Suzi Quatro

Speaker 20:00

Hello, I'm Kirsty Young and this is a podcast from the Desert Island Discs archive. For rights reasons we've had to shorten the music.

Speaker 20:08

The programme was originally broadcast in nineteen eighty six, and the presenter was Michael Parkinson.

Presenter0:30

In the larger than life world of rock music, there can be few stories more unlikely than that of our castaway. Born into a comfortable, middle-class family in Detroit, she became an internationally known rock and roll star. Today, she's developing a career as an actress with a big critical success playing Annie Oakley in Annie Get You Gum. She is Susie Quattrell. Susie, you've got this image of being a resourceful character. Do you think you'll be able to cope on a desert island?

Suzi Quatro0:56

I think I would be able to cope very well. One thing I learned a long time ago is to like my own company. Also being a Gemini helps because you're two different people. I can have arguments with myself. I you know, it works out quite well. I am extremely resourceful, yes.

Presenter1:09

You'd have your music, of course, on this desert island, and I mean, music's been your life from a a very early age. In fact, how soon after you were born do you remember music in your life?

Suzi Quatro1:18

Mm.

Suzi Quatro1:19

Very, very long ago. We were about three and four, I think.

Suzi Quatro1:23

And there's tapes of us singing duets with all of his sisters together and all that. We had one of those kind of families where everybody stood up and did a turn and all that.

Presenter1:30

How big was the family?

Suzi Quatro1:31

Five children.

Presenter1:32

Yeah.

Suzi Quatro1:32

And we all played and sang, and my father played, and my mother sang. Played instrument, that is.

Presenter1:36

Played instrument, that is. Yes. And what about musical influences apart from that? I mean, what's your first recollection of music from outside the family of an artist, say?

Suzi Quatro1:43

Well, the earliest one is in fact my first choice actually is Elvis Presley.

Suzi Quatro1:49

That was the first time I was aware of anything other than my dad's corny music, which is what we thought of it as. I was seven. It was nineteen fifty seven, and he was on the Ed Sullivan Show.

Suzi Quatro1:57

And my elder sister, who must have been sixteenish, fifteen ish, was sitting in front of the television set with her blue jeans and her white bobby socks and penny loafers and sweatshirt and DA. Do you remember the D A? Oh, indeed. And screaming her head off at this man up on the stage singing Hard Break Hotel. And they were only showing up from the waist up.

Speaker 22:09

Oh, indeed.

Suzi Quatro2:16

And this actually happened. My dad came up about halfway through the song and switched it off and said disgusting.

Speaker 42:22

Yeah.

Presenter2:22

Yeah.

Suzi Quatro2:23

That was Elvis, yes. I loved him ever since.

Speaker 42:26

You know I can't be fine

Speaker 42:30

Hello?

Speaker 42:33

Can't call around, and at least please telephone and don't be crude.

Speaker 42:40

Do hide it's true.

Speaker 42:44

Baby, for me to you

Speaker 42:46

Something I might have said

Speaker 42:49

Please not forget my past.

Speaker 42:52

Future looks bright and hate I don't be

Presenter2:56

Susie, what was your family background? You lived in Detroit, we know that, but what what was your father?

Suzi Quatro3:01

He's a musician and he also worked in the daytime for a firm General Motors, which in the in Detroit you either work for Ford or General Motors. Um he retired about a few years ago, but he still plays five nights a week music.

Presenter3:13

And were you encouraged, therefore, to become a professional musician yourself? I mean, was there any doubt you might be anything other than that?

Suzi Quatro3:19

There was never any doubt in my mind. No, never. We all learned, all five children learned.

Presenter3:21

Um

Suzi Quatro3:24

to read and play piano. And then from there we took it wherever we liked. I played drums in school and then learned how to read and play drums. And then uh when I was fourteen I taught myself bass. So I actually play three instruments. I think my dad's intention, to be fair to him, was he was going to school a lot of his children in music.

Suzi Quatro3:41

And whatever thing we chose to do with our lives, if anything happened to that career, we could fall back and teach music. That was his theory.

Presenter3:48

What about your ambition at those times? I mean, I mean you you've said that you've got no doubt you want to be a musician, but did you know what you wanted to be, what kind of musician?

Suzi Quatro3:55

It wasn't a musician I wanted to be, it was an entertainer. Let me qualify that.

