It’s over 40 years since the 15-year-old Currie was invited by legendary LA music impresario Kim Fowley to join guitarist Joan Jett and drummer Sandy West in the fledgling outfit that would evolve into The Runaways. Currie’s twin sister Marie had already turned down Fowley’s offer to become the group’s lead singer; Currie took up the offer, and when guitarist Lita Ford and bass player Jackie Fox were recruited, The Runaways took shape.
Much has been made of Fowley’s Svengali-like influence on The Runaways’ sexualised, rebellious image Currie, however, has points to David Bowie as an earlier role model.
“It was the whole picture with David Bowie,” she says. “He came at the perfect time. Not only did he write great songs, but for a kid like me who didn’t know what they wanted to be, he was so inspiring.”
But it was Fowley who took the five teenagers and made them into a rock’n’roll band. “There’s not a chance there would have been a Runaways without Kim. He’d come up with the idea for the group already,” Currie says.
Currie’s memoir, Neon Angel, details some of the more salacious events during Fowley’s time around the band. Last year, original bass player Jackie Fox, who left the group in 1977, accused Fowley (who died in 2014) of raping her in Currie and Jett’s presence – an allegation that both Currie and Jett subsequently disputed. “Kim was tough, and he was scary at times. He didn’t know how to prepare us for what came along. But he’d had a rough upbringing, so he’d had to deal with his own problems.”
Fowley actually fostered intra-band tension that he believed would contribute to the band’s vitality. As a result, Currie found herself at odds with guitarist Lita Ford. Ford resented Currie’s dominant presence in the band’s publicity photographs; Currie says she actively discouraged being used as The Runaways’ focus, even turning down the opportunity to be on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine. Matters came to a head in 1979 – when Currie and Ford clashed physically at a photo shoot, Currie decided enough was enough and left the band.
“I was exhausted by that time. We’d never really had a break – it was constant recording and touring. The girls were angry with me. It was just too much.”
Currie left The Runaways still grappling with her own drug addiction and unsure of her future. While trying to extricate herself from her addiction to cocaine and Quaaludes, Currie embarked on a solo career, as well as teaming up with her twin sister Marie, before moving into film. In 1989, she published Neon Angel. “Writing the book definitely helped me – I recommend it to anyone. It was a great experience, and allowed me to get everything out there.”
But the 1989 edition of the book left out some of the most confronting details, including an incident where Fowley masturbates an inebriated woman in front of members of the band. “I wanted to include all of it in the first edition, but my publishers wanted a young adult book so they weren’t comfortable with including that material.”
When the second edition came out, Fowley took issue and the pair’s 30-year estrangement looked to be set in stone. But then, after Currie split with her manager in 2012 and made an off the cuff remark about preferring to work with Fowley again, the unthinkable happened. “Kim reached out to me to help me with my new record.” The album, Reverie, includes a couple of Runaways covers, as well as material co-written between Currie, her son Jake and Fowley.
BY PATRICK EMERY
