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The Runaways: Exploited by the Music Industry, Escape, and Excellent Rock ‘N’ Roll · DISGRACELAND

0:00
Speaker 1: This episode contains content that may be disturbing to some listeners.
0:03
Speaker 1: Please check the show notes for more information.
0:07
Speaker 2: Disgraceland is a production of Double Elvis.
0:21
Speaker 1: This is a.
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Speaker 2: Story about transformation, about what happens when you don't just
0:26
Speaker 2: play rock and roll, when you use it to become
0:29
Speaker 2: someone new, someone louder than, someone impossible to ignore. It's
0:34
Speaker 2: a story about five teenage girls who turned identity into
0:38
Speaker 2: a weapon, who took rock and roll rebellion and pushed
0:41
Speaker 2: it past the point of no return. It's also a
0:44
Speaker 2: story about escape, escape from the valley, escape from your parents,
0:49
Speaker 2: escape from polite society. And it's a story about the
0:53
Speaker 2: price of that escape, about the predators who circled, and
0:57
Speaker 2: about the exploitation disguised as mentor, and about how, in
1:01
Speaker 2: the most messed up twist of all, transformation was both
1:05
Speaker 2: the trap and the key. This is a story about
1:09
Speaker 2: the runaways, and so naturally it's a story about great music.
1:14
Speaker 2: Unlike that clip I played for you at the top
1:16
Speaker 2: of the show that wasn't great music. That was a
1:19
Speaker 2: preset loop for my melotron called the Kids Are Not
1:22
Speaker 2: Alright MK one. I played you that loop because I
1:27
Speaker 2: can't afford the rights to December nineteen sixty three. Oh
1:30
Speaker 2: what a night by the Four Seasons? And why would
1:34
Speaker 2: I play you that specific slice of falsetto disco Cheese?
1:37
Speaker 1: Could I afford it?
1:39
Speaker 2: Because that was the number one song in America on
1:43
Speaker 2: March sixteenth, nineteen seventy six, And that was the day
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Speaker 2: the teenagers Joan Jet Scherie Curry, lead a Ford, Jackie Fox,
1:51
Speaker 2: and Sandy West released their debut album as The Runaways,
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Speaker 2: and nothing in their lives or in the world of
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Speaker 2: rock and roll would ever be.
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Speaker 1: The same.
2:02
Speaker 2: On this episode Rebellion, Escape, Predators, Exploitation, and the White
2:08
Speaker 2: Hot Cherry Bomb.
2:09
Speaker 1: That was The Runaways.
2:12
Speaker 2: I'm Jake Brennan and this is this Graceland. Thirteen year
2:47
Speaker 2: old Kerry Krouse wanted to be someone else. She didn't
2:51
Speaker 2: want this shitty apartment and the latest in a series
2:54
Speaker 2: of shitty apartments. She didn't want the stepdad with the
2:57
Speaker 2: bad temper either. She didn't want the view of the
3:00
Speaker 2: ocean and the horizon. All this vastness and nowhere to go.
3:04
Speaker 2: Views like these inspired Awe and some people, But to
3:08
Speaker 2: Carrie being here, being in Long Beach, California, it was suffocating.
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Speaker 1: Nothing but the repressions.
3:14
Speaker 2: Of polite society bearing down on her. She needed an out,
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Speaker 2: But first she turned inward, writing songs inspired by David Bowie,
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Speaker 2: not only her idol, but the template for who she
3:27
Speaker 2: now wanted to become. Bowie was once someone else, someone
3:31
Speaker 2: completely different.
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Speaker 1: Now one day he just up and left the.
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Speaker 2: Man known as David Jones behind, and he escaped David Jones.
3:38
Speaker 2: And now he was the Starman. He was ziggy, he
3:42
Speaker 2: was Aladdin, sane. David Bowie gave you permission to escape,
3:46
Speaker 2: escape from the world he lived in, but more importantly,
3:49
Speaker 2: escape from whoever the world wanted you to be. So
3:53
Speaker 2: Carrie altered the spelling of her first name from Cie
3:58
Speaker 2: to kr I. Carrie Krouse became carry Chrome, and then
4:04
Speaker 2: Carrie Chrome escaped for real. She stood on the side
4:08
Speaker 2: of the road, stuck out her thumb, hitched a ride
4:11
Speaker 2: and went inland, where she took a long hit off
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Speaker 2: the joint that was being passed around and slung her
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Speaker 2: head back, watching the painted red and orange neon lights
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Speaker 2: bleed into the night sky. Nineteen seventy five, Hollywood, down
4:30
Speaker 2: on Sunset Boulevard, Latchkey, kids from the suburbs were gravitating
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Speaker 2: to Rodney's English disco ground zero for all things glam
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Speaker 2: and glitter and best of all transgressive. Cary Chrome climbed
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Speaker 2: out of the car, slammed the door shut, and watched
4:45
Speaker 2: as the strangers who had given her a lift drove
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Speaker 2: off into the distance. She had no idea how to
4:51
Speaker 2: get back home, but who cared. She wasn't going back there,
4:54
Speaker 2: not in any meaningful way. At least, this was the place.
