From cherry bomb to chainsaw carver, Cherie Currie is a true rock ‘n roll survivor. Since fronting the Runaways at 16, Currie’s life has been a wild roller coaster ride —accentuated with an incredibly inspiring silver lining. The Los Angeles native’s time with the Runaways was brief, but her legendary, groundbreaking role as a female rock star was assured. From there, she went on to make solo records, records with her twin sister Marie, and even appeared in a few movies, most notably, 1980’s Foxes with Jodie Foster. Drugs and alcohol derailed her life for much of the 80s, but she sobered up, sailed through recovery, married actor Robert Hays, had her son Jake and settled into domestic tranquility.
Currie’s artistic endeavors weren’t limited to song and dance; forays into painting and crafts, including a little wood carving, expanded her outlet for creativity. The wood carving got easier went she started using a chainsaw — at the start of the new millennium, Cherie Currie began a career as an in-demand chainsaw carver who opened a gallery and gained a steady clientele. But her days with the Runaways were never forgotten. Her book Neon Angel: A Memoir of a Runaway told the story, warts and all, from her perspective — worthy enough to become the basis of a Runaways movie. Around the same time, Curie’s desire to return to music became a little more serious.
The Runaways movie helped put her back in the spotlight. It also strengthened her relationship with former bandmate Joan Jett. A major gig opening for Jett and an unreleased album later, and Currie’s return to the music business has exactly gone as planned. Always the survivor, she has persevered by continuing to write, record and play out live with her son Jake, an accomplished musician in his own right (their east coast tour opens in New York on November 6). And things just keep getting more interesting. Recently, she was bestowed a Rock Legend Award at the Malibu Music Awards. And she’s made amends with a few people from her past, namely her Runaways bandmate Lita Ford and producer Kim Fowley. That seemed like a good starting point to begin the following interview with this amazing woman.
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I just read your book and you told me beforehand you’ve been in the studio with Lita Ford and Kim Fowley, who are not exactly portrayed in a favorable light in your book. But here you are, working together. What do you have cooking?
Well it’s kind of a fluke. I read on Facebook, actually on my sister’s page, someone had written this extensive kind of update on Kim’s health and I was unaware. I knew he had had a bad bout of cancer right when the movie was happening, and he and I kind of buried the hatchet. And also me being a mom, you just see things so differently 37 years later as you did as a teenager. So I kind of understood that it was a tall order handling five girls that were under 18. Anyway, so I had inquired on his page just very quickly, I’m just checking in, and next thing I knew he had heard that I had said that I would rather work with Kim Fowley than someone else. And I’m not going to bring the other person’s name up that I’ve been working with recently, and anyway Kim decided to jump on that and next thing I knew he called me like that night and he had already called Blackheart Records and wanted to know the status of my album and the fact that I no longer am contracted to anybody. And then he made the phone call and I just thought this would just be brilliant.
And to go full circle and with his health not being well — he just had his bladder removed and had a tube and a bag and all that — and he immediately started rambling off lyrics. He told me to grab a piece of paper and a pencil and he just started reciting these lyrics. It was classic Kim Fowley. And then I told him: “Look, Lita and I have become really close and I really need to call her.” He wanted my son and I to come to his apartment, and I said I have to call her and I have to tell her about this; I’d love for her to be involved. So I did, and, of course, her first reaction was, “Ohhh.” And I just said, “Look, Lita, we look back and we don’t have the best memories — why not remove those bad memories and make it positive so that you know we’ve come full circle and you know we’ve come out better people, more understanding people.” She said, “You know what, you’re right.” And she came and met my son and I, and we met at Kim’s apartment at 2:00 and she ended up staying a little bit after 8:30.
I had to go because my dogs had been outside, so I did leave when they were writing some stuff. Kim was trying to write some stuff with Lita for a possible future project. Anyway, my son and I had two days to work with Kim’s lyrics, and Jake (Hays, her son) had been writing some music, doodling on the guitar there at Kim’s, and he’d say, “Ah keep that, I like that, continue with that, now chorus.” And my son, he’s just a great musician; we taped everything and then came back to my house for two nights straight and had to compose four songs out of this stuff and were in the studio the next day with Kim at the helm.
