Transcript of Suzi Quatro After 61 years in music she still has stories to tell

My career in the entertainment industry has enabled me to work with a diverse range of talent. Through my years of experience, I've recognized two essential aspects. Industry professionals, whether famous stars or behind-the-scene staff have fascinating stories to tell. Secondly, audiences are eager to listen to these stories, which offer a glimpse into their lives and the evolution of their life stories. This podcast aims to share these narratives, providing information on how they evolved into their chosen career. We will delve into their journey to stardom, discuss their struggles and successes, and hear from people who help them achieve their goals. Get ready for intriguing behind-the-scene stories and insights into the fascinating world of entertainment. Hi, I'm Tony Mantor. Welcome to Almost Live Nashville. We're thrilled to have the incredibly talented Susie Quattro with us today. A celebrated singer career, songwriter, actress, artist, and author. Susie is here to share her captivating new book, Fresh Off the Press. Join us as she takes us through the journey of writing it and reflects on her remarkable career, from soulful songwriting and electrifying performances to iconic moments on happy days. It's truly a pleasure to have her here with us today.

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Thanks for joining us.

It's my pleasure.

So now I understand that you've written a book.

This is my seventh book. The first one was my autobiography Unzipped. That was in, I believe, 2006. Second one was my first novel, The Hurricane. Then I had, and I don't know the order it is, my two poetry books, Through My Eyes and Through My Heart. Then I had COVID-inspired mind thing, Caught Through My Thoughts. Then a Lyric Book called Through My Words. And now this one here called Grave undertakeings, which is what we're talking about today.

So what inspired that?

It's a funny story. I have this title. Must have been 35, maybe even longer years ago. I had this great title. To be quite honest, I'm one of those people, and I've met other people like me, too. I'm a bit of a graveyard dweller. A lot of people find graveyards fascinating. I'm one of them. If I'm going by a church and it goes through, you see the grave, I'm in there and I'm looking at the tombstones. I do it all the time. So that's probably where this title came from. And I decided that I would collect tombstone inscriptions from friends of mine, famous friends. And I did it all the way through the years. Forever, I've got at the back of the book, you find all the inscriptions. So many of them, loads of them are dead because it collected over so long. A lot is still alive, too. Then I went to assemble the book about a year and a half ago. I'm guessing about that. And as I was putting the quotes together, I realized it was a book. It was a story. And then the creativity took over I went, wow. And so I made it about, which I wanted the quotes at the end to have a payoff so that they had a reason to be there.

So I took six psychology students. They needed a tutorial at a college with an Austrian professor, and off you go into their lives. Ins and outs, ups and downs, everything. So it takes you on a little journey. I used my imagination, and it came up with six characters, three guys, three girls. And to be quite honest, the story started to write itself. So I let the... As artistically, it does. Once I came up with the characters in that, I wanted it to be a psychology course, 10 lessons. And it takes you through their lives. And then each lesson has a reason, and they discover things about themselves, about each other. The professor, I don't want to give too much away, but I feel sorry for him. Then at the end, when the story is over, then you get all the tombstone quotes. I think there's about 150 in there. Wow.

So when you I've heard this so many times before that when somebody starts writing, you come up with the ideas, and then all of a sudden it just starts flowing. And like you said, it writes itself. It does. So as it flowed, did you find yourself being surprised to where it led to?

Well, two things happened. First of all, I'm not going to lie about it. When I wanted to go certain places in the lessons, and I didn't know certain technical terms, and oh, this, and that, I looked at different things and studied. Sure. Studied different things I wanted to learn about. And yes, what you're saying is right. In fact, the biggest time that that happened was when I took delivery of this book. And she said, Can you look at it and then approve it? And then we go to print? So I thought to myself, Okay, let's sit down, divorce myself from it, read it as a reader. Sure. Forget about it. I didn't write it, read it. I must have stopped every half an hour and thought, Who wrote this? He You do lose the sense of what you did. And it's funny because if you're an artist like I am, it does take over. And it just goes. Sometimes I've talked to other songwriters about this as well. You write a song, you You take it down so you don't forget it on a little tape, a quarter, whatever. And you go back the next day and you listen and you're so surprised.