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Speaker 2: These were her people, the girls who looked like the boys,
5:02
Speaker 2: and the boys who looked like the girls. The rooster hair,
5:06
Speaker 2: the rhinestones, the sequins and platform heels, all of its
5:10
Speaker 2: soundtracked not by Captain and Taneil or the fucking eagles Man,
5:15
Speaker 2: but by the New York Dolls, t Rex the Sweet,
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Speaker 2: and that permanent badass of leather clad rock and roll
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Speaker 2: Susie Quatro. Carrie took it all in. For the first
5:27
Speaker 2: time in a long time. She felt at ease. But
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Speaker 2: it wasn't enough to simply be there in the crowd.
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Speaker 2: Carrie Chrome would be an active participant. She wanted to
5:36
Speaker 2: be the one to write the songs of tomorrow, the
5:38
Speaker 2: ones local legend DJ Chucky east Starr would spin for
5:42
Speaker 2: this clamorous crowd. It was a crowd that on any
5:45
Speaker 2: given night included everyone from Robert and Bonzo of led Zeppelin,
5:48
Speaker 2: to Ray and Dave of the Kinks, to the once
5:50
Speaker 2: boy King himself Elvis Presley. Who knows she could run
5:54
Speaker 2: into Iggy Pop or Elton John Slip from a page
5:57
Speaker 2: of her lyrics, maybe even run into Boie himself. But
6:01
Speaker 2: it wasn't Bowie or Iggy or Elton that Carrie Chrome
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Speaker 2: met when she went to Hollywood. Instead, she was introduced
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Speaker 2: to another songwriter and music producer, a man named Kim Foley.
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Speaker 2: Foley's resume was scattershot but impressive. He'd written for Warren Zevon,
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Speaker 2: Alice Cooper and the Birds, and produced songs by Gene
6:23
Speaker 2: Vincent and Jonathan Richmond. But what really mattered to Carrie
6:27
Speaker 2: was that he seemed genuinely interested in her songs. He
6:31
Speaker 2: said she had real talent and that with his guidance,
6:34
Speaker 2: she could be somebody somebody else. And so, on her
6:39
Speaker 2: fourteenth birthday, Carrie Chrome signed a contract with the thirty
6:43
Speaker 2: six year old Kim Foley to write songs for his
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Speaker 2: production company, The one hundred dollars a month that she
6:49
Speaker 2: got paid simply to do what she loved. Was empowering.
6:53
Speaker 2: So was the fact that Foley loved her next idea,
6:56
Speaker 2: which was to put together an all girl rock band
6:58
Speaker 2: to play her songs. But where Carrie saw autonomy, self
7:02
Speaker 2: reliance and girl power, Kim Foley saw something more sinister.
7:07
Speaker 2: The band he would assemble would be marketed not just
7:10
Speaker 2: as girls, but.
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Speaker 1: As underage girls.
7:13
Speaker 2: Their lead singer, Sherie Curry, a blonde Valley girl, would
7:17
Speaker 2: be their rock and roll Lolita, just like Sue Lyons
7:20
Speaker 2: in that Stanley Kubrick movie. Along with Joan jen and
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Speaker 2: lead a Forward on guitar, Sandy West on drums, and
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Speaker 2: Jackie Fox on bass, all of them fifteen or sixteen
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Speaker 2: years old at the time. The band that Kim Fowley
7:34
Speaker 2: soon christened the Runaways weren't just avatars of teenage rebellion
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Speaker 2: and juvenile delinquentcyne.
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Speaker 1: They were jailbaiting.
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Speaker 2: Okay, so listen up. Before we continue with this story,
7:46
Speaker 2: I need to set the table for just how fucked
7:49
Speaker 2: up this era of rock and roll was. We've talked
7:51
Speaker 2: about this in some detail before, but it needs to
7:54
Speaker 2: be said again. Kim Fowley wasn't the only one here
7:57
Speaker 2: being a total creep. This was the same time I'm
8:00
Speaker 2: the Jimmy Page and David Bowie and so many other
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Speaker 2: powerful musicians were sleeping with underage girls. This is when
8:07
Speaker 2: Ringo Starr had a number one hit song called You're Sixteen,
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Speaker 2: which has the refrain you're sixteen, You're beautiful in your mind.
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Speaker 2: This is when a journalist, in a cover story for
8:18
Speaker 2: the rock magazine Crawdaddy, wrote this about watching the Runaways perform,
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Speaker 2: and I quote, suddenly I am overcome with the urge
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Speaker 2: to jack off against the stage and get my teeth
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Speaker 2: kicked out by a vicious roadie, claw my way through
8:31
Speaker 2: a thousand demented teenagers puking cheap wine and looted out
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Speaker 2: of their cerebral cortexes, just so I could touch the
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Speaker 2: platform boots of these sixteen year old girls.
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Speaker 1: Unquote.
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Speaker 2: This journalist, by the way, Charles M.
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Speaker 1: Young.
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Speaker 2: He was twenty five years old when he wrote this,
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Speaker 2: and he went on to become the editor at Rolling Stone. Now,
8:54
Speaker 2: as totally gross as that is, it was sixteen year
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Speaker 2: old Shari Curry, the Runaways lead singer, who had the
9:01
Speaker 2: idea to buy a revealing corset that she saw in
9:03
Speaker 2: a shop window on Sunset Boulevard and use it as
9:06
Speaker 2: a stage.
9:06
Speaker 1: Propt every show.
9:08
Speaker 2: When it came time to perform her signature song Cherrybomb,
9:11
Speaker 2: which Jon Jett and Kim Fowley reportedly wrote for her,
9:13
Speaker 2: in thirty minutes, she would change out of her silver
9:16
Speaker 2: lamet jumpsuit and into the corset. In her mind, she
9:20
Speaker 2: was the one in power, not the skeevy journalist dry
9:23
Speaker 2: humping the stage or the manager orchestrating some dirty old
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Speaker 2: man fantasy. In her mind, she was simply doing what
9:30
Speaker 2: her hero David Bowie had done before her. And if
9:32
Speaker 2: Sharie was Bowie, then Joan was Susie Quatro, and Jackie
9:36
Speaker 2: was Gene Simmons of Kiss and Ledo was Deep Purple's
9:38
Speaker 2: Richie Blackmore, and Sandy was Queen's Roger Taylor. This is
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Speaker 2: how they saw themselves as equals to the rock stars
9:45
Speaker 2: who inspired them from the jump. The Runaways had the attitude,
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Speaker 2: the drive and the chops to keep up with their idols,
9:53
Speaker 2: and with Kim Fowley's industry contacts, many doors were being
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Speaker 2: opened for them. Before too long, cheap trick and petty
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Speaker 2: were opening for them. But it was what was happening
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Speaker 2: behind closed doors that was truly horrifying. In her memoir,
10:11
Speaker 2: Shari Curry writes that Kim Foley once had sex with
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Speaker 2: a visibly intoxicated adult woman in front of the entire
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Speaker 2: band so that they could learn, in his words, quote
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Speaker 2: the right way to fuck unquote. Jackie Fox later alleged
10:25
Speaker 2: that Folly drugged and raped her in front of a
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Speaker 2: crowd of people immediately following the Runaway's debut show on
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Speaker 2: New Year's Eve in nineteen seventy five, and Carrie Crome
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Speaker 2: was only fourteen when she said Folly masturbated on her.
10:40
Speaker 2: While Jackie tamped down feelings of shame and disgust and
10:44
Speaker 2: shock over what happened to her, Carrie was not so
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Speaker 2: equipped to compartmentalize, and she spiraled, watching her teenage dream
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Speaker 2: unravel before her eyes. She'd been taking advantage of sexually assaulted,
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Speaker 2: watched it happen to others too, and now Kim Foley
10:59
Speaker 2: was taking credit for the songs Carrie had written and
11:02
Speaker 2: was even denying her royalties. So Carrie split, dropped out
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Speaker 2: of school, became addicted to drugs, and, like our hero
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Speaker 2: David Bowie, became someone else for the second time in
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Speaker 2: her young life, but this time her life was an art.
11:17
Speaker 2: Her life imitated art. Soon Carrie Crone was living on streets,
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Speaker 2: crashing on couches, and Carrie was no longer one of
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Speaker 2: the runaways. Instead, she was simply a runaway. And when
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Speaker 2: her friends and the band soon found themselves in real trouble,
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Speaker 2: far from home, with no one else to turn to,
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Speaker 2: Kim finally kept betraying them, and they kept looking for
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Speaker 2: new ways to escape. September nineteen seventy six, England, Joan
12:15
Speaker 2: Jett was pissed, this time not a Kim Foley, but another.
12:20
Speaker 1: Man who better down.
12:21
Speaker 2: Robert Plant, led Zeppelin's lead singer, was as enamored with
12:25
Speaker 2: the Runaways as the next jailbait chasing horn dog. In fact,
12:29
Speaker 2: Kim Foley even got Robert Plant his own Runaways T
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Speaker 2: shirt to wear. The girls all wore shirts that had
12:35
Speaker 2: their names printed below the band's name, but for Robert Plant,
12:38
Speaker 2: below the Runaway's logo his red Robert loves Kim.
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Speaker 1: That's not what Joan Jet was pissed off about, though.
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Speaker 2: Give Robert Plant a T shirt, who cares? Give him
12:47
Speaker 2: a thousand T shirts? Whatever would help the Runaway's incredible
12:50
Speaker 2: self titled debut album climb higher than number one hundred
12:53
Speaker 2: and ninety four on the Billboard Album chart, which is
12:55
Speaker 2: where it installed since its release a few months prior.
13:00
Speaker 1: Far it wasn't working.
13:01
Speaker 2: UK fans were way more into the record than people
13:04
Speaker 2: back in the States, and even England's own version of
13:07
Speaker 2: the so called manufactured band controlled by Sean Gali, the
13:10
Speaker 2: Sex Pistols, took notice. Sid Vicious, for one, did more
13:14
Speaker 2: than notice. He put his hands all over Jones's body
13:17
Speaker 2: despite her protests. The next thing Sid new Sandy West
13:22
Speaker 2: was grabbing him by the lapels and tossing him into
13:24
Speaker 2: the Thames. The Runaways was all Sandy knew. It was
13:29
Speaker 2: the only stable thing that she had in her life.
13:32
Speaker 2: So if some safety pin wearing punk rocker was going
13:34
Speaker 2: to threaten that, Sandy would do what she had to
13:36
Speaker 2: in order to protect him. But I digress, So back
13:42
Speaker 2: to the story. There was Joan Jet along with the
13:44
Speaker 2: rest of the band, standing at a dock in Dover,
13:47
Speaker 2: waiting for the ferry to take them to Paris, where
13:50
Speaker 2: their manager, Scott Anderson told them that the show that
13:53
Speaker 2: night was already sold out. And this is where Robert
13:56
Speaker 2: Plant from led Zeppelin comes in back in Los Angeles.
14:02
Speaker 2: At one of their shows at the star Ward, Robert
14:04
Speaker 2: had shown up in the runaway's dressing room with his
14:07
Speaker 2: locks of Greek godhaired equally godlike smile. The girls were
14:12
Speaker 2: all over him. Joan Jet tried to play a cool
14:14
Speaker 2: rocking that trademark Joan Jet attitude, the swagger, the ambiguous
14:18
Speaker 2: look that said she was either about to fuck you
14:20
Speaker 2: up or rock your face off.
14:22
Speaker 1: But it was hard to play.
14:23
Speaker 2: A cool seeing as though the line for the show
14:25
Speaker 2: that night stretched down the block and around the corner,
14:28
Speaker 2: and it was hard to keep your cool, as Joan
14:31
Speaker 2: demonstrated when some dude put his fat hands on Shari's
14:34
Speaker 2: legs and ripped her stockings right off. That night, fat
14:37
Speaker 2: handed dude got a face full of Joan's metallic platform boot,
14:43
Speaker 2: and now standing on the shore in Dover, England, exhausted,
14:47
Speaker 2: ready to collapse on the incoming ferry, Joan wanted to
14:50
Speaker 2: put that metallic platform boot to the face of Robert
14:54
Speaker 2: Plant because a police inspector from Scotland Yard had detained
14:58
Speaker 2: Joan in the rest of the band, preventing them from
15:00
Speaker 2: going to France, and it was Robert Plant's fault. Flanked
15:05
Speaker 2: by a couple of officers, the inspector ordered the girls
15:08
Speaker 2: to empty their backs. Hotels in England were reporting that
15:11
Speaker 2: items had gone missing from rooms that the runaways had
15:14
Speaker 2: stayed in. In British law enforcement, as it had proven
15:17
Speaker 2: so definitively years earlier in its relentless persecution of the
15:21
Speaker 2: Rolling Stones and the Beatles, were eager to put these
15:24
Speaker 2: smug American rock and roll girls in their place. First,
15:28
Speaker 2: Sandy turned over her back, a hotel hairdryer came tumbling out,
15:32
Speaker 2: and then Joan turned her bag upside down, and all
15:35
Speaker 2: sorts of hotel room keys rained onto the ground. More
15:38
Speaker 2: bags were searched, and more keys were found, more than
15:41
Speaker 2: thirty in total. Fucking Robert Plant. Back to the Starwood.
15:46
Speaker 2: Joan had asked him what were the best souvenirs to
15:49
Speaker 2: get while on tour, and Robert had told her all
15:51
Speaker 2: about his ritual of collecting room keys from every hotel
15:55
Speaker 2: he stayed a And now.
15:56
Speaker 1: This little piece of harmless advice.
15:58
Speaker 2: Had landed the runaways not just in hot water, but
16:01
Speaker 2: incredibly in jail. Joan Jet was grabbing the bars of
16:09
Speaker 2: her cell, her knuckles white, her face red, trying to
16:13
Speaker 2: shake the loose and screaming at the top of her lungs.
16:17
Speaker 2: She was the oldest in this group and had just
16:19
Speaker 2: turned eighteen, and she was getting the adult treatment. So
16:22
Speaker 2: while the rest of the band could be together inside
16:24
Speaker 2: a holding room with bunk beds, Joan was freaking out
16:27
Speaker 2: inside a cold, cramped jail cell all on her own.
16:31
Speaker 2: Not that things were going any better over in that
16:33
Speaker 2: holding room, tensions were high. The girls had been informed
16:39
Speaker 2: that they'd have to remain behind bars for at least
16:42
Speaker 2: as long as it would take for the cops to
16:43
Speaker 2: retrieve their luggage and search it. The thing was, their
16:47
Speaker 2: luggage had already been put on that ferry over to France,
16:50
Speaker 2: so it was going to be a minute to get
16:51
Speaker 2: it back to England. And when they did, Charif, for one,
16:54
Speaker 2: was freaking out about what they'd find inside, because in
16:57
Speaker 2: one of those bags was her makeup case, and inside
17:00
Speaker 2: that makeup case, Sharie had hidden a bunch of cocaine. Technically,
17:05
Speaker 2: the coke belonged to the Runaways tour manager Scott Anderson.
17:09
Speaker 2: Scott was Jones age eighteen, but those extra couple of
17:12
Speaker 2: years experience over the rest of the girls were clutched
17:15
Speaker 2: when it came to procure the necessary ingredients of the
17:17
Speaker 2: rock and roll lifestyle. If you needed your cocaine cut
17:20
Speaker 2: up into neat little lines, Scott was your guy.
17:23
Speaker 1: If you needed some prescription.
17:25
Speaker 2: Grade downers like placid, Scott was your guy. Booze Scott
17:29
Speaker 2: could obviously get that for you as well. The girls
17:32
Speaker 2: were supposed to have tutors out on tour with them.