Suzi Quatro3:59

I'm trying to think the first letter I wrote I was about

Suzi Quatro4:02

Eight years old, and we were on our way to Florida for a vacation. And I remember writing a letter to Red Skelton. You remember him, the comedian. I wrote a letter to him saying, You don't know me, but could you please write back quickly? My name is Susie Quattro. I'm very funny. I could be very famous on your show. I always make people. I really expected to hear from him. But that's, you know, that was comedy. And I used to see, like, for instance, Debbie Reynolds doing Tammy, and I was her.

Suzi Quatro4:25

So, since a very young child, whatever I saw that turned me out, I was going to be that in the entertainment profession. So, it was never just music.

Presenter4:32

Were you popular at parties and things? I mean, were you the kind of star turn, always performing, open the fridge door and you do five minutes, you know?

Suzi Quatro4:38

Definitely. A ham to the end. In the family shows, I was the one that was up on the stage for the longest. You know, I've always, always been the same. I'm still the same now.

Suzi Quatro4:48

It's difficult to get me to stop performing because I love, love audiences.

Presenter4:52

And what about the old girls' band that you started? That was when you were about fourteen or so, wasn't it?

Suzi Quatro4:56

That's right.

Presenter4:57

How did that come about?

Suzi Quatro4:58

The Beatles had just

Suzi Quatro5:00

Been booked on the Ed Sullivan show.

Suzi Quatro5:03

One of my girlfriends called me up and said, Quick, quick, switch on the television. There's some guys from England on it. It's the first time we'd heard of him.

Suzi Quatro5:08

and uh th they were on the thing and we called each other back and all that and she said

Suzi Quatro5:12

Why don't we start an all girl band?

Suzi Quatro5:15

So I called my older sister Patty and we decided that would be a good idea.

Suzi Quatro5:19

Five of us got together. One of the girls

Suzi Quatro5:21

played piano. Her dad used to play in my dad's band.

Suzi Quatro5:24

Very, very good player as well for uh woodwind instruments.

Suzi Quatro5:27

Everybody took an instrument.

Suzi Quatro5:29

And nobody took the bass. So I was left the bass. It was as tall as me. That is how I started playing bass guitar. Luckily my dad had an original nineteen fifty seven Fender Precision.

Suzi Quatro5:40

Sunburst finished and the gold scratch play fantastic. I was the only one with a proper instrument, but I had to teach myself how to play that. I had raw fingers for a long time.

Presenter5:47

I had

Presenter5:49

And what kind of gigs did you play with this band?

Suzi Quatro5:51

We did a lot of the

Suzi Quatro5:52

teenage dance things first. You know, there's a place called the Hideout that we played at every Friday night and then the drum went away to college and we started playing up there from Friday till Sunday.

Suzi Quatro6:02

We would skip school, go up on the Friday, get back on the Monday, and my mother wrote me notes and everything. I don't know why. She was very good to me that way.

Presenter6:08

But this must have been one of the first old girl rock'n'roll bands, wasn't it?

Suzi Quatro6:12

Well, I didn't know of any at the time. There was one

Suzi Quatro6:15

that sort of a few people knew about called Goldie and the Gingerbreads. I think they even came over here, but we were definitely one of the first. And in fact, because of that, we were never out of work.

Suzi Quatro6:24

We always got booked because people just had never heard of an all-girl band before.

Presenter6:29

Nick chose a record.

Suzi Quatro6:30

Is Nat King called now?

Presenter6:33

Yeah.

Suzi Quatro6:33

What?

Presenter6:33

Uh

Suzi Quatro6:33

Yeah.

Suzi Quatro6:34

The first time I heard this, I was very, very impressionable. I was about ten.

Suzi Quatro6:39

just sort of thinking about boys a bit and falling in love and

Suzi Quatro6:43

That was the first time I heard a proper, proper love song, and I used to actually sit in my sister's room and play this and cry and think about one day when I would fall in love.

Presenter6:51

Uh

Speaker 46:51

Nakiko. When I fall in love

Speaker 46:58

It will be forever.

Speaker 47:03

Or I'll never fall

Speaker 47:08

Get loved.

Speaker 47:14

In a restless world

Speaker 47:18

Like this is

Presenter7:21

Susie, going back to this first all-girls rock and roll band that you had, no doubt you were very serious in your intention to be a musician to.

Suzi Quatro7:28

That was definitely young.

Presenter7:29

About the management store that booked you. Do they have other ideas?

Suzi Quatro7:33

But the seedy side, I suppose. When you got five girls together, of course you're gonna get that element, but

Suzi Quatro7:38

I can't remember having a lot of trouble, to tell you the truth.

