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Suzi Quatro of Happy Days is ''hurt'' about not being in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
"It doesn't make sense," the rocker says in a new interview.
There was a reason they called her Leather. The younger Tuscadero sister was one tough customer on Happy Days. Who else had the ability — not to mention the nerve — to steal Fonzie's wallet and comb?
The character, the sibling of Pinkie Tuscadero, first appeared in the episode "Fonzie, Rock Entrepreneur," fronting her band, the Suedes. Leather would show up in seven episodes of the sitcom throughout seasons five and six. In her final tale, "Marion: Fairy Godmother," Leather goes with Ralph to his college dance, in perhaps her least rock 'n' roll moment. But overall, she rocked. In a TV series that was originally going to be called Cool, Leather Tuscadero was a true injection of cool.
That true cool came from the casting of Suzi Quatro, an actual rock pioneer. The Detroit native was just 27 when she got the Happy Days gig, but had been a veteran rocker for more than a decade. Quatro got her start as a teen in the all-female garage combo the Pleasure Seekers. In 1971, the bassist moved to England, where she launched a solo career under the tutelage of producer Mickey Most.
Quatro scored European hits while touring with glam bands and proto-punks. She opened for Thin Lizzy, Slade and Alice Cooper. She sold more than a million copies of her singles "Can the Can," "48 Crash" and "Devil Gate Drive." She paved the way for the likes of Joan Jett and the Runaways.
Joan Jett is in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Quatro is not. This is a fact that irks Quatro, as she preps a new album, No Control, for a March release.
"So my feelings are hurt," Quatro tells Billboard in a new interview. "I've been very polite about it for many years, and now I don't want to be polite anymore. It doesn't make sense. The truth is the truth, history is history, the timeline is the timeline. I need to be in that Rock and Roll Hall of Fame."
This year, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame welcomes new inductees Janet Jackson (who had a recurring role on both Good Times and Diff'rent Strokes), Def Leppard, The Cure, Radiohead, Stevie Nicks, Roxy Music and the Zombies.
"I'm a real stickler for the truth, and I'm pissed off that history is being rewritten," she says. "I was first, right? I was there before anybody else had a twinkle in their eye."
Read the full interview at Billboard.com. So, what do you think? Does Quatro deserve a place in Cleveland?
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