Rock Legend Cherie Currie Reflects On Final Tour, Family, And Lifelong Passions

The legendary voice of The Runaways is back for one last electrifying tour Down Under in September 2025. Australian rock and punk fans, prepare to witness history! Cherie Currie, the trailblazing rock icon and former front-woman of the groundbreaking band The Runaways, has starts her final Australian tour this week. This marks the first time Currie has graced Australian stages since her debut Australian tour in 2016, and it will be her last!

As one of rock’s true pioneers, Cherie Currie exploded onto the music scene in the 1970s as the unmistakable teenage voice of The Runaways, delivering anthems like Cherry Bomb that redefined what it meant to be a young, fearless woman in rock ‘n’ roll so much though that she was described as the “lost daughter of Iggy Pop and Bridgette Bardot”. Alongside her bandmates in The Runaways, she shattered barriers, inspired generations of female rockers, and cemented her place in music history.

But Cherie Currie is more than just a rock legend. She’s a style icon, celebrated for her edgy, daring style that continues to influence trends today. Her iconic corsets, platform boots, and glam-punk flair are still a source of inspiration in pop culture. For this farewell tour, Cherie Currie promises fans a high-energy set list packed with Runaways hits, solo favourites, and surprises, celebrating her remarkable journey in rock. Cherie talks to Hi Fi Way about the tour.

Is it a case of mixed emotions with this tour? It’s great to be able to see you play again, but the last time as well.
Yes, but I get to bring my son with me and his band, which really brings the energy up, and and he’s playing drums. Sandy West gave him some drum lessons, and he plays such homage to Sandy, and his band mates, as well as I’m bringing Nick Mayberry with me, who is from Australia, who is one of the greatest lead guitar players, are such a great chemistry with this band that I there’s just so much happiness that it’s just a perfect way to say goodbye is to have him with me.

Was it a tough decision for you to to get to this point to say, that’s it?
I think I had to. Jake and his band are going to Germany next year just for a show. I know I can’t completely stop entirely, but as far as touring is concerned, it just feels like like there’s something else on the horizon. I’m going to continue doing records for other artists, and I usually do quite a few a year, duets and and singing backgrounds and all this kind of fun stuff. So I’ll always sing, and I’ll always support my fellow artists for sure. But as far as touring, unless something really that I cannot say no to happens. Then you know, what are you going to do? But, to be honest, it really it just feels like the right time for me.

Absolutely, and I guess going out on top as well. Doing it on your own terms must be a good thing as well?
Yes, and and to do it with my kid, you know, and just for him to be that good. It kind of everything has come full circle for me, and I’m the only one that does the Runaway songs, I mean Joan and Lita, they don’t, and that’s too bad. I do really wish that they could have gotten past their differences to be able to do a reunion, because I think the fans really would have appreciated that. But you know you can’t make people do the right thing. It would have been the right thing. But who knows what could happen down the road? I just wish Joan and Lita could give it up, but I don’t know! Kenny Laguna and Lita Ford don’t get along. So that’s always been the the stopper for us.

Is there any glimmer of hope? Or is done?
Well, I’ve played with Lita. I did a lot of shows with her. A few years back I played with Joan. I played with all of the girls since I left the band. I held on to the possibility. But there comes a time where you just have to say, I don’t think it’s going to happen, and I did everything I could to make it happen. When I performed with Lita and just the amazing camaraderie that we still have on stage together as well as Joan. I’m surprised that isn’t something that they want more of. What are you going do, Rob? It is what it is.

How’s the tour been going so far?
Well, we went to Ibizia Spain with this same band that I’m bringing to Australia with my son, and that was really it. I’ve been just offered a tour for the UK and Europe as well, but it was with the Shameless guys. They were the ones backing me that live in in Germany, but to be on stage with Jake’s band, and to have Jake just brought just a magic that made me want to continue doing it and so anyone that came to my show in Australia in 2016 is really going to see a very different performance, a different show.

Do you think that’s brought a whole new lease of life touring with your son that hasn’t been untapped before?
Oh, absolutely, Jake, he has played with me since 2009 when we made Blvds of Splendor. Even though Blackheart wouldn’t release that record and they didn’t release it until Covid. So, that was ten years it sat on a shelf. Basically, I tried to force their hand by going on tour with Jake and Nick Mayberry, Grant, Fitzpatrick, and a variety of different drummers. When you know something is right like the same way I felt with The Runaways, you know it’s right. It’s just such a a terrific thing to be doing, and people will see that this show is so high energy and there isn’t anything fake about it. Nobody’s trying to be like somebody else, it’s just a bunch of people just enjoying the music that we’re playing. People love playing The Runaways music. It really is a very special kind of rock and roll that people still love, even today fifty years later.

