked past the strut and snarl of teenage girls in tight jeans to see the true heart of rock ‘n’ roll beating inside, and by 1979 The Runaways were history.

But Turner’s neon lettering still lights up its corner of the Strip. Frankie Machine’s Ryan Martin worked there early on in the nineties. Also finding himself behind the counter, though uninvited, John Belushi had to be locked out of the store not long before OD’ing in ‘82 and then hung around, beating at the glass door.Today, you’re as likely to find motorcycles as Rolls-Royces parked outside.