The Runaways was one of the first heavier Rock and Roll bands formed by only women. They were together from 1975 to 1979 and released four successful studio albums. The classic line-up had Joan Jett (Guitar, vocals), Lita Ford (Guitar), Sandy West (Drums), Cherie Currie (Vocals) and Jackie Fox (Bass), and they had hits like “Cherry Bomb” and “Queens of Noise”.
Sadly, rock and roll music hasn’t been diverse during its existence, as it has always been dominated by white men. Nowadays we have much more all-female groups but back in the 70s it was really something new and when The Runaways appeared, they really impressed a lot of people. But as Cherie Currie told Metal Voice (Transcribed by Classic Rock), the group didn’t had a good experience with the Canadian power trio Rush.
Cherie Currie says Rush sabotaged Runaways set back in the 70s
“We had been treated so well by Tom Petty who opened for us and Cheap Trick who opened for us but Rush sabotaged our set. We’re at Detroit’s Cobo Hall. It’s a big venue. I saw them and they were throwing pieces of paper just like standard 8 by 10 paper onto the stage whipping it like you would a pizza. I was in 6-in platform boots and I had to jump off of Sandy West’s drum Riser.”
“I hit one of those pieces of paper and I slid across that stage and there was an orchestra pit with all the photographers. I’ll never forget seeing them reach up with fear that I was going to go over and somehow I caught myself right at the last minute and did one of those you know (rock star poses) to one of the photographers.”
“I could have been paralyzed. I’m not exaggerating, I could have been very much injured had I gone off that stage. So that’s why Joan and I in particular don’t care much for them because they weren’t protecting us, they were sabotaging us that night and they would be sitting there behind Lita’s [Ford] amp [snickering],” Cherie Currie said.
As a solo artist, Cherie released seven studio albums, the most recent one being “The Motivator”, released in 2019.