Bass guitar is the engine of the band.
Suzi Quatro
Be honest, be kind, and share the love.
'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.
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.
I'm a bit of a wine snob and like a glass of Chateaux Margaux '82 with a meal or to unwind.
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.
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 may have been sexy, but I was covered up total. There was something left to the imagination.
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.
Reality shows have a lot to answer for. They applaud mediocrity.
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.
Do as many gigs as the good Lord sends. That's the only true training.
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 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.
The golden rule for playing the bass is that's it all about feel, not just plonking away. You need to feel the sound, not using a pick or a plectrum - which has meant plenty of calluses on my fingers.
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.
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.
Rock n' roll! It's the music of puberty.
I used to buy scented poetry books on tour and read aloud to the band. Not what you'd expect, huh?
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.
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.
I joined an all-girl band in Detroit and, although I was a pianist and drummer, I was asked to play bass because no one else wanted to. When I strapped it on, it fit me as good as my leathers. At the first gig we played, I looked out at the audience and thought, 'This is what I'm going to be doing for the rest of my life.'
Joan was one of my biggest fans, as was Chrissie Hynde.
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.
Rock and roll mainly but I can play passable jazz also.
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.
Inside, I feel 30ish - I'm childish and optimistic.
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.
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've always maintained that you can be sexy with your clothes on. Sexier maybe.
It sounds corny, but I consider myself an old-fashioned entertainer. I could have been in variety.
I'm one of those rare breed of rock n' rollers with a brain, probably because the brain's still intact.
The bass player's function, along with the drums, is to be the engine that drives the car... everything else is merely colours.
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.
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.
A bass should sound like a bass with the thump of the finger against the wood, like it began with stand up.
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.
I am flattered to have been the woman to have opened the door for female rockers to be accepted into the mainly male industry.
You're all right, as long as you don't believe your own hype.
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 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.
I'd always been insecure. Being the fourth of five kids means attention is divided five ways, and to do this equally is impossible. I grew up feeling like the little orphan in the family, the one who didn't fit in.
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.
I refused to wear make-up on TV. I wanted my music to be heard.
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 am the fourth of five children, and I can't remember a time with no babies in the house.
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?'
I don't really think about male and female; if something's right for me, it's right for me, and it doesn't matter what it is - maybe that's what it took for me, a woman, to break down the doors.
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.
