Page 62 - Classic Rock (February 2020)

SUZI QUATRO

Kicking the can down Devil
Gate Drive in the 70s.

As Leather Tuscadero with
The Fonz (Henry Winkler)
on the set of Happy Days.

You’d answer the phones sometimes, I used to go
and babysit the publicist’s kids…

Was your first wedding, to your then guitarist
Len Tuckey, a grand showbusiness event, and
was getting married in ’76 emblematic of an
intention to settle down, to take some time
out and maybe raise a family?
It wasn’t a big event. I’d been with my first husband
since ’72. We got together on the Slade tour. It was
pretty immediate. I proposed to him on the Slade
tour. But Mickie [Most] didn’t want me to get
married right away, he wanted me to live together
first to make sure. He was very much a father
figure to me. We got married in ’76. We had it at
the house we lived in, so it was quite a small affair.
And it was never a case of settling down. It was just
a case of being married. I’m a married girl at heart.
Twenty years with him, and twenty-five with my
husband now [Rainer Haas], so I’ve only had one
year single in my entire adult life.

RAK Records’ And both times it was you who proposed.
Mickie Most.
Yes [laughs]. I’m that kind of person. If I’m in love
and I want it, I just say: “Marry me.” And they both
said okay.

And then, as Leather Tuscadero, you’re
“Although I started having hits in the glam suddenly co-starring in Happy Days, arguably
period, I’ve never been glam-sounding, the biggest TV show on the planet at the time.
You were even offered your own spin-off
I’ve always been rock’n’roll.” series, which you ultimately turned down.
Do you ever wonder: “What if…?”
Elvis 1968, Gene Vincent, but beyond such Looking back on the Mickie Most/Chinnichap/ No. I would have liked to have done more Happy
tributes you must have been aware of the RAK set-up, it echoed the Motown hit factory Days, but the decision was made without me
effect that a leather catsuit would have on ethic of everybody mucking in and helping knowing about it. Stumblin’ In was big in the charts,
sweaty-palmed adolescent males. out on everybody else’s sessions. I believe you and I was with Mike Chapman and Nicky Chinn’s
I never realised until recently, because now I come were on Cozy Powell’s Dance With The Devil? Dreamland Records at that point, and Nicky
into contact with the people who had me on their I was. Before Can The Can, Mickie used to give us thought that playing a character so close to my
wall, and they always say the same thing: “You were sessions to help us out. I was on New World own personality was interfering with the public’s
on my wall.” Thank you. “Do you know…?” Thank sessions, Donovan’s Cosmic Wheels album, I was perception of me. I didn’t think so, but he did. The
you [laughs]. They all do it. Do they really think the female voice on Emma by Hot spin-off was originally my idea,
I want to hear the details? But if you go a step Chocolate. I happened to walk into then as it got closer I had a lot of
further, I guess they think, well, you were there. the studio while they were discussions with Henry Winkler
recording, and Mickie said: “Suzi, about how he couldn’t lose The
In their mind, at least. get on the mic… Okay, sing this Fonz. Not that he’s not proud of it,
You gotta laugh. [British actor] Berwick Kaler once line…” Mickie was a big fan of the he’s very proud of it, but it defined MAIN: SHUTTERSTOCK; INSETS: GETTY
said to me: “Suzi, you helped me through puberty.” Motown that Berry Gordy created, him. And I thought, do I want to be
“Is that a compliment?” “Yes.” “And the music?” including the family atmosphere, Leather Tuscadero for the rest of
“Oh yeah, that too.” and it was very much like that. my life? No, I don’t. Doing three

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