SUZI QUATRO

'The Guardian', 2016: Which living person do you most admire, and why? 

Suzi Quatro, then 66: My sister Arlene, who is 75 and on marriage number seven. I admire her hopefulness. 

In May 1979, Suzi Quatro performed a duet with Chris Norman. 'Stumblin' In' turned out to be the biggest hit for both singers, peaking at No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 after spending 22 weeks on the chart. The song was written by Mike Chapman and Nicky Chinn. 

Patrick Goldstein of 'The Washington Post' reported in August 1979, "This 32-year-old Australian-born record producer has almost as many hits this year (in 1979) as Pete Rose. Earlier this year (in 1979), two of the producer's female-lead groups crashed the top 10 simultaneously: Blondie's 'Heart of Glass' and Quatro's 'Stumblin' In'. Today's rock producers are stars in their own right. 

"The music press dotes on them, avidly debating every new wrinkle in their studio technique. And many industry insiders admit that the presence of a name producer such as Richard Perry, Peter Asher or Giorgio Moroder often adds immeasurably to album sales. Chapman's strength is his total involvement in and general control over each project. 

"Unlike most producers, he often writes much of his groups' material, hires a backup band and brings the album in under budget, all the while cajoling his artists to perform at the peak of their abilities. By conservative estimates, Chapman and Chinn have sold over 150 million albums and singles worldwide. But until last year (in 1978), American chart success eluded them."  

Nicky Chinn told 'The Washington Post', "In England, the BBC is the key. If they go on a record, then its got a great chance to be a hit. But the charts are a mess. You can hear disco, country, rock, a record by a footballer and a comedy single all in the same hour. They don't give a damn about lyrics. America is more sophisticated - its pop music needs more lyric content. Also, in America, if you don't get played on the radio, you don't get sold. It's that simple." 

'On: Yorkshire Magazine', 2017, Roger Crow: I can’t remember any female rock stars before you in the 1970s. Did you feel like a pioneer at the time? 

Suzi Quatro: Well there wasn’t anybody before me, so that's why. I wasn't the first 'girl' musician. Of course I wasn't the first one, but I was the first one to have success, so there were none in the charts. I got in the charts being a rock and roll musician, so yes. That was the first time that had been done. And that goes down in history as belonging to me, and I’m very proud of it. 

In May 1973, 'Can The Can' reached No. 1 on the UK Top 40 and in February 1974, 'Devil Gate Drive' also topped the chart. The song 'Can The Can', Nicky Chinn clarified, "It means something that is pretty impossible, you can't get one can inside another if they are the same size, so we're saying you can't put your man in the can if he is out there and not willing to commit. The phrase sounded good and we didn't mind if the public didn't get the meaning of it." 

Suzi Quatro recounted, "I can hear a record for the first time and know whether it will be a hit. And I knew as soon as we had finished recording that we had a big hit on our hands."

In July 1973, the song '48 Crash' peaked at No. 3 on the UK Top 40 chart.

Geoff Barton, 'Classic Rock', September 2018: Then you recorded the song '48 Crash'. 

Suzi Quatro: Which is about the male menopause, by the way. The male menopause is worse than the female’s. As the lyrics say: '48 crash comes like a lightning flash.' In other words it hits you when you least expect it. When a man reaches 48 years old, that’s when it all kicks off. It’s funny, because my present husband (German tour promoter Rainer Haas), who was a bachelor, married me at age 48. I said to him: 'You're the original 48 crash. It's all over now, baby blue!' 

Geoff Barton: Is it true that you proposed to Rainer? 

Suzi Quatro: I did. I also asked my first husband (former Quatro band guitarist Len Tuckey). I've received 35 serious marriage proposals in my life. Turned them all down. But I asked two people to marry me and they accepted. Is there a control issue here? (Laughs) So if you want to marry me, you're going to have to wait until I ask you. 

Born in June 1950, Suzi Quatro told 'The Guardian' she wanted to be an entertainer growing up and owed everything to her parents, "Everything I am and everything I hope to be. My mother was straight as an arrow, my moral compass; my dad gave me my career."

Speaking to the UK 'Telegraph' in 2013, Suzi Quatro made the comment, "It sounds corny but I consider myself an old-fashioned entertainer. I could have been in variety … Mike Chapman liked to take me to the top of my range. He’d say: 'OK sing this,’ and I would. And then he’d go up a key and say: 'Can you sing this?’ And then he’d go up another key, and I’d say 'Mike, that’s as high as I can go.’ He’d say, 'That’s the one. That’s exciting.’ I was singing right at the breaking point. God, it used to kill me." 

Reporter Neil McCormick noted, "Quatro had a run of smash hits from 1973 to 1975 in the UK, Europe and Australia, and then slowly drifted to the margins. Yet she retained her status as the first of a generation of female rock stars." Suzi Quatro acknowledged, "Sooner or later, one of these girls in a band was going to make it, and it sort of fell on my shoulders. Maybe because I just thought of myself as a musician." 

'DLUXE' magazine, 2017: You were the first female bass player to become a major rock star, breaking a barrier to women’s participation into rock music. Was it hard to break that barrier down? 

Suzi Quatro: I wasn't the first female musician, there have always been musicians around and it had to happen sooner or later that a female like me had success, but when I look back on it now at the grand old age of 67, that the reason it fell to me was because I don’t do gender and I never have. Sure I’m feminine but I’ve always been a little bit of a tom boy. 

"It never did occur to me, even when I was a youngster that I couldn’t do exactly what I wanted to do. I just don’t think of it in those terms. Even when I saw Elvis when I was 7 on television I had an epiphany and thought that is really what I want to do, I honestly didn’t think oh well he’s a guy. I’ve always been a me-ist, somebody who sticks to themselves, I always wanted to be exactly who I am, it doesn’t matter male or female, I just want to be me. If I have a mantra then that’s it."