And you honestly don't have any memory. And this book surprised me all the way through.

It's amazing you brought that up because I was going to ask you because when When you're in the studio, you lay down the tracks, you lay down your vocals, and then you come back the next day and you listen to them with fresh ears. So did this create fresh eyes?

Absolutely fresh eyes, yeah. I found myself actually saying, which is really crazy, I wonder what happens next. And then I say, Susie, you wrote it. No, you do this track. It's absolutely true. That's the wonderful thing about creativity, actually. It's magical.

So what was your emotions through the whole thing? Because this is something that you created rather than just something that's actual happened. So how did the emotions feel once you got it completed and then you reread it and set back and go, whoa, this is mine?

Yeah, I was able to pick out... Obviously, every writer writes about what they know. You have to personalize it. Just like when you act in a part, you find things of yourself that you can relate to. So as it turned out to be a psychological book, I'm a very I'm not a psychological person anyway. I could have actually done that as a living. Had I not gone into the arts. I think it would have been either a psychiatrist or criminal lawyer. They're pretty much the same thing. So, yeah, my emotions were strange. I was very Out of what I done. And at the same time, I'm surprised at what it showed me about my inner workings because there's a bit of me in every character. Sure. So I hear your little areas of, Oh, my God.

Yeah. Was there any surprises Something that you wrote down that it's like, Where did that come from?

There were a lot of surprises. Okay. I'm telling you, people have said that to me. Where did exactly that? Where did you get that from? I have to say, I don't know. A lot of surprises. It took twists and turns I didn't expect it to take. But once I was in these characters, and then, of course, you make friends with each character. You make them, and then you make friends with them. And I found myself having feelings about each character, and I I felt bad. I took one character one way. I felt really bad about it. But I thought, no, you have to go this way. There's just no other way. I'm sorry about that. But, yeah, you'll probably relate. Most people are relating to one or two of the characters. But the best compliment I got was a guy that was interviewing me May the first, and he woke me about two or three weeks before that. And he said, I know we're talking, and I'm going to review your book. He said, But I have to tell you, I read it.

Good.

And I did not expect this. He said, Where did you get your psychological knowledge from? How did you put it in such a compelling, fictional manner? And then he said, This should be required reading for every human in every psychology student. I went, what?

Nice.

I guess it touched him. Yeah. That's the nice thing you got. I have to say, because I'm that way minded anyway, I am always analyzing a sponge. If something goes I'll think about it until I figure it out. So coming up with this title and the tombstones, and then coming up with the idea to do a novel, it gave me a wide blank canvas to write all my stuff that I do. I'm a mind person. So I was able to really enjoy all the things I've learned through the years. Being in the business for one year and having to learn about people real quick and having to suss people out and size up an audience. And it's the school of life. Yeah. And I didn't graduate high school, but I know people.

Yeah. Common sense, lots of times, overrides education.

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah.

So did you find yourself... Did any of the characters that you've ever played in the past influence some of the things that some of your characters did in this book?

I tried to get a visual, and I'm sure my husband won't mind me saying it, but to begin with, I used me as Penelope Perfect, and my husband as Max Morose. I thought it was a good starting point because I am optimistic, and he's naturally pessimistic. And that was one of the first things the professor talks about. So I used this to begin with, and then that got me flowing. And then I had to get some... Most of the characters, I had a visual. I had a visual I think to myself, I knew somebody like this in school. So you can go back to that character. So I think every writer does that, even when you write your song. If it's not about you, particularly, then you have to find a focal point.

Yeah, absolutely. All right, so now you've got the book out. Where can people get a hold of it?

Everywhere that you can get books.

Okay.

You can order from any shop, you can order it online. And I'm hoping now to maybe I want to get this made into a 10-part TV series. Oh, nice. Wouldn't that be good?

Yeah, that would be exciting.

It screams for it, really.

That's great. So you're going to be working on trying to get a screenplay for it put together. Are you planning on doing it?

I want to be involved, obviously. I mean, I've never done a screenplay, so I don't say that I could do that, but I'd like to be involved.

