After five decades in the rock ‘n’ roll industry, you’d think it would be fine time for ‘The Queen of Rock ‘n’ Roll’ to put her feet up, pour herself a nice cup of tea and reminisce about a long and successful career…not a hope in hell! Suzi Quatro is back & back with an almighty bang. With a brand new 11-song album set to be released on 29th March, ‘No Control’ sees Suzi at her best, with a diverse collection of songs, the majority of which have been penned with her son Richard Tuckey. The first single from the album is ‘No Soul/No Control’ and from the outset you can hear that she has no intentions of slowing down. Currently headlining The Red Hot Summer Tour (Series Two) once again alongside The Angels, Baby Animals, The Screaming Jets, Jon Stevens, Moving Pictures & Chocolate Starfish, Quatro plays with an energy & vigour that seemingly rolls back the years and looks to drive her on to continue to entertain & perform at the highest level. The Rockpit’s Sean Bennett managed to catch up with Suzi after her first weekend’s Red Hot shows to discuss the new album, why she chose the bass guitar and just which song she wished she could have written…
Sean: Hey Suzi, how are you?
Suzi Q: I’m fine thank you.
Sean: Thank you so much for talking to us here at The Rockpit and welcome back to Australia. How’s it all going?
Suzi Q: No problem at all and thank you very much. We’ve had two really great shows at the weekend already (on The Red Hot Summer Tour) and doing our third one next weekend and obviously I’m excited about the new single coming out too, so everything is toppin’.
Sean: I managed to find a bit of footage on social media of you performing the new single ‘No Soul/No Control’ from the weekend and it sounded fantastic…
Suzi Q: Oh, they had some of it on there? I’d like to see that myself because the video to the song is available on YouTube now so you can watch it on there, but I’d love to see the footage from the show. That would be good.
Sean: It’s on Facebook somewhere so if I find it I’ll flick it over to you.
Suzi Q: Ok, that would be great.
Sean: I also managed to watch the video last night. I’ve got to say the song is great – a real thumping rock track. It’s just ‘in your face’ rock n roll.
Suzi Q: Thank you so much. I’m so glad you like it. Yeah, it is a real ‘in your face’ track.
Sean: The feedback has been so positive too and all the fans seem really excited for the release of the album ‘No Control’ which will be out on 29th March. I’ve been lucky enough to listen to it all weekend and it’s great.
Suzi Q: Oh good boy, good boy [laughs]. Do you have some favourites?
Sean: Oh, I have plenty of favourites although I’m at that stage, Suzi where my favourites keep changing.
Suzi Q: Oh that’s great [laughs]
Sean: So, I love a certain track, then I stick the album on again the next day and something else jumps out…
Suzi Q: Yeah, yeah, yeah [laughs]… and that’s good because the whole album just happened by accident really. It was never planned so it’s all so crazy as to how it’s come out. My son, Richard wanted to write some songs with me and he started showing me some stuff and I liked it and thought “I can work with that”, so we worked on makin’ a demo, then we made another song and made another demo and by the third demo I said, “Hey, somethings happenin’ here – we are making an album”. And all of a sudden it got serious and it wasn’t planned at all. We didn’t take any song in any particular direction; we just let each song have its own personality. And that is why your favourites keep changing.
Sean: I love the diversity you have throughout the album.
Suzi Q: Yeah, it goes from blues to like the weirder song ‘Strings’ and then the nice Caribbean sound of ‘Love Isn’t Fair’, then you got your Suzi ones like ‘Macho Man’, ‘Heavy Duty’, ‘No Soul/No Control’ [laughs]. So yeah you’re so right, it has a lot of diversity on it.
Sean: You mentioned ‘Macho Man’ which was my first stand out favourite after the first few listens and I love that almost ‘Tush-like’ riff at the start and it has just such a classic rock feel, but then today driving into work ‘Easy Pickings’ stood out for me – loved it.
Suzi Q: Yeah, that’s one of my particular favourites but it’s not every-body’s cup of tea but I love that one. So that was a guitar riff that I had been playing for about ten or fifteen years but never did anything with it – I just thought it was fun to play then I thought “oh my God that’s a song right there”.
Sean: I love that piano sound in there…
Suzi Q: That was a throwback to the old Suzi you know. My original piano player, who has now passed away, had that kind of honky tonky kind of feel to his playing.
Sean: Yeah it kind of gives me that bluesy jazzy New Orleans feel in some darkened basement bar…
Suzi Q: Exactly, it’s all vibe-y. And the good thing about this album is that it’s fully organic – it’s a living thing. It’s great.
Sean: I can hear the excitement in your voice for this release… and I think your fans are going to love this!
Suzi Q: It feels like I’ve gone around the block & back again – but now Suzi is back and that’s what it’s all about, ‘No Control’. So, it’s back to being Suzi but with everything I’ve gathered on my journeys… this is very much what it feels like to me. So, there are some real Suzi tracks on there but like you said there is some diversity… The reason for the title being ‘No Control’ is that I have had total creative freedom on this album. Not that I didn’t before but this time I was totally in charge.
