After I carefully strapped my giggling niece into the child seat, Marie leaned in through the open window and kissed me. “I hope you guys have a great time,” she said. “Enjoy your day together.”
Thanks, Marie. We will . . .”
“I know Tina is safe with you,” Marie whispered, looking at me with eyes that radiated pride. I started to cry a little at that.
Tina noticed my tears in the rearview mirror and quietly asked, “Are you sad, Aunticherie?”
I shook my head and smiled at her. “No, baby,” I said. “I’m the happiest I have ever been.”
Marie stepped back as I pulled out of the driveway and headed slowly, carefully, down the hill. I kept glancing in the rearview mirror at the smiling, giggling, beautiful little girl in the backseat. I had to blink back the tears. I knew that whether or not I ever got another recording contract, whether or not I ever acted in another movie, whether or not I ever performed again . . . none of it mattered. Not really. Everything that mattered was right here in this car. All that mattered was Tina, and all of the unconditional love that I felt for her.
I knew that with this one step I could finally lock all of that pain from the past away in its own velvet tomb. Lock it up and throw away the key. All this because of the giggling, smiling child in my car. A child who is more important to me than all of the money, fame, and records in the world.
Because Tina loves her auntie Cherie.
And if she loves me, then it must mean that I am worth loving.
Afterword
Looking back on my life since that fateful day with my niece Cristina, I really see how truly blessed I am. Many years have passed, we have orbited the sun more then 7,500 times and I have seen such extraordinary things, and had so many profound experiences that I could easily fill the pages of another book. In the years since the Runaways I have lost some of my dearest friends, and I have reinvented myself time and time again. But through it all, the wonderment and personal triumph that emerges from the emotional depths I have experienced leave me knowing I wouldn’t have changed a thing.
Sandie and T.Y. split in 1982, and both went on to meaningful, long-term relationships, though sadly Tony Young passed away from lung cancer in February of 2002. In 1989 Sandie married director/producer Alan J. Levi. Sandie has continued with a successful acting career, and recently appeared in the blockbuster summer hit The Hangover, the highest grossing R-rated comedy of all time.
Shortly after the release of my original book, Neon Angel: The Cherie Currie Story, in 1989, I left my job as a drug counselor after two years, and became a personal fitness trainer. I loved it. Talk about a 180, from hopeless drug addict to a focused, fitness guru! I was also working weekly with a voice-over group called the Studio City Carvers, looping everything from TV shows like Colombo and Quantum Leap, to major motion pictures like The Sandlot and various Adam Sandler productions.
When I wasn’t doing voice-over work, most of my time was spent in the gym, and it was there, on a sunny November afternoon in 1989 that Marie introduced me to the actor Robert Hays. Of course, I already knew who Robert was via his work, which I had loved. One of his most famous roles was in one of the largest-money-making comedies of all time, Airplane! Robert had also starred in the ABC television series Starman and Angie. I was later surprised to learn that he had started out in the theater, doing a wide variety of dramatic roles, including Shakespeare.
Bob was interesting, down-to-earth, handsome, witty, and just as wonderful as he was depicted on the screen. Hell, I thought he was the sexiest, funniest actor out there. We were married just seven months later, on May 12, 1990. It was the first marriage for us both. On our two-day honeymoon in Montecito, California, we decided to throw condoms to the wind, and I discovered I was pregnant that July. Bob continued to star in some classic family films like the Walt Disney hit Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey, and he also lent his voice to many television commercials and did countless voice-overs for animated films and TV. But Bob says his favorite production by far is the one he and I made together—our son, Jake Robert Hays, born February 8, 1991.
Jake, who turned nineteen in February, was an artist from the start, drawing in two dimensions at the age of four. His teachers claimed they had never seen a student like him. He picked up the guitar at age twelve, and has been writing, singing, producing, and recording music ever since. His appreciation for Japanese art set in motion a love for the art of tattoo. He has been a praised tattoo artist for more than a year and even Martha Davis of the Motels is adorned with a tattoo, her one and only, courtesy of Jake. But mostly Jake is a wonderful person to the core, and Bob and I really can’t take credit for who he has become. We can only sit in awe and utter disbelief at this pure and wonderful human being that we have had the honor of bringing into the world.
