Interview by: Mark Lacey
When the Runaways formed in 1975, their arrival on the scene caused an immediate stir. Not only were they pioneering as an all-girl rock band, but they performed their own instruments, and had a repertoire of catchy melodic rock songs that inspired a generation of female musicians. With Cherie at the helm, alongside Joan Jett, Lita Ford, Jackie Fox and Sandy West, the Runaways recorded two studio albums and one live album, before Cherie moved on in late 1977 to pursue a solo career. The Runaways would continue for a further two years, but with a number of line-up changes, and the band finally split in 1979.
Cherie’s own career since has been both diverse and unpredictable; from TV and film, to becoming a drug counsellor, and in recent years an award-winning chainsaw artist. Whilst also returning to a singing career, Cherie’s path was slowed down by the long-delayed release of her last studio album, at the behest of her record label. It remains possibly her finest recordings to date, but that delay and her perceived betrayal by her manager and record label have left lasting scars.
MyGlobalMind.com caught up with Cherie on what has been described as her last ever UK tour.
MGM: We’re currently sat backstage, just before your London show at Dingwalls in Camden. It’s great to have you back here, but this is being described as your last tour. Why did you make that decision?
Cherie: I love it here. I really do. I had to make a decision, finally, to just call it quits. I’m executive producer on a film called ‘Leaving Amy’, and I’ve also been a chainsaw artist for almost 23 years. I can only do one thing at a time, believe it or not. In fact, if I’m signing an autograph and you’re speaking to me, my hand just goes. It saved my life, obviously. I’m an upside-down left-hander. My concentration is so intense, because you’ve got a chainsaw blade so close to my face sometimes. And so, after 23 years of doing that, when I concentrate, I can only do one thing at a time.
MGM: It was reported that you injured yourself quite badly whilst chainsaw carving.
Cherie: I did. That’s where you see this mark on my forehead. I was up on this scaffold. I was at least 10 feet up. I just remember carving the foot of a bear. Then the next thing I know, I come to and I have ice all over my face. I’m on the concrete. What happened was what they call catching an edge. I was on private property, and my assistant had walked away because the owner had asked him a question. Instead of holding the plank for me, he walked away, and I caught an edge, which yanked me forward. All I know from my injuries is that I fell back, broke my tailbone on the scaffold, and the chainsaw was running. In my head, obviously, I held it away from me, and I did a back flip, basically onto my face and my shoulder. I cracked my skull and the left side of my face was paralysed for almost a year. I was lucky because the guy I was carving for was a retired trauma surgeon, so I had immediate medical attention.
MGM: It sounds like you’re lucky to be here at all.
Cherie: Truly. I’m also lucky I don’t remember it because I can’t even imagine the fear. I finished the carving. I actually went back and finished it.
MGM: Well, you’re over in the UK right now, and you’ve been doing a whole bunch of dates across the UK and Ireland. Tonight’s show in London is the 11th show out of twelve. How’s the tour gone so far?
Cherie: There’s a lot of driving, and it can be a little gruelling. But my son, Jake Hays, flew in yesterday, and he’s performing with us tonight. Jake toured with me for my first three US tours, and he’s just such a great talent. I’m thrilled that he’s playing with me tonight and tomorrow night. He loves London. He’d like to move here.
MGM: Your touring band sound like they’re from Germany. Are they your usual band?
Cherie: Yes, when I come over here. Alexx Michael, and Danny Raygun have always been the two main people. We’ve had a different guitar player, and we’ve had a different drummer. But Danny and Alexx are the stars of the show, really. Alexx puts it all together. Danny is his sideman.
MGM: If you fly across the pond and you’re playing with musicians that you don’t play with for large parts of the year, that must create an element of adrenaline, but also an element of anxiety.
Cherie: I know Alexx and Danny so well. We toured Australia together and New Zealand, and we’ve been working together now for over a decade. So, it’s like coming home when I get to see them.
MGM: You’re going back over to Australia again in 2025, aren’t you?
Cherie: In September, we’re going. And we might be going on to Japan. There’s been an offer, but that’s nine months away. I really would like to get Jake on that tour.
MGM: Your set naturally leans towards those first two Runaways albums, but you’ve also been playing from the ‘Blvds of Splender’ album which had a long delay before being released in 2019 for record store day.
Cherie: Blackheart Records shelved that album for almost nine years. It’s very hard to forgive Kenny Laguna for that because when I opened for Joan in 2010, I had such great reviews, and in fact, I won performance of the year opening for her. Her manager, Kenny Laguna, wasn’t very pleased with that. And Kenny was my manager, too. We got offered a nice record deal that night, and Kenny talked me out of going with this other record label. Matt Sorum from Guns N Roses and Velvet Revolver was producing the record and he did not want me to go with Blackheart. And it’s like, well, they manage me. Kenny says, I’m going to protect you. But what they did is, we made this extraordinary album, and then they put it on a shelf for nine years. They wouldn’t let me open for Joan again. Kenny would say, you can’t tour without a CD, but he wouldn’t put the album out for nine years. He let me sit and rot, is what he did. I actually just told Joan about it the other day. She was completely unaware. I thought she knew, but she didn’t know. And her quote to me via text was, “I don’t know what to say”. But I think that also contributes a little bit to me retiring because had I gone with this other deal, I don’t know what could have happened. I love doing music, but there’s this underlying anger that I have for what Kenny Laguna did, and I have to let it go for a while.
