Rock legend Suzi Quatro walks Tobias Furlong through a musical journey that connects the dots between childhood and adulthood favourites, as she discusses the pivotal songs in her life.
Somebody once said that in the rock and roll game you either burn out or fade away. Suzi Quatro need pay that no attention, as her eternal love for music burns bright throughout her life.
It should come as absolutely no surprise that after talking Suzi Quatro for nearly an hour, the kickass spirit of rock-and-roll is alive and well here, or specifically Majorca, as we speak whilst she’s on her Spanish holiday.
Quatro’s importance as a female pioneer in the macho, male dominated world of ‘70s rock is beyond question. After all, when you rock the stage with classics such as “Can the Can”, “Devil Gate Drive”, “Stumblin’ In’”, toss in global recognition with striking a number one in several countries, without even starting on the small matter of selling more than 50 million records worldwide. You get your own seat at the big table sitting next to Joan Jett, Bob Dylan, and the Rolling Stones.
Quatro starts our conversation by reflecting on the differences to come between her most recent album, 2023’s wonderfully versatile collaboration album Face to Face which featured Scottish singer-songwriter KT Tunstall, a fellow female pioneer who made her breakthrough with Eye to the Telescope, and where she is today.
It has been more than 50 years since the eponymous swagger of debut album Suzi Quatro and come the release of her latest, the aptly titled Freedom, Quatro explains that she sees it as an opportunity to “Strip everything back, and go back to our roots, all of the sass and the energy”.
Peering behind the curtains a little bit, Quatro shares a poignant memory centered around the creation of this new album. “My son actually told me that he used some old-fashioned equipment in the studio to create that iconic sound again, and the most wonderful thing happened”, she tells me.
“When my original drummer passed away during the Covid years, he was on all the original records. I bought his drum kit from a partner and that equipment is on the new record! He’s still here and still playing.”
Quatro’s upcoming tour sees her returning to UK soil from April and will see her rocking around Glasgow, Gateshead, Manchester, Bournemouth and special focus on a trip to London’s West End Palladium.
As an artist who has spent her life on the road, Quatro’s Nine Songs selections take on a similar theme, they’re a guided tour around her most special musical and life memories and experiences, a personal rumination on childhood, family, love, and unmatchable authenticity.
“When you are writing a song, it is like giving birth to something, you find the title, melody, the riff, and when it is done you have your creation in front of you. There you go, making music is just like creation!”
To listen to Quatro’s stories behind her song choices is like walking in her own footsteps. After our conversation I could have been the one that was sat wide-eyed in front of the television watching Elvis croon ‘Don’t Be Cruel’ or feeling the yearn of sunshine of The Beach Boys’ ‘Surfin’ Safari’.
Music has an ineffable power and magic, it can inspire you, it can be your best friend, it can be there for you in the darkest moments. And like the artist herself, it will always be there.
“Don't Be Cruel” by Elvis Presley
BEST FIT: In my very first bit of research for this, I read that when you watched Elvis in front of the television at a very young age, it sparked this love affair with his music.
SUZI QUATRO: It has to be my absolute number one go to, especially when considering the pivotal moments in life. At five years old, this was my first pivotal moment.
We were watching The Ed Sullivan Show, a huge variety show. All the families would sit down in front of the television at 8 o’clock and for the youngsters, out came Elvis Presley performing ‘Don’t Be Cruel’. My eldest sister by nine years started screaming and I’m too young, so I sit there thinking, ‘What’s the matter with you?’
I turn round, look at the television and my immediate thought, or the sentence in my head is, ‘I’m going to do that.’ Talk about pivotal moments.
So this was your very own gateway moment, where it all just clicked?
You can say I had a sense of my own destiny at a very young age.
Was there any of Elvis’s own bravado that you incorporated into your own musical career?
I’ve covered a few of his songs, “All Shook Up" appeared on the first album. I even recorded my own Elvis tribute. “Singing with Angels”, written in Nashville of all places. I’ve been a big Elvis fan my entire career.
