The Runaways were the first all-female hard rock band ever. However, their life was too short, they were a cornerstone in the world of heavy music. Many things were said about their split, now it’s the time to hear Joan Jett, the guitar goddess, talking to Blabbermouth how it was. Read it here:
“I think really after Cherie [Currie, vocals] left [in 1977], after Japan, we made another what I thought was a really good album called ‘Waitin’ for the Night’ [1977].
“I just think it was a natural progression. I think as we each grew up and were figuring out more who we were as musicians, and really the kind of music we wanted to play, it started to diverge a little bit.
“I was definitely more a straight-up punk-rock, rock ‘n’ roll thing. But you know, I’m fine with hard music. It’s just that I think Lita [Ford, guitar] and Sandy [West, drums] wanted to go in that direction much more than I did.
“And the producer we were working with at the time, his name was John Alcock. I forget what his credits are, but he had worked with some hard bands, some heavy bands, I believe. And I think he was sort of perpetuating it, egging it on a little bit. But I don’t know that.
“I just thought, ‘I’ve got a bad feeling. I don’t wanna get fired from a band that I started.’ We made one more album, called ‘And Now… The Runaways’ [1978]. But we just decided to sort of part ways. I’m sure none of us wanted to…
“We all got along fine, so there wasn’t anything like that. It was not a personality thing. We just grew in different directions. I just thought, ‘I don’t wanna get fired from a band I started. Let’s just part ways.’
“We had one last show, New Year’s Eve ’78 into ’79. It was in California. Either San Francisco or L.A. I think we had decided that was going to be it. But I’m not positive about that. If we didn’t, energetically we all knew that was it.”
Watch “Cherrie Bomb” official video here:
