The show Suzi Quatro was “absolutely honoured” to be part of
Being a woman in rock is not without its challenges, but these slow and steady steps towards a more equal industry would not have been possible without Suzi Quatro.
“I played the boys at their own game,” she once said. “I was the first to be taken seriously as a female rock ‘n’ roll musician and singer.”
Around the same time, Quatro noted that one of the only others making similar disruptions was Grace Slick. The others, in her opinion, found it difficult to find room for themselves, because they were either too afraid to have too much confidence, or not good enough to rival their peers. A harsh observation, but one that drove her towards becoming one of the most powerful female presences, a breaker in the clause that insisted only men could make names for themselves.
At the same time, however, Quatro didn’t always find it easy to fall into a movement she didn’t always feel aligned with. Her attitude (the way she looked, how often she swore) made her an essential fit for so-called “feminist” groups, but when things like women’s liberation came along, it didn’t always make sense.
Mostly, though, this was because she felt a lot of the people at the front of the protest lines were fake leaders. She even once said they give the whole thing a “phony light” because they’re not so much righteous societal leaders as “sheep”. But most of this seemingly came from a place of constantly being ahead, of seeing the world for what it is – and it seeing her for the exact face of defiance she always was.
Because that’s the thing, too. People could tell that about Quatro before they even knew her. It’s even how she got her part on Happy Days; the producer saw a photo of her on a bedroom wall and knew she was their rightful Leather Tuscadero. A gamble that probably also came from a place of shallowness, but one which paid off when she turned up and actually was their rightful Leather Tuscadero.
It came at the right time for Quatro, too, as it gave her a new creative boost that pushed her along to do everything she went on to do after. It was so satisfying, in fact, that she once called the entire thing an honour. High praise from someone who knows a bad smell from a mile off. “[It was] terrific,” she recalled to Songfacts. “One of the best experiences of my life.”
“When I made the decision to do the show, it gave me a new lease on life,” she continued. “I made some good friends – Ronnie [Howard] and Henry [Winkler]. We’re still in contact to this day, all the time. I was absolutely honoured to be part of such an iconic TV show.”
The role gave her the opportunity to shape her career, eventually moving on to other acting gigs and putting out additional feelers in the music space. That was the only thing that made her move on – being able to do something different, to be able to build on the groundwork Happy Days had given her, which she hadn’t found elsewhere. To leave pieces of herself in unexpected places, showing other women how to embrace what might seem like the scariest things in the world.