Then Lita came and laid down some guitar on a couple of them and some vocals, and basically one pass — which is also typical Kim Fowley. When I did my vocals, it was basically two passes and he says, “They’re great. It’s only rock ‘n’ roll.” And that was it (laughs). So we put together four songs. Now, they are in my son’s hands and we are going to mix them and Lita wants to come to my son’s little studio in Malibu Lake and she wants to help with one of songs that she really likes. So we’re working together and Lita is now writing a book with Harper Collins. And we’re talking a lot. Her and I are the only mothers in the group.
We know why things happened. And she does not appreciate the blame on me for leaving the band and I try to reassure her that it was the perfect storm. But the thing is that I loved Lita. I wanted to get to know her, but I was very intimidated because she was really good. And I felt like I had this weird, strange voice, you know very deep for my age. I felt very unworthy to be in the Runaways. But I look at videos today of the five of us, and it was really a magical team that we had.
It was. I was listening to some Runaways music just last night and it still sounds really great. And you sound fantastic — I mean, I don’t remember it really sounding as good as it did, to be honest with you. Maybe it’s just because there’s so much bad music out nowadays, I don’t know. I know Lita has a new live album out.
Her live album The Bitch Is Back is coming out. I’m really excited about that. And also, she and I did a Christmas single that will also be coming out right after her live album.
Really?
It’s really a great song that was a year in the making. It took Lita a year to write it with Mitch Perry, and out of the blue a couple of months ago, she phoned me and said, “I wrote this Christmas song and what do you think of doing a duet with me?” I was just flattered. To me, being in a studio with Lita, being on a stage with Lita, has always been a dream. You always want to go back, but on a stage with her — that’s the next thing that I’m really looking forward to. But anyway, I was touring but I literally flew in from the end of my Midwestern tour and left from the airport directly to the studio and we cut this Christmas single and it’s just rockin’. It’s called “Rock This Christmas Down.”
Wow. That’s great.
Yeah, it’s just incredible and she’s writing a book now. In fact, I thought you were her calling me because we’re going to get together and just talk a little bit about what was going on.
Are you helping her with the book? Are you giving her pointers?
Oh I will, of course. You know, she has a lot of questions because we were kids; it was a long time ago. She can only speculate, like I could only speculate when I was writing my book, what was going on with the rest of the band. But there were a lot of private things, a lot of things behind the scenes that Lita really felt that I had no idea. To me, it really seemed like she wanted nothing to do with me but her perspective is entirely different.
It’s incredible you two have reunited like this. So, are you just recording a few songs to see what happens?
Well, you know what, right now we’re just going to mix the songs — that’s four songs — and like I said, Lita is going come and she feels that she can be really helpful on one in particular or two, and we’re just going to mix them. My lawyer then has control of what happens with the mix and we’ll see. Again, these were just written in a couple of days and we went in there and it’s just for the fun of it. They’re very Runaways-esque because that’s the way Kim wrote. I mean, literally even with “Cherry Bomb,” I can remember it was exactly the same way. He’s brilliant with his lyrics. He just comes out — he’s very gifted. And then he goes, “do do do do do do do do.” He says, “Play it like this,” and then modulate and chorus and you know, whatever your hand goes to usually is what he’s satisfied with. He’s an extraordinary man. He really is. Crazy, crazy guy but — and I even tell him — you always love your abuser. That’s the way I felt about him in the Runaways. But he didn’t know how to be a father, he didn’t’ know how to be a friend, he didn’t know anything but what he calls “the hustle” and the “dog dance.” But in the end, he got stuff done.
He sure did. You’ve been touring quite a bit this year and you’ve got more dates coming. Are you going to play some of the new songs live?
Haven’t even had a moment to think about it because I literally just came out of the studio yesterday. I’m taking a couple days off. I’m getting an award this on Saturday, which is the prestigious Rock Legend Award over in Malibu, which is really kind of neat for me.
Congratulations.
Thank you. I get to perform with an orchestra and we’re going to do a song from my album that Blackheart holds, you know, “The Air That I Breathe,” which is a song I loved growing up, and “Cherry Bomb” and a couple others, and then we gotta get ready to go out on the road. We’re going to the East Coast.
Right. And then you’ll be back here at the Viper Room, right?
That’s right! With my son’s band opening.
Oh, fantastic.
