Singer Cherie Currie still has a bitter taste in her mouth about the time The Runaways opened for RUSH in 1977, insisting that the prog-rock legends sabotaged her band’s set.
A scene in the movie The Runaways shows guitarist Joan Jett (played by Kristen Stewart) breaking into a dressing room of an unnamed band and urinating on one of their guitars. Jett herself revealed to Jam! Music in 2010 that the band who inspired that scene was RUSH, claiming, “They sat on the side of the stage and laughed at us. That sort of stuff pisses me off.’”
Now, Currie, in a new interview with The Metal Voice, has offered new details on the incident that took place during a concert in Detroit in February 1977.
“We had been treated so well by Tom Petty who opened for us, and Cheap Trick who opened for us, but RUSH sabotaged our set,” began Currie. “We’re at Detroit’s Cobo Hall. It’s a big venue. I saw them and they were throwing pieces of paper just like standard 8×10 paper onto the stage whipping it like you would a pizza. I was in 6-inch platform boots and I had to jump off of Sandy West’s drum riser. I hit one of those pieces of paper and I slid across that stage and there was an orchestra pit with all the photographers.”
She continued, “I’ll never forget seeing them reach up with fear that I was going to go over, and somehow I caught myself right at the last minute and did one of those, you know [rock star poses], to one of the photographers. I could have been paralyzed. I’m not exaggerating, I could have been very much injured had I gone off that stage. So that’s why Joan and I in particular don’t care much for [RUSH] because they weren’t protecting us, they were sabotaging us that night and they would be sitting there behind Lita [Ford]’s amp [snickering].”
In a 2013 interview with Prog magazine, RUSH singer-bassist Geddy Lee was asked about the feud with The Runaways, to which he responded, “The Runaways had a ginormous chip on their shoulders. I remember that show. We had trouble with our gear so our soundcheck got delayed and The Runaways never got one. But we were always good to whoever was opening for us.”
He added, “We had no bias against them because they were girls — none of that bullshit. I know they said that we were laughing at them when they played, but quite frankly they were too shitty to listen to. And 40 years later they have a story to tell about it. Who knew?”
The full interview with Cherie Currie can be seen below, with the RUSH story coming at the 17:40 mark.