Cherie Currie Of The Runaways Pens Memoir

Official press release:


Cherie Currie's NEON ANGEL: A Memoir of a Runaway Hits Bookstores March 16, 2010!

The Runaways Movie (starring Kristen Stewart & Dakota Fanning, produced by River Road Entertainment, and distributed by Apparition and Summit), In Theaters March 19, Was Based On This Book

LOS ANGELES, January, 2010: When Cherie Currie, the lead singer of 1970s teenage girl group The Runaways, sat down to write her personal memoir, NEON ANGEL: A Memoir of a Runaway (It Books/An Imprint of HarperCollins; On sale: March 16, 2010; $24.99; Hardcover) she never imagined the book would be made into a highly anticipated movie, starring some of Hollywood's hottest actors.

Cherri Currie is the original lead singer of ‘70s teenage, all-girl rock band The Runaways. At the tender age of 15, she joined the group, a talented group of girls who could play rock like no other female group before them. On the face of it, Currie’s is a cool story of girl empowerment and fame. But the truth is darker, as Currie and her band mates dealt with predatory men who were not necessarily looking out for their best interests. On the road, unsupervised for months at a time, she had to grow up fast and experience things that no teenaged girl should.

Cherie’s amazing resilience is inspiring. As band mate Joan Jett says in the book’s foreword: “Neon Angel is a chronicle of a remarkable journey – the story of a remarkable woman, who has an uncanny knack of reinventing herself – from singer, to actor, to drug counselor, to physical trainer, to mom, to author, to painter, to chain saw carver…While excelling at every turn, Cherie has also exhibited an ironic flair for finding herself in dramatic situations.”

Writing NEON ANGEL itself, was a journey for Currie, and it took more than three decades before it was finally completed. Her story exposes the side of the music industry that fans never get to see. Chronicling the group's rise to fame, the book recounts their ultimate demise, and Currie’s struggles with drugs, rape, violence and, ultimately, her fight to reclaim her life.

The girls, Currie with Joan Jett, and Lita Ford on guitar and Sandy West on drums, arrived on the Los Angeles music scene in 1975, belting out provocative teen rebellion songs such as “Cherry Bomb.” They quickly catapulted from playing small LA clubs to selling out major stadiums. With her signature Bowie-hair cut and fishnet stockings, Cherie lit up the stage, singing hits such as “Cherry Bomb,” “Queens of Noise,” and “Born to Be Bad.” Playing on Cherie’s name, Joan Jett and Kim Fowley wrote the worldwide hit “Cherry Bomb” on the spot, for Cherie to audition for the band, one of the many compelling stories Currie tells in NEON ANGEL.

The Runaways were the first all-girl rock band to have hit songs, record platinum albums (at least 1,000,000 units sold), and tour internationally. But behind the scenes, NEON ANGEL is a story of five teen girls, runaways, thrown into a decadent, high-pressure world. As Cherie chronicles the band’s rise from LA clubs to selling out their first US tour, she also weaves in a portrait of an amazing time in punk rock. The Runaways headlined shows with opening acts such as the Ramones, Van Halen, Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers, Cheap Trick, and Blondie. They played at CBGBs, and got into the London punk scene and hung out with The Sex Pistols.

Cherie’s unique stage persona and fashion style has influenced many of the artists who came after, and that influence can be clearly seen in such very successful performers as Madonna and Lady Gaga.

With the help of multi-platinum hit songwriter and producer Kenny Laguna, Currie was able to have her book made into the feature film, The Runaways --starring Dakota Fanning (War of the Worlds, New Moon, The Secret Lives of Bees) as Currie, and Kristen Stewart (Twilight, New Moon, Into The Wild, Panic Room) playing Joan Jett. The Runaways also stars Oscar nominee Michael Shannon (Revolutionary Road) as manager Kim Fowley, and Oscar winner Tatum O'Neal as Cherie’s mother.

The Runaways movie is schedule hits theaters nationwide March 19, 2010.

About the author:

Cherie Currie rocketed to rock and roll stardom when she joined the Runaways at the young age of 15. She's been described as "the lost daughter of Iggy Pop and Brigitte Bardot." Shortly after the band's demise, the rock star landed a coveted role in the Jodi Foster movie, Foxes, and later went on to appear in the films Wavelength with Robert Carradine, Parasite with Demi Moore, and Twilight Zone: The Movie, with Dan Aykroyd.

Currie is still performing, writing, and acting, and she continues to take on unorthodox endeavors. One of the most prominent chainsaw carvers in the world, she was rated No. 7 in the world for chainsaw competition in 2008.