Really great. Maudlin Strangers, which is Jake’s band. But what’s kind of crazy is our drummer has been replaced actually by my son, who has always been a front guy on guitar in my band but he loves drumming. Right now, I’ve got a really great chick guitar player and she’s Japanese. I wanted a woman on guitar and this girl is just amazing. And my son wanted to be on the drums because we took a gig in Cleveland. I couldn’t turn it down even though my then-drummer was unable to do the show; I still said “Book it anyway.” Jake was on drums that night and my dear friend Tony Artino, who lives in Cleveland — who was my guitar player back in the ’90s, [and] he lives there — he jumped on stage and was the guitar player for that night. And it was just so … my son just loved it. He was great. But its five days on, one day off, five days on, so it’s going to be brutal. I don’t even remember in the Runaways doing 10 shows basically back to back, with one day off in the middle with a different city every day.
You haven’t played a show since the gig you did in August at the Gibson with Danzig?
Right.
That must have been a trip, considering they’re tearing it down. I think I read that you saw David Bowie there when you were young. What was that experience like?
That was my first concert ever. It was in 1974 and it was the Diamond Dogs tour. It was a profound moment in my life. I was mesmerized and I just knew in my heart that that was something I wanted to do. It sparked something in me, and god, it couldn’t have been a whole lot later that I joined the Runaways.
And there you are, playing the last gig at the same building.
Yeah, I mean, Glen Danzig, what an amazing guy that he would ask me to do that. And what is so funny is that I’d lost my management — Blackheart was managing me — and I had left my management back in March and I reached out to Glen to let him know. He had said some very lovely things in print about me, so I reached out to let him know I had left my management. And he wrote me back about two weeks later and he goes, “I got your email” — and I had also mentioned, “Hey, if you ever want me to sing with you again,” because I had done a song on his album, done a duet with him, and I said, “Don’t reach out to my management, because they’re no longer my management. Just contact me personally.” And I said, “If you ever want me to open for you …” So I just said that. Well, he wrote me back a couple weeks later and said, “You know what, I’ve been having problems with my management for years, and the fact you walked, well, I fired my management now. And by the way, you want to open for me at the Gibson?”
Wow.
Yeah, incredible. And it was a tough crowd — metal crowds are something I’ve never, you know, played in front of that. Well, I really haven’t played in decades. But that was really something. I got some good reviews doing it and a lot of people enjoyed it. It was just an absolutely great night.
Fantastic. Now, of course, you talked about the album for Blackheart, which Matt Sorum and Lanny Cordola produced. Just briefly kind of explain to me, from what you know, what the hold up is with this record and what issues you’re facing. I mean, is it something you think will ever come out?
It’s kind of like you asking me about Mars (laughs). I don’t know. I’ve never really known why. I knew that it needed to be remixed. I knew that I didn’t like some guitar sounds in it. That was my complaint when the album was finished — there were just some guitar sounds that I really wanted changed. Talking to my then-manager, I would have imagined, him being a producer, that wouldn’t be any big huge deal. But anyway, it just never got done. I mean, they were saying it took people a year and a half to get people to sign off on the record. I don’t know. But the thing is, they didn’t want me to play. And I fought for three years, and it just seemed like one thing after another, after another. I mean, I was so upset because I didn’t see any reason that I just couldn’t have gone in, made the record, you know, if it needed a couple tweaks, then tweak it, put it out there so I could go out and play. It’s never happened that way. And after three years, I wouldn’t re-sign with them as management because I’ve been seeing nothing. I’m certainly not going to sign to do nothing for another three years. I just decided I would go out on my own, without management, without any support, and just do it. And that’s what I’ve been doing. It’s not been easy, I’ll tell you that much.
But now I have a tour manager for this little stint, because I just couldn’t do it all on my own. You get to a point where you just really need to have someone advancing the shows — I didn’t even know what that meant. Things like that. Anyway, I don’t know what’s going to happen with the record. I do know that I’m with TKO now, and they want me to go to Europe. I’m thinking that those kind of things might spark Blackheart to somehow work with us to get the record out there. And if it doesn’t come out, it doesn’t come out. I’ve already moved on. When somebody else controls everything where you have absolutely no power whatsoever, you come to resent that. And then you finally get to the point — even though I put a lot of my heart and soul in that and everybody else that played on it, their heart and soul; I mean, Billy Corgan, who wrote a duet for he and I — all this work, it just becomes kind of futile. You just say, “Well, you know, what do you do?” It’s like climbing Mount Everest. You run out of oxygen and you just decide to head back down and make another record.
Well, that’s a good attitude. Has this problem with Blackheart, which Joan Jett is affiliated with them, put a strain on your relationship with her?