From sitting in front of the television at age five to recording your own Elvis tribute, that has to be a satisfying journey?
If you’re going to have that epiphany at the age of five, I can personally guarantee that that is something that will never leave you, even as you grow older.
I recently did a word wheel while working on a project for my life story - it all goes up on a computer and this huge word at the end appeared - you know what it was? It was "determined", out of hundreds of words that were chosen. Guilty as charged.
“Catch a Falling Star” by Perry Como
SUZI QUATRO: I was quite young when my mother’s mother passed away. She was Italian, hence the name Quatro. And I remember we were supposed to go to the funeral. I was walking down the stairs; I suddenly went dizzy and all strange, and I had to be put to bed in my parents’ room.
I remember my mother coming home and telling me that her mother had waited for her at the hospital and then she passed. And then my Mom said she got home, switched on the radio and on came “Catch A Falling Star” by Perry Como. What a feeling it gives me. It’s such a beautiful way to say goodbye to your Mom. I will never hear this song and not think of that story.
BEST FIT: From the first time you heard the song, to listening to it for the one millionth time today, is the feeling just as strong?
I can never hear it any other way but that way. I remember her telling me with tears in her eyes.
What is it within the music of Perry Como that you love the most?
He’s almost… lazy, he has a lazy way of singing, like he isn’t even trying. Just as if he was talking to me or you. He’s one of the great crooners, one of the top five.
Maybe somewhere along the way people have become obsessed with trying to be perfect, and some of the magic has been lost?
I’m going to pose a question for you on that point, there are certain voices of the crooners from the late ‘50s, you do not hear those voices anymore, do you? I wonder are the voices still there, but it is the music that has changed, or are the voices gone now? There was a certain type of music that accompanied that kind of singing.
You still get your good singers, look at Adele for example. She has a fantastic voice, or even Michael Bublé, he is definitely a crooner. But when I hear those old records, I say to my husband, ‘Where have those voices gone?’
It’s also interesting that in the case of Mr Como, he was an actor, singer, television personality and virtuoso. Much like yourself, with your own share of acting roles.
I’ve done everything. There are people who specialise in everything and they are ‘artistes’, and I am an artiste. I’ve done my own writing, TV shows and 15 years on BBC Radio 2. An artiste is somebody who gets the whole ball of wax, not somebody who grabs her bass and plays Rock-and-Roll, no, I am much more than that. That is the voice that is the loudest!
“Come Go with Me” by The Fleetwoods
SUZI QUATRO: You’ll start to notice a familiar theme across my choices; they often involve a lot of me sneaking around the house or listening to my siblings’ record collections, and this is another example of that.
For this song, I remember eavesdropping on a day when my eldest sister had some friends around the house. I could hear the song coming out of her record player behind her bedroom door, and then I have this big memory of sneaking down into the basement.
She had about five or six friends over and they had the record playing on their stereo and I sat and watched them performing this dance routine to the song, which has always been stuck permanently in my memory.
That song will always remain one of my absolute favourites from that music era.
“Surfin' Safari” by The Beach Boys
BEST FIT: This is a dose of pure sunshine, rarely do songs evoke such a strong sense of place and location as this does. Walk us through how you fell under its spell.
SUZI QUATRO: Growing up, I was one of five siblings, and as parents it is impossible to give every sibling the same amount of equal attention. I needed a lot of attention, I didn’t have my own record player, radio or even a bedroom of my own.
And as I turned twelve, I was gifted my first transistor radio. My very own radio, and I was so excited. I went upstairs and I remember my mother calling to me, ‘Don’t you go listening to that radio now, it’s time for bed!’ I had my own little headphones and as I plugged them in, on came “Surfin’ Safari”. That represented my very own personal freedom. My own radio playing in my ears, that I could play whenever I liked.
It was the feeling of finally owning something that belonged to me - and only me - that I savoured. There was no more sneaking into my elder sister’s room and playing her records or listening at the door of my other sister’s room as she played her collection.
I was always sneaking between their rooms as a child, especially when they were both out. In particular one of my sisters was incredibly observant, a very Pisces trait. I would take her records out to play and if I put it back in the wrong spot, she would know I had been in there, and of course she always did.
