Star Scene: Cherie Currie

Cherie Currie‘s scene is as individual as her Runaways’ days. The former singer of “teenage jailbait rock group”, The Runaways, states: “My scene is: have chainsaw, will travel”.

It is hard to imagine that the 15 year old girl who began her career by screaming “Cherry Bomb” on stage is now a renowned Chainsaw Artist, as well as continuing to act, write, record and perform around the world. [pullquote]On the eve of her first Australian/New Zealand trip, Currie may not bring her chainsaw but she will be bringing her A-game for her fans and giving them “everything that they hope for because I believe in giving the fans what they want”.[/pullquote] Cherie is also the co-author of “Neon Angel: The Cherie Currie Story” which recounted life in the band and Cherie’s traumatic experiences with drug addiction, sex abuse, and her broken family. Though writing the book was, at times, difficult, Currie still stays honest. She states: “Originally wrote (Neon Angel) in 1988 and that was a fluke because I had gone to Price Stern Sloan as an artist. I was actually a counsellor for drug addicted teens, and they saw my drawings and asked how long I’d been doing it and I said a year and they said, ‘How is this possible?’ and I explained the story of the runaways and my life and they said ‘We have been looking for our very first young adult book and this is it’. So I walked in as artist and walked out as an author. I worked with Neal Shusterman and he is such a great writer. It was very hard; you have to be honest and relive a lot of that stuff that a lot of us put aside. I spent a couple of weekends in my robe and never left the house that’s for sure. Since it was a young adult book, there were stories they were not comfortable with me sharing, so it was wonderful to have the adult book happen in 2010 where I could share those stories.”

As for the film, Currie states: “I still can’t quite fathom that it’s a film. I have to pinch myself because Dakota Fanning is one of my favourite actors of all time. She really is. And a wonderful girl. And Kristen Stewart did a great job too, and Michael Shannon. They’re just great actors and Floria Sigismondi did a great job of bringing the 70s to life. I thought it was just beautifully done.”

Though the members of the band didn’t know each other at the start, Currie states: “I was very close with Joan and Sandy. And also Sandy and I remained very very dear close friends until her death. Lita was not easy to get along with, she was very, very difficult and Jackie , you know, we just never really clicked.” Currie continues, “I cared about all the girls of course; we were all we had.” With Lita, Currie states: “I thought 40 years would be enough, and so did she. I reached out to Joan because I knew she was going to have dinner with Lita, and I asked her to please tell Lita that I would like to see her again. I was having nightmares about it about our relationship as kids. So it was great when Lita asked me to do a duet with her on a Christmas album she was doing called Rock This Christmas Down, so to stand on stage with her again, it was a lot of joy and a dream come true. I’m very grateful. I am the only band member who has worked with all the other girls, I’ve been on stage with Jacquie and Sandy, and Joan and Lita.”

[pullquote]With Jackie Fox‘s recent claim of rape by the group’s manager, Kim Fowley, Currie states: “I support anyone who wants to come out, because, trust me, I was talking about it since I was 23, I was coming up publicly about it. She just didn’t want to do that. Of course you know we see things differently to how she sees things, but no doubt about it, what Kim did was absolutely wrong. I just wish her peace and healing.”[/pullquote]

Currie felt that personally she needed to forgive Fowley so that she could move on. Working with Kim again was “fantastic”. She continues:  “I also knew that he was dying. So I reached out to him because I had so much anger in me for the money stolen and all the other things, and I realised that anger only hurt me. So I reached out to him because I wanted to know why he did the things he did, and we became friends. And for him to reach out to me, to make a record with me, as ill as he was, was a gift not only because my son would be able to participate and work with him plus, at my age, I could appreciate his brilliance as a songwriter this time with him was fun not intimidating and feeling not good enough he moved into my home and I took care of him for 9 days unfortunately he had to return to hospital and he then he passed away. But those are the days I will always remember. We even did some recording here in my house; he was bedridden but now I just have good feelings about him. I can’t imagine having to carry that anger around with me, that I had close to 40 years, and it never being resolved. But it was resolved for me.” The outcome, the album, Reverie, was released in 2015. Currie’s discusses her most rewarding songs: “Believe is a song I wrote 22 years ago and that song meant a lot to me I wrote it when I thought anything and everything was possible and every time I hear that song, I still believe that. But the other song I really enjoyed doing was Shades of Me with my son. I had to talk him into doing a duet with me but I’m so glad he did because he’s just a fantastic singer, songwriter, producer, and plus he plays nearly all the instruments on the album. No, not a rebel child because he had a rebel mother who wasn’t going to let that happen.”

Catch Cherrie Currie on her first tour down under.