Speaker 47:40

Good.

Suzi Quatro7:41

We always had to wear mini skirts and all that, which I didn't like at all.

Suzi Quatro7:45

What?

Suzi Quatro7:47

I thought that I didn't have to display myself that way. I thought it was sexier to cover up rather than uncover. I still think the same now. Had my first success in the leather jumpsuit, I'm completely covered from head to toe. Yet everybody thought it was uh the sexiest thing going, so it just proves my point.

Speaker 27:53

Yeah.

Presenter7:57

Good after

Presenter8:01

What did your father make of all this, though? Did he approve of this turning in his daughter's life?

Suzi Quatro8:05

He didn't quite know what to make of it, the fact that we had gone and changed his musical training into rock and roll. And that lasted right the way up until

Suzi Quatro8:14

1986, to tell you the truth, until I did what I'm doing now.

Speaker 28:15

Yeah.

Suzi Quatro8:17

He thought it was wonderful that we were making a living and and doing all that, but to him all rock and roll has got going for it is a beat.

Suzi Quatro8:24

We always have this argument.

Presenter8:26

There you are, a young girl, starting in an industry which is terribly exploitive, particularly of of of young talent. How come that you didn't get exploited as such? You didn't get ruined by this industry, which ruins so many young people?

Suzi Quatro8:38

Oh, well, you gotta go right back to your upbringing for a start. I mean, I had a strict Catholic upbringing.

Suzi Quatro8:43

Drugs never held any interest for me.

Suzi Quatro8:46

The CD Sauda show business never held any interest for me. All I was interested in was getting out there and performing. So with that attitude

Suzi Quatro8:52

Maybe I was saved a bit from all the

Suzi Quatro8:55

All the bullshit.

Presenter8:57

Not to put too fine a point on it. What was the big break then? I mean, there you were with this band, looking for the big break that has to come along sometime, hopefully. What was it for you?

Suzi Quatro8:58

Yeah.

Suzi Quatro9:08

Funny enough, the Pleasure Seekers didn't what a name, eh? We were gonna call it the Hedenists, but I didn't think anybody was clever enough to work out what it meant. We didn't have any single success in the Pleasure Seekers. In fact, record companies a little bit of trivia for you. Back in the sixties, although they thought an all girl band was novel and cute and they would book us, they wouldn't touch you on a record. And if they did sign you up, they tried to insist that studio people came in and played, which used to drive me mad. So we used to always be arguing back and forth. We didn't actually have any single success. We made a few records, but it wasn't neither here nor there.

Suzi Quatro9:40

And it got to about the

Suzi Quatro9:42

Late 60s, early 70s, 67, 68, the band started to break up and

Suzi Quatro9:48

I think I wanted to start doing original material. And also, I didn't care if there was just girls anymore, which I never did in the first place, didn't really bother me.

Suzi Quatro9:55

So we started to have arguments within the band and all that, and that was when everything started to sort of disintegrate. And it was at that point that I met up with uh Mickey Most, who then invited me to come to England, which is where I did have my first success as a solo artist.

Presenter10:08

Let's have another choice of record, your third record.

Suzi Quatro10:10

This is by Otis Redding. Now I had a hard time choosing one of his. He was one of my earliest idols. I used to lose my voice every night trying to imitate him.

Suzi Quatro10:20

I chose this one because it's something I can listen to time and time again sitting on the dock of the bay.

Speaker 410:27

Sitting in the morning sun

Speaker 410:31

I'll be sitting in the evening calm

Speaker 410:36

Watching the ships roll in

Speaker 410:40

Then I watch him roll away again.

Speaker 410:44

Yeah.

Speaker 410:45

I'm sitting on a dock of day

Speaker 410:49

Watching the tide roll away

Speaker 410:54

Just sitting on a dock of bay

Presenter10:58

So the next chapter in the Suzy Quattro story is that you've arrived in London, Mickey Most had brought you over here.

Presenter11:03

What happened then? I mean, w was it instantly a success story for you?

Suzi Quatro11:06

Instant success. I remember that.

Suzi Quatro11:11

Cereal carton. Um no, it was not. I came over with all great hopes, and indeed Mickey was all enthusiastic as well. He put me up in a little hotel.

Suzi Quatro11:20

And I started writing songs, and we went into the studio and we recorded an album worth of stuff, but we hadn't come up with a single. And the time went on and on and on. We got bogged down.

Suzi Quatro11:30

I mean, Mickey has since said he wasn't quite sure what to do with me, and I guess I was still developing as a solo artist.