17:34
Speaker 2: This was one of the many promises that came a
17:36
Speaker 2: folly so wilfully failed to deliver on. Instead, they had
17:40
Speaker 2: guys like Scott, and now Sharie Curry had Scott Anderson's
17:44
Speaker 2: problem smuggled inside her luggage. Chari was sweating like crazy,
17:49
Speaker 2: doubled over where she was sitting on the concrete floor.
17:52
Speaker 2: She fell ill thinking about what would happen if those
17:54
Speaker 2: drugs were found. She was in a foreign country and
17:57
Speaker 2: she was only sixteen. Were wearing off, and now panic, dread,
18:02
Speaker 2: and sickness deep in her stomach began to consume her.
18:05
Speaker 2: She and Scott had been engaged in a sexual relationship
18:08
Speaker 2: on the road, as well as what Shari thought was
18:10
Speaker 2: a deeply emotional relationship. Surely, as a result of this,
18:14
Speaker 2: Shuri assumed Scott was prepared to do the chivalrous thing
18:17
Speaker 2: and tell the cops that if it was found, the
18:20
Speaker 2: cooke was his. But that night, when Scott paid a
18:25
Speaker 2: visit to the girls in lac Up, Scott made it
18:28
Speaker 2: very clear that he intended to do no such thing.
18:32
Speaker 2: What he intended, and what kim Fowley also intended, was
18:35
Speaker 2: that Shari would take the fall and face the consequences.
18:41
Speaker 2: The knight felt like an eternity. At some point the
18:45
Speaker 2: guards took pity on Joan and moved her from her
18:47
Speaker 2: solitary jail cell to the holding room with everybody else.
18:51
Speaker 2: By the time the sun came up, the sickness and
18:53
Speaker 2: the pito Scheri's stomach was overwhelming. They heard footsteps coming
18:58
Speaker 2: down the hall.
18:59
Speaker 1: All five I've.
19:00
Speaker 2: Runaways craned their necks to get a look at who
19:02
Speaker 2: was coming to visit. It was the inspector from Scotland
19:05
Speaker 2: Yard who had originally arrested them. He had news their
19:09
Speaker 2: luggage had been located. Scharie's heart rates spite she waited
19:13
Speaker 2: for him to hold up her makeup bag and asked
19:16
Speaker 2: who exactly this belonged to, But the inspector did no
19:19
Speaker 2: such thing. The luggage was clean, and they were free
19:23
Speaker 2: to go. Somehow the cocaine had been overlooked. Schari breathed
19:30
Speaker 2: a huge sigh of relief. Even though Scott and Kim
19:34
Speaker 2: Fowley had left her out to dry, she still.
19:37
Speaker 1: Managed to dodge a bullet.
19:39
Speaker 2: That is, until she returned home to the States and
19:42
Speaker 2: discovered the true source of the sickness she'd been experiencing.
19:46
Speaker 2: Shari Curry was sixteen years old and pregnant. We'll be
19:55
Speaker 2: right back after this word word word. Joan jet hammered
20:10
Speaker 2: out the opening riff for the runaway song Born to
20:13
Speaker 2: Be Bad on her Gibson melody Maker. Her bright red
20:16
Speaker 2: leather jumps and shimmered under his subtle stage lights, and
20:18
Speaker 2: her shock of black hair stood defiant as the song
20:21
Speaker 2: slow start in unabashed girl group homage suddenly turned into loud,
20:26
Speaker 2: slashing power chords that knotted a punk rock no doubt,
20:29
Speaker 2: one of the old girl group genre's many descendants. Sandy
20:33
Speaker 2: came thundering in on the drums with Jackie and leda
20:35
Speaker 2: close behind on bassi guitar, respectively, and the stage lights exploded,
20:40
Speaker 2: and then Joan belted out the title chorus into the
20:43
Speaker 2: microphone with a sneer. The audience went nuts. Cherie was
20:47
Speaker 2: a killer front woman, no doubt, but Joan had that
20:50
Speaker 2: underdog gear like Pete Townsend next to Roger Daltrey. Joan
20:54
Speaker 2: had the place mesmerized. And then something cut Joan's eye.
21:00
Speaker 2: It was just a glimmer out there in the crowd,
21:02
Speaker 2: one of the lights catching a piece of metal, and
21:04
Speaker 2: then the metal erupted in bright red and orange, and
21:07
Speaker 2: the sound of machine gun firing drowned out the sound
21:09
Speaker 2: of the band. People in the audience hit the floor
21:12
Speaker 2: and others ran screaming for the exit. Joan felt bullets
21:16
Speaker 2: ripped through her body. She collapsed on the stage floor,
21:19
Speaker 2: crying out in pain, looking around to see if anyone
21:21
Speaker 2: else had been hit. And then she looked over at
21:23
Speaker 2: her guitar lying next to her. It was covered in blood,
21:27
Speaker 2: but it wasn't her blood. She opened her eyes wider
21:29
Speaker 2: to make sure she was actually seeing what she thought
21:31
Speaker 2: she was seeing. It was so clear to her now
21:34
Speaker 2: the guitar was bleeding, the Gibson's body was riddled in
21:38
Speaker 2: bullet holes, and the blood was just oozing from it.
