Page 58 - Classic Rock (February 2020)

She could have ended up a classical pianist, but then one day Suzi picked up a bass guitar, and

found herself on the road that would lead to her becoming a glam-rock icon. Along the way she’s
appeared in a smash TV show, been a published poet, a DJ, a West End star and much more…

Interview: Ian Fortnam Portrait: Kevin Nixon

rriving into an early-70s landscape a place to be. I had to separate myself somehow.
of clearly defined gender roles, And I found I could hold an audience at a very
where rocking was the exclusive young age. Because we were a big musical family,
preserve of the male of the species we used to do family shows, and when I was seven
A (all then caked in catastrophic or eight years old I noticed that whenever I did,
glam-rock slap), and music’s pop-confined women whatever I was doing, I held them. So I developed
were invariably reduced to simpering Stepford it. It wasn’t a case of being an egotist, it was more
encouragements while trussed up in pinafore a case of just going: “Oh, I can do this.”
dresses of quite astonishing ugliness, Suzi Quatro
was impossible to ignore. Bursting on to the UK Your father was a semi-pro musician who also
scene, fresh from an invaluable apprenticeship on worked at General Motors. There were four
the Detroit garage circuit, Suzi dyed her hair pink children in the house; from time to time foster
and went on tour with Slade. brothers and sisters came in and out of your
Having hooked up with Nicky Chinn and Mike life. Presumably solitude became something
Chapman, glam’s premier tunesmiths, she made you craved?
her Top Of The Pops debut in ’73 poured into Oh God, yeah. You were never alone, even in the
a figure-hugging leather catsuit that stopped bathroom – my sister could pick the lock, and she
clocks. Her single Can The Can immediately often did. So you’re in there thinking: “I have my
rocketed to No.1 in the UK (similar chart-topping space.” You don’t. It’s fun in a way: crazy, loud,
success followed across mainland Europe, and opinionated, argumentative and warm. But this
even in Australia, where Suzi’s star soared to [indicates her surroundings] says it all, doesn’t it?
unprecedented heights), and a run of perfect hits Here I am in this Elizabethan manor house, most
followed that set her legend in stone. of the time by myself. My husband [Suzi married
Today’s Suzi – a published poet, novelist, star of German concert promoter Rainer Haas in 1993]
West End musicals, TV chat show sofas, Happy Days, and I live in two countries a lot of the time, so I’m
Radio 2’s Rockin’ With Suzi Q and Wake Up Little Suzi, is exactly what you’d expect: a room full of racked often here on my own with my peace and my
touring solo rock star (with new album No Control), vintage sunglasses. Hundreds of them… And it’s space, and I love it.
and the Q fronting Q.S.P. (her glam supergroup with very probably the coolest thing I’ve ever seen.
the Sweet’s Andy Scott and Slade’s Don Powell) – When you took up bass playing it was
lives in an Elizabethan manor house in Essex. As Growing up in the Quatro family, did you considered a very male-dominated discipline,
we prepare to settle down for our chinwag, Suzi have to be an extrovert to get noticed. so for you to adopt the instrument was… SHUTTERSTOCK
takes me on a detour into her Ray-Ban room, which I didn’t want to be just another child. I had to find Unusual, weird. I’d already played drums,

58 CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM