Authentic rocker
Kate Waterhouse finds out how veteran rocker Suzi Q still wins over the crowds.
Suzi Quatro is an American rock singer and songwriter. Inspired at the age of 6 by Elvis Presley, she had her first hit singles in the 1970s and has been called the first female bass player to become a rock star.
Quatro, 66, tells Fairfax what inspires her and what it takes to make it as a entertainer. Yes, I get to the dressing room first, then I have to, in this order, hang my clothes up on the rail, put my boots up, everything is in order. Then I put my towel that I brought from the hotel on the table and put up with a little bit of makeup… then I get my deck of cards because in that 20 minutes before you go on stage I play Solitaire … I’m not really thinking about the game, I’m just like I’m a robot, so it makes me relax because that’s the most vulnerable moments, just before you go out. You look at them, you feel them, you see where each group of people is, where the hardcore are, where a lot of the convinced are, where the youngsters are, you find them and you talk to them, until they’re all looking. You just give them what they need, whatever part of you they want, you try to feel that and you give it back. It’s natural… A lot of people have told me that it’s very authentic with me. From 6 years old, when I saw Elvis Presley on television. [He was singing] Don’t Be Cruel… [and in] my little 6-year-old brain I went, ‘‘Oh that’s what I’m going to do’’. I was always able to hold an audience… I always could feel that I had everybody in my hands. I had a family of four girls and one boy and we were all brought up to be very independent. I don’t think my dad wanted four dependent females. So consequently he pushed us that way: ‘‘You’re your own person’’, and I’ve always been my own person. So because I don’t consider myself a female bass player, I don’t allow anything to come into my sphere…
If I wasn’t an entertainer, which includes everything, which is the acting, the writing, the TV, I would have probably gone into psychology or [being] a criminal lawyer… I love the way the brain works. Do the gigs. The only way to learn this profession is to perform. That’s where you separate the men from the boys. Out of the ones that I’ve written, there are so many, I couldn’t choose. There is a new one on the new album QSP, called Pain, that is making people cry… I wrote it with Andy and it says we all have to feel pain sometimes, we all got to go there one time, we all have to walk that fine line. So it’s one of those that no matter who you are, you’re going to go through that, nobody escapes. It’s a pretty special song. Ninety-eight per cent of the time, I get the title first because it suggests the instrument I should write it on, because I’m a pianist too and it suggests the tempo, it suggests the mood. People. I don’t write fiction. So I write about what has happened to me, my feelings. I mean, I have a poetry book published worldwide called Through My Eyes. So I’m a communicator and a wordsmith, both things together. Yes, you know as you are writing it if it’s going to be good. Sometimes you just finish it to finish the exercise. But this one, I just was playing the guitar to Andy over the phone. I called him at 8 in the morning and I said, ‘‘Listen...’’ So it was one of those: ‘‘Listen.’’ I had to show it. Those moments are great when you know you’ve stumbled on to a truth.
‘I was always able to hold an audience … I always could feel that I had everybody in my hands.’
I love Bob Dylan. In fact, we covered Just Like A Woman on this album. It’s one of the best songs I ever sang in my life. I like a lot of Motown music, I play that a lot, the early 60s. I love the original rock’n’roll, I love doowop, I love Billie Holiday, Otis Redding. I also like John Legend. I’m a movie-, glass-of-wine girl, with a huge screen, sit back and fly into the movie. Gone With the Wind is my favourite. It’s so cliche, but I’ve watched it maybe 200 times and I can actually do the dialogue. Jeez, I’ll be 71 then, still playing, but not driving myself crazy. I take it as it comes. You slow down. I’m 66 now, I’m not young any more. I’m not chasing youth, either, but I’m still able to go out there. I’m still a viable artist. I still feel like I have something to give. And as long as I have something to give, that’s my job to do that. – Fairfax