Though our marriage ended after seven years, Bob has remained my best friend and Jake has benefited greatly from the loving relationship we have to this day. In recent years Bob has helped to create an annual golf tournament to raise money for the SAG Foundation, which provides help to actors in need. He is just that kind of guy, and I’m so happy that I still have him in my life today. I call him “the Best Ex-Husband in the World,” and he has earned that title, believe me. I love you, babe!
Marie and Steve stayed together for thirteen years. They separated shortly before Bob and I were married, and then divorced after nearly ten years. Their son, Trevor, now twenty-three, has followed in his dad’s footsteps in fronting his own band, and has also toured as a guitar player for Lindsay Lohan. He continues to write and record, and I have no doubt he will make his mark on the industry just like his father has. Steve Lukather has been on the road nonstop with several side projects since the end of his first band Toto after thirty-plus years. In 2009 he was inducted into the Musicians Hall of Fame in Nashville.
Steve is now enjoying a new life with his wife Shawn and their two-year-old daughter, Lily Rose. Cristina Lukather, now twenty-five, was born with one of the best voices in the family and continues to strive and thrive.
In 1997 Marie began answering phones for a mortgage company that our brother, Don, was working for, and she soon worked her way up the ladder. She became an accomplished account executive. She is now a sales and branch development manager for HighTechLending, Inc., a mortgage bank created and owned by our brother Don Currie based in Irvine, California.
Speaking of our brother, Don, he went on to travel the world. Sometimes with just a backpack and that ever-present yearning for adventure. He graduated with a triple B.S. degree from Cal State University Northridge in business, finance, and real estate. He has served as a mortgage professional for twenty-eight years, and is also a national speaker and published author. HighTechLending, Inc., currently has forty-five branches and two hundred employees. He lives in San Juan Capistrano, California, with his wife of eleven years, Vena, who happened to be Jake’s first preschool teacher. I thought Vena would be the perfect match for my country-hopping, daredevil brother, and I was right. They now have a beautiful daughter, Grace, who just turned nine.
Mom and Wolfgang are still married after thirty-four years and live in Westlake Village, California. Mom just turned eighty-six, and dad, ninety-five. Mom recently fought and won yet another battle with colon cancer and she is considered a true miracle. She’s a wonderful mom and we have made up for our lost years in spades. Our family is blessed each and every day that we have her and dad in our lives.
Aunt Evie passed away in December of 1999, the very month that she dreaded, and we miss her. She was responsible for the strong foundation our family was built on.
During my marriage, I continued doing TV guest appearances, and continued performing onstage here and there. I wrote songs, and recorded and starred in another film in 1991 called Rich Girl that I thought was terrible. I moved to Chatsworth, California, in 1997 after Bob and I divorced, and it was there that I became good friends with a man who would have a profound influence on the rest of my li
fe, Kenny Laguna. Kenny had contacted me to be involved in the lawsuit to regain the lost and stolen royalties for the Runaways. Kenny and Joan Jett believed in the legacy of the band and in what it stood for. Together they found Chuck Ruben, an artists’ rights activist in New York, who fought to regain the name and the lost and future royalties of the Runaways. Lita Ford and Sandy West joined in the fight, and through Kenny’s persistence, we were finally awarded the rights to what had been stolen from us twenty-five years before. Kenny and Joan have done more for the legacy of the Runaways and its members than anyone else could have. Since then, Kenny and I have remained close, and Joan and I were able to rekindle a friendship that had been dormant for twenty-two years.