Yeah, sure. Sure. That makes sense because you've got an idea of where you want to take it. Absolutely. And every time they write a screenplay off from a book, they take parts out, they do different things. So you definitely want to keep the body of your work.

Keep my hand on it. Absolutely.

So any plans musically? Are you going on on tour this year? Are you doing anything there?

Nonstop. I'm just starting to recording my next solo, which is good. And I'm doing nonstop gigs this year, June, July, and August. My feet don't touch the ground. September. Then I got another Australian tour, my 41st tour. It was crazy. The next year, I'm doing 10 shows in the UK. So I'm looking forward to that. I'm working harder than I've ever done and constantly meditizing material, writing books. I'm not one of these sit still people.

Yeah, I'm the same way. Do you find yourself now that you are in a situation where you can do what you want to do, you can sit back and look at what you've done. Do you find yourself in a situation of now you can enjoy more of what you're doing rather than earlier years? It was constant, get out there, make your name, get it out there. Do you find the difference that you've expanded now so that when you do something, it's like, Yeah, I'm really looking forward to this?

Yes. I think when you first in the business and you're just having your heads and blah, blah, blah, it's nonstop, deadline and pressure.

Sure. It is. Sure.

Every artist will tell you that. So it's like, Oh, my God. I hope my voice is okay tonight. But of course, that's how it is. Now I'm going to be 75 in June, 61 years in the business. I basically can do what I like. Yeah. Got my warm. It's down pat. I do my two-hour shows. My voice is better than it's ever been. You know what? What you just said is right. Now I call them the gravy years, and I can enjoy what I do. Not that you don't have the pressure of always doing a good job. It's always there. But it's not like... I am Susie Cuatro, but I don't have to be Susie Cuatro. Does that make sense?

Yes, absolutely. So what's on the bucket list? You've done all these things, 60 years of in the business. What are some of the things that you still look at and say, Man, I'd really like to do this?

Oh, my God. I've done so much of everything. I've just delivered my third poetry book that will come out in the summer. No, I can't think of anything. I try not to have goals goals. Yeah. Because as an artist, if you have a goal, what happens when you read it? Right.

Exactly.

You better keep it open. Then you got nothing to wake up for, Oh, I did that now. You're dead. Then I'm in the book. Yeah. Oh, and my tombstone, by the way, I must tell you, nick, because I've got a good one. I'm a Gemini. Okay. So I get two sides. Okay. And the first side says, Now I get it. Okay. And the second side says, too many dreams, too little time.

Yeah, that's good. Because when you sit back and you look at your career, you've started out with a goal, and then you get to the point of where you've done what you've done. You can sit back and look at your body of work, everything that you've done, and look at all the things that created it, and you can sit back and take a comfort in it. It's like, not bad.

Not bad. In fact, one of the poems in my book that I just delivered that is out yet, I was musing on that fact one time I was sitting alone, and I was thinking just about that. Sometimes your mind goes there. Everybody does. Everybody thinks about the mortality sometimes. And one of the poems that ends with that, it says, If the good Lord to take me tonight, I've left a lot here.

Yeah, absolutely.

I've left a body of work. I mean, my God, a lot. I'm proud of that.

So what stands out to you? I mean, when you look back and you reflect, what stands out? What Who do you look at and say, Yeah, I'm really proud that I did that?

That's a big question. I'm very proud that I have been able to be this successful, still feel grateful and love it so much, and still be a little bit, Oh, my God, I wouldn't like no way to let me go on stage. And the most thing that I'm proud of is my feet are very much on the ground.

Yeah, that's good, because some people don't ever get that, and that's good that you do. No, they don't. Now, I talk with other artists that have been out there for years like yourself. And it's interesting to get their reflection on when they go out on stage, the audience that's in front of them. Do you find yourself with the people that started out following you, then their kids and their grandkids, and you see all these age variants It's this.

You certainly do. You get whole families there, which is fantastic. Yeah. That means your legacy continues. And with the Internet, of course, they have access to everything. I'm very much an audience person, so I like to relate to every single person in their room. It's so funny. You can have 5,000 people. If there's one person not going, I will find them. I get a laser.

Yeah, that's No, it's great.

I still love performing. That's what keeps me going.