MGM: Your story is a powerful reflection of the industry being full of people with their own agendas, and navigating your path is not necessarily about the music. That must be really frustrating.
Cherie: Well, yeah. Blackheart doesn’t have the best reputation. I mean, all of the people that they’ve signed, basically, they would do something similar to what they did to me. I really feel that was Kenny’s way for Joan not to have any competition. That’s the only reason why he would. He was my best friend for 27 years. One day, I hope, he will tell me why, and be honest why he did this. But it’s too bad because it’s an extraordinary album.
MGM: Those first two Runaways albums are now 50 years old, but are still regarded as pioneering from that period. The Runaways were a relatively short-lived band, so why do you think their legacy and those songs have really lasted the test of time?
Cherie: I think because it’s just raw rock n roll. So many girls and young musicians play these songs because anyone can play them, even if you’ve just started. You don’t have to be Angus Young to play these songs. I think that they’re just simple, and I think sometimes simple is great.
MGM: You’ve been playing ‘Cherry Bomb’ throughout this tour, and it’s your flagship tune. You must have played it thousands of times by now. How do you keep it exciting for you?
Cherie: It’s funny because that was the very first song I ever recorded, and I was so self-conscious. I’d never been in a studio before. Kim Fowley turned off all the lights in the studio, so I’d be in the dark, and they gave me a handheld mic and let me dance around and sing in the dark. And that’s how Cherry Bomb was recorded. I couldn’t sing to save my life in the Runaways. I never sang before, besides with my dad when I was just a little kid with my twin sister. But I can actually hold a note now.
MGM: A lot of music these days has become a TV audition, with an emphasis on vocal gymnastics rather than vocal personality or musicianship. How do you think the Runaways would fare if they had been subjected to that?
Cherie: Are you talking about America’s Got Talent? I think that those shows have destroyed more people because of the expectations that they have. Probably Mick Jagger and all that would have been turned down. I think it sets a standard that’s unreachable in a lot of young people’s minds, and it makes them stop because they think, well, I’m not that good. To me, it’s a sin. They’re always looking for another Céline Dion, and they’ll miss a Tracy Chapman or somebody that’s unique. I think it’s hurt so many really great people that would have been big stars if those shows hadn’t come around.
MGM: You started with the Runaways at the age of 15, and have been performing for 50 years, but you’ve had a varied career including stints in television, and more recently your chainsaw carving.
Cherie: I was also a counsellor for drug-addicted teens in the ’80s. I went into the medical business and helped kids get off drugs for a number of years. I worked at a hospital.
MGM: Why was that important to you?
Cherie: Well, I had been addicted to drugs in the Runaways. It almost took me out, and I just wanted to give back. Then I became a fitness trainer as well. I trained the stars for a number of years, too. Then I met my now ex-husband, but the best guy’; my best friend, Robert Hays. Then we had Jake right away, and I did that, and then I went back into music. When I was a drug counsellor, I started to draw because I had to sit in a classroom with these kids for two hours a day. I started drawing these whimsical castles, princes, princesses, kings, all that stuff. I went to Price Stern Sloan, which was a children’s book company, to draw for their children’s books. The guy that owned the company said, how long have you been drawing? I said, a year. He goes, how is that possible? I told him the story about The Runaways. He goes, we’ve been looking for our first young adult book, and this is it. I walked in as an artist and walked out an author, and that book is the reason why The Runaways movie was made.
MGM: Talking about drawing, Scott Gorham from Thin Lizzy recently revealed his talents as an artist. No one knew he drew, but he’s just released a whole collection of prints from some pictures he drew back in the ’70s during his Thin Lizzy heyday. Someone saw them, and finally said to him, this is too good for you not to share with people.
Cherie: Bob (Robert Hays) is a beautiful scenery painter, which he didn’t even realise until two years ago. I’ve been a chainsaw artist for so many years. But Jake, our son, has been a tattoo artist since he was seventeen. He actually painted Dakota Fanning in watercolour. He does portraits. The kid’s outrageous. He tattooed himself. I thought I was going to kill him, because Bob hates tattoos. But he tattooed a tiger. The tail starts, and it’s crawling down rocks on his thigh; he didn’t tell us until he turned eighteen. He’s getting a tattoo here in London as well. But Jake is just an extraordinary artist, singer, performer, producer, actor. Jake has more talent at the tip of his little finger than Bob and I have in our entire bodies, so we’re so proud of him.
MGM: This will be the last time you’re performing in the UK. You have shows being planned for Scandinavia, Australia and Japan next year. Once you’ve done those three tours, what does the future look like for you? Will you continue to tour back home in the US, or will you continue to write music?
Cherie: I do a lot of session work. I’ll continue with that. Being a chainsaw artist, I can only do one thing at a time, and I want to get this film made. There are things that I’m very passionate about, and I want to be able to devote all my time and get back to chainsaw art. That’s something that keeps me in shape, and I haven’t been able to do it for a while.
For more information:
www.facebook.com/CherieCurrieOfficial
Cherie will be performing in Australia in September 2025:
5th September: The Rosemount, Perth
6th September: Crown & Anchor, Adelaide
11th September: Corner Hotel, Melbourne
12th September: Crowbar, Sydney
13th September: Crowbar, Brisbane
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