Runaways singer Cherie Currie to headline MusicCons in Boxborough

Once described as “the lost daughter of Iggy Popp and Brigitte Bardot” by Bomp! magazine, “Cherry Bomb” chanteuse Cherie Currie will be rocking this weekend’s MusicCons Collectibles Extravaganza in Boxborough.

Best known as the lead vocalist for the influential, all-female rock band the Runaways (which also included legendary rockers Joan Jett, Lita Ford and the late Sandy West), Currie is one of the coolest and nicest people on the planet. And she doesn’t pull any punches when asked about the Runaways, her rich musical legacy, her famous bandmates and the chances of a reunion ever happening with the surviving band members.

The 62-year-old “Neon Angel” confessed last week on the phone from her San Fernando Valley home that she initially felt the Runaways was just another forgotten ‘70s relic.

“I’ve thought that the Runaways were all but been forgotten about 25 years ago. I really thought that people didn’t really realize that we had really happened,” Currie said. “Even Madonna, putting on a corset and then claiming that she was the first one to do it (when it was Currie's signature get-up for "Cherry Bomb" performed live), that’s when I really thought that we just soared under the radar.”

To her surprise, Currie learned that there was a small but always growing group of diehard fans and even fellow musicians who appreciated and loved the Runaways.

“There were some people out there that saw what the band represented and our age and we were doing something that really hadn’t been done before,” she said. “And, we were pretty damn good at it.”

Currie said she has nothing but fond memories of Cheap Trick and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, two bands that opened for the Runaways.

“I stayed very close friends with all the guys from Cheap Trick,” she said. “Tom Petty was an absolute, wonderful doll of a man. They were people who looked at us and said, ‘Wow, these chicks are pretty good.’ They embraced us, very compassionate guys, because they were starting out too.”

When asked if she’s angry about the Runaways not being in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Currie is clearly more upset that one of the Runaways’ biggest influences isn’t in there already.

“You know what I think is a tragedy? It’s that Suzi Quatro isn’t in the Hall of Fame, because if it wasn’t for Suzi Quatro, Joan Jett (who is in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame) wouldn’t have existed,” Currie insisted. “Joan was an over-the-top Suzi fan, where she, literally, dressed and acted like her. And I pretended to be David Bowie, as Joan pretended to be Suzi for the first year of the Runaways until we figured out who we were.”

Born and raised in Encino, California, Currie joined the Runaways in 1975, at age 15, and she has been rocking ever since.

“We played every dive throughout the United States and then some over and over again and over 21 clubs when we were only 16 and 17 years old,” Currie said. “We knew that women could rock. Suzi Quatro showed us that. We were going to go out and prove it.”

Proved it the Runaways did, but it came at a price, Currie said.

“We gave up a lot,” she said. “We gave up the high school prom. We gave up the necking on Mulholland Drive, all of those things that we didn’t experience as young kids, as well.”

One thing the Runaways had, at least in the early days, was each other.

“We came together as a band and we had each other’s back,” Currie said. “We were in a very male-dominated business and we had to protect each other and be there for each other.”

But the one thing the Runaways didn’t have that they desperately needed was an adult figure to arbitrate and advise the girls during the rise of a band, because, by the end, the band was hardly speaking to each other.

“Kim Fowley (the Runaways first manager), unfortunately, felt that keeping us at each other's throat made us better onstage. He was wrong. What it did was break up the band and we just had nobody to mediate and allow us to talk to each other,” Currie said. “And we were just too young to be that grown up enough to know that is something that really needed to happen or the band was going to dissolve.”

In the summer of 1977, the Runaways played a string of sold-out shows in Japan and experienced something they never experienced back home in the States, a rabid fan-base.

Japan was the Runaways at their highest point. It was also the beginning of the end for the band.

“To get off the plane and to see that Beatlemania, literally, Beatlemania, was shocking, shocking, stunning and overwhelming … And when I returned, I quit the Runaways because I wanted to quit on a high,” Currie said. “I didn’t want to go back out there with the poisonous baloney that was going on within the band. It was so destructive and so crushing and the things that were said and being blamed for things that I never did. Unfortunately, when you’re young like that, there’s so much insecurity and anger with the other bandmates."

Currie insists that the Runaways all loved each other but insecurities and toxic things being said in the press got the best of them. And, Currie feels, if they just talked it out, the Runaways would have never broken up.

“It wasn’t until 25 years ago when me and Joan was talking, when we came back together as friends,” Currie said. “I was sure that they were thrilled that I quit. Absolutely thrilled. And Joan said, ‘That’s not true at all. We didn’t want you to quit.’ I said, ‘Oh my god! Really? I mean, it certainly didn’t feel that way.’ She thought I wanted to leave to pursue a solo career … No! It wasn’t that at all!.”

In 2020, Currie’s “Blvds of Splendor” was released. Although she is very proud of the album, Currie said she made the mistake of having Jett’s label Blackheart Records do her album, an album that the label shelved for nine years (with no explanation ever given), released during the COVID-19 pandemic with no promotion. The album is still not available on CD.

“It’s the best thing that I ever done. I think it’s almost the best thing that’s been on the label,” Currie said. “I should be out there playing with Joan. I should be opening for Joan. But no! and now Joan is opening for the Who and I totally get that. But, bottom line, there is always going to be the why. Why? I would really like to know the truth behind it. Why? It makes no common sense whatsoever.”

In addition to rock ‘n’ roll, Currie is an accomplished, award-winning chainsaw wood-carver artist, who specializes in chiseling out mermaids and beautiful women and has carved her share of enormous tikis like the one Greg Brady wore around his neck in “The Brady Bunch” Hawaiian trip two-parter (By the way, Currie's reference, not mine).

Currie is the only one of the Runaways who has been on stage with every single member in the band since the break-up.

“With Lita, a few years back we did quite a few shows together. With Joan, I have done quite a few shows with her. Do I love Joan? Yes. I love her. I always will, because of what we went through as kids. Am I proud of her? Of, course. I feel the same way about Lita. I miss Sandy terribly. It’s terrible that we lost her so young. Do I expect a Runaways reunion? Absolutely not."

Although she doesn’t see a Runaways reunion with the surviving members in the cards, Currie insists she has always been on board and would agree to do one in a (black)heartbeat.

“The legacy of the Runaways leave behind is that no one grows up, even in their 60s … The members, except for myself, nobody grows up in the Runaways,” Currie said. “It shouldn’t be this way. Joan and Lita should not have issues and we should be able to celebrate what we did. But that will not be because the two of them, they can get their (expletive) (expletive) together … Anyways, it is what it is and the thing is that I sing 'Cherry Bomb' better than both of them. And that will always be a fact.”

MusicCons Collectibles Extravaganza, featuring Cherie Currie, Barrence Whitfield, Gary Hoey, Rex Smith, Vinny Appice, Jon Butcher, Robin Lane, Liz Borden and many others, from 4 to 8 p.m. Friday, April 8; 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, April 9; and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday, April 10 at Boxboro Regency Hotel, 242 Adams Place, Boxborough. Free parking.