Suzi Quatro11:37

I knew I was rock and roll. He knew I was rock and roll. He knew I was a tomboy. You know, all those things were obvious, but we hadn't put that on a record yet.

Suzi Quatro11:44

It took from October of 1971 until May of 1973, and at that point I had my first number one.

Suzi Quatro11:53

So there was a very, very lonely eighteen months.

Presenter11:55

What did you do when you got your first number one?

Suzi Quatro11:58

I almost died. First, I called my dad, and I think I swore down the phone.

Suzi Quatro12:03

We got drunk on the strength of seven hundred sails.

Presenter12:07

But he's

Suzi Quatro12:07

But ye seven hundred in one day But little did we know We thought, Oh, this is it, we've made it And on the biggest day Can the can did forty five thousand.

Speaker 412:15

There's

Suzi Quatro12:16

I said, we wasted 700. I said, let's go out and get another drunk. Because I'd never drunk before. That was my first drunk. Our first everything was great.

Presenter12:23

And since then of course you've sold forty million records.

Suzi Quatro12:26

Yes, I think it's more near forty-five now.

Presenter12:28

That's an astonishing number of records. It certainly is. Then we'll start the days on the road, I suppose. That was that was the start of of Suzy Quattro rock and roller, the one we know now. Yeah, a rather raunchy image and the the leather clothes and all that sort of bit.

Suzi Quatro12:36

Yeah.

Presenter12:40

Do you actually like being on the road? Because it seems to me the most tiring, knackering existence that that one could one could possibly have.

Suzi Quatro12:48

It is, it is all those things. It's a love-hate relationship. Once you've been on the road.

Suzi Quatro12:53

It's really hard to ever ever come off it.

Suzi Quatro12:57

You can just go through the day.

Suzi Quatro12:59

Without having to think about anything in particular, knowing that your day is all worked out for you. It's a funny kind of existence. You know that you've got to be in bed at a certain time, then you've got to get up the next morning for a plane at a certain time, then you know you're going to check into a hotel, and then you know you're going to go to a sound check, then you know you're going to have a gig, then you know you're going to have a few drinks afterwards, come back and have a little party in somebody's room, go to and it's a day like that. And for a while you can get quite secure in that kind of life.

Speaker 413:21

Uh

Presenter13:21

Hmm.

Speaker 413:22

Yeah.

Suzi Quatro13:22

It's a crazy kind of existence. Twenty-two years now I've been on the road. That's a long time.

Presenter13:26

I've still not lost the appetite for it.

Suzi Quatro13:28

I don't like the travelling,'cause I'm not a good flyer.

Suzi Quatro13:31

I don't like that part, but once I get to the places then it's exciting. You you just live in your own little world.

Presenter13:36

Would one of the particular problems being a a young single girl living this existence?

Suzi Quatro13:40

Well, at first, before I met Lenny,'cause I met Lenny before we had our first

Presenter13:43

Yeah.

Presenter13:44

Your husband's a m a musician, I mean in fact was banned, that's right, yes.

Suzi Quatro13:46

He's my guitar player. And my co-writer as well. Right. And my co-producer.

Presenter13:49

Yeah.

Presenter13:53

I have two children.

Suzi Quatro13:53

Yes, I've two channels. Um, hopefully more. I mustn't talk about that right now. Right. Before, when I was just with my sisters.

Suzi Quatro14:03

You had to really watch yourself all the time, yeah. I was a very, very um

Suzi Quatro14:07

a loner in those early days because I was aware that

Suzi Quatro14:11

there was all these guys around, you know, trying to

Suzi Quatro14:14

get you backstage and all that.

Suzi Quatro14:17

More or less, I've lived my whole life like this because I know those people were around. I did the pulling when I wanted to pull, rather than the other way around. You see what I mean? That was my protection.

Suzi Quatro14:26

That was my protection. Instead of some guy chatting me up, which I wasn't having anything of, when I finally got lonely enough to go out with somebody or whatever, I would say, Right, and I would choose.

Presenter14:34

You took the traditional mail rather than that.

Suzi Quatro14:35

Yes, I did, yeah. That was my way of protecting myself.

Presenter14:38

But, you know, it it's it's interesting to think, isn't it? Not just in in rock and roll, but uh the history of particularly American singers, women's singers. There'll be some terrible tragedies, haven't they? I mean you think about in rock and roll Joplin, then you think about in jazz singing, Holiday. I mean and it seems to me that there were specific problems for them they found much more difficult to handle than say a man would have done.

