The Runaways frontvixen Cherie Currie (not a stage name) is a rock ‘n’ roll lifer.
She’s also an actress, author, chainsaw sculptor, mother and drug counsellor. Despite the all-girl teenage rock group’s popularity here, The Runaways never toured Australia. Cherie first toured our shores in 2016 and now she’s back for her Final Ever Aus Tour.
We find Cherie surrounded by walls decorated with framed Gold/Platinum record plaques. She’s immediately warm and chatty, blonde and beaming in a long-sleeved, faded blue chambray shirt with the sleeves rolled up.
Many artists have admitted that The Runaways were the reason they pursued music in the first place. So how does that make Cherie feel?
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“Well, from Miley Cyrus to The Go-Go’s – I mean, it’s shocking to me, because I really thought we were all but forgotten. I remember when Madonna would say that she was the first one to wear a corset. It was like, ‘You know better, you know it was me!’ But she wouldn’t give me that credit.
“But you know what? To see the business be so female-friendly; I know [The Runaways] were a large part of that. And Suzi Quatro – I just can’t give her more love and appreciation than I do every interview, because I have to mention that she is truly the Godmother of rock ’n’ roll. If it wouldn’t have been for Suzi, there never would’ve been The Runaways – or Joan Jett, for that matter – so I have to give credit where credit is due.
When Cherie was asked to prepare a Suzi Quatro song for her The Runaways audition, she recalls, laughing, “Because I really wasn’t a singer – I never stood up and sang by myself, ever! – I picked Fever, because it was kinda sexy [Quatro covered this popular Eddie Cooley/Otis Blackwell co-write on 1975’s Your Mamma Won’t Like Me record]. And Lita and Joan and Sandy, they were all like, ‘Ugh, awful’.
“So Kim [Fowley, the band’s svengali manager], turned around and said to Joan, ‘You, come with me’… It coulda been Lita – and that’s not to put Joan down at all, Joan’s a great songwriter. But I think it was pretty neat that they disappeared for 15, 20 minutes then came out with this song [Cherry Bomb] that is what The Runaways are known for now.
“Anyone could sing it, any musician could pick up a guitar and play it and that’s, I think, what makes The Runaways so special: it’s just great rock ’n’ roll.
“I actually wrote the melody for Cherry Bomb. Because there was no melody for it and I was the only one that sang the song, I had to come up with a melody on the spot. I wish I would’ve known that I could have gotten a songwriting credit on that song; that’s ‘live and learn’, right?”
The Runaways supported the likes of Cheap Trick and Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers on their way up, then the tables turned once the girls achieved headliner status. “Cheap Trick, Tom Petty – I mean, it was just support all the way around,” Cherie reflects. “There were good ones out there, really good ones… But there were other bands that didn’t appreciate these teenage girls trying to infringe on their territory. Some bands just hated us, they thought we were a joke. And I can kinda get that they thought we were just hype, but then when we played it would change their minds.”
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There was a surge of interest in the band following 2010’s The Runaways film, which was inspired by Neon Angel: A Memoir Of A Runaway – Cherie’s unflinching book.
Did Cherie struggle to hold it together while recording Neon Angel’s audiobook version at times? “Oh, I did,” she admits freely. “We did this during Covid. My son [Jake Hays, Cherie’s son with actor Robert Hays (aka Ted Striker in Flying High)] was living here at the time, and I had to let my neighbours know: ‘Look, if you hear anyone screaming and crying, it’s just me doing my audiobook’. Because it was true! I mean, it’s one thing to write it, it’s another thing to say it out loud. And I found myself crying and just in such pain. I had to relive all of those experiences that were very, very difficult. But, you know what? It made me who I am today. So, honestly, I wouldn’t change a thing.”
Cherie Currie is playing Max Watt’s on 11 September. Get tickets here.