I wouldn’t be doing my job right if I didn’t ask - do you still own the transistor radio?
I don’t unfortunately, I have no idea what happened to it, but I will always have the memory.
Did you ever find yourself crossing paths with Brian Wilson?
I met Brian Wilson at an awards ceremony. He went up and did a little speech. He was giving his thanks to the audience, and he said, ‘God only knows where I would be without you’, which was so sweet. He was an incredible man, and oh my, what an incredible band they were. I couldn’t recommend Love and Mercy more (2014 biopic based on Brian Wilson & The Beach Boys).
A lot of biopics don’t get it right, but this one was absolutely spot on. Your heart just absolutely breaks for him.
“Do You Love Me” by The Contours
BEST FIT: With this song, you found yourself doing the mash potato and doing the twist?
SUZI QUATRO: I chose this one because when we started our first band, The Pleasure Seekers, we would perform at school and there would be no stage, you were basically playing on the floor! And somebody from the audience shouted, ‘Put the singer on the table, we can’t see her!’
I’m only little, well, only about 5’1 now. They put me up on a table and then I am elevated above the band, looking down on the people. We started to sing ‘Do You Love Me’ and before we started singing, I went, “WOOOOOW”.
My scream, it was like I just electrified the audience, and in my brain I remember thinking, ‘I better keep that scream in the act.’ I was so excited and it came out in the moment. And that was the scream I used on “Can the Can”, plus many more songs. Many reviewers would have much to say about this scream over the years.
On that school stage, or should I say table, was it almost like seeing proto Suzi Quatro in action?
I remember when we were recording “Can the Can” and Mike our engineer said to me, ‘We need something to fill that spot.’ I said, ‘Give me a minute here’, and the rest was history.
“So Far Away” by Carole King
BEST FIT: With a little bit of sunshine comes a spell of rain, and your next song is the one and only Carole King. Are we entering a turbulent time in your story with this choice?
SUZI QUATRO: I was originally signed as a solo act. I arrived in London on October 15th 1971 and I had a couple of very lonely years. I wasn’t successful and I felt very isolated, even crying myself to sleep. I had a friend from Detroit come over and visit me, and he brought the tape of Carole King’s Tapestry album.
When he eventually left, he left the tape behind for me, and that song “So Far Away”, I was so far away from my home in Detroit and missing all of my friends and family. It has a real emotional weight to it, getting me through those lonely years
I can remember going onto the balcony of the hotel that I was staying at, I think it was called Aston House Villas, in Emeralds Court. I would go out onto the roof sometimes, look at the moon and wonder if they were looking at the same moon back in Detroit. You hang onto your home comforts, and there I was by myself in this tiny little room, it was lonely, but I was determined
When you were spending this time alone in London, what did you find yourself missing the most about Detroit?
It was my family most definitely, even though I was a loner by nature and I knew I had to make this journey to London, we had a big family, a lovely car. And there I was, in a strange city with no friends and no money, and importantly no success yet. I missed the taste of familiarity.
I believe at this point in your musical adventures you would have been touring with Thin Lizzy and Slade, do you have any vivid memories of what sounds like a very knees up mix of musicians.
There was Mickie Most, who had recently produced The Animals, and in particular Chas Chandler, who was the bassist in that group, who would become the manager of Slade. I had gotten my own band together around 1972 and I told Mickie, ‘I’m going crazy here, I have no gigs and no band’, and then we toured the college circuit. Mickie then told Chas, “Can you put Suzi on this tour, she is going to be a huge star’. And I got 20 minutes on his television show, followed by Slade and Thin Lizzy.
We were all friends, we’re even friends to this day, and it was a lot of fun. I did one concert in London at a venue called The Rainbow. I had about 20 minutes followed by Birtha and The Kinks.