Sean: That could be because, as you said, this wasn’t planned. You weren’t writing something that had to be made to please a record label or because you contractually had to.
Suzi Q: Yeah, you’re right. And we could take any song in any direction like I said. It was like “oh, here’s an idea… oh, that’s good… it needs this, this and this…” and that’s more or less how we did every track. I didn’t mind what kind of a track, I didn’t think “oh, that doesn’t belong here”; there was none of that on this album.
Sean: One song I really need to ask you about and it’s been buzzing around my head for the last few days, even to the point of still hearing it as I get into bed and close my eyes, is [sings] ‘Strings’…
Suzi Q: [laughs] Oh yeah, I know right. It’s one of those kinds of tracks I look at as being one of my better compositions. When I was writing it, it came from a riff I was playing on the bass – you know, you throw it back and forth… and I kept going [sings] ‘Strings’ and my son said, “I got it mom” so I was in the studio and I kept going [sings] ‘Strings’ and he said, “we got it” but you know what’s so funny is that the ‘Strings’ part is the most important part of that track and we had to make sure that it went on there so I kept repeating it like a broken record – it’s so important because it sets the whole vibe of the song.
Sean: [laughs] What’s even funnier is that the way you just sang ‘Strings’ to me then sounded so much better than it sounded in my head and certainly than how I sang it to you just now…
Suzi Q: [laughs] There you go.
Sean: You also touched on the Caribbean almost reggae feel of ‘Love Isn’t Fair’…
Suzi Q: …everyone is picking that one as one of their top favourites… it’s just one of those happy songs that you can sing along too – it’s like a Margarita on the Beach basically.
Sean: I think it’s a Margarita anywhere kind of song [laughs]
Suzi Q: [laughs] Absolutely!
Sean: Something you said earlier that I’ve just picked up on is when you said, “Suzi’s back”. Have you ever been away?
Suzi Q: Yeah, I hear what you’re saying. But I also feel there is a real ‘Suzi’ energy to this… a Suzi attitude & energy on this album and I put that down to my son pushing my Suzi Quatro buttons big time. The album was written pretty quickly in the studio, once we started to connect each song just followed the last… we were flyin’, flyin’ flyin’. When that creative splurge comes you just have to grab it while it’s there. So we were writing every day. So it was all done very quickly… very organically – I keep using that word. In today’s business this is what is missing – the organic-ness of music and that’s what music should be. And people have said one of the things they love about the album is there is an energy… a real happening energy there.
Sean: The energy is plain to see just on the snippets of footage that I’ve seen from the weekend’s Red Hot Summer shows. We last saw you here in Perth in 2018 on Rottnest for the same show…
Suzi Q: Oh yeah that was a great one. Are we going to see you come over for this one?
Sean: I wish I could get over for it as it’s probably my favourite line-ups of the tour but the wife has put her foot down on my gig & tour quota. [laughs]
Suzi Q: [laughs] Ah, ok. Blame the wife but try talk her into it anyway.
Sean: So, we do get to see you back in Australia later this year in October & November when you tour the album.
Suzi Q: Yeah, hopefully we should have released a third single by then. We’ll be back – not sure if all the dates have been announced yet – I know some are out there.
Sean: I believe you guys start with the ‘Rock the Boat’ cruise on 19th October, before heading to Perth on the 27th October at The Regal Theatre (full dates below), which I’m looking forward to seeing. So, obviously you’ll be showcasing the new material plus all the classics but how do you choose the rest of the set list after such a long career?
Suzi Q: It’s just a graph really. Most of the time now I do a two hour solo show from beginning to end – so you get your favourite hits and favourite album tracks and you get current material and plenty of surprises thrown in too. I’m very good at picking the set. I always make sure I please my audience and give them what they want but with a few surprises as I said. At the end of the day I am a rock ‘n’ roll entertainer… that’s what I am.
Sean: Some of the covers that have been played on recent tours have been wonderful. ‘Does Your Mother Know’ by ABBA intrigues me, so I hope you’ll be playing that one when you’re here.
Suzi Q: Oh, yeah that’s a real good one. I have a rule that I never play a song on stage that I haven’t recorded. So, when we put ‘The Girl from Detroit City’ box set out in 2014 to celebrate my 50th anniversary, I had been asked to do a tribute to ABBA and I had to pick a song. Andy Scott (The Sweet), who I recorded ‘Quatro, Scott & Powell’ with, produced it and it went on the boxed set, so that then gave me permission to do it in my live set – we do a stomping version of that song. I always end my two hour show with ‘Desperado’ which I also recorded for the boxed set with Jeff Beck on guitar. So I stick to my rules – if I’ve recorded it, I’m allowed to do it on stage.
Sean: If I have time, I’d love to take you back to the start to find out about how it all began and where your influences came from. I suppose the first question would be, why the bass guitar as your instrument of choice?
Suzi Q: To keep a long story short, I started on bongo drums when I was seven or eight years old before graduating to the piano, which I played for quite some time – I’m a trained pianist. After that I went to percussion and then in 1964 we started a band and everybody picked an instrument real quick… and I didn’t speak up quick enough so I was told I was going to play the bass, which was fine with me. My dad gave me my first Fender Precision (’57) and ‘hallelujah’, it was exactly perfect.