21:42
Speaker 2: Suddenly the pain got worse. It was like she wasn't
21:44
Speaker 2: just experiencing her own pain, but she could feel what
21:47
Speaker 2: the guitar was feeling, and it was unbearable. Joan's eyes
21:51
Speaker 2: went wider than before, and she opened her mouth to
21:53
Speaker 2: screen for help for someone, when all of a sudden,
21:57
Speaker 2: Joan shot up in bed, yelling out into the dark.
22:01
Speaker 2: She was covered in sweat and her heart was practically
22:03
Speaker 2: beating out of her chest. She'd had nightmares like this
22:07
Speaker 2: one before, but never this intense, and though this latest nightmare,
22:12
Speaker 2: like the rest, hadn't been real, she couldn't help but
22:14
Speaker 2: feel that something this crazy and this bloody could potentially
22:18
Speaker 2: be coming around the Bend. Being a runaway had become
22:24
Speaker 2: an endurance test. As their notoriety grew, Joan and the
22:28
Speaker 2: girls were now being demeaned by what seemed to be
22:31
Speaker 2: an entire world of Kim Folly's, by random older men
22:35
Speaker 2: who had no problem calling them bitches, dykes, and cunts
22:38
Speaker 2: every day just for being women who dared being in
22:42
Speaker 2: a band with zero swinging dicks among them. Some days
22:46
Speaker 2: it felt like the assholes outnumbered the real fans. Those
22:49
Speaker 2: same assholes spent their own damn money to buy tickets
22:51
Speaker 2: to the runaway shows, only to heckle the girls and
22:54
Speaker 2: throw shit at them on stage. It was enough to
22:57
Speaker 2: make you want to ditch the show early, run into them,
23:00
Speaker 2: cry for hours, and wonder why the hell you were
23:03
Speaker 2: putting yourself through it all. For Joon Jet and also
23:06
Speaker 2: for lead A Ford, the negative experiences only hardened their
23:10
Speaker 2: resolve and thickened their skin. For Sandy West, there was
23:14
Speaker 2: simply no way she could give in to the alternative,
23:17
Speaker 2: go back to a normal high schooler's routine, or even worse,
23:20
Speaker 2: the life of an ordinary young adult, go back to reality.
23:25
Speaker 1: That was a.
23:26
Speaker 2: Fate worse than death. But for the others the stakes
23:31
Speaker 2: were even higher. Shari had returned home from The Runaways
23:35
Speaker 2: nineteen seventy six European tour pregnant with Scott Anderson's child.
23:39
Speaker 2: She was sixteen years old without the means of the
23:42
Speaker 2: ability to raise a baby, so she decided to get
23:45
Speaker 2: an abortion, and while that was happening, Kim Falley kept the.
23:48
Speaker 1: Proverbial show on the road.
23:54
Speaker 2: He ushered the Runaways into the Beach Boys brother Studios
23:57
Speaker 2: in Santa Monica to record their second album, The Queen's Noise,
24:00
Speaker 2: while Cherie was still recovering. Because of this, she only
24:04
Speaker 2: sang lead on half of the album's songs, while Joan sang.
24:08
Speaker 1: The other half.
24:09
Speaker 2: The record was released in January of nineteen seventy seven,
24:12
Speaker 2: the same week the Ramones released their sophomore album, Leave Home,
24:16
Speaker 2: in the same year that The Runaways conquered Japan like
24:19
Speaker 2: they were the second coming of the Beatles.
24:21
Speaker 1: Keep in mind that this was one year.
24:24
Speaker 2: Before Cheap Trick, the band that used to open for
24:26
Speaker 2: the Runaways, had hit pay dirt at Budakan for a
24:30
Speaker 2: few weeks on the other end of the world, the
24:32
Speaker 2: Runaways finally got the respect they deserved. But unlike Cheap Trick,
24:36
Speaker 2: all that love on tour in Japan didn't translate to
24:39
Speaker 2: a greater love than thus a bigger profile in the States,
24:43
Speaker 2: because by the middle of nineteen seventy seven, there was
24:46
Speaker 2: no love lost within the ranks of the Runaways. The
24:51
Speaker 2: bass was beautiful. It was a white nineteen sixty five
24:56
Speaker 2: Gibson Thunderbird, just immaculate, and it sounded incredible. For Jackie Fox,
25:03
Speaker 2: the bass was more than just an instrument. It was
25:05
Speaker 2: a representation of how far she'd come. But when she
25:09
Speaker 2: first joined the Runaways she could hardly play. She was
25:12
Speaker 2: so inexperienced, in fact, that Kim Fowley brought in Nigel Harrison,
25:16
Speaker 2: Blondie's bass player, to lay down Jackie's tracks on the
25:18
Speaker 2: Runaway's debut album.
25:21
Speaker 1: Jackie worked hard.
25:22
Speaker 2: To get better, and now, in addition to being able
25:24
Speaker 2: to play, she knew from playing next to Joan and
25:27
Speaker 2: Lida every night how to strike the right rock and
25:29
Speaker 2: roll Poe was while doing so. But where she'd once
25:34
Speaker 2: looked up to Leeda Ford, these days, it seemed all
25:37
Speaker 2: Leda wanted to do was push Jackie around. Maybe it
25:41
Speaker 2: was because Jackie was an easy mark. She was a
25:44
Speaker 2: nerd by trade, a straight A student who, before joining
25:47
Speaker 2: the Runaways had been planning to skip her senior year
25:50
Speaker 2: of high school so that she could attend UCLA full time.
