Music / Film & TV
Suzi Quatro
born 1950 · singer, bass guitarist, songwriter, actress
The leather-clad bass-playing rock star grew up in Detroit and Grosse Pointe and started out at 14 in the Pleasure Seekers, an all-girl band with her sisters.
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Suzi Quatro was born in Detroit into a musical family; her father worked as an engineer at General Motors and played music at night, and the family later moved to Grosse Pointe. In 1964 her older sister Patti formed an all-female band after hanging around the Hideout, a teen club in Harper Woods, and Suzi joined on bass at 14. The Pleasure Seekers passed their audition at the Hideout that fall and became fixtures of Detroit's booming garage-rock and soul scene, later evolving into the harder-edged Cradle. In 1971 producer Mickie Most saw her play in Detroit and brought her to England, where she became a glam-rock star with “Can the Can” and “Devil Gate Drive”. Americans knew her as bassist Leather Tuscadero on Happy Days. She marked 50 years in music with the anthology Girl from Detroit (2014), and in 2013 received a lifetime achievement award at the Detroit Music Awards.
Highlights
- UK and European No. 1 hits “Can the Can” (1973) and “Devil Gate Drive” (1974)
- US top-five duet “Stumblin' In” with Chris Norman (1978)
- Played Leather Tuscadero on Happy Days
- Michigan Rock and Roll Legends Hall of Fame (2011)
- Detroit Music Awards Distinguished Lifetime Achievement Award (2013)
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 1
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Performed here · 1964–1965
The Hideout (teen club)
Closed
Dave Leone's teen club in Harper Woods where the Quatro sisters worked, hung out and won their first booking in the fall of 1964.