Well, to be honest, I love Joan, I don’t know what she knows about this. I don’t know anything. I haven’t really spoken to her actually in a long time. I kind of was hoping that I was going to open for her again after I opened for her in August of 2010. It was such a special concert, and that’s when I got an offer for a record. And then when Kenny [Laguna] wanted me to go with Blackheart instead of this other label, I did. Had I know that I was going to make this record — because we just finished it three years ago, actually, it had been December, early January that the album was finished, January 2011 — had I known that, I never would have done this. But I just kind of imagined that we would make the record, we’d put it out and I’d go on tour. And then after one summer passed, another summer passed and then it was like, “Please don’t let me sit for another summer.” I could see that was a huge possibility. I just thought, you know, I can’t. I don’t know. I think it’s just put a strain, because she doesn’t want to do a Runaways reunion when Lita and I really want to. And I think, what’s the politics behind that? This is supposed to be fun. We’re supposed to get together and celebrate what we did as kids. And it’s become… I mean, why can’t you just say, “Yes, sure, why not?” Is it that complicated? I’m a chainsaw carver from the San Fernando Valley. I mean, I’m a realist. I live in the real world, I pay real bills. I don’t live the way she lives. I see things from a different perspective. But I also know that when Lita wants to do it and I want to do it. To me, it’s for the fans. It’s for the people that want to see it. It isn’t about us, as much as we would love to revisit those songs together and what made us the human beings we are today. That should be a celebration in itself, the fact that the Runaways stood the test of time, the music. Joan plays the Runaways music in her set, Lita does, I do. Why we can’t do that together is a mystery.
As I recall, the idea of the Runaways reuniting sort of came out after the movie, which, of course, was largely based on your book, Neon Angel. So, after the movie came out — and Joan Jett was heavily involved in that movie — was there any serious consideration of doing some kind of Runaways reunion? Maybe a one-off or something?
Well, you know, I think the major thing was Lita, believing that Lita wouldn’t have anything to do with it. But the thing is, she was in the midst of escaping a very bad marriage. Seventeen years ago, we were going to do a reunion. In fact, it was spawned by Lita for us to come together and do it. In the end, you know, she ended up backing out. She doesn’t have very fond feelings for Kenny Laguna, and that was what she was claiming at the time, that she just couldn’t work with him. Also, I find out now that it was a combination of things and also her then-husband really had her basically under lock and key. But that was 17 years ago. Lita feels that now is the time and I have felt that now is the time, or after the movie came out. And we wrote letters, but they never were responded to by Joan. Obviously she didn’t feel that she needed to respond to that. I don’t get it.
I saw her at the Pacific Ampitheatre this past summer and I would have loved to have seen you opening again.
Well, you know, I’ve asked over and over, and they always seem to have a good answer. I mean, it was such a successful show in Orange County. Nine thousand people came, and Joan hasn’t had that amount of people come since. But the thing was is that they were hoping they were going to get possibly her and I on stage together, which never transpired that night, and that had nothing to do with me. In fact, it was just never even asked. I just thought it was kind of like, “Why not?” But Joan was really going through losing her mom, who was really ill. So there were a lot of reasons why I felt she really didn’t think about doing that, but people took notice. That’s for sure. I would ask, “Of course, Joan’s going to let me open for her more, won’t she?” Of course, it never happened, and then it was like, “Well, Joan doesn’t want you to open for her unless you have an album out.” Well, that made sense for the first year, the first two years it made sense. But the thing was, the album’s not ready. And then they’d give me dates that it would be released and let me go and say when it was going to be coming out, and it didn’t — it wasn’t mastered. There was no way it could have come out. It was just a very frustrating time. We want the record to come out.
Yeah, it seems like a lost opportunity where you could have put the record out and hit the road with Joan Jett. And I think a national tour with both of you would have been a home run for sure.
That’s what I thought as well. And why it never happened is a mystery; I’ll never understand it. So, you know, what do you do? Scratch our heads and say, “Who fucked up here?” I mean, honest to God, it’s pretty crazy, it’s pretty crazy.
I wanted to ask you one other thing about the Runaways movie: How did it feel to see Dakota Fanning up there on the screen playing you?