25:54
Speaker 2: Whatever the reason, Jackie felt bullied from all sides. The
25:58
Speaker 2: girls in the band, Kim their crew. She could understand
26:02
Speaker 2: the guys, but Lita. There was an unspoken rule that
26:06
Speaker 2: the girls all protected each other, though Jackie had to
26:09
Speaker 2: admit she hadn't felt very protected ever since Folly sexually
26:13
Speaker 2: assaulted her, and no one in the band seemed to
26:15
Speaker 2: want to acknowledge.
26:16
Speaker 1: It had happened. At least she had the bass.
26:23
Speaker 2: After sound checking at one of the Runaway's final shows
26:26
Speaker 2: in Japan, she went to place it on its stand
26:29
Speaker 2: on the stage and noticed that the stand was unstable.
26:32
Speaker 2: She grabbed one of the guys on the crew and
26:34
Speaker 2: asked them to find her a better stand so that
26:35
Speaker 2: the bass wouldn't fall over and get damaged. She knew
26:39
Speaker 2: she shouldn't have trusted anyone on that tour to help
26:41
Speaker 2: her with anything. And the roadie didn't listen. No one listened,
26:45
Speaker 2: and the stand was never replaced, and the Gibson Thunderbird
26:48
Speaker 2: tumbled over, and the next snapped, and then Jackie snapped.
26:56
Speaker 2: She went to her hotel room, her head throbbing, her
26:59
Speaker 2: pulse pounding, tears of rage and sadness and panic running
27:02
Speaker 2: down her face. She couldn't keep it all in check anymore.
27:05
Speaker 2: It was all coming to the surface, the pressure and
27:08
Speaker 2: the mental and psychological abuse.
27:10
Speaker 1: The rape. She didn't recognize herself.
27:14
Speaker 2: She had become her worst fear, someone else. Jackie picked
27:19
Speaker 2: up a coke bottle and threw it against the wall.
27:22
Speaker 2: It shattered into pieces, just like her thunderbird. She grabbed
27:25
Speaker 2: one of the glass shards and she jammed it into
27:27
Speaker 2: her flesh.
27:29
Speaker 1: Her blood was running out.
27:31
Speaker 2: She dragged the piece of glass in a straight, jagged
27:33
Speaker 2: line across four inches.
27:35
Speaker 1: Of her arm.
27:36
Speaker 2: More blood and the pain on the outside finally a
27:38
Speaker 2: match for the pain on the inside.
27:41
Speaker 1: The room began to spin.
27:44
Speaker 2: She must have been screaming, because the door to her
27:46
Speaker 2: room suddenly flung open and Serie busted it. And then
27:50
Speaker 2: Jackie was in an ambulance, on her way to the
27:52
Speaker 2: hospital where she would begin long journey back to the
27:55
Speaker 2: person that she used to be. All right, guys, I'll
28:16
Speaker 2: get back to a runaway story in just a second,
28:18
Speaker 2: but real quick. I wanted to mention that we always
28:20
Speaker 2: dig up way more in our research than we're able
28:22
Speaker 2: to include in our full episodes here, Like, for instance,
28:25
Speaker 2: this week, we uncovered this whole thing about how there
28:27
Speaker 2: is a church out there that worships Jone Jet as
28:31
Speaker 2: a god.
28:32
Speaker 1: Literally for real.
28:33
Speaker 2: It's such a crazy story that we made this mini
28:35
Speaker 2: episode about it. And if you're a member of Disgrace
28:38
Speaker 2: Anta All Access, you can listen to that crazy story
28:41
Speaker 2: right now, along with all of our other weekly mini
28:43
Speaker 2: episodes that we've got out there on a ton of artists.
28:45
Speaker 2: All you got to do is go to disgracelandpod dot
28:47
Speaker 2: com to find out more and become a member today.
28:49
Speaker 2: All right, back to our story, Sandy West stuck the
28:57
Speaker 2: barrel of the gun down the deadbeat's throat, and the
29:00
Speaker 2: deadbeat swallowed it, his teeth clattering around the cold, hard steel.
29:05
Speaker 2: Now that she had his attention, Sandy passed along the
29:07
Speaker 2: message she'd been hired to deliver.
29:09
Speaker 1: Pay up, fucksticker.
29:10
Speaker 2: Next time, this pistol will be the last thing you
29:12
Speaker 2: ever taste. And then the smell of rock bottom depravity.
29:18
Speaker 2: The deadbeat had shit his pants. The nineteen eighties were
29:24
Speaker 2: far from glamorous for Sandy West, former drummer for the Runaways.
29:29
Speaker 2: She worked construction, She tended bar, she free based cocaine
29:33
Speaker 2: and did crystal meth, and at her lowest she found
29:37
Speaker 2: herself taxi, which is a term that I was unfamiliar with,
29:41
Speaker 2: but according to Sandy, is the active collecting drug.
29:44
Speaker 1: Debts for dealers.