So what's next? You got the book out there. You've talked about possibly turning into a series or doing something with that. What's next? What's your vision now?

Well, right now I'm working on the new album.

Okay.

I got no ideas for any more books, and not at the moment, anyway. More gigs. I just want to keep feeling like I feel. That's my goal.

Be happy. And that's great. I mean, the fact that you're getting ready to turn 75 and you're still out there doing what you're doing and doing it at a high level and a high quality, that speaks volumes.

It does speak volumes. And like I said, it's a little bit of everything. I used to hate it when people say, Oh, you got lucky. It's not luck. You have to have the talent. But saying that, of course, luck comes into it. But first you got to have the talent, or you're not going to get very lucky. Yeah, it's great. It's just great. I love my job, and I've been very blessed that I have been allowed to be successful at my chosen career. Yeah.

And now, when you first started out, you was more on the singing side. Was you surprised that you wound up in the acting? I mean, happy days and all those situations?

No, not at all. Not at all. I knew, in fact, I'm that entertainer, to tell you the truth, that I could have gone this way, that way, this way, that way. I always knew I could act. It wasn't a surprise to me. I even thought about being a comedian When I was a young girl, I can tell a good joke. I was always writing. I was always painting. I'm just an artist.

That's nice.

Yeah. And anything that within this big ball of wax, that's called the app. If I can do it, I will do it. I I try not to do what I can do, but I have a good thing about what I can do.

Well, the beauty of it is when a person self reflects on what they're doing, they can look at what they're doing, whether it be a book or music or acting or art. A good one can look at that, whatever it is, and say, You know what? That's crap. I need to make it better. Or, Man, this is really good. If I do this, it'll make it superb.

You got to know. Oh, absolutely. I can I'll be watching something on a TV that I've done. I will critique it. Even if I watch a live show and somebody's taken it, I might go, I didn't like that bit. No. And always, and you're always learning. You're always upgrading your show. But I always do. I've heard five CDs back on my shoulder. I've said to myself, Don't say that again. That's not funny. You got to be able to step outside the... I hate using the word, but it's not... You're alter ego. You have to be able to step outside it and look at with honest eyes.

Yes, exactly. So when you go on stage, what's a typical... What's it look like? Not from your end, from the audience's end. Oh, gosh. What are they going to see?

They see... I'm going to not put myself in the audience. They see this small girl with this big bass guitar, stride onto the stage like she owns it, but at the same time, a little bit shy. Okay.

I get that.

Because when you're When you walk out there, you're thinking, I hope they like me.

Yeah.

I love it. I do love it.

That's great. So are you planning on coming to the US at all in a tour?

I'm always trying to get back there, and it always seems to fall through, but I'm not going to say never. I'm not going to say never. So I would love to. I'd love to come in and try. I think the last one I did was, what year was it? It was our anniversary. What year, Rhino, quick, quick. Ryna, what year was it that we went? Oh, he's sleeping. Rhino, what year did we have our Dilega River Creek Casino? You'll think of it. He's Mr. Mind over here.

Yeah, no problem.

It was one of our anniversary.

Which? 2018.

Okay, 2018, I played at the Dilega River Creek Casino in Canada I sold it out two nights.

Yeah, nice.

But I'd love to come back. Maybe it'll happen because it's always mentioned. So who knows? Never seen.

So do you go home much?

Yeah, I've been to Detroit quite a few times, twice for... I mean, I went there a lot in the older days that we were always playing did tours. I did two BBC radio shows there, which is what we just talked about, one for Motown and then one for the white rock and roll bands. I did two birthdays there, '65 and '70. Arthur Reefs came to the 70th. And I've been there to get my Michigan Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Award. Then I went there again to do Dick Wagner, Charity for the Children. I I was there recently, the most important, last September, and we recorded a duet, Alice Cooper and I. Nice. He's on my new L. So I don't want to talk too much about that because it's not really simple. We did a track and made a video. He agreed to appear in my next album.

Nice. And that's what I was going to ask you, what's the new music going to sound like that you're coming out with?

It's full circle, back to more the where I began.

Oh, Nice. Yeah.

