Magazines, newspapers, websites, and other media have been rife for the past several months with information about the most important band nobody under 25 had ever even heard of. Thankfully, that's changed: the Runaways, a rock band from the seventies made up entirely of teenage girls, had an immense influence on rock and punk music—and now, thanks to the film The Runaways, the whole world knows it... especially those of us too young to have been around when the band was active but just old enough to know Kristen Stewart and Dakota Fanning by name. However, those who got their information from the movie don't know the whole story. In 1989 Cherie Currie, lead singer of the Runaways, published a memoir called Neon Angel about her time in the band; it was written for a younger audience and left a lot of stuff out. So when she recently decided to revamp the book, the new version of which came out this year and is the source material for the film, she was only too happy to include everything she possibly could. Here, very shortly after the film is released, she talks with me about the book, about the film, and so on. Enjoy.Hi, Cherie. How are you?
I’m good! It’s been a good day.
Speaking of which, how does it feel to see basically your life’s story on the big screen?
I… still can’t believe it, to be honest with you. It’s so surreal and so incredible. I’m just numbed by it all, to be honest; it’s a dream come true for anybody.
And you had the advantage of getting to be very involved with the making of The Runaways.
Well, I can’t say that I was very involved with it. They did take my book and use it as the basis for the film, but—you know—they took creative liberties to make what they thought was going to be a good movie, and so much had happened in the Runaways that using it all would have made an epic. I’m really happy with it, but there’s the book for people who are interested in the deeper story.
The movie’s also telling a lot of people, especially younger people, about the role the Runaways actually played in music history.
Oh, I totally agree with you. It’s great that another generation can appreciate the band, and my son is nineteen so it’s terrific that he—well, Neon Angel is like his favorite book. He loved the original Neon Angel, so he was always very into it, but it’s great to see young kids dressing up and putting on makeup like the Runaways did. It’s pretty fascinating.
So your son is 19. Growing up was he always into rock?
Well, he writes music along the lines of John Mayer-ish; he’s a very conceptual musician. And he definitely appreciates music all the way back to the forties, so it’s great that the Runaways are now a part of that for him. And he’s going to be playing with me this summer. He can play a mean solo, I’ll tell you that!
[laughs] That’s exciting. Are you playing new music this summer or revisiting songs of yours from the past?
There’ll be new music. Definitely. I’ve written for the past thirty years. But I’m going to focus a lot on the Runaways stuff because that’s just fun.
Yeah. I’m sure hearing the music now is an entirely different experience from when you were in the thick of making it.
Well, I wish I could say that was true, but it’s really just like putting on my favorite old coat: it feels very much the same as it did thirty-five years ago. It’s still very real—I mean, I just wrote a book about it, so I was reliving it for months. And it really doesn’t seem that long ago to me.
I know you were pleased with Dakota Fanning’s performance in the movie.
Oh, absolutely. Seeing her work was so great because she was just about the same age as I was when I was actually going through it, and I know a lot of people have questioned whether the role is too racy for her, but—hey, I was living it when I was no older than she is now!
Yeah, the moral guardian types of people who question whether a role like that is appropriate for a young actress—what do you say to them when it’s based on a true story anyway?
First of all, it’s appropriate because it’s the only way to tell the story. And there are stories out there like this, and you can’t get 20-year-olds to play a 15-year-old. You know? You just can’t. And the thing is—if you look at Dakota and the roles she’s played, she really had this role because she’s enacted just about every scenario there is. This was a really good move on her part because it’s going to help her transition into those more adult roles and it shows that she can play anything. You know, even at fifteen, some of these scenes, like the scene in the supermarket where she’s loaded—or where I’m loaded, I guess—she seems so much older than fifteen. She seems eighteen, nineteen years old in that shot. Dakota is a prodigy, and she had to venture out and do something more groundbreaking, and that’s what this role was for her. That’s why she stood out to me. That’s her profession, and a lot of people don’t like it, but a lot of people also don’t want to think that these things actually happened. And they did happen. They happened to me at that age, so hoorah for her.
Referencing what you said about her looking older in the supermarket scene than you were at the time—that speaks to how fast you must have grown up while you were in the Runaways.
Well, of course, and you know what? I think that young people are given the short end of the stick. You know, kids, especially young kids, are so bright. And they really don’t get the credit they deserve, you know? They can handle a lot.
That’s what I’ve been trying to tell my parents for years. [laughs]
Right! Well, with my son, as soon as he was old enough to understand I was telling him what the world was about. I wasn’t painting him these beautiful stories for him to live in; there’s a lot of danger out there and a lot of horror, and I wanted him to know that it did exist. People didn’t think it was a good idea or that I was scaring him, but the thing is I’d rather have scared him a bit than have real horror happen to him, you know what I’m saying? And my son got it. He grew up to be very self-assured and calm and very good at relating to people, and I feel like a lot of that is because at a very young age he knew what was really out there.
Neon Angel can be found on Amazon, at Barnes and Noble, and probably in some record shops too.
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