29:46
Speaker 2: It was this erratic and dangerous lifestyle which led to
29:49
Speaker 2: Sandy being arrested multiple times and eventually doing jail time. Surprisingly,
29:55
Speaker 2: perhaps most of all, the Sandy was that jail was
29:57
Speaker 2: the first place where she had felt stability in a
30:00
Speaker 2: decade or so since the band had split up, jail
30:04
Speaker 2: to Sandy was like Jackie's thunderbird bass or Carrie Crome's
30:07
Speaker 2: alter ego. It kept her cool and calm and out
30:11
Speaker 2: of trouble, at least for a short while, because, just
30:14
Speaker 2: like the Runaways, Sandy's time on the inside was a finite,
30:19
Speaker 2: a flash in the pan, and so when she got out,
30:22
Speaker 2: she went right back into the fire of an untethered life.
30:25
Speaker 2: She died of cancer in two thousand and six, at
30:28
Speaker 2: just the age of forty seven. For nearly thirty years,
30:32
Speaker 2: all Sandy wanted to do was get the band back together.
30:36
Speaker 2: Back in nineteen seventy seven, following a mental breakdown in Japan,
30:39
Speaker 2: Jackie Fox had been replaced on bass by Vicki Blue.
30:43
Speaker 2: Sharie quits soon after, leaving Joan to shoulder the weight
30:46
Speaker 2: and lead the Runaways as a quartet. They made two
30:49
Speaker 2: more albums, but even after they fired Kim Fowley, they
30:52
Speaker 2: still weren't able to come together as a cohesive unit.
30:56
Speaker 2: On New Year's Eve in nineteen seventy eight, the Runaways
30:59
Speaker 2: played their last It wasn't until twenty fifteen, the year
31:03
Speaker 2: of Kim Fowley's death, that Jackie Fox went public with
31:06
Speaker 2: their allegations that Foley had raped her, and it was
31:09
Speaker 2: another eight years in twenty twenty three when Carrie Chrome
31:12
Speaker 2: sued Foley's estate for multiple sexual assaults she says she
31:16
Speaker 2: suffered at the Svengali's hands. Revelations in lawsuits such as
31:21
Speaker 2: these continued to expose the system that enabled men like
31:24
Speaker 2: Folly to do what they did, exploit, corrupt, manipulate, and control.
31:33
Speaker 2: But The Runaways were never about Kim Foley. The Runaways
31:37
Speaker 2: were about escape, reinvention, about becoming who you are for real.
31:43
Speaker 2: What Carrie understood when she changed her name, what Shari
31:46
Speaker 2: understood when she stepped into that corset, and what Joan
31:49
Speaker 2: understood every time she put on that red leather jumpsuit
31:53
Speaker 2: was a rock and roll truth. You get to create
31:56
Speaker 2: your own myth. You get to turn yourself into the
31:59
Speaker 2: thing the world told you you.
32:00
Speaker 1: Could never be. David Bowie became.
32:03
Speaker 2: Ziggy Stardust, Carrie Krous became Carrie Chrome, and every girl
32:08
Speaker 2: who heard The Runaways played Cherry Bomb on a shitty
32:11
Speaker 2: AM radio or later saw Jone Jets saying bad reputation
32:14
Speaker 2: and heavy rotation on MTV wasn't just inspired to form
32:18
Speaker 2: a band. They were inspired to become whoever the hell
32:21
Speaker 2: they wanted to be, to escape the person polite society
32:24
Speaker 2: told them they had to be, and instead become the
32:28
Speaker 2: person they needed to be. The Runaways didn't just kick
32:33
Speaker 2: open a door, they obliterated the idea that the door
32:36
Speaker 2: ever existed. That is rock and roll, and rock and
32:40
Speaker 2: roll is no disgrace. I'm Jake Brennan, and this is Disgraceland.
33:06
Speaker 2: All right, guys, thanks for listening to another episode of Disgraceland.
33:09
Speaker 2: Apple podcast listeners, make sure you have auto downloads turned on. Listen, guys.
33:13
Speaker 2: I'm wondering for the question of the week this week.
33:15
Speaker 2: Obviously Runaways, great girl group, great all girl group. I
33:18
Speaker 2: should say, we want to know here at Disgrace Slam,
33:21
Speaker 2: which female artists do you want to hear covered in
33:23
Speaker 2: the coming episodes of this podcast. We've obviously covered a bunch,
33:28
Speaker 2: We got a bunch more slated for release this year.
33:31
Speaker 2: But I want to know who you guys are into,
33:32
Speaker 2: who you want to learn more about, who you want.
33:34
Speaker 1: Us to cover.
33:35
Speaker 2: Let me know six one seven nine oh six six
33:37
Speaker 2: six three eight, voicemail and text. Hit me up with
33:40
Speaker 2: your answers. We might play them on the after party
33:43
Speaker 2: coming up right after this hiving up on social at disgracelampod,
33:47
Speaker 2: disgrace lampod at gmail dot com to email me. All right,
33:50
Speaker 2: here come some credits. Disgraceland was created by Yours Truly
33:55
Speaker 2: and is produced in partnership with Double Elvis. Credits for
33:58
Speaker 2: this episode can be found on the show notes page
34:01
Speaker 2: at disgracelampod dot com. If you're listening as a Disgraceland
34:05
Speaker 2: All Access member, thank you for supporting the show.
34:07
Speaker 1: We really appreciate it.
34:09
Speaker 2: And if not, you can become a member right now
34:11
Speaker 2: by going to disgracelampod dot com slash membership, rate and
34:15
Speaker 2: review the show and follow us on Instagram, TikTok, Twitter,
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34:29
Speaker 1: He's add Man.