So it is a rock album. This is a rock album. All right. Good. We just did three days in the studio with putting down the bass and the drums, and I played heavy bass for five hours each day.

Okay.

A little bit swollen.

Wow.

Yeah, it was something else. Yeah.

Yeah, but when you sit down and you've got it all finished, you can sit back and say, it was worth it all because listen to that sound. There's nothing that beats that.

No, there is nothing. The satisfaction is great. Yeah, it might be hard laying it down, laying it down. And then you listen, you go, Oh, yeah.

Oh, yeah. And it's always nice because just like writing a book when the characters take over, when you're in the studio, the studio magic can happen. And then all of a sudden, you just got something that just really shines.

I was just in a different zone. The engineer actually turned around to me because we were talking about that after the track, and he said, Yeah, he said, I couldn't even get you to look at me. I said, I know what's in my whole little place. I You're in the music, basically.

That's right. It absorbs you. Yeah. Well, this is great. So what would you like to let the listeners know that in case just anything coming up or what you'd like them to know about you?

It's all there. Everything you need to know is in my song lyrics, in my songs, in my books, in my TV appearances. It's all there. My radio shows. I don't hide. Okay. What you see is what you get.

That's great. I love the fact that you keep in touch with everybody, Donny and Anson and all that. That's the one thing that Donny and Anson always tell me, Man, it's like we're family.

It was like a family. And in fact, just before we go, I actually said to Ron one time we were talking, and I said, Did I seem like a new actress on the show? He said, No, that's the strangest thing, Susie. From the first show, it was like you had always been there.

Nice.

Yeah. So it was just comfortable.

Yeah. Here, just a few months ago, they were in Nashville. That's right.

I saw that. They're trying to get me to come along. I'm one of them. I'm trying to see if I can do it or not.

So that would be great. The four of them got together.

I know. And they're trying to get me, but it's whether my gigs interfere because I would come. That would be fab. Yeah, that would be good.

It's always fun to get the people together. I mean, Allison Arngram, she was the evil little one on Little House on the Prairie.

Oh, that's right.

Yeah. I had her on just last week. Little House on the Prairie was the same thing as Happy Days last year, 50 your anniversary. That's right. It's amazing. You sit back in some of these shows, you look at them as 50 years ago.

Couldn't get much bigger than Happy Days. No.

It was. When you was on Happy Days and they were putting that out, what were some of your emotions that went through on that? How did you feel about being part of that iconic show?

Obviously, I was honored to be part of it. But I remember we were reading through the script. First time I met everybody. So we're in the room reading through the script the next day, you're in the where they filmed it and you're running through it with your scripts. But I tensed. I don't know if I was right or wrong, but I think I was right. I sensed that they probably were thinking, Not that they didn't like me, but, huh? So she comes over with all these hits and she walks in the things she can add. I had a feeling that that might have been the feeling from somebody. So before we started rehearsals the next day, they were all sitting there and I said, Listen, I got to tell you all something. I said, Okay, I know you all know my history and where I come from and that I've been very successful and blah, blah, blah. I said, Okay, I've done that a long time. This is my first show as an actress, and I would appreciate any help that you can give me. And boy, did they. They all did. Ron would say, speak up a little bit on this line, do this on that.

And Henry gave me a good tip. He said, I was just watching you walk around the Cunningham living room. He said, Dude, do me a favor. Walk away from me and come back. And I walked away, came back. He said, You got a great walk. I said, Thank you. He said, You're not walking like that in the living room. I said, I'm not. He said, No, you're walking like you've never been in there before. So while we're doing something else in one of the other scenes, go over there and walk in that room. And he was right. Made me comfortable. So, yeah, everybody helped. So it was good. It was a good show to be on.

Yeah. And the great thing is 50 years later is still relevant. Oh, yeah. That's got to be just a great feeling to be part of something like that.

Oh, got you. I'm very proud of that.

Well, again, I appreciate you coming on. It's been great.

Okay, my pleasure. It was great to talk to you.

Yeah, same here.

And thank you very much for your time, too.

It's been my pleasure. Thanks for joining us today. We hope you enjoyed the show. This has been a Tony Mantor production. For more information, contact media@plateauamusik. Com.