CHERIE CURRIE: Queen Of Noise (2025)

By BRIAN GIFFIN

AS a teenager, Cherie Currie was rocketed to fame as the bombshell singer with LA all-female glamour punks The Runaways. Pieced together from the clubs and carparks in and around Hollywood, The Runaways burned across the late-seventies punk scene on both sides of the US and the Atlantic, and met with mass hysteria in Japan with Currie out front for two blistering albums.

Fifty years on, the now-65 year old is bringing down the curtain on her career as a touring musician.

“I’m just done,” she says from her tastefully elegant living room, waving her hand. “I’m not giving up music completely, I just won’t be doing any more tours after this. You’ll probably see me at shows once in a while or a festival. I’ll be doing some shows in Germany next year. But long tours – I won’t be doing those anymore.”

Part of her final run brings Currie to Australia once again so her fans here can celebrate her musical legacy one last time.

“I love coming to Australia,” she says enthusiastically. “The last time I was there, in 2016, was fantastic. Australia seems to have a really good relationship with rock and roll and I really enjoyed my time there.”

Joining she and longtime associate guitarist Nick Mayberry on this tour is her drummer son Jake, a protege of Currie’s former bandmate, the late Sandy West. According to his mum, Jake brings something to her band and the songs of the Runaways that has long been missing.

“My son Jake is playing drums. He was taught by Sandy West. They had a real connection and she gave him a few lessons, and he really brings her spirit to those songs now. There’s a real sense of authenticity now when I play those songs. Jake has a real feel for the way Sandy played and it’s almost like having her back with me. It’s exciting and just adds a new dimension that I think will just be really special when we get down there this time.”

Stepping back from touring might give Currie even more time to concentrate on her other great love: chainsaw wood carving. It was an interest she first tried her hand at when she came across a roadside demonstration while in a car on her way to Malibu. At first, it wasn’t an attractive proposition.

“That thing scared the hell out of me!” she recalls.

It was only her innate drive to push herself beyond her comfort zone and to stare down new challenges that drew her into it. Twenty one years on, and she has become a highly acclaimed chainsaw artist.

“I don’t chop the heads off things anymore,” she says with a small laugh. “I owe so much of what I have now to being a chainsaw artist. I have this house because of it.”

Last year, Hot Metal reported on a social media post Currie made about gender reassignment for minors.

“I was CONFUSED about my ‘gender’. It was a PHASE,” she wrote. “Today, it would be male hormones, cut off my breasts, destroy my life. Love them enough to WAIT. Please.”

Most reactions to this were negative and scathing, with the singer being criticised as a transphobe. Given her status as a gay icon, it was seen by many as a betrayal. Since then, she has tweeted her support for Gays Against Groomers, even setting up a merchandising deal with them in May 2024. A stridently transphobic organisation that campaigns against LGBTQ representation in children’s media, trans women competing in women’s sports and campaigns against brands marketing to the LGBTQ community, Gays Against Groomers has been banned from social media and online payments platforms multiple times.

Understandably then, there has been a backlash.

“Oh, absolutely it did!” Currie admits with candour when asked if her support of the group has damaged her reputation with her fanbase.

“I have been surrounded by the gay community for most of my life. I have so many friends who are gay. I was gay myself, then I was bi – now I’m straight – and I still have so much of a connection to the gay community.

“When I was 14, I loved David Bowie so much I wanted to be him,” she says, recalling the story this website picked up on early last year. “I dressed like him, I even put eyedrops in to try and dilate my pupil so I could look exactly like him. But, you know, I was just a kid. If I’d gone through with [transitioning] back then, my breasts would have been gone, I would have never had my son…”

Again, she insists she isn’t against the transgender community or the idea of transitioning. Currie is concerned about those she sees who push children into it, especially their own parents.

“Because there’s an element of being cool about it, some parents want to be the ‘cool’ ones and let their kids go through with it. But I speak out about it because I see it, they come to me and tell me that they regret it now, or they made a mistake. And you know, there doesn’t really seem to be a lot of support, in the trans community, for those who decide they want to transition back. I just want parents to let kids be kids.”

GET TICKETS.

SEPTEMBER 11: Max Watts, Melbourne
SEPTEMBER 12: Crowbar, Sydney
SEPTEMBER 13: Crowbar, Brisbane
SEPTEMBER 14: Edinburgh Castle, Adelaide