Young Cherie Currie
She was a slim, feathered-hair teenager with a taut corset that caressed her figure flawlessly. Microphone embedded into her hand as the wire wrapped around her leg with the utmost precision, kind of like it had laid tracks on her skin and knew how to loop itself with such perfection. A voice with an edge and strong persona that served as the composer to a rock symphony. The stage presence of a titan at war delivering her last breath and not going home without a fight. I have two words for you…Cherie Currie.
Although it’s been well over thirty years since the last Runaways performance, this hasn’t held the former front woman back from digging into her roots. With the release of her book Neon Angel, the movie The Runaways which hit theatres back in April, and now a performance at the Pacific Amphitheatre on August 11th with her former band mate Joan Jett, have all kept Currie quite busy this year.
It may not be definite that these two will perform an actual number together, as Currie says there is nothing certain at this point till the day before the performance, but she is guaranteeing that the show will hold a few surprises: “Right now we’ve changed the set a few times, we decided to focus on the fans, and what they want, to give them a show that they’re gonna walk away going “Wow, that’s exactly the songs I wanted to hear!”
Among the things she’s looking forward to in her performance are for one, sharing the stage with her 19 year-old son (who will be part of the band led by Matt Sorum, from Velvet Revolver and Guns & Roses). The admiration and excitement on how she talks about Jake (son) is the way any proud mom would, the only difference is this rocker mom isn’t putting a bumper sticker on her car showing that Jake got honor roll at school, she’s actually having him play with her side by side in front of a large OC audience: “When you see Jake on stage, he’s incredible, he’s got presence, I mean this kid is more natural on a stage than I think I ever was. So, really that’s almost the greatest part of this that I get to share a stage with my son.”
Cherie and Joan
Apart from music, Currie is also a prominent writer. The movie The Runaways was based on her memoir Neon Angel, which exposes the dark hard-edged sides of the music industry and how its impact shook the life of a young Cherie. Feeling like she’s been through it all, she believes Neon Angel can serve as a strong inspirational tool to many folks out there that can relate to situations she’s encountered. This book not only reveals true stories of The Runaways but it also gives a sign of hope to people that think there is no way out even in the most tumultuous of circumstances.
“I wanted this book to matter, I wanted this book to impact people and for them to see you can survive anything, that’s number one. I also wanted to get out the absolute truth in the most depth possible and to pull out all the courage I could, to be as truthful and honest as I could, and that book absolutely does that. I’m kind of glad that because the movie was pushed up a couple of months, therefore the book was pushed up, I didn’t have any time to chicken out. I couldn’t turn around and say “maybe this was probably too heavy”, I didn’t have that opportunity, which was the best thing because everyday I pulled no punches for this book and I’ve gotten a lot of letters from people who say its changed their lives.”
Currie was a strong supporter of the overall basis, performance and end result of the film, even though the film The Runaways didn’t capture Neon Angel’s entirety.
Cherie Currie
She shared a snippet of her book she would’ve wanted to see added to the movie: “The Runaways, we were arrested in Europe. We were thrown in jail for possession of hotel room keys. When we went to Europe that was right at the beginning of the punk movement, the real punk movement, not the kind of punk movements here, that was kids play. What happened there was really scary. They tried to turn our car over, we ended up running over a kid, we were trying to get away with our lives, they were throwing knives at us on stage, a lot of scary stuff like that”
So does the old edgy rebellious Cherie still linger somewhere inside the mature and well- driven woman I had a chance to chat with?
“Getting out of stage is probably the easiest thing I’ve ever done, I’m still that person, you know I’m older and I don’t have quite the energy I had at 15, 16, and 17 but I’m just an older and wiser Cherie Currie, I don’t take anything for granted anymore, which I think the 15, 16, 17 year old Cherie did.”
If you want to complete your Runaways experience after reading the book and watching the movie, I’m telling you, your life will not be whole till you go watch Cherie Currie and Jett’s explosive performance first hand at the Pacific Amphitheatre in Orange County on August 11th.
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