Hi Suzi! It’s 60 years since you joined The Pleasure Seekers as a teenager, and you’re back on tour again. Do you still get the same buzz?
I feel like now, at 74, I’m at the peak of my performing capabilities. I’ve morphed into the rock’n’roll entertainer I always wanted to be. Since my Unzipped show in 2014 I kept the same format, so it’s two hours, some clips, some talking, some playing. And that was what I always dreamed of. It basically takes you through the journey of my life. You get all the hits, but you get so much more.
The word ‘iconic’ is overused, but it surely applies to the photo of you in your jumpsuit…
And I still wear it. In Act 2 of my show, I come out in it. But that is an iconic picture and I remember how it was shot. ‘Can The Can’ was recorded, ready to come out. Mickie [Most] and I discussed image, and I said leather. He said ‘No’, but I got my way, of course. And he said, ‘What about a jumpsuit?’ I thought that was a sensible idea, because I jumped around a lot on stage, and everything would stay in place. I can be very naïve – I had no idea that was going to be sexy. I hadn’t had a hit yet, so I remember the photographer, Gered Mankowitz, saying to me, “Give me that Suzi Quatro look.” I didn’t know I had a Suzi Quatro look! But all of a sudden, I went [flashes sultry look] and everything fell into place.
Did you see yourself as a trailblazer?
I didn’t know I was unusual. I come from a musical family and I play the bass and I play rock’n’roll. I didn’t realise I was breaking ground for lots of women until the documentary [2019’s Suzi] came out. Woman after woman kept coming out – Debbie Harry, Chrissie Hynde, Tina Weymouth, KT Tunstall, Joan Jett… I was talking to my friend Cherie Currie from The Runaways over the phone from LA afterwards, and I said, “I just realised something – by me doing what I did, I gave permission to women all over the world to be different.” There was this long transatlantic pause, and then she laughed and went, “And you only just got that?”
When you look at the touring schedule of someone like Taylor Swift, do you ever think, ‘She’s got it easy compared to how it was for me’?
I would be in her shoes tomorrow, no problem! My generation grew up learning our craft on the five-shows-a-night circuit, which was pretty normal. But she will have it tough in her own ways. Within her three hours, she has dancing bears and jugglers and costume changes and everything – she builds in her breaks, which is smart. But whatever size you are, you have to watch your voice all the time. Even in hot weather, I have a scarf around my neck. I can’t have air conditioning as it dries out the throat. And no sex, drugs and rock’n’roll – can’t do it! Gotta get minimum nine hours sleep after a show, or the first thing that happens? Your voice goes.
Are you still good friends with Alice Cooper?
Yeah, he calls me his little sister. I went over to Detroit just a few days ago – I played at his show and we recorded the first song for my new album, out next year. It’s a version of “Kick Out The Jams” by MC5, who I remember from way back, when I was in the Pleasure Seekers. It’s a cool tribute, as of course they are no longer with us. JOHNNY SHARP
Suzi Quatro plays The Palladium, London (Nov 13); Barbican, York (15); New Theatre, Cardiff (17); Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool (18); and De Montfort Hall, Leicester (20)