Sean: Do you still have that bass?
Suzi Q: I do, it hangs on the wall at home next to the fireplace. I won’t take it on the road any more as its too valuable to me.
Sean: So who were and who are your bass playing influences?
Suzi Q: Oh, Jezz, there are so many. My main one would be James Jamerson, from the 60’s Motown days, he was just the business. Let me think… who else? I kind of liked the Canned Heat boogie player very much; Flea is excellent from Red Hot Chilli Peppers – probably the best in the business. I play very similar to Donald ‘Duck’ Dunn from Booker T. & the M.G.’s, we have very similar styles.
Sean: A friend of mine in the UK is a bass player and he asked me to ask you, if you have ever used a pick when playing?
Suzi Q: NO [loudly]…No, no, no, no, no… I cannot stand picked bass. That’s my own personal preference. I like the feel and the sound of skin against the string.
Sean: [laughs] It’s interesting that he asked me to ask this – he must have had inside knowledge of how you’d answer it & I have the feeling he has stitched me up after hearing your passionate answer…
Suzi Q: To me, when I hear a picked bass player, I think “he’s just a frustrated guitarist.”
Sean: I read that years ago, as a child you saw a performance by Elvis on the TV and he gripped you there and then. Years later you got to record with James Burton & The Jordanaires (Elvis’s backing singers) on a song called ‘Singing with Angels’? What was that like to do?
Suzi Q: It was just fantastic. It was just chilling to be in his studio with James & The Jordanaires, while I’m recording my tribute to him. It was beyond anything & one of my finest memories in my whole life… and such a wonderful song too. Elvis imitators everywhere are recording it and I’ve been told it has been played at a lot of funerals too. It’s just such a nice song.
Sean: I’m going to listen to it once we’ve finished our chat. When you wrote those huge anthemic songs; the likes of ‘Devil Gate Drive’ & ‘Can the Can’, did you get a feeling you had created something special at the time?
Suzi Q: Yes, well it’s like ‘No Soul/No Control’. It was a weird feeling and I just went “What? What is this?” The lyrics came & the melody came like BANG… bang… bang… bang. I needed to put the real vocal down straight away. And as soon as I put it down the hairs on the back of my neck stood up. So you do know & you do get a feeling. With ‘Devil Gate Drive’ it happened… ‘Can the Can’ it definitely happened at the point where I put that scream on and I went “oh, that’s a #1 hit right there” [laughs]
Sean: As I’ve been listening to the new album all weekend, I’m going to travel back through your back catalogue over the next few days…
Suzi Q: Yeah, enjoy the journey.
Sean: I grew up with friends who were a few years older than me & they were into The Sweet, Mud & you in a big way, so I got to listen to a lot of that glam rock music from a younger age, which was fantastic. As I was putting some notes together for our chat, I had a sudden recollection of a concert I saw you play at many years ago in Kent in the UK, but what was so memorable for me was that the line-up was one of the most bizarre I’ve ever seen. Desmond Decker & The Aces, Sinitta, Danni Minogue, Boy George, Bay City Rollers, Suzi Quatro, Gerry & The Pacemakers, Aswad & Squeeze… most strange – Any recollection of it?
Suzi Q: [laughs] Wow, that is a weird one and actually I don’t remember that.
Sean: I started wondering if it was a gig I had made up in a dream but then I dug out the photos and it did happen! [laughs]
Suzi Q: [laughs] I guess the organisers wanted everything but the kitchen sink on that gig – very strange line-up though.
Sean: Just before I have to let you go, I have a few regular questions I love to ask if I may.
Suzi Q: Sure, fire away.
Sean: If I booked you a restaurant table and you could invite 3 guests from the music world dead or alive, who would you like to join you?
Suzi Q: Oh boy… I’d have Elvis, I’d have Janis Joplin and I’d have Otis Redding. Now that would be one hell of a dinner.
Sean: What a wonderful table of legendary artists. What was the last album you listened to?
Suzi Q: Oh, let me think… I was playing Bob Dylan upstairs earlier. I was playing ‘Blonde on Blonde’ which is one of my favourite Dylan albums, while I was exercising.
Sean: That’s pretty cool. Final question… if you could be credited with writing any song ever written what song would you choose?
Suzi Q: Um? I think ‘Vincent’…
Sean: By Don McLean?
Suzi Q: Yeah.
Sean: What a beautiful song.
Suzi Q: Oh yeah. I’m a bit of a poet – I’m a published poet. It’s just got such great lyrics in that song.
Sean: It’s a song I’ve not heard for a while and used to make the hairs stand up on my neck when I’d hear it…
Suzi Q: …yeah me too!
Sean: Stunning song & wonderful answer to finish with. Suzi, thank you so much for your time and from all of us here at The Rockpit we wish you all the best with the new single & album, as well the rest of the Red Hot Summer Tour and we can’t wait to see you back here in Australia later in the year with the tour.
Suzi Q: It’s been a pleasure. Thank you. You take care.
