Bass guitar is the engine of the band.
Suzi Quatro
The bass player’s function, along with the drums, is to be the engine that drives the car… everything else is merely colours.
Suzi Quatro
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.
Suzi Quatro
When I was seven, I decided to buy all my friends some ice cream, but the problem was where to get the money. Sneaking into church, I went to the side of the altar where you can light a candle for your loved ones and took the money from the collection boxes.
Suzi Quatro
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.
Suzi Quatro
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.
Suzi Quatro
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.
Suzi Quatro
Be honest, be kind, and share the love.
Suzi Quatro
Do as many gigs as the good Lord sends. That’s the only true training.
Suzi Quatro
I hate canceling anything, I’m ‘the show must go on’ mentality. If you can crawl, you can take the stage.
Suzi Quatro
I was a me-ist. I believed in the right to do whatever I wanted to do regardless of gender. Still do.
Suzi Quatro
I think like a man but have the emotions of a woman, and that’s really dangerous.
Suzi Quatro
I have recorded nine tracks for a new album which I financed myself and am looking for a home for.
Suzi Quatro
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.
Suzi Quatro
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.
Suzi Quatro
I am flattered to have been the woman to have opened the door for female rockers to be accepted into the mainly male industry.
Suzi Quatro
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.
Suzi Quatro
A bass should sound like a bass with the thump of the finger against the wood, like it began with stand up.
Suzi Quatro
After moving to England I did some recording and eventually formed an English band, this was together for quite a few years with only a keyboard replacement. The band had no name, just my name.
Suzi Quatro
As far as more recognition goes, I am happy with the amount of love and respect I have received from other artists and the public. Of course, I would love more, and think I deserve it.
Suzi Quatro
I also have a big love of classical music played on piano because this is the environment I grew up in my brother being one of the great masters in this world.
Suzi Quatro
I read and write classical piano and percussion, also guitar.
Suzi Quatro
Joan was one of my biggest fans, as was Chrissie Hynde.
Suzi Quatro
Len and I had parted musical ways and this was one of the problems.
Suzi Quatro
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.
Suzi Quatro
Rock and roll mainly but I can play passable jazz also.
Suzi Quatro
Ever since I was a child, I’ve just had this sense that I’m connected to the spiritual world. I thought everyone else felt the same way. I can hear voices – not all the time – but when I’m with certain people, it sometimes comes through.
Suzi Quatro
I can feel things – tap into emotions. When I meet a new person, I know their life straight away. I suppose you could call it a special intuition, but it’s my number one quality, and I’m always 99.9 percent right. If I don’t like someone, it always turns out to be for a good reason.
Suzi Quatro
There comes a crossroads in every marriage where you grow together or grow apart. I outgrew Len. He wanted me to be in that leather jumpsuit for the rest of my life and do nothing else. He constrained me. It got to a point where the marriage died or I did.
Suzi Quatro
I don’t care what anyone says, but all children prefer their parents to be together.
Suzi Quatro
Rock n’ roll! It’s the music of puberty.
Suzi Quatro
I’ve always maintained that you can be sexy with your clothes on. Sexier maybe.
Suzi Quatro
It sounds corny, but I consider myself an old-fashioned entertainer. I could have been in variety.
Suzi Quatro
As Mick Jagger will tell you, performing is an aerobic work-out. I’ve got the bass guitar, which is the heaviest of all the instruments, and I’m a little girl, in boiling-hot leather under the lights. You have to keep the fitness level up if you want to look good up there.
Suzi Quatro
I’m one of those rare breed of rock n’ rollers with a brain, probably because the brain’s still intact.
Suzi Quatro
I didn’t think I was going to change the world for women; I just did what I did. My big thing was that I didn’t change who and what I was to become successful. I will not be told what to do; I’m a real independent girl.
Suzi Quatro
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.
Suzi Quatro
I’m a bit of a wine snob and like a glass of Chateaux Margaux ’82 with a meal or to unwind.
Suzi Quatro
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.
Suzi Quatro
I would like to live forever in people’s hearts and minds; that would be fun. I’ll leave the world my art.
Suzi Quatro
Inside, I feel 30ish – I’m childish and optimistic.
Suzi Quatro
I may have been sexy, but I was covered up total. There was something left to the imagination.
Suzi Quatro
I haven’t talked to any young artists for a long time. But if we did sit down, I’d definitely tell them my viewpoint. If it was Lady Gaga, I’d say: ‘You’re talented, and you’ve obviously got the goods… what the hell are you doing with your image? How can anyone take you serious?’
Suzi Quatro
I am the fourth of five children, and I can’t remember a time with no babies in the house.
Suzi Quatro
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.
Suzi Quatro
I used to buy scented poetry books on tour and read aloud to the band. Not what you’d expect, huh?
Suzi Quatro
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.
Suzi Quatro
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.
Suzi Quatro
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.
Suzi Quatro
When punk picked up black leather, I put it down.
Suzi Quatro
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.
Suzi Quatro
I always found the road exciting. I liked stinking hotels and freezing dressing rooms.
Suzi Quatro