Cherie Currie thought she was getting her big break, but she ended up in the middle of a nightmare.
Michael Marks / Michael Ochs Archives / Getty ImagesCherie Currie of The Runaways .
Cherie Currie ’s life sentence convert when she was 15 class erstwhile .
Unlike most 15 - yr - old girls in 1975 , who were busy begin high schooling and determine date for the homecoming dancing , Cherie Currie was unbothered by the mundane high school lifestyle . She was more interested in making a scene .
Michael Marks/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty ImagesCherie Currie of The Runaways.
Before she was even old enough to drive , Currie was driving America sick as one of the lead vocalizer of the all - young lady rock’n’roll band “ The shoo-in . ” But , within just a few short days , she ’d realize that the bright lights of her newfound renown did n’t do much to cover the rock’n’roll industry ’s dark side .
Joining The Runaways
GAB Archive / Redferns / Getty ImagesCherie Currie and the Runaways .
When looking at Cherie Currie ’s long - scent calling , it ’s hard to guess that it almost did n’t happen .
A year before the band took off , Joan Jett , the loss leader of the Runaways , was introduced to next coach Kim Fowley at an Alice Cooper afterparty , who took a chance on her unconventional mind of an all - distaff band . While look for noblewoman rocking chair to connect her group , she approached not Cherie but Marie Currie , Cherie ’s identical Twin Falls , to be a atomic number 82 singer .
GAB Archive/Redferns/Getty ImagesCherie Currie and the Runaways.
Cherie only drive the gig when Marie turned it down . Looking back , she suppose today , she had no mind what have the job would hold .
For the next two years , theincreasingly precocious teenagerswould travel the country on tour , pass hours upon hours in the recording studio , and be paid almost nothing for their time or effort .
“ We just never had a break , ” Currie echo of her time in the band with Jett , Lita Ford , Sandy West , and Jackie Fox . “ Either we were touring , practise or in the studio apartment , and we were making no money at all . They were puddle a lot of money off of us . ”
Richard E. Aaron/Redferns/Getty ImagesThe Runaways perform live at CBGB in New York on August 1976. L-R Joan Jett, Jackie Fox, Cherie Currie, Lita Ford
If the laborious , thankless docket was n’t too much for the new adult female to handle , the handling they persist at the hired hand of their management was . Currie describes the management ’s deportment as abuse in the name of “ toughening them up ” but call for anyone else and it just read like flavorless - out abuse .
Kim Fowley allegedly used to thrust jar of peanut butter at the girls during dry run to prepare them for the jolty audiences they were bound to bump . He would also verbally maltreat them and pit the once well-disposed and joined girls against each other .
“ We get such abuse on a day-by-day base , ” Currie sound out . “ They were sample to indurate us to the realism of the rock’n’roll public but how could we possibly hump this was n’t the mode it was guess to be ? ”
Michael Ochs Archives/Getty ImagesThe Runaways pose for a portrait on the beach in 1976. (L-R) Lita Ford, Cherie Currie, Jackie Fox, Sandy West and Joan Jett.
Cherie Currie Leaves The Runaways
Richard E. Aaron / Redferns / Getty ImagesThe Runaways execute live at CBGB in New York on August 1976 . 50 - R Joan Jett , Jackie Fox , Cherie Currie , Lita Ford
Eventually , Currie realized that it was n’t the path it was supposed to be . She had only been with the Runaways for two twelvemonth , but she was already hook to cocaine and methaqualone , had gotten pregnant by one of her manager , and was course up with Fowley ’s intervention .
finally , she broke off from the band , convinced by Fowley that Jett wanted her out . She later recognize how awfully mistaken she was about this .
“ There was so much battle over the tending paid to me as the lead singer , ” she recalled later . “ Joan was very upset and spite but I really thought these lady friend wanted me out . It was a lack of communication . ”
As for if she regrets it or not , she has just one resolution .
“ Absolutely . ”
Ater effectivelyrunning away from the Runaways , Currie attempted a solo career then a vocation as a duette with her matching sister . From there she tried her deal at acting , appearing alongside Jodie Foster inFoxesand cameoing in the spoofy “ rockumentary”This Is Spinal Tap .
finally , she realized her interest in drug had proceed from habit to problem and decided to turn her life around . She took a line of work at North Hollywood ’s Coldwater Canyon hospital , working as a technical school in the drug and psych wards . Before long she ’d become a drug and alcohol counselor herself and was using her experience to get mass like her through their dark time .
Michael Ochs Archives / Getty ImagesThe Runaways stupefy for a portrait on the beach in 1976 . ( L - R ) Lita Ford , Cherie Currie , Jackie Fox , Sandy West and Joan Jett .
“ I was only 25 and a lot of these kids were the age I was when I was in the Runaways when I was precede to drugs , so it was a serious conniption for me , ” she read .
From there she published a book , a memoir titledNeon Angelthat chronicle her wild ride through the Runaways in her own words . She write the book for adolescent originally , hoping they ’d expend it as a “ what not to do ” manual , but it soon blossomed into a darkly detailed account of a teenaged girl ’s trauma .
It has since been turned into a docu - drama titled after the band , The Runaways .
Currie claims that writing the book allow for her to place herself free from the hurt of her past and work through her issue . Most surprisingly , she now sing frequently with Joan Jett whom she made up with decades after lead the band .
Today , Cherie Currie continues to counsel young people through their addictions , using her unusual and unique anecdote as boost . When she ’s not counseling kids , she ’s expend time with her son , and using her free meter to create chainsaw fine art out of fallen log .
As for her past in the Runaways and beyond , she take she has some ruefulness , but for the most part , she know getting out wasultimately the right move .
“ For me , ” she said , “ it was the end of a incubus . ”
Next , check out these rockgroupies who change rock and rollmusic . Then , read aboutSable Starr , the frighteningly nonaged 1970s “ Groupie Queen . ”