Speaker 414:51

Yeah.

Suzi Quatro14:59

They did. Joplyn was a particular case, wasn't she?

Suzi Quatro15:02

She got into drugs, which is definitely a killer, but she had a lot of psychological problems. I think after reading a lot about her and everything, she had a very, very low opinion of herself.

Suzi Quatro15:13

Which goes to my theory that if you've got self respect you've got everything. Trust yourself above all. She was a very, very sad case. She was a big talent, and when she came along as well, she was very much like a man, and the world wasn't ready for that.

Presenter15:25

Yeah.

Suzi Quatro15:26

So she didn't have any outlet. And she had to be Janice Joplin twenty four hours a day, which is always a danger. Always a danger.

Presenter15:32

Do you find it difficult not to be Suzy Quattrotte for Rasley? I mean, what pulls you back? What stops you being there?

Suzi Quatro15:36

Life pulls me back. I'm very, very much down to earth. All my ego, and I do have one, comes out on the stage. That's the only place it needs to come out.

Presenter15:44

Moving.

Suzi Quatro15:44

Yes, definitely. Otherwise, I mean wh wh when I walk into a party of people, I hide behind any.

Suzi Quatro15:50

I get very, very shy in private life. Dinner parties and stuff is great, but not at a small group of people. I don't know where I am. But stage, I'm comfortable. There's my ego. There's my talent. Enjoy it. Leave and forget the applause and go home.

Presenter16:02

Very healthy attitude. Let's have another choice of music.

Suzi Quatro16:03

Cool.

Suzi Quatro16:05

Yeah.

Suzi Quatro16:06

My favorite lady, Billy Harris. Mine too. Yeah, she's a sad case, I know. In fact, our ex-manager in America, Joe Glazier, I don't know you, he's very, very famous. He was

Presenter16:08

Yeah.

Suzi Quatro16:15

Her manager.

Suzi Quatro16:17

And he told me all about her life. I just used to sit by his feet and listen.

Speaker 416:19

Yeah.

Suzi Quatro16:21

I got turned on to her when I was, um

Suzi Quatro16:24

Sixteen ish, I think, a producer.

Suzi Quatro16:27

who we had at the time, said, If you really are serious about being a good singer,

Suzi Quatro16:31

He said two people you got to listen to. Otis Redding.

Suzi Quatro16:34

which we've already heard, and Billy Holiday.

Speaker 416:35

Huh.

Suzi Quatro16:36

And I didn't know what to expect. First of all, I thought it was a guy. And I put on the record, and her, oh, it was just like floating.

Suzi Quatro16:43

That's what you do when you listen to her music, you float. And I just fell in love with her from that moment on. And the song I chose actually wrote the lyrics herself, and I think it tells her whole story.

Suzi Quatro16:52

God bless the child.

Speaker 416:53

Them that's got shall get, them that's not shall lose. So the Bible said, And it still is

Speaker 417:08

Mama Mayhem, Papa May Hammond.

Speaker 417:15

But God bless the child that's got his own.

Speaker 417:20

Let's plan his own.

Presenter17:25

It's a very remarkable Billy Holiday.

Presenter17:27

Susie, when did the acting start? When did the urge to go onstage and become an actress uh hit you?

Suzi Quatro17:34

The acting bug. Well, as soon as I had my first hit.

Suzi Quatro17:38

You know, as soon as that throw was over I was thinking about the rest that I wanted to do in the big, huge plan. I suppose it started to hit quite heavily around seventy five.

Suzi Quatro17:47

I'd done world tours, and I think I really want to start, you know,'cause it it's something I want to do. And right around that time the, um, Happy Days thing came up. They called me uh when I was in Japan on tour and they said that they had this part that they'd like me to come and read for. And I said to Lenny, What do you think? and he said, Well, it's a great show

Suzi Quatro18:05

And it's not Shakespeare for your first one. I said, No, definitely not. So and I r I read the part and I thought, This is great, perfect. That the Tuscadero, I mean So I thought, well, if I'm gonna do a first job, I'll do this and um two shows turned into fifteen.

Presenter18:13

Yeah.

Suzi Quatro18:20

So that was very, very good. And I found I did it quite naturally. And the director said to me, which people have told me all my life.

Suzi Quatro18:26

Singing and acting, they've said don't ever take lessons.

Suzi Quatro18:29

The voice told me that who's ever in charge producers, directors, don't take lessons.

Presenter18:33

Why is that in?

