This is your first album since 2023’s Face To Face, your incredible collaboration with KT Tunstall. When we spoke last, you mentioned that your next album would be about ‘getting back to Suzi’. What does that mean?

There was a certain vibe on that first album. It was all brand-new and we found our sound and it was very exciting. My son is very much a part of this too and he wanted me to go full circle – to make a rock album, a real unashamedly ‘foot on the gas’ rock album and that’s why I chose Freedom as the first track. Talk about putting your foot on the gas, you can’t get faster than that, can you?

Absolutely! Well let’s talk about the new album which is absolutely fantastic for so many reasons. Let’s start with the first single and title track for the album Freedom. This is such a wonderfully upbeat and liberating song, and with the lyrics ‘I’ve been screaming in the dark, I can hear it calling’ this just sounds like someone dying to hit the stage, someone who needs their audience and I think it just gives people a glimpse into how it feels when you’re performing. To what extent is this the essence of the track Freedom and in fact the album itself?

I like your description there and I like that you just made me see it through your eyes. And it is that. You do get the feeling of me from the sidelines walking out onto the stage and me putting my foot on the gas – you do get that feeling. I said all the way along while doing the promo, I can’t think of another song, photograph, lyric that fits together so well in one word – freedom. And it’s important word to me. I’m 75 and I have complete freedom. My foot is on the gas! I’m going down the road! Nothing left to prove and that’s very important. On a wider scale, it’s about the world we’re living in now. That’s an important word – freedom.

The next track I want to talk about is Little Miss Lovely. I love the extremes and the polar opposites within the lyrics such as ‘Hard as nails, so sensitive’, ‘positively negative’, ‘innocently hardcore’. To me this tells a story about someone who’s passionate and steadfast and takes no bullshit but similarly actually cares about what people think, can feel insecure and even doubt themselves. I think a lot of people will be able to relate to that. You do of course have an enormous love for psychology and this is beautifully represented within your novel Grave Undertakings, and I feel that this track would absolutely fit as part of the soundtrack to the film should one be made. To what extent is this song consciously bringing together your love of music and psychology?

I don’t know if I was conscious of it. I do poetry too so I’m a wordsmith - the words are my tools. I love the dichotomy of Little Miss Lovely, which is the next single, and it is me and it is the duality of me. It’s the Gemini in me – I am both positive and negative - and you couldn’t say it better. This is one of the songs where my son said to me “Okay, Mom, you have to dumb it down a little bit” and I went (gives quizzical look)… So I came in, and the clever thing is - he doesn’t know this because I haven’t told him yet - I dumbed it down but I said the same thing! (Laughs!) I went “Okay, here it is dumber. Do you get it!?” (Laughs!)

I love the fact that you have said this is a rock album and it absolutely is but the album seems to draw influences from a number of different styles. Little Miss Lovely has a hard rock edge, of course we’ve got the glam beats that we expect to have on track such as Hanging Over Me, but what we also have is a country /American quality to Can’t Let It Go. Let’s make no mistake, this is an incredibly cohesive album where all the tracks fit together beautifully, but how intentional was it to bring in so many different styles?

This album was written slightly different to the other two that I’ve done with my son. He riffed all the time. He kept riffing. He kept sending me all these musical tracks so he was in different spaces but all on the same line. He would send me the track and I would put on my headphones, I would get my bass out, I would get my lyric book out – just ideas – and keep singing and playing, and then all of a sudden the song would just jump out at you. The title of the song and of what it was going to be about would be there. The whole album was written this way. There are slightly different flavours, yeah… Just Can’t Let It Go, I like that one. That was done after an argument! We all have them, and I’m not going to say who it was with, but sometimes when you argue the other person just can’t let it go. Let it go!! You’ve had the argument, it’s on the table, you’ve both spewed your opinions. Let it go! (Laughs!) You see, I get passionate about it! (Laughs!)

That absolutely makes sense! Having those lyrics I can immediately think of many times when I’ve been in similar situations!

Yes, you can relate to that. Everybody’s been in that position! It also reminds me of my song Take It Or Leave It, especially because of the line, which is so so me, ‘Take it or leave it, just don’t judge’. But everybody judges even though you shouldn’t. It’s like the old saying walk a mile in my shoes. How do you really know anybody or what they’ve been through?

That is so powerful! And talking about walking in someone’s shoes, a song I absolutely adore is Here’s Ya Boots, with it’s lyrics ‘I don’t care what you say, I don’t care who you do, here’s your boots now walk away and take your excess baggage too’. What an incredibly powerful line!

(Laughs!) I love that! It’s so cheeky isn’t it?! It’s a polite way to say ‘you know what, (various expletives – Ed)'. It’s tongue in cheek: ‘here’s your hat, what’s your hurry?’

Oh absolutely! And overall this is such an incredibly powerful song which to me is about giving strength to cut out all the negative things in your life that just sap your energy. I actually think this strength is something that is a key thread throughout the whole album. How important is it to you that your music is ability to bring strength and empower people?

Oh, that means everything to me! My whole journey and my own personal journey in this life, and I’ve said it in many songs and all through my poetry books and even in Grave Undertakings, it is a strength to be able to show your weakness. It’s okay to say you’re vulnerable and it’s okay to cry and it’s okay to be hurt, but guess what? I survived! That’s what it’s all about. Don’t be afraid of your softer side but have the strength to keep walking.

Let’s talk about this song Woman. What’s really interesting, Suzi, is that so many people, including the most successful female artists, have called you out as an icon, a trailblazer and somebody who broke down barriers for women in music. But you never saw yourself as that person. You often said that you never saw a door to be smashed open or a wall to be knocked down. It’s therefore interesting that you’ve now written a song which this is specifically about empowering women. After so many years in the business, why was now the right time to write that song?

My son is called this the most dangerous song on the album because it’s a call out to women, and this is a song from a person who has never done gender finally writing a woman’s song. I’ll probably never write another one but I wrote this one. This is my nod that I am female. I didn’t know that I was that person to so many people. I accept it now! After my documentary came out in 2019 (Suzi Q – Ed), I snuck into the theatre and watched it with the audience. I wanted to see it with the audience and feel it with the audience. All the way through the film out came Debbie Harry, Joan Jet, Chrissie Hynde, Kathy Valentine, Cheri Currie, KT Tunstall, Tina Weymouth and Donita Sparks, and they all said basically the same thing. They all said ‘I wouldn’t have done what I did if it hadn’t been for Suzi Quatro doing it first’. And as it came towards the end of the film I was streaming in tears because at 69 years old that was the first time I took on board what I had done and it really humbled me. I said to myself ‘Okay, Suzi, you did do that, accept it and take it to your grave’, which I will do.

As part of that documentary, you had some of the biggest names in music there. Did you have any idea that they were taking part? How much of a surprise was it to see them contributing?

Even though I had seen some different cuts this was the first time I’d seen it in full and it was really emotional for me to watch it. All I kept saying all the way through was ‘Oh, I did that… I did that…’. I was in awe listening to all these people. I guess I made a difference. I called Cherie Currie, a very good friend of mine who is the old lead singer of The Runaways, the very next day and I shared that story with her, about how I was in tears blah, blah, blah, and I said ‘Cherie, I just realised something, that by me doing what I did, I gave women all over the world permission to be different‘. There was this 10-second transatlantic pause and then she said “And you just got that?!’ (Laughs!). And the beauty of that story is that I’ve been in the business for 62 years and when people ask me why I’m still around, I think the reason is because I’m real. I’m not manufactured and people can relate to me. These songs come from a real part of me: how I feel, how I think, who I am, good parts and bad parts

I think what’s wonderful is that you’ve taken the opportunity to include a couple of fantastic cover versions on the album, and I’d like to start with Goin’ Down, originally recorded by Moloch In 1969 and covered by various artists over the years including Mel C and The Dead Daisies but perhaps the most famous is Freddy King’s version. It’s a song that focuses on feelings of despair and a state of ruin and a downward spiral, which on the face of it may seem out of place on an album which is a hugely positive affair. However I actually think this is more a metaphor for the state of the world at the moment and actually I feel the thunderous way in which you perform this song creates a huge sense of positivity. To what extent would you agree with that and also what made you choose to cover this particular song?

I agree with everything you just said. The lyrics are about going down and everything but even when you’re going down you can be looking up! There’s always balance in life. This song was my son’s suggestion and when I asked him why he wanted me to do this one he simply said “because YOU will sing the ass off this!”, and I went out there and I did it in one take. And this is that kind of song for any musician listening. There’s not that many of these. If you’re not in the pocket or in the groove of the songs and it then it doesn’t work. That’s because there is a groove on this that you can’t teach it to somebody. You have to be able to play it.