I bought my first home in 1999 and found that the only thing that felt fulfilling to me was art. I started painting, but felt I needed to take it a step further. Two-dimensional relief carving was the next step in my desire toward a more three-dimensional art form. In early 2002, when I was driving to Malibu Beach, I passed two guys chain-saw carving by the side of the road. I was immediately fascinated by this dramatic way of creating art. I walked into the Malibu Mountain Gallery and was amazed by the beautiful mermaids, tikis, bears, and sea life all created with such a brutal and dangerous machine. I heard that voice in my head saying, “You can do this, Cherie!” and I did. I talked to the owner, Rio, who is a jolly guy with a constant smile on his face, and has a skilled command of the killing machine in his hands. He looked at my artwork and agreed to teach me how to carve. But you can’t really “teach” someone to chain-saw carve. If you can’t see the three-dimensional piece in your head first, you won’t know where to start. Rio taught me how to not kill myself with the saw, and helped point out some of the finer techniques that are so hard for the untrained eye to see. For that, I will be forever grateful to him.
I started my own business in 2002 at the Log Cabin Mercantile in Lake Manor, with the help of owner Suzy O’Dea. In 2005 I opened a larger business in Chatsworth and started competing in chain-saw competitions in the Pacific Northwest, placing in two of the three competitions I participated in.
It was during this time that I decided to rewrite my original book Neon Angel and tell the stories that I couldn’t tell in my young-adult book. I also brought it up to the present. Kenny Laguna took interest in the book in 2005 and started shopping it to heavyweight publishers. Although he was initially hit with resistance, Kenny continued to believe the book was worthy of a new publication and remained persistent even after I had long given up the dream.
I was a full-time mom and carver while Jake was in elementary and middle school. Bob had Jake on the weekends, which gave me the time to concentrate on the more complex orders that I had. Bob has been so supportive and we were always there for each other if one of us needed to leave town. This was happening more and more as I was starting to get television work and jobs doing demos as a professional carver. ECHO, a chain-saw company, gave me an endorsement deal, and I would travel to represent them at sporting events. All the while, Kenny Laguna kept shopping the book. He had told me that he thought it could be a major motion picture. Of course, I wanted to believe that, but to be honest, I had learned not to get my hopes up. It felt like anything “in the biz,” to me, was a long-lost pipe dream and I had become comfortable in my artistic and creative life as a carver.
When Jake was fourteen years old he decided to attend Agoura High School, which was one of the best public schools in Los Angeles County, so he moved to Bob’s home on Malibou Lake. Bob continued to pay support as if Jake lived with me full time, to ensure that I would be fine on a carver’s income. That’s the kind of love and support one wouldn’t expect from an ex-husband, but again, very few men are like Robert Hays and, in turn, like our son, Jake.
I received the call from Kenny that there was interest in the book not by a publisher but by producers who wanted to adapt it into a film. It took years for Kenny’s vision to come to fruition, but it did, and in a big way. Art and John Linson opted to do the film. They had produced films like Fight Club with Brad Pitt, and Art Linson was a pioneer in the business who had produced films that included Fast Times at Ridgemont High, The Untouchables, and countless others. It was a fantastic dream, and none of us could believe it.
And then suddenly, it all came crashing down.
Sandy West called me with the most terrible news. Her doctors had diagnosed her with type C, small-cell lung cancer. How could this be happening now? All Sandy had ever wanted was to play with the Runaways again, and to see all our hard work, blood, sweat, and tears be worth something. It looked like it was all happening now, but Sandy, our dear and wonderful Sandy, might not live long enough to see it, and she knew it. Her attitude was nothing short of incredible. Sandy had always been so loving and selfless, and it was at this time that I saw Sandy give more than she could have ever received. She was extraordinarily brave, and with the heaviest of hearts, Joan and I looked on as Sandy West Pesavento died after her bravely fought battle with lung cancer. The Runaways, in all its glory, would forever be missing the true heart of the band. Sandy West was one of the greatest drummers of all time. The loss of Sandy was indescribable and heart-wrenching, and there was nothing we could do about it.