Suzi Quatro18:34

I think because whatever way I work is a natural way and any kind of schooling would ruin that. And I've been told that, you know, forever. And I've met other actors and singers, not a lot, but a few here and there.

Suzi Quatro18:44

That have said the same thing to me. So there's a few of us that have been told: don't mess around with what you got.

Presenter18:49

In other words.

Suzi Quatro18:51

Right, Bob Seeger, I've picked a lot of really slow love songs, haven't I?

Suzi Quatro18:56

I really have. I guess because if you're gonna be alone on a desert island, that's the kind of stuff you could listen to over and over again and dream about what used to be and blah, blah, blah. Yeah.

Suzi Quatro19:05

A picta we got tonight.

Suzi Quatro19:07

He's from Detroit, and I used to work with him when I was sixteen, seventeen.

Suzi Quatro19:12

And he was great then. This was way before he made it. I just chose it simply because I love the song.

Suzi Quatro19:17

Uh

Speaker 419:17

You got tonight.

Speaker 419:21

Why don't you stay? Oh, we got too high.

Speaker 419:27

Who needs to go?

Speaker 419:32

Let's make it

Speaker 419:36

Let's find a way.

Speaker 419:39

Turn on the lights.

Speaker 419:43

Don't take my hand.

Presenter19:47

So is it when it was announced that you were to play Annie Okley in Annie Getu Gone, there was a lot of sort of an amazed reaction among some people. I mean this rock and roller going up doing one of the sort of modern musical classics.

Presenter20:00

What do you feel yourself when you're asked to do the part?

Suzi Quatro20:03

It's a role I wanted to do since nineteen.

Suzi Quatro20:06

eighty one.

Presenter20:07

Why?

Suzi Quatro20:07

I was doing a show with um Andrew Lloyd Webber and we struck up a conversation.

Suzi Quatro20:12

And we were talking about theories of

Suzi Quatro20:14

Theater being for the people and how you could introduce rock and roll into theater and blah, but you know, and I said, Yes, well, I think if you're an entertainer, you should be able to do anything. And I said, I've always wanted to do a musical, I will do soon.

Suzi Quatro20:25

Annie said, Well, he said, I think you should. I think it'd be marvelous in women, and I think there's one that you should do for sure, and that's Annie, get your gun.

Suzi Quatro20:30

And I thought

Suzi Quatro20:32

Immediately it struck me that would be ri oh, that'd be great and he sent me the script and everything.

Speaker 220:33

Would be

Suzi Quatro20:37

And I was going through the pages, getting so excited.

Suzi Quatro20:40

You know, just this story about this girl that outshoots her man and he he won't fall for her'cause she's better than my sector. That ain't me woman.

Suzi Quatro20:47

So I got so excited about it. Then he went his way and did his shows, and I got pregnant and went on tours, and you know, we went our separate ways. We kept up our friendship. And he kept saying, One day we'll do Annie, one day we'll do Annie.

Speaker 220:47

A second.

Suzi Quatro20:58

And in fact, I didn't know, but the whole time he was trying to get the rights and he couldn't obtain them. The people that own the rights are very protective. Irving Berlin is still alive, he's ninety seven. And they would not give the rights to anybody, not even Andrew, and they love Andrew. They're just protective.

Suzi Quatro21:11

So then, last year John Gale, the director of Chichester, went over to

Suzi Quatro21:15

America.

Suzi Quatro21:17

And said he's director of Chichester Festival Theatre and he would like to stage Annie Get Your Gun. And he got the rights.

Suzi Quatro21:23

Then he met up with Andrew in New York, and they had dinner together, and Andrew said, What are you doing here? and he said, Well, I've just obtained the rights to Annie, and I'm casting. And he said, Well, what are you doing here? The girl that should play this role lives in Chelmsford. So John came back, called me up.

Suzi Quatro21:37

That's how it happened. And I said, Yes. Isn't that funny?

Presenter21:39

Yeah.

Suzi Quatro21:39

Yeah, five years I had to wait, but

Presenter21:41

And and were you right? Did you think about your reaction to nineteen eighty one? W was it the part that you were made for?

Suzi Quatro21:46

Absolutely right.

Presenter21:46

Yeah.

Suzi Quatro21:47

The reaction from everybody that comes to see it and people that hear about it. It was in fact I get annoyed because you even just said it yourself, Oh, it fits you like a glove, as if to say I didn't have to work. I did have to work, but it is a perfect part for me. It really is. It's got plenty of meat to it.

Speaker 221:56

Ha!