Do you prefer playing slightly smaller and more into intimate venues like you are on this tour?
Yes I do. I’ve been doing festivals, and you can’t get close to people. You can’t shake their hand. You can’t put the mic out there for them to help you sing Cherry Bomb to me. It’s this intimate experience which is really the way I want to go out and to thank the fans for all their support, new and old. Because if it wasn’t for them, and I said this in 2016 I wouldn’t be able to come to you if it wasn’t for them.

Have you been stoked with a generational shift as well, seeing like an even younger group of fans following and supporting you and your music?
Definitely, especially since the Runaways film happened in 2010, and then, of course, with Guardians of the Galaxy using Cherry Bomb in their film that just rocketed the song to generations of people that had never even heard of the Runaways. So it’s it’s really wonderful to know that we did make a difference, because there was a long time that I didn’t. I thought we were all but forgotten. So it’s very nice to see that we did make a difference.

Being your final tour as well, do you get nostalgic and start being more reflective on the journey, and all the amazing things that you’ve done along the way?
Yes, of course, it’s something that I love doing. It’s easier than doing interviews, or it really is stepping on the stage for me where I’m at home. But it’s the fans that make it feel like home, truly. I don’t really know what to say. Am I going to miss it? Of course, but I mean here and there I’ll support other bands. Next year we’re going to Germany with with this band that I’m bringing with me and we’re going to have fun, and then that’s it.

If you had your time over, is there anything different that you do? Or are you very much a believer in things happen for a reason, and you just got to keep moving forwards?
Well, I wish I could have known that I could have asked for writing credit on Cherry Bomb, because really I came up with the melody. Of course I didn’t know that at fifteen. It would have been nice to have writing credit on that song. But I really wouldn’t change anything, Rob, because it’s really shaped who I am today. My son’s really proud that I’m his mom and that means I’ve done something right. To be able to see new bands and old bands that really appreciate what we did in the mid seventies, it makes you feel good inside, you know that we really made a difference.

Chainsaw art is a massive passion for yourself. Is that something that you’re looking to do more of once all the touring commitments are finished?
I continue to chainsaw carve as long as it’s not too hot. Again, at my age that does catch up with me a little bit. That’s why I have to have fans on stage. I mean, past menopause, it’s very true your whole chemistry does change, but I love it. It’s something that I was meant to do in that little voice that you know in your head that people should never ever not listen to. If it wasn’t for that voice telling me that I could do something I never wanted to do, was never interested in doing, and for me to be so successful with it. That’s the reason why I have my house. It was a full time job for decades. So I’m just very, very grateful because people with the Runaways movie they were more interested in the chainsaw art than they were when they were interviewing me than they were about the the band itself. So well, it’s one of those kind of dangerous but very rock and roll things to do in the art world. I think.

I read some of the the injuries that you’ve had doing it, I’m thinking, wow, that that’s dedication to be able to have that sort of injury, and then back up and keep going.
Well, I was very lucky because I was knocked out cold, so I don’t remember the fall, and that’s what you’re talking about. In 2016, I was up on a scaffold on, believe it or not, a doctor who was a retired trauma surgeon and my assistant walked away. I just needed just to get that much higher to finish carving the bottom of this bear. He was called away by the the doctor’s wife. When he stepped away he had let go of holding that scaffolding for me. What happened is, I ended up what they call catching an edge that my saw hit the wood and pulled me forward, and I just ended up, according to them, did a back flip off this scaffold directly onto my face. I got a little bit of a little dent here, and my whole left face was paralyzed for a year. It was a pretty devastating accident, but I finished the carving though, I went back and I finished it. That’s what’s important.

Yeah, I think you’re a remarkable individual, and like even things like the counselling and things like that that you’ve done before as well is something to admire and be in awe of.
Oh, thank you. I appreciate that. Thank you very much. I love people, and I will always do whatever I can, whether it’s teaching people to chainsaw carve, or even maybe go back into that business again. I do love people a lot, they deserve compassion and strength, and sometimes, especially today, I’ve really noticed that people, that this whole group think people being individuals aren’t like the groovy thing to do. But that’s what makes you special is to be an individual, not part of a group and that’s something that I always try to stress to people starting out in this business or just everyday life is that you’re special. You were born here with a purpose, and it’s a purpose that nobody else has. It’s yours alone, and so I’ll preach that until I say goodbye to this world.

Interview By Rob Lyon

Catch Cherie Currie on the following dates, tickets from Silverback Touring…