Joan Jett: How close have you come to death?

Originally asked

The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A

A recurring Guardian Q&A prompt asked directly across respondents and years.

You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.

Recorded Joan Jett said elsewhere, not written here

Right after 9/11, Kenny and I went to perform for the troops in Pakistan and Uzbekistan. As we were flying in, an electronic voice went off: “Warning: missile launch! Warning: missile launch!” The Taliban had fired a rocket at us. I was waiting to see the back of the plane blow up, but it didn’t and we landed.

The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 14 November 2020 source ↗

Others on this question

View all 209 →

John Waters American filmmaker

Just thinking about unsafe sex.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 13 September 2008 source ↗

Adam Peaty British swimmer; Olympic champion 2016 and 2021

I was on a cliff in Dartmoor, doing a Royal Marine abseil. I fell upside down and thought, “I’m going to die here.”

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 1 January 2022 source ↗

Ian McEwan British novelist and screenwriter

Having a gun held to my head at a May Day rally during the revolution in Grenada. I was mistaken for a CIA agent.

Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 18 August 2018 source ↗

Warren Zevon Songwriter and musician

This is a lot harder for you than it is for me. If you had gone to bed as many nights as I did in the old days knowing that you had taken so much stuff that could kill you and not knowing if you would wake up, this is not as shocking as you think.

Recorded The New York Times Magazine, 26 January 2003 source ↗