Speaker 221:58

Yeah.

Suzi Quatro22:01

And as an actress, this is what I'm so enjoying about it, you get to run all the way from the backwards up to the naïve falling in love part, and then the slightly more sophisticated, and then to the end still maintaining your ballsiness but being more of a woman, and it's got everything. It's just so superb. I love the role.

Presenter22:17

Suzy, another choice of record.

Suzi Quatro22:19

Right. Now this one is one of those songs

Suzi Quatro22:23

I play this on piano all the time as well.

Suzi Quatro22:26

There's a little part of me.

Suzi Quatro22:27

That even though I'm a happily married woman with two children, I likes to think she's a bit of a desperado.

Suzi Quatro22:32

And the words in this is like when you're gonna let somebody love. You know that little lonely part in all of us that we keep to ourselves and think, Who's ever gonna discover the secret part of me? This is what this record brings out to me. And I often play it on the road, either by the Eagles or on the piano by myself. You can find me somewhere at a gig.

Suzi Quatro22:48

Backstage, no no lights on or anything, sitting down playing this song.

Speaker 422:53

Desperado

Speaker 422:57

Why don't you come to your senses?

Speaker 423:02

You been out ridin' fences?

Speaker 423:06

We're so long now.

Speaker 423:10

Oh, you're a hard one?

Speaker 423:13

I know that you got your reasons.

Suzi Quatro23:14

No

Speaker 423:18

These things that are pleasing you

Speaker 423:23

Hurt you.

Presenter23:23

Susie, of course, one of the other things that uh qualify you to play Annie Oakley, I know because I've

Presenter23:29

I've shot with you is that you are in fact an excellent shot, aren't you? It's your hobby.

Suzi Quatro23:33

It is my hobby, yeah. When I'm in practice, I am quite a good shot. I'm a bit out of practice right now because I'm so busy doing this, but um, yes.

Presenter23:38

I shall say it's Clay Pigeon we're talking about. Uh do I mean is it is it a real passion with you?

Suzi Quatro23:40

Bunny.

Suzi Quatro23:43

It is it's something I took up under Lenny's urging because he's such a keen shot and um I got a chance to do a T V show a few years back of minority sports and they let me choose a sport and I thought either fencing or shooting

Suzi Quatro23:56

And so then he said, Well, try shooting and then if you like it and if you can do it, then we can shoot together. So And I found I had a natural eye for it.

Presenter24:00

Better.

Presenter24:02

And what about other ways of relaxing? I mean, apart from the family and the children? I mean, what do you do when you're off duty?

Suzi Quatro24:07

I like to ride my bicycle. I go for miles. Isn't that funny? Funny thing is, is I'm terrible and then he worries about me. He has to pin my address on the inside of my jacket,'cause I go for miles and forget I have to get back again. He found me one time about eight miles away.

Suzi Quatro24:21

I don't know how I got there. I just sort of ride and dream and I like doing that. I like playing squash. I like lots of long walks.

Presenter24:27

Do you consciously have to keep fit, do you think, because of of the work you do, particularly to rock and roll? It's very, very physical, isn't it? Very, very tiring.

Suzi Quatro24:34

Rock and roll's very physical. You you're jogging for two hours. That's what you're doing. And I've got a bass guitar strapped on me, which weighs as much as I do.

Suzi Quatro24:41

So it's it's definitely physical work. But I even if I wasn't doing that, I would still keep fit. I like being fit. I'm a small girl with a small shape and I intend to stay that way.

Suzi Quatro24:52

Kids are not.

Presenter24:53

Can I ask you a the question? It might seem a bit naive, but I mean, what is rock and roll to you? I mean, how do you explain it? What what what is it, really?

Suzi Quatro25:00

The thing that's nice about rock and roll is you don't have to analyze it.

Suzi Quatro25:04

or think about it, or do anything but feel it. It's completely crude. It's completely natural. It's let your hair down, scream, shout, go for it, sweat a bit, and come out happy. So what else what else does that sound like?

Suzi Quatro25:19

Cards and letters can be addressed too.

Presenter25:21

To you and not to me.

Suzi Quatro25:22

Yeah.

Presenter25:24

That's another choice of music.

Suzi Quatro25:25

Okay, this song is by Jackson Brown. This album, actually, is called Running on Empty.

Suzi Quatro25:33

And people are always asking me

Suzi Quatro25:35

What it's like to be on the road. How do you describe it, you know, and you

Suzi Quatro25:39

You have to try to describe twenty two years and the hotels and the the loneliness of it and the enjoyment of it and all the different bits and you can never quite put it into words without actually taking somebody on the road. But Jackson Brown did.