Goin’ Down isn’t the only cover song on the album because you actually take the opportunity to include Kick Out The Jams from the MC5 which features Alice Cooper. Of course, with yourself, Alice and the MC5 this has a massive Detroit connection. But your connection with Alice goes far beyond that in the sense that your careers started around the same time and your lived experiences suggest that you must truly understand each other. Alice perhaps more than most will understand the career and journey that you’ve had for over five decades. Would you agree with this and also this must’ve made this collaboration particularly special?

We met when I was about 15 and we immediately hit it off – kindred souls. I liked him, he liked me and we maintained our friendship all the way through these years, And it’s nice that he said the same thing to me in my documentary. There is that underlying ‘fancying each other’ but we never did anything about it. It’s nice that we can love each other to pieces, we’re on the same wavelength and we can talk and talk, but there’s that little bit of danger element: ‘Oh, we’d better not get too close! We’ve laughed about that many times! He’s a good guy, he’s a nice guy – he’s one of the nicest people I’ve ever met and we are just on the same page. We are both from Detroit – you can’t take that out of us. This track was again my son’s suggestion. He kept saying ‘Kick Out The Jams, Mom! You should do Kick Out The Jams!’. I don’t know why I was hesitating but I was. I love the band and I love the song… and eventually he just said “Mom, Kick Out The Jams… with Alice Cooper!”, and I said “Oh my God, now I get it! Now I see it! Now hear it! Let’s go!”. And I called Alice and he was totally into it and then five minutes later we are in Detroit standing in front of microphones doing it live, and boy did we turn it on! What a great cover, it’s got a great video and I believe it’s going to be the third single. Alice’s normal producer had written down which lines he thought we should both sing. The opening line is ‘Kick out the jams, Motherfucker!’ and I asked Alice “why are you letting me say that opening line alone?” and he said “It’s because I’m a Christian and I won’t say it”. And I said “Okay, then you’d better make it work on film”. So I go “Kick out the jams, Motherfucker!”, and he goes (shocked and disapproving tone) “Suzi!” (Laughs!) He also threw in Can The Can the end which he never told me he was going to do but that was clever! I had no idea that was coming! (Laughs!)

The fact that you recorded it in Detroit adds an extra element of authenticity to the song and experience, and in fact I think it adds to what you said right at the start: that you are authentic, and in fact I would go as far to say that you are quite simply the definition of authenticity!

Yes, he was there on tour and we looked at various places where we could get together in Europe but then nothing worked out. We did a gig together before we recorded this and we were talking backstage around where we could meet up. He turned to me quite seriously and said “Suzi, why don’t we do this face-to-face in Detroit?” and I said “You got it!”. So we did it in Detroit and then he invited me to go on stage the next night to do Schools Out with him! And you’ve just reminded me of a quote that Mike Chapman said which is stuck with me, and I believe it’s in the documentary though it may not have made it to the final cut. He said that every girl who came after me owes something to me and if you want to talk about authentic rock ‘n’ roll you won’t get anybody more authentic than Suzi Quatro! Like I said, I’m still here because I’m real.

Let’s talk about Suzi Quatro in a live setting because the wonderful news for fans is that April sees you heading out on a 10 date UK tour where you’re playing some gorgeous venues. How are the tour preparations coming along and how much are you looking forward to introducing some of the new material (Freedom and Little Miss Lovely) to the stage?

Oh, I’m so excited! When I’m not on the road and I rehearse the show, I rehearse it in my front room on my live CD. I don’t actually rehearse it, I do it! If somebody walking by took a little peek through my window you’d hear them say “Suzi Quatro lives there! Oh my God, look at her in the front room! Oh my God, what is she doing?!”. I’m like a lunatic! I’m doing my show, running round and working up a sweat. Once the other day I just went “You over there – get off your seat!”. There was nobody there! (Laughs!) But you just get so into it. It’s a two hour show with an interval of 20 minutes, and Freedom and Little Miss Lovely are the two opening acts of Act 2. I can’t wait!

Freedom is released on the 27th of March and it’s with the highest recommendation that we invite you to grab a copy. Tickets for the April tour are available at www.ticketmaster.co.uk, www.songkick.com and www.atgtickets.com. 

In the meantime, enjoy the videos for Freedom and Little Miss Lovely below.