You know what, it’s so surreal that there really aren’t words to describe it. Because I still don’t believe it. And I have a movie poster in my house of “The Runaways.” I still can’t wrap my head around it. She’s been one of my favorite actresses ever since I saw her as a child. My twin sister and I would go see a movie of hers, and we’d just sit and talk for an hour about how amazing this girl is. And the next thing I know, when I met her for my first time I was just getting up to do “Cherry Bomb” for a charity and she was at the Roxy and she was still really young. I mean, she looked basically like she did coming out of “War of the Worlds.” And then a year later, when they start going into production, she grew. She was like this beautiful young teenager. She actually did the movie at the same age I was when I joined the Runaways so it was just amazing, and just to get to know her and how terrific she was. It was so funny — just to show you what a great job she’d done. I’m a pretty boisterous person now in my middle age, and she was speaking so softly — very, very soft-spoken as me — and the thing is, I was thinking why is she doing it? And then when I went back to look at old interviews, that’s the way I talked at that age. She’d really done her homework. She’s incredible. An amazing human being and I’m beyond blessed that she wanted to do this.
Of course, acting is something that you’re familiar with. Is that a world you would ever want to go back to?
Well, you know, if the right thing happened, why not? You only live once, right? It’s not anything I’m actively pursuing. I mean, I do think here and there, I’d like to go to acting class. But the thing is, my life is my carving and all that. That business has been my income for 12 years. That’s been my baby and I’ve got that. But if the right thing happened … but I’m not the kind of person that’s going to go to acting class and go out on the calls and all that. I’m too old.
So nobody’s proposed the idea of Foxes 2 and you bringing your character back from the dead?
(laughs) No, no, they haven’t. That’s OK.
I would be remiss if I didn’t ask you about your chainsaw wood carving. I’m curious: How much of a creative outlet has that been for you since, I guess the darker days of your life?
Well, I started chainsaw carving in the later part of 2000.
So you’d already been married and had your son?
Oh yeah. I was actually doing relief carving at the time, because I was painting. I’d painted a steer skull on an oak tabletop. I kept saying, “I just want to carve around this thing.” That’s just what my creative process was. So I went to Home Depot and bought pine tabletop and sketched a teepee and mountains and a desert-type Indian kind of a serenity theme, and I carved it with a dremel. I was terrified of this little tool, you know. I painted it and stained it, and it was beautiful. I just started doing that. I did it for probably about six months and I was driving to the beach one day up Malibu, and I saw these guys chainsaw carving at the side of the road. I didn’t stop; I just saw them doing it. I saw this big eagle and all this. I just couldn’t get it out of my head. I mean, every night I went to bed, every morning — you know that little voice that speaks to you that we all have, you know, “What are you going to do today?” That voice kept saying, “You have to go back.” So a couple weeks later, I did. I walked into their gallery and there were just these gorgeous mermaids. I mean, when you think of chainsaw carving, you think of these crude, squared cuts. These were beautiful pieces of art. And so I talked to the owner, Leo, and I said, “You know, I want to do this.” He asked to see some of my relief work, and he said, “You’re talented. Sure.” I started the next day. I’ve taught people how to chainsaw carve, but you really can’t teach someone. Either you have the ability to do it or you don’t. He taught me how to not kill myself with the saw, and that I appreciated. But my third piece that I made was actually accepted into the Malibu Art Expo at Pepperdine, where I’m being given this award this week. That’s one of the most difficult art shows to get into because the local artists there decide if it’s good enough. And my third piece was three sea turtles swimming around a piece of coral and it was accepted in. And the guy, Leo, who had owned the place, who took me on as a carver, they didn’t even accept any of his pieces. So I just went, “I’m onto something here.” And I never stopped. I had a business at the Log Cabin Mercantile, then I opened my own business down on Topanga and I owned that for about three-and-a-half years. Once we were going into production on the film, I closed that down and built a little carving area here at my house. I just do special orders now.
Are you working on anything special right now?
Right now I have a waiting list. And unfortunately, managing myself and getting these tours done — it’s so much work. Fortunately, I’ve got clients who are understanding that I’m just one person and it’s a dirty job. It’s not like you can just go out there, carve, and then just jump in your car and go to a meeting. You’re covered in gasoline and oil. So they’ve been really patient. But it’s something that I really love to do and I’ll continue doing it.
I wanted to ask you about your ex-husband (and actor) Robert Hays, who I understand you’re still very close with. And I know they had some sort of Airplane!