Suzi Quatro25:51

And on this album he recorded it in hotel rooms and on buses and everything. And if you want to learn about the road, this is the album you listen to. But there's one song on here that I particularly like called Rosie.

Suzi Quatro26:02

And I just can't explain it. It's just because it's there.

Suzi Quatro26:06

Uh

Speaker 426:06

Rosie, you're all right, you wear my

Speaker 426:11

When you hold me tight, Rosie, that's my thing.

Suzi Quatro26:13

No.

Presenter26:14

So see that

Suzi Quatro26:14

Yeah.

Speaker 426:16

When you turn out the light, I got to hand it to me.

Speaker 426:25

Looks like it's been here again tonight.

Speaker 426:28

Rosie.

Presenter26:33

Jackson Brown and Rosie.

Presenter26:35

What about your future, then, Susie? I mean, what does it hold for you?

Suzi Quatro26:39

I shall be doing some more touring, definitely.

Suzi Quatro26:42

I'm gonna have a single out soon, hopefully. We're just about to sign with a new company and an album. I'd like to do some more musical comedy.

Suzi Quatro26:49

When I'm done with Annie, I'd like to be sat at a table with about five or six choices in front of me, and choose.

Presenter26:55

No thoughts of retiring and becoming Susie Quattro housewife superstar.

Suzi Quatro26:58

No, I'd die first, I think. No. Um, I'd like some more kids, and I'll have to take a little bit of time out to do that. Just a bit of time. But no, I've I will always be working. That's too much part of me.

Presenter27:10

Let's have a final choice of records, Lizzie.

Suzi Quatro27:12

Right. This is a strange one considering everything else I've chosen, but

Suzi Quatro27:16

In the past sort of five or six years, this is the favorite record that I've liked, you know, and I haven't liked anything for a long time. It's by Prince. I think he's a bit strange, I know, but he's extremely talented.

Suzi Quatro27:26

And this particular song, which is When Doves Cry,

Suzi Quatro27:30

So intense, it's analytical of his life. Maybe I'm just like my father too cold or my mother never satisfied. You can get right inside his persona. And he's produced it with a very unusual drum beat. I've never heard anything quite like he does.

Speaker 427:44

Hmm.

Suzi Quatro27:44

And it would keep me dancing on this desert island for quite a while.

Speaker 428:08

Ocean of violets in bloom

Speaker 428:11

Animals strike curiosity

Presenter28:18

So now you're on your desert island. You already told us you think you could uh cope quite adequately. Do you think you might try to escape?

Suzi Quatro28:26

Mm. That'd depend on what I left behind, wouldn't it?

Suzi Quatro28:29

I don't know. I've always been one for lack of my own company, that's the thing.

Suzi Quatro28:33

If I got bored with myself, if I ran out of arguments.

Suzi Quatro28:36

Then I might try to escape.

Presenter28:38

Now, what about these records? Because you've got eight records, but you've got to imagine that seven are swept away at some selective tidal wave. You're left with one. Which one would it be?

Suzi Quatro28:46

It would have to be the one that evokes the most memories, I guess.

Suzi Quatro28:49

That's a cross between happy and sad, so it'd have to be Nat Kinko.

Presenter28:53

And what about the book? What book will you take with you?

Suzi Quatro28:56

I think I'd take Atlas Shrugged by Ian Rand, which is very deep and very analytical, and you can read it time and time again and never get to the bottom of all the characters. I need to have something to keep my mind occupied. So that would be my choice of book, definitely.

Presenter29:10

And then you're allowed the one inanimate luxury object.

Suzi Quatro29:13

This is a hard choice because you see I can't exist without my Scrabble game.

Suzi Quatro29:17

I really can't.

Suzi Quatro29:18

I play it with myself all the time, and then I can choose which one I am at the end of the game, whoever wins. You see, well, I'm that Susie. Oh, no, wait a minute, no, that one. Um it was between that and a piano, and I had to really think about it.

Suzi Quatro29:29

But I think

Suzi Quatro29:30

I could probably make up word games, but I couldn't imitate a piano, so I think I'd have to take a piano.

Presenter29:36

Suzi Quatro, thank you very much indeed.

Suzi Quatro29:37

Thank you.

Speaker 229:45

You've been listening to a podcast from the Desert Island Discs Archive. For more podcasts please visit bbc.co.uk slash radio four.