William Pohlad of River Roads came onboard. He had produced the Academy Award–winning movie Brokeback Mountain. Kenny Laguna and Joan Jett took their seats as executive producers and the movie went into full swing with Floria Sigismondi at the helm as director and scriptwriter. Though I truly wanted to believe in all that Kenny had accomplished, it wasn’t until the news that Kristen Stewart and Dakota Fanning were set to portray Joan and me that everything came together in my mind. It was all so incredibly surreal. Dakota has been, truly, my favorite actress since I first saw her in I Am Sam in 2001, and my knees literally buckled when I heard she was in negotiations for the role. The greatest gift that could ever have happened in my life, besides the birth of my son, Jake, was her. But the experience was very bittersweet, without our Sandy.
She was put to rest in a small private ceremony with so many people there who loved her. Now we had to believe that she could see from a higher place, that her dreams were coming true. I think that was the only way Joan or I could accept it . . . the only way we could live with it. It was just unbearable otherwise.
Kenny found a great literary agent named Paul Bresnick and the book went to auction for five days. To my excitement, HarperCollins bought the book. I should have felt that I was standing on top of the highest mountain. I never could have dreamed that my life would have taken such a turn. But the darkness of losing Sandy West made it so hard to enjoy the miracle of the whole experience. I felt guilty and sad. It was a nightmare to not be able to call and talk to her about this larger-than-life experience that Joan and I knew was Sandy’s greatest hope and dream. I didn’t know how to cope with Sandy not being a part of it.
Then I received an email from a man named Kenny Williams. He owned a place called Kenny’s Music Store in Dana Point, just a couple of miles from my brother Don’s home. He had been so touched at the loss of Sandy that he wanted to commission a special piece for her. A life-size mermaid in her memory. The very thought of putting my energy and love into something to honor Sandy filled me with hope. This would be my way of thanking her, of letting her know how much I loved her, and my way of showing her that she would never be forgotten.
We decided that the mermaid would be playing an electric guitar. I wanted sea life all around her, and optimism on her face. Jake designed the piece on paper for the city to okay the project. It took me two months to finish and I swear, Sandy was there with me. Growing up in Huntington Beach, Sandy loved the sea, probably as much as she loved the drums. She loved life. I inlaid the guitar with shells and stones, added a friendly seal and sea turtle by her side. Then, with the plaque dedicated to her in loving memory, I made a monument inlaid like the guitar and added her drumsticks, which her family had donated. The same sticks that had rested in her hands as h
er energy had coursed through them. I know that Sandy was there throughout the toughest parts of the carving process, and she guided me and gave me courage to attempt the most difficult details with ease. As the movie began its first day of shooting, I was in Dana Point at the ceremony to unveil Sandy’s sculpture and monument. Her family was there and the turnout was incredible. That morning, Joan wept because she couldn’t attend as she sat in her hotel room thousands of miles away on tour. So I said a few words on her behalf.
It was on that day that I finally felt at peace with it all. I knew that Sandy was smiling down on me, and all who loved her. She was with us and would remain with Joan and me throughout this journey, this new adventure of our lives. We have her blessing. She is here.
And now the adventure begins . . . again.
Acknowledgments
Mauro DiPreta; Jennifer Schulkind; HarperCollins/It Books; Tony O’Neill; Neal Schusterman; William Pohlad; Bob and Jeanne Berney; Joy, Steve, Elle, and Dakota Fanning; Chris Schwartz; Carianne Brinkman; Julie Rader and all at Blackheart Records Group; Ted Stachtiaris; Paul Bresnick; Apparition; Art Linson; John Linson; Floria Sigismondi; River Road; Sabrina Ballard; Pam Apostolou; Katt Lowe; and Tim Farris.
Copyright
Unless otherwise noted, all photographs courtesy of the author.
“Cherry Bomb” written by Joan Jett and Kim Fowley. Jett Pack Music Inc./Peer Music Ltd.
NEON ANGEL. Copyright © 2010 by Cherie Currie. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
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