He did. Yes he did. I was actually house-sitting for him when he was in Hawaii and he broke his neck. I cared for him when he came back for quite a number of weeks. It was a miracle because he had the same break that Christopher Reeve had. He had the fortitude and knowledge to just hold his head and not let anybody move him. But he’s doing really well. He is my best friend. I’ve never loved a man as much as I love him as a person. We do everything together. In fact, he’s actually emceeing this awards show. I asked him if he would be interested because they had a guy who was going to do it, but when they found out that he was my wonderful ex-husband, they asked me to reach out to him. He’s just the greatest. He and my son and I just have a fantastic relationship. It couldn’t be better.
Excellent. So now after this tour in November, is there a possibility of maybe going to Europe and playing?
Well, yeah, my agents would keep me overseas. He’s trying to put something together for next summer. So that would be great. I’ve never been to Australia. I really want to go to Australia. I’d love to go back to Japan.
Yeah, Japan. That seems like that would be a winner for you because they love you in Japan.
Yes, yes they did. You know, also, there’s just so many possibilities. And again, I just can’t stress more how I feel about Lita. She’s truly the strongest woman that I know. The fact that she basically had her kids kept from her for a number of years now. She’s fighting that fight; she has the organization that she created. It’s about parental alienation and she’s really working hard to get the word out about how wrong that is. If people go to her Facebook page, they’ll see where they can become a part of that. But she’s a real inspiration to me. And we’re like sisters.
I would think that with all the BS you’ve gone through in the music business that it might get a bit daunting and discouraging at times. Is she inspiring you in some ways to keep going on, to keep working in music?
Oh yes. I mean, yesterday when she called me and she was talking about one of the songs that she had participated in that we did over the weekend, and she was saying, “Oh Cherie, let me go in the studio with you on that song. I’ve got great ideas and I really want this to be great for you.” Yeah, it brings tears to my eyes right now because there was so much going on — stuff that I didn’t see in the Runaways that she witnessed, like Scott Anderson who got me pregnant and how she saw him just pulling me away from the band and kind of coveting me. Between him and some other people, she saw me just being ripped apart. And you know, I look back and she was right. So to see her perspective of what I was going through in the band, I can understand why she was angry. To me, it always seemed like she was angry. She was tough; she’ll be the first one to admit that. But her acceptance into this band was the one thing that I wanted more than anything but did not feel worthy of. Can you imagine growing up basically on stage in front of thousands of people and you don’t even know who you are? And what we went through together, being on tour with no parental supervision, fending for ourselves at that young age — it’s quite remarkable.
You didn’t have any big entourage following you around and cuddling you and all that. It was tough, I would imagine.
It really was. It was Motel 6’s and over-21 bars, and we were only 16, 17 years old. We could have never gotten in there as patrons, but here we are on stage performing there. We had our manager Scott Anderson, and we had Kent Smythe, who was the roadie – these weren’t really the best people for us. They didn’t care. Years of that and no break, we never had a break — if we weren’t on tour, we were on the studio — how long can that continue? I always tell people, for Jackie (Fox) to hack up her arms in Japan just right in front of me, to take a piece of glass and just tear at herself — why don’t you look at that? She was driven to that. And then you go ahead and you tell me that me leaving this band was unacceptable? Because a lot of fans do — they blame me. They say I abandoned the band. Had we just been allowed to take a break and sit back, at least sit and talk with some mediator to clear up all the crazy rumors that weren’t happening and all this crazy stuff that they thought I was doing behind their back, having private photo sessions, which is an infamous story they even depicted in the movie, that I had gone behind their backs — Lita and I just talked about this the other day — and had this photo session done with these Japanese people. I’m 17 years old. How could I have done that? I couldn’t. It was Kim Fowley that did it and I turned him down. They were saying they were going to all the houses. Kim was saying, “Oh, it’s a private photo session, each one of the girls are going to be doing this session.” And I went, “Oh, alright.” That made sense. But also, the fact that I turned down the cover of Rolling Stone just weeks before I left the band because they had a specific shot they wanted to use and they reached out to me personally to say they were excited, they had this shot, they were going to put me on the cover of Rolling Stone. And I begged them, “Please do not do that. That will be the end of this band. You have to have a picture of the band.” “Well, we don’t have that shot. This is the shot we want to use.” And I was crying, literally, to the editor. I said, “I’m begging you, do not do that.” And of course, then it was just two weeks later, I left.
This story does have a happy ending and it’s great to hear things are moving in an upward direction for you. I’m going to let you go, but it was really great to talk to you.
It was a pleasure, and there really is a happy ending.