Unfortunately for me, at the time we were just a three-piece, guitar, drum and bass, and we didn’t have our own roadie. And as we played our first song, my amplifier completely blew up. I’m running around trying to fix my own amp, and our guitarist took over and started singing. After that gig my mouth was hanging open. I was in absolute tears. I met my publicist coming up the stairs and he said, ‘Am I too late?’ I was so depressed.
I think these days, the phrase for this situation would be “character building”
Mickie called me in the hotel afterwards and he was very upset. He was saying, “You tell me how good you are!!!”. Years later he said, “I know I was tough on you, but it was all character building”.
Over the years has there been anything in particular you have absorbed from Carole King’s music and put into your own creative work?
If I took anything from Carole King, it would be the honesty of her lyrics. She has this way of ensuring that you know that whatever she was singing about, it was a lived experience. There is no fantasy in her work.
“When Doves Cry” by Prince
BEST FIT: Everybody remembers where they were when they first listened to Prince, where was Suzi Quatro?
SUZI QUATRO: I would’ve been in England at the time, and I heard this new song by a fairly new artist, so I was slightly aware of him.
I am quite a lyrically minded person, and when I heard the lyrics to this song, I just had this feeling of shock and surprise, it absolutely knocked me for six. “Maybe I’m just like my mother, she’s never satisfied”, it was just really the words of a boy who found his way in the music industry business, because of the loneliness he felt while he was growing up and boy, could I relate to that in so many different ways.
I think he goes down as one of the finest artists of that era, what a talent. He played all his own instruments and he danced, he had a real stage presence. It wasn’t just about the music with Prince. And I believe he was the same height as me as well.
He was one of those rare one-off characters, similar to Michael Jackson, and I can’t think of anybody that could move like those two could. When you see other dancers around him doing a routine and all of the same steps, it’s not the same and you can’t explain why. He had an unexplainable way of moving around a stage.
“Make You Feel My Love” by Bob Dylan
BEST FIT: Bob Dylan is one of those artists that has a particular era for everybody, some people see Time Out of Mind as a bit of a late-stage comeback album, do you feel the same way?
SUZI QUATRO: You say comeback, but I would say he’s never really been gone. If you want to talk about a poet, then look no further.
I discovered Dylan when I was in my teenage years. I was so obsessed with Dylan that at the time, I had a basement room in the family home if anybody ever came downstairs, I would start lighting incense and recite various Bob Dylan lyrics.
If I was ever asked to note a particular lyrical influence, it would be Dylan. For this particular song I would’ve been in London again, I think for a meeting, and I was given the CD for this album. I was playing it in my car, and I remember having to stop the car and pull over.
I then started crying, to write such a sensitive love song at his age is incredible. You go back to something like “Blowin’ in the Wind” and that is another one that makes me cry, it is the world’s truth. Don’t get me started on him, I adore the man, I love the man.
Have you ever met him?
I have not but I would love to. He is another Gemini, exactly like me, and Geminis are wordsmiths, words are our tools. It is the sign of a communicator. Communicate, create and entertain are my big three.
“When I Fall In Love” by Nat King Cole
BEST FIT: Well, I couldn’t think of a more beautiful closing choice than this one, dare I say we are saving the very best till last?
SUZI QUATRO: I actually have a bit of a morbid story with this particular song.
For years, I have wanted this song to be played when eventually my time comes. Because I think if you want a song that so accurately explains what the beauty of life is all about, it is about love, which is something that everybody craves in life. It’s the best feeling in the world; all of those endorphins, you can’t beat them.
This song takes me to a special place where I think love resides, “when I fall in love, it will be forever”. It’s absolutely incredible. And his voice as well, talk about a voice. I describe his voice as “believable”, every syllable is absolutely believable.
Out of the thousands of songs to ruminate on love and passion, is this the highest of peaks for you?
It could only ever have been my number one, I think “You Belong to Me” by The Duprees would be my second choice, but it has always been very close.
As you get older and progress through life, you earmark certain songs and they become the soundtrack to what falling in love should sound like and you just do it naturally.
Freedom is out now via Chrysalis Records. Suzi Quatro is on tour in the UK in April
Sign up to Best Fit's Substack for regular dispatches from the world of pop culture