Jimmy Kay from The Metal Voice recently spoke to Former Runaways singer Cherie Currie about her upcoming European tour 2024.
Currie also spoke about her turbulent times in the Runaways, the Rush incident in Feb 10, 1977 in Detroit and her being kidnapped after she quit the band and a whole lot more...
Watch full interview here
Excerpts for the video interview
When asked how band manager Kim Fowley would encourage others to throw things at the band during rehearsals
"Oh yeah he would have people come in and throw trash, trying to get us ready for anything. It was the Runaways boot camp and you know. I loathed Kim Fowley. Also I got hit by the IRS as soon as I left the band. I thought all the girls had been for money that I never made and that I was forced to pay. I loathed him for many reasons but then when I heard he was sick I had seen him at a party and I just really realized that this hatred that I had hurt only me and that this was so unhealthy. I just decided that I was going to hand an olive branch and so when I saw him at this party over at the Houdini Mansion, he was kind of expecting me to want to push him in a pool or something. I said let's talk and so we did and we talked for hours and he cried literally. He knew that he had made a grave mistake and not only that I left right when we were more than likely going to have a huge hit. Then when he got ill I moved him into my home and took care of him towards the end of his life and he was bedridden. So we're talking bedpans and we're talking sponge baths and you know it was the best time of my life. We recorded, we wrote and I loved him when he died and so all the feelings that would have been hatred is love now. You got to forgive you got to forgive I'm so glad that I did. "
When asked about when she quit The Runaways
" I couldn't even watch videos or anything after our breakup. It was hard, very very hard because the ending was so devastating. And again it was because we were just working to the Bone to the Bone, we never had any time off, we weren't being paid and there was this inner friction within the band that we didn't have a mediator. If we would have had a mediator it would have made such a difference. Kim Fowley (manager) seemed to believe and he regretted this for the rest of his life. Kim just believed that if there was tension that it would be more rock and roll on stage that it would just have this grittiness. But unfortunately we were too young to handle it. You know 16, 17, 18 you know we were children. "
When asked about owing money to the IRS because of Kim Fowley cooking the books
"Kim Fowley actually claimed that my twin sister also owed $20,000 in taxes uh so this was him being a conniving con man. I'll never forget this (IRS) agent turned around and he goes to my father, we don't give a damn whether she made the money or not. She's going to pay it and I paid $100 a month from the time I was 17 until I married Robert Hayes in 1990. He (Robert) just happened to see me writing out another $100 check and he paid it off. At that time I owed about $2600. Kim Fowley was stealing all the money so he had to find some way to not pay the taxes for the money that he stole because the Runaways made nothing. I mean nothing. The Japan tour which was the last tour was the only tour where we made money and I'm talking about us selling out huge venues, merchandise, up the kazoo, tens of thousands of dollars a night and each one of us got a check for about $1,700 . I can't even imagine the amount of money that The Runaways made on these tours I can't even imagine after 35 years. We never got any royalties either, we ended up having to turn around in sue Kim Fowley and Polygram/ Mercury to get our royalties and that was in 1997. But unfortunately they take 50% of everything and uh you know right now it's 30 years so I'm going to have to start disputing that.
When asked how much of the Bio Pic The Runaways movie was exaggerated
"I can't say it was exaggerated at all. They based the movie on my original 1989 paperback book Neon Angel and uh I don't know why she (Floria Sigismondi director) didn't think that there were enough treacherous stories in there but she actually wanted my character in some hotel room blowing crack cocaine in a dog's face. I told her first of all I will sue you if you even attempt this because then I'll have people hating me for something that I would never do. But she changed things around like. I wore the corset for the first time in Japan (in the movie) however (in real life) I wore the corset almost right out the gate."
