Renaissance rocker could never be accused of freewheeling. Last year she delivered the album (her well-received collaboration with KT Tunstall), right now she’s in the midst of an ongoing tour, and she’s already written the bulk of her eighteenth studio album. From teenage 60s garage band The Pleasure Seekers, through hit-making leather-clad icon, to tireless elder stateswoman, Quatro has proved herself uncommonly adept as a TV and West End musical theatre actor, radio broadcaster, poet and novelist.
You name it, Suzi’s done it. But 60 years in the rock business? Everybody looks at me and goes: “How long?’ I turned seventy-four on June third. I started at fourteen and, because I come from a musical family, I’d already been schooled in classical piano and percussion when we started the band.
Nobody wanted the bass, so I was given it, which was fine by me. My dad gave me permission to leave school, we went on the road, and I went professional immediately. We never had to fight to be a band, it wasn’t a rebellious thing, just accepted.
I played bongo drums. I considered myself a beatnik, playing bongos and reciting poetry, and I’m actually the same now. .
Sign up below to get the latest from Classic Rock, plus exclusive special offers, direct to your inbox! I’d no idea what I was doing was unusual. I was just being me, rocking out. It was [producer] Mickie Most - who discovered me and brought me to England - who told me I was unique.
I was going: “What? Why is he saying that to me?” And even after the hits started, in 1973, I still didn’t get it. It wasn’t until I saw my documentary, [2019], and , Chrissie Hynde, Lita Ford, , Donita Sparks, Tina Weymouth and KT Tunstall all appeared and they basically all said the same thing: we would not have done what we did had Suzi not done it first. That was the first time, at the age of sixty-nine, that I realised what I’d done.
I’ve always been a hands-on person. I don’t hide. I never did.
Even when I used to get mobbed I didn’t hide. I made up my mind in 1973 that I’m either gonna go out in a baseball cap and glasses or go out as me, and I went out as me. And I have a life.
If you’re not on social media today you’re dead in the water. You have to be on it. But once I got onto it I loved relating.
. We’re filming at the London Palladium, always a challenge. Every gig’s a challenge, to tell the truth.
I don’t rest on laurels, I’ve never gone out with the attitude: “They’re going to love me tonight.” Never. I go out with: “I hope they like me tonight.
” Though it’s fair to say I’m at the top of my performing game. I’m doing a two-hour show with an interval, so I can play a song on the piano, a duet on the drums, a six-and-a-half-minute bass solo. And luckily my vocal capabilities haven’t gone down.
When we were making the album [2011], [producer] Mike Chapman, who probably knows my voice better than I, said: “Suzi, I love what life’s done to your voice.” You hear the experience. You hear the life.
I always talk to the audience during my full-blown show, and the first thing I tell them is my age, because I’m proud of it. I’m not chasing twenty-four, I’m seventy-four, and still up there shaking my ass..
. That’s disgusting [laughs]. Steve was such a nice guy.
I remember he had a hit with , and he was supposed to play the part in the musical that Michael Crawford played. Steve Harley was at the premiere with me, and as we were talking backstage I said: “What do you think?” And he said: “Michael Crawford’s great. He’s only missing one thing.
” And I said: “What’s that?” He said,: “A good limp” [laughs]. I’ve been told I am by many people, so I guess I am. With no signs of slowing down.
I don’t know where I get this energy from. I was just born this way. I’ve always had a lot of energy, and that’s not left me.
I did leave school early, but I’m extremely well-read. I can touch type and I can take shorthand. No thanks.
But it’s a god-send I can type; I’m on my second novel, my seventh published book, I’ve got nearly enough poems for my third poetry book. And we’ve fourteen songs ready for the next album. I always knew I could act, it’s a no-brainer.
I could have gone into acting instead of music. Alice and I have been very, very good friends since the age of fifteen. We’re very similar, Alice and I.
In fact, he’s gonna do a track with me on my next album. Classic Rock’s Reviews Editor for the last 20 years, Ian stapled his first fanzine in 1977. Since misspending his youth by way of ‘research’ his work has also appeared in such publications as Metal Hammer, Prog, NME, Uncut, Kerrang!, VOX, The Face, The Guardian, Total Guitar, Guitarist, Electronic Sound, Record Collector and across the internet.
Permanently buried under mountains of recorded media, ears ringing from a lifetime of gigs, he enjoys nothing more than recreationally throttling a guitar and following a baptism of punk fire has played in bands for 45 years, releasing recordings via Esoteric Antenna and Cleopatra Records. Helmet cancel US tour over financial concerns and poor ticket sales Former Anthrax guitarist too busy “****ing around with crazy-ass expensive watches” to think about comeback Paul McCartney just made a surprise appearance with Andrew Watt and Chad Smith at a 250-capacity club in Amagansett.
