Cherie Currie on 'The Runaways'

We’ve seen a lot of biographies about singers who fall into drugs and alcohol. We don’t usually get to talk to the real singers when the movie comes out. The Runaways lead singer Cherie Currie has totally cleaned up her act since leaving the band. The movie shows how she explored her teen sexuality with songs like Cherry Bomb. Now Currie spoke in a roundtable to reflect on the events portrayed in the film.

Q: How harrowing was it to tell this story and watch them portray it?

Cherie Currie: Wow, have you ever seen The Perfect Storm? It’s just been a mixture of just elation and gratefulness and bliss and a whole lot of just crazy feelings. I mean, actually the book, rewriting the book was probably far more harrowing for me. First of all, the first book was written by Neal Shusterman, and he really did write that book. This book, even though Tony O’Neill was with me on it, I really wrote the book. I think it comes from a place where I’m a 50-year-old woman that just has no fear anymore. The first book I wrote, I had a lot of regret when I was in my ‘20s and I felt really bad for the things I had done to my family and so I just took the blame for everything in that book. That’s okay but now I don’t have to. I had to tell the truth, the whole truth, and I just felt if this book is going to fail, then it’s going to be all me. I can live with that. I can live with it going down in flames if it’s my fault, but if it’s your fault, I can’t live with that. So I did it for selfish reasons.

Q: Was writing the first book cathartic? 

Cherie Currie: Well, I just wanted people to forgive me more than anything else. I felt like I needed to be forgiven. You know, when you’re in your early 20s, mid-20s and you’ve been a drug addict and you’ve caused so much pain, you just want to be forgiven. So I punished myself with that book. That was a punishment. I just had to stick it out there really how bad I was, and I was bad. There’s no doubt about that. But, now I understand a lot more of why these things happen and that’s what comes with age. That’s what comes with just living life. This new book took me through so many changes that I can’t even tell you. Every word was of the utmost importance. Like I say, if it fails, I’m thrilled if it fails. I’m fine as long as it’s me that did the failing.

Q: What are the different titles?

Cherie Currie: The first book was Neon Angel: The Cherie Currie story. You actually can’t get it anywhere. That was on Price, Stern and Sloan. That was their first young adult book. This one is Neon Angel: Memoir of a Runaway.

Q: Which one is the movie based on?

Cherie Currie: Both. Because I had actually started rewriting that young adult book in just about 2000/2001. I just had this compelling feeling. Price, Stern and Sloan felt that book was harrowing and tragic enough and I had a whole lot more stories. They were just not comfortable with some of these, one being Kim Fowley’s sex education class. So just out of nowhere, I just felt my son, he’s just becoming a teenager, I just needed to write these things down. So I did and then Kenny Laguna read it and he thought this is really good. so he started shopping the book. People just really weren’t that interested in The Runaways or a girl with a drug problem. Old, been there, done that. But, Hollywood, they were interested. Thank goodness John Linson was also a fan of The Runaways so that was very helpful.

Q: Do you sense you were right all along when people criticized the music of young girls?

Cherie Currie: To me, I think if you’re true to yourself really, if you’re true to yourself, you can’t fail. Whether it takes three days, three months or 35 years. I just seem to find that with life in general, being truthful, really, really truthful first with yourself, then boy, the stuff that you can do is pretty incredible. I’m amazed that 35 years later I’m sitting here, grateful.

Q: How did you think Dakota Fanning did channeling you?

Cherie Currie: Superb. Superb. It’s a really cute story because she and I met for lunch, she actually came to the Roxy where I just did Cherry Bomb for a benefit. She actually came sick to see that. She was really cute because she goes, “I watched you up there and I realized I had my work cut out for me.” I thought, “Thank you, Dakota.” But we went to lunch and I said, “How did you get involved in this film?” She says, “You’re not going to believe this but I went to school and one of my girlfriends had these temporary tattoos and I picked out a single cherry and put it on my shoulder. When I got home and showed my mom, my mom was holding a script and saying, “You’re not going to believe this but you’re supposed to play a girl that has a cherry tattoo.”’” Dakota just felt that was a sign. Then she read the script and she said there was absolutely no one else on the planet that could play this role. I said, “Why do you say that?” She goes, “What are they going to do, get a 26-year-old to play a 15-year-old?” I thought this girl really does get how supreme and off the map great she is, how wise beyond her years she is.

Q: How does Cherry Bomb sound when you perform it now?

Cherie Currie: Well, you’re going to find out pretty soon. It sounds the same, just with a little bit more worldly stuff around it I guess.

Q: Why does the music hold up so well?

Cherie Currie: I couldn’t listen to The Runaways for a good 20 years after I left the band because it was just too painful. And I didn’t look at any of the videos and it just has been in the last 10 years that I really actually was stunned of really how magical the five of us were on stage together. The songs are just raw. They tell it like it is, kind of like I’m doing now in my life. You just can’t deny something that’s real and raw, coming from a place that’s undeniable.

Q: How do you feel about what the Runaways represented, establishing an all girl rock n’ roll band? 

Cherie Currie: I’m incredibly proud. Kids need to feel like their wants and dreams matter. Having parents over them all the time telling them what they can and cannot do, that’s not a bad thing but in the process, a lot of kids get crushed by that. Not all of us are of the same. The world wouldn’t turn if we were all here to do the same thing. People that have a dream to do something unusual or extraordinary, that’s how the world goes around. I’m very proud of the Runaways. We took a lot of real hard punches and look at us now 35 later.

Q: Do you feel like you got the credit you deserve as pioneers? 

Cherie Currie: Now. Now. I never thought we would. I really didn’t think I would see this day. I still don’t know why we weren’t acknowledged. Maybe we scared people. I don't know. It was just a really weird time. I’m not saying that we were so extraordinary and so great and so amazing. I just think it was the timing. We were just a little ahead and people hated us for that and they kicked our butts. It’s kind of like you kick someone’s butt, you leave ‘em in the street and move on. I think that’s what happened. They kicked our butt, left us on the street, moved on.

Q: How did the set of The Runaways compare to the set of Foxes 30 years ago?

Cherie Currie: I mean, am I ever going to wake up from this dream? Really. I sleep in my dream. This is the most amazing experience besides the birth of my son. This is the best thing that’s ever happened to me besides him.

Q: What has your relationship been with Joan over the years?

Cherie Currie: We haven’t had one up until 12 years ago. She was very angry with me. I had no idea. I thought that she wanted me out of the band. They were so angry. We just never talked, it was terrible. We all pitted against each other so it’s great to get to know her again and be able to see all that hard work and that hell we went through really was worth it. We always knew it was worth it. We just didn’t think anyone else would get that it was worth it. It was always worth it to us.

Q: How is she different from when you were singing together?

Cherie Currie: She’s the same. 
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~Robstenfan