Suzi Quatro: "Granny's got to play a rock festival"

The rock legend on touring at 74 and why she speaks to ghosts.

By Saga Magazine | Published - 24 Sep 2024

Music legend Suzi Quatro was a trail blazer in the music business. The world’s first female rock and roll star, she has sold more than 55 million records.

She's about to embark on a UK tour and took the time to speak to our own Saga Magazine.

"A gypsy is how I'd describe myself as I've been on the road for 60 years," she reveals. "I started touring America with my sisters aged 14 and came to the UK in the early 70s."

She had her first chart success with Can the Can and had to fend off a lot of attention from older men.

"Sure, I came across guys who thought they could take advantage of a young girl like me, grabbing my ass," she said.

"They only did it once! I have a quick mouth and an even quicker knee. Try it again, sunshine, and you'll be singing soprano for the rest of your life."

She's lived in the UK since 1971, although she admits it took time to understand the British sense of humour.

"These days, I see myself as an honorary Brit," Suzi says. "I live with my second husband Rainer in an old Elizabethan manor house in the Essex countryside. We've got a moat, a walled garden and we have several ghosts.

"My friends have seen them, things have been moved around in rooms. Every morning I talk to them. You gotta keep the ghosts happy!"

"Granny's got to play a rock festival"

Suzi is a mother-of-two and grandma to a grown-up granddaughter.

"Being a mother and grandmother were the most terrifying times of my entire life. Suddenly there were these little people I loved more than myself and I was scared about something bad happening to them."

She took them around the world with her but says it's led to surreal times when she's had to tell them: "Granny's got to go and play a rock festival with Motorhead, Meat Loaf and Black Sabbath. Now, where's my bass guitar?’"

She's about to go on tour again, which she says helps keep her in shape.

"I can fit into the same size jeans I was wearing when I was 23. I'm not one of those women who worries about the face they see in the mirror, but I don't think I look too bad for 74."

Now the rocker loves spending her evenings with her phone off playing Scrabble on her iPad. She also says she is more religious than people might think, having been raised as a good Catholic girl.

"Even at 74, I'm still searching still looking for answers, and religion gives me something to hold on to. I pray every day, but my prayers are... well, I spend a lot of time trying to make deals with God."

Suzi’s tour, The Queen of Rock and Roll, begins in London on 13 November, before heading to York, Cardiff, Liverpool and Leicester.

Her album Face to Face – with KT Tunstall – is out now.

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