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The Runaways' Cherie Currie tells all in her book 'Neon Angel'
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Cherie Currie of the Runaways
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When she was just fifteen years old, Cherie Currie was approached to join a all-girl teenage rock band called The Runaways. Click above to listen to KPCC's Alex Cohen chat with Cherie Currie at her San Fernando Valley home.
The Runaways were a huge success, but that didn't last for long. Infighting and drug abuse ripped the band apart.
One of their songs, "Neon Angels on the Road to Ruin" inspired the title of Cherie Currie's autobiography. "Neon Angel" candidly portrays the damaging effects of life on the road with a rock band.
The book begins with Cherie and her twin sister Marie growing up in the San Fernando Valley. It was there where Cherie had one of her first experiences performing, lip-synching to a David Bowie song at a school talent show.
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"It was being in front of an audience for the very first time," she recalls. "For me to take that step was very brave for me at that time. It was really a defining moment in my life."
That moment was one of the scenes in the film "The Runaways." Currie says seeing her life played out on the big screen was "surreal and terrifying and wonderful all at the same time."
She realizes there is only so much they could capture in a movie, but she wishes they were able to show more from the adventures of the Runaways, things like "Europe, what it was like there and the punk movement that was happening at the time." Currie says there were riots at many of their shows and once they were even jailed at Scotland Yard.
Now, Cherie has a much calmer life, raising her 19-year-old son Jake and making chainsaw sculptures.
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