When asked about their incident with Rush when the Runaways opening for them at Detroit's Cobo Hall on February 10, 1977 (allegedly)
" We had been treated so well by Tom Petty who opened for us and Cheap Trick who opened for us but Rush sabotaged our set. We're at Detroit's Cobo Hall. It's a big venue. I saw them and they were throwing pieces of paper just like standard 8 by10 paper onto the stage whipping it like you would a pizza. I was in 6-in platform boots and I had to jump off of Sandy West's drum Riser. I hit one of those pieces of paper and I slid across that stage and there was an orchestra pit with all the photographers. I'll never forget seeing them reach up with fear that I was going to go over and somehow I caught myself right at the last minute and did one of those you know (rock star poses) to one of the photographers. I could have been paralyzed. I'm not exaggerating, I could have been very much injured had I gone off that stage. So that's why Joan and I in particular don't care much for them because they weren't protecting us, they were sabotaging us that night and they would be sitting there behind Lita's (Ford) amp (snickering)."
When asked about Peeing on Rush's guitars as a form of retaliation (as portrayed in the movie The Runaways)
"I wasn't there I didn't pee on anybody's things. If it did happen it could have been Joan (Jett) and Lita(Ford). It was not me. It's hard for me to imagine that. Joan was very subdued and self-conscious and I don't really see that happening personally. I'm not saying that it didn't because I wasn't there."
When Asked about her being kidnapped shortly after quitting the Runaways
" I just left The Runaways and this man pulled up and it was like Cherie long time no see. Good looking guy and he's in a green limousine. I'm thinking to myself, oh I don't recognize him but I was a people pleaser. I didn't want to make anyone feel bad I didn't want to turn around and say gosh I don't remember you. I played along with it and there was a guard right there to my left. My friends were right there and he said look at my new car and I said well that's nice. He goes well, why don't you jump in as I pull around to park .This voice immediately said don't do it but I looked and I saw the guard was right there. I thought for some reason that they overheard him but they didn't and it was being a people pleaser not wanting to hurt his feelings. I got in the car and he's pointing at all the gadgets, look at this, look at that. And we're coming around this horseshoe and I saw him pass one spot and it's a limousine right so there were only a couple of spots that it took and then the Master locks came down and he just went right out the parking lot. I didn't have my purse, I had nothing on me. I didn't have an ID, nothing . He took me probably 15 miles to the Osborne exit off the 170 freeway to a desolate area to a house. I screamed enough trust me no one came. He got me probably at about 10 at night, my sister was supposed to pick me up at 11:pm. He held me until about 5 in the morning when I talked him into going back with him to Dallas, this is after I'd stabbed him with a knife. I'm very lucky he didn't kill me but I literally was so desperate because he kept telling me he'd killed six women and he was going to kill me. So I was in that kind of Terror. After I'd stabbed him he was beating me, he drugged me, he knocked me to the ground and dragged me by my hair into the bedroom and he literally straddled me and was punching me in the face where I started to go unconscious. Then I heard this voice saying don't you remember we used to do this. I was just playing, I was just playing. I didn't mean it, you know , I love you. I was just falling into this Blackness of unconsciousness and all of a sudden the blows became less and less and less and I said take me home and I'll get my stuff and we could be together and he believed it. It bought me my life. I'll never forget he's driving to my friend Vicky Ronald's apartment and my dear friend Andy Raffles. I knew Andy would be there. I knew they were searching for me at this time because I left my purse. I had him drive me to Vicki's apartment. He brought me down into the underground parking lot and I said I'll be right back and I get out and I get into the stairwell and I collapsed. I mean I just literally fell on the floor and I crawled up the stairs and I got to the apartment I knocked on the door and Andy opens that door and he lifted me up and I just said he's downstairs that's all I said. Andy grabbed a butcher knife and a flashlight and he went out that door and he got that license plate. It took the police literally 30 minutes and they took me from the hospital in the patrol car to ID the house which I did about 7:30- 8:00 in the morning. Then the police waited till the following morning at about 4 a.m. and they busted through that door and they dragged him out naked and you know he I went to trial and he had decided to take a plea deal. He pleaded to sodomy by force and got one year in county and they dropped the kidnapping, the baiting, everything, all the sexual assault because it was you know arms length what he had done and more. So he pleaded guilty to sodomy by force and got one year in county I think he's dead today to be honest or changed his name."
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