“It’s not a reissue, not even close,” Cherie Currie says of her Runaways memoir Neon Angel (It Books), which hit stores Tuesday. “It’s a complete rewrite, from the first word until the end.” Unlike her young-adult autobiography, which she wrote in her 20s, this one doesn’t hold back. “I’m gonna call a spade a spade, I’m gonna say how it happened, and I’m gonna name names if I can and have no fear. That’s the difference.”
Currie seems to have an almost genetic inability to pull punches. A few weeks after being “mesmerized” at the age of 15 by David Bowie on his Diamond Dogs tour, Currie found herself handpicked by Kim Fowley and Joan Jett to be the lead singer of the Runaways. Recording, touring, fame, and rock & roll hedonism soon followed. Currie left the band in 1977, acted in a few movies, made two solo albums, overcame drug addiction, and became a mom, drug counselor, and (wait for it) champion chain saw carver. It’s fitting then that she cuts cleanly to the chase during a barrage of interviews, this one conducted by telephone from Los Angeles, to publicize Neon Angel and Floria Sigismondi’s feature The Runaways, in which Currie is portrayed by Dakota Fanning, whom Currie credits with an “incredible” performance.
In response to a long-winded question about overcoming producer/manager Kim Fowley’s reputed role as the group’s Svengali, for instance, she razzes me for a bit for bungling Fowley’s name (I blame a typo in my notes) and says: “You mean the fact that we weren’t just like the typical little underage boy band that was completely manufactured but actually had a hand in what happened in the Runaways? It didn’t take more than a few weeks of us playing together. Kim basically had to let go of the reins pretty quick. He was really good behind the scenes. He was all about hype. He was really good at it.
“The best thing he did is that he got us together. The worst thing he did is that he stole our money and didn’t know how to manage us properly. And he abused us endlessly. Endlessly.”
The trajectory of Currie’s life speaks to the ambivalence many feel about an enterprise that played up the young sexuality of a band of raucous, powerful, largely unsupervised teenagers. She claims the corset, stockings, and heels she wore to sing “Cherry Bomb”: “Kim Fowley didn’t come up with that, I did,” but adds: “People don’t normally grow up like that. The Runaways were given drugs by the people that were supposed to be taking care of us.”
Nevertheless, her advice to girls who want play in bands remains positive. “If you feel in your heart of hearts that this was something you were put here to do, then you have to do it,” she says. “Don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t.”
During South by Southwest, Currie will be doing a chain saw carving demonstration at the Levi’s Fader Fort on Friday, March 19.
This article appears in March 19 • 2010.