Just 15 years old at the time, Cherie Currie found overnight fame and a degree of notoriety in 1975 as lead singer with The Runaways. Her spell with the pioneering female band was short but sweet, lasting for just two albums. Almost a half-century later she returns to the UK to sing those songs once again, for what will probably be the final time.
How much are you looking forward to these thirteen shows around the UK and Ireland?
I still enjoy performing the songs, though this time it’s likely to be a little bittersweet. This will most likely be my last tour. As much as I love doing it, there comes a time when I realise I must stop. I turn sixty-five in November and will be celebrating my birthday on stage [in Belfast]. Taking people back to their youth is an incredible thing, even just for an hour.
What should we expect to be on the set-list on the tour?
I’m adding more Runaways songs. Considering this will probably be my last tour, I want to play the songs that I know people love. As well as the standards like American Nights and California Paradise, I’m adding Neon Angels On The Road To Ruin and Thunder, plus some surprises.
There’s a ‘meet & greet’ option for people coming to the shows, but with a difference.
I’ve changed it all around. I now meet each fan privately, instead of all in a room together. Most artists do that with such ill-concealed bad grace it’s nicknamed a ‘grin and grip’. Not me, I love it. We sit there and talk and I sign all of the stuff that they bring me. I want to know who these people are. That camaraderie between us is more satisfying to me than the actual show – that’s just the cherry on the top.
Are you planning to make new music?
I’m still very proud of Blvds Of Splendor [her penultimate album, released in 2019], which is the album that [former Runaways bandmate] Joan Jett and Kenny Laguna [Jett’s longtime manager] put on the shelf for me. I still feel like that album didn’t get a fair shake, so it’s almost difficult for me [to follow]. Plus I do a lot of session work, and right now I have a song on the charts in Europe, I Can See You [with the Dead Boys], from a Taylor Swift tribute album.
What do you think of The Runaways, the 2010 biographic film that was based on your own memoir Neon Angel? Are you happy with it?
Of course I’m happy with it. As far as capturing the 1970s, it was beautifully done. [Director and screen writer] Floria Sigismondi is brilliant at that. Dakota Fanning and Kristen Stewart [who play Currie and Jett respectively] were great in their parts. I do wish the movie had gone into more detail and had a more realistic timeline, but that’s coming from a person who was there.
Away from music you also have a career as a chainsaw artist, creating sculptures in wood. How did an accident in 2016 almost kill you?
I was very lucky. I was doing a carving and needed to get a little bit higher in this tree. My assistant had been called away without my knowledge and was no longer holding the board. I toppled backwards with the running saw and fell ten feet, onto my face. I’m glad I don’t remember what happened. I cracked my skull and still have scars.
Looking at your Twitter/X page, you’re very political. You don’t seem to care about alienating potential fans.
I’ve always stood up for others, and also for common sense. I used to be a Democrat, but starting with Obama that’s no longer the party I signed up for. A worldwide takeover is on the way, there’s a global cabal behind it and it will reach the UK. It’s going to happen.
What’s the secret to looking so good in your mid-sixties?
Oh my gosh. I do not drink alcohol, which really helps, and I eat clean, healthy food. But really I think it’s just my mental attitude.
Cherie Currie’s UK tour begins on November 23 in Manchester. For full dates and tickets, visit the Cherie Currie website.
