Suzi Quatro Quotes

I’ve always done a bass and drum solo that lasts about 10 minutes. The main thing is to use it only when you need to.

I never, ever saw myself as glam because I didn’t wear makeup… my image is a plain leather jumpsuit, which is not glam at all. I’ve always seen myself as rock n’ roll and not glam.

I may have been sexy, but I was covered up total. There was something left to the imagination.

Even though my first marriage broke up, I’d say that I’ve had two good marriages and two good men. I’ve been very lucky. I like to think it’s karma because, in a relationship, I give 300 per cent. I’m straight with my men, and I like to think it comes back.

‘Rolling Stone,’ my first single, was only a hit in Portugal, but when we recorded my second single, ‘Can The Can,’ I got that hair-on-the-back-of-the-neck feeling, and I knew it would be huge. It topped the charts in the U.K. and Australia in 1973, and I got my first gold disc.

My feet never touched the ground. Lots of good groups with crazy and unique images. It was wild. I spent all of my time doing gigs, TV appearances, interviews, or recording. I could write a book – and probably will.

I jog every day, but I haven’t had plastic surgery – though that’s not to say if one day I look in the mirror and go ‘Ugh!’ I won’t have something done.

Shame on those artists who aren’t proud of their achievements.

Bass guitar is the engine of the band.

I’m a Scrabble nut, and I need something to do while I’m travelling. Scrabble keeps me occupied, I play against myself. I have a high score of 718 that I’m always trying to beat. I’m a good player. You don’t want to play me for money, that’s for sure.

I am the fourth of five children, and I can’t remember a time with no babies in the house.

The bass should be the note of the bass drum, and then you’ve got the engine of the band that everything else builds on. Everything else, the guitar, the keyboards, is a colour.

Love is the best part of life

I never wanted to model myself on a female singer, which tells you a lot about my character. I didn’t have a female role model. There just wasn’t anybody around. I played with the boys and beat them at their own game.

I made up my mind that I was going to be just like Elvis. It never occurred to me that Elvis was a man. I just wanted to be him. He had a huge impact on me, right down to that black leather jumpsuit he wore on the ’68 Comeback Special.

This is just the way it goes: there’s always a cycle with music – it goes up and it goes down, it goes risque and it goes back, it goes loud then it goes soft, then it goes rock and it goes pop.

You’re all right, as long as you don’t believe your own hype.

I’m one of those rare breed of rock n’ rollers with a brain, probably because the brain’s still intact.

I just couldn’t get into the high school scene at all. I was fat, ugly and weird. I just couldn’t do the makeup and the hairdos.

I don’t know, I don’t pay attention to critics anyway. They either like me or they don’t, you know what I mean? I am too long in the tooth to worry about that.

I’m totally active. I am just this side of hyper. I jog and go to the gym every day. When I’m on the computer, I’m reading, I’m writing, I’m never quiet. My brain is very rarely not engaged. Every now and again I will fall asleep under the parasol in the sun, but that’s a rarity.

I’m not a great flyer. It’s ironic, since I’m in showbiz and have to fly at least twice a week. I try to sleep and blot it out.

I miss America because it’s where I grew up. I miss the size of the roads, the size of cars, the malls, the choices of radio.

The bass and drums are the engine, and the key to good bass playing is it’s not what you play, it’s what you DON’T play that counts. You leave the spaces, they’re more important than anything.

Rock n’ roll! It’s the music of puberty.

I’ve seen it [Australia] go from a lot of small towns to big towns, but I think it has found its identity in all this time… it’s a very special country, I could easily live here.

I always found the road exciting. I liked stinking hotels and freezing dressing rooms.

Joan was one of my biggest fans, as was Chrissie Hynde.

Len and I had parted musical ways and this was one of the problems.

I feel that whatever you put out is what you’ll get back. I always put out, ‘hey, hi, I’m a bass player, no bullshit,’ and that’s what I got back. I got the respect.

It sounds corny, but I consider myself an old-fashioned entertainer. I could have been in variety.

I hate canceling anything, I’m ‘the show must go on’ mentality. If you can crawl, you can take the stage.

I read and write classical piano and percussion, also guitar.

My own musical ambitions were born when I was five, watching the Ed Sullivan Show on TV. When Elvis Presley burst on to the screen, singing ‘Don’t Be Cruel,’ I felt my first sexual thrill, though I didn’t know what it was at the time.

I’ve got a quick mouth, and I set my boundaries. Nothing ever happened that I couldn’t handle. Once when a guy came on stage making rude gestures, I hit him over the head with my guitar.

When you are famous, you never can be sure why somebody’s being nice. You just have to develop a very good sixth sense. I call it my bullshit detector.

I do love acting. It’s my second love and I would love to do more.

The Pleasure Seekers eventually turned into Cradle, when we started writing our own material. My younger sister Nancy was brought in as singer and I kind of stepped aside as main lead singer and concentrated on my instrument.

I used to buy scented poetry books on tour and read aloud to the band. Not what you’d expect, huh?

I’m told I’m an incredible flirt because I don’t know I’m doing it. I don’t want to even analyse it, but I seduce people, apparently; I suck them in.

When punk picked up black leather, I put it down.

One of my insecurities was my looks. I was short, cute and chubby, and Dad used to call me his ‘little fat sausage.’ But I always knew I had musical talent.

I don’t care what anyone says, but all children prefer their parents to be together.

I was inspired by Billie Holliday, and I really liked Mary Weiss of the Shangri-Las because she wore tight trousers and a waistcoat on top – she looked hot.

I would like to live forever in people’s hearts and minds; that would be fun. I’ll leave the world my art.

I have recorded nine tracks for a new album which I financed myself and am looking for a home for.

Guitar is for the head, drums are for the chest, but bass gets you in the groin

Age isn’t a barrier to playing the bass, and I’ve definitely improved over the years, although maybe I’m not as flash as I once was. But looking back, I can’t imagine a life without a guitar.

Music has always been in my family, but it was mainly keyboards. I learned to play classical piano, but when I first heard the amazing bass guitar of James Jamerson, who played on all the big Motown hits of the ’60s and ’70s, I knew bass guitar was my instrument.

I do think fame can distort reality. I’ve always felt that.

I am flattered to have been the woman to have opened the door for female rockers to be accepted into the mainly male industry.

I was a me-ist. I believed in the right to do whatever I wanted to do regardless of gender. Still do.