Wild thing: how Sandy West was lost, the true story of a teenage runaway rock'n'roll outlaw

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Content WILD THING:
HOW SANDY WEST WAS LOST,
THE TRUE STORY OF A TEENAGE RUNAWAY ROCKʼNʼROLL OUTLAW
by
Evelyn McDonnell
________________________________________________________________
A Thesis Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE USC GRADUATE SCHOOL
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
MASTER OF ARTS
(SPECIALIZED JOURNALISM)
May 2010
Copyright 2010"" " " " " " Evelyn McDonnell
Dedication
To Sandy West
ii
Acknowledgments
" Dozens of Sandyʼs friends, families, and colleagues opened their
schedules, scrapbooks, and hearts to me. It was not easy for them and I
appreciate their generosity. Thanks to Jeri and Dick Williams, Ellen Pesavento,
Teri Miranti, Lori Pesavento, Jan Miller, Jerry Venemann, Pam Apostolou, Shelley
Clarke, Joan Jett, Lita Ford, Victory Tischler-Blue, Cherie Currie, Kenny Laguna,
Kim Fowley, Thommy Price, Lauren Varga, Kathleen Warnock, Torry Castellano,
Theo Kogan, Phanie Diaz, Bun E. Carlos, Stella Maeve, John Alcock, and Floria
Sigismondi.
" Tim Page was the first to discuss with me the possibility of focusing on
Sandyʼs story. He shepherded this thesis through from that initial suggestion,
keeping my language on point. Thanks also to thesis committee members Josh
Kun and Karen Tongson, two smart music-lovers who got it. Sasha Anawalt was
a constant source of encouragement and support. Thanks to Geneva Overholser
and the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism in general for
giving me the time and facilities to undertake this research and writing."
" Thanks to the LA Weekly for publishing portions of this thesis in their
March 19, 2010, issue. Thanks also to Interview Magazine for publishing my
interviews with Jett and Sigismondi in their March 2010 issue. Thanks to Ken
Phillips and Kenny Laguna for helping to arrange several interviews.
" And thanks to all the members of the Runaways for creating inspiring,
empowering music, sometimes against all odds.
iii
Table of Contents
Dedication"" " " " " " " " " ii
Acknowledgments"" " " " " " " " iii
Abstract"" " " " " " " " " v
Chapter 1: Drummer Girl "" " " " " " " 1
Chapter 2: California Girl"" 3
Chapter 3: Queens of Noise"" " " " " " 9
Chapter 4: The Dark Side 27
References 41
Comprehensive Bibliography"" " " " " " 44
iv
Abstract
! Sandy West, 16, was one of the two initial founding members of the 1970s
all-girl band the Runaways. Her powerhouse drumming helped the band blaze a
trail through sexism and sexploitation and inspired a legacy of all-girl groups.
After the Runaways broke up, she was never able to regain her footing as a
musician. For periods of time she became a drug addict and gun-carrying drug
runner, and was repeatedly jailed. She died of cancer in 2006, just a few years
before the Runaways finally got the media acclaim for which she had fought
since she was a teen. This is the story of her pioneering, troubled life.
v
Chapter 1: Drummer Girl
" On a summer day in 1975, a raven-haired adolescent carrying a
Silvertone guitar took four public buses from Canoga Park to a two-story house in
Huntington Beach. At the door she was greeted by a California surfing beauty
with piercing blue eyes, feathered blond hair, and muscled arms. The two 16-
year-old strangers ascended to the above-garage rec room that doubled as
Sandy Pesaventoʼs bedroom. Sandy sat at her red Pearl drum set. Joan Larkin
plugged in her guitar.
1

" “We just clicked; we locked in right away,” says the guitarist. “She was so
friendly and outgoing. She was like me: She was a tomboy, she loved sports, she
was a rough-houser. I couldnʼt believe how she played. She was such a solid,
strong, powerful, really good drummer. I donʼt even want to say for being 16 -- for
being anything. ... She had this shit down and it was powerful.”
" That suburban rec room was ground zero for the Runaways, the all-girl
teenage band that busted down rock barriers and took an unbelievable amount of
shit. West and Jett formed the zygote
2
of the group that is now the subject of a
much-hyped feature film, The Runaways.
3
The instant fast friends forever stayed
with the band until the rather bitter end.
1
1
Descriptions of Sandy West and Joan Jettʼs first practice are based on author interviews with
Jett and Lori Pesavento.
2
The definition of zygote at Dictionary.com seems a propos here: “The cell produced by the union
of two gametes, before it undergoes cleavage.”
3
The Runaways, Dir. Floria Sigismondi.
" Declaring themselves the “queens of noise,”
4
Jett, West, singer Cherie
Currie, guitarist Lita Ford, and bassist Jackie Fox were pre-punk bandits,
fostering revolution girl style decades before that became a riot grrrl catchphrase.
Sandy West was a powerhouse who proved that girls could play just as hard as
boys. More than any other Runaway, she never got over the bandʼs breakup and
during the following decades, as she created great, little-heard music with other
players and fell into horrific, sometimes violent, drug-fueled troughs, she
advocated for the bandʼs reunion -- or at least their critical dues.
" And West is the one band member who is not around to see the
Runaways get the kind of attention that eluded them when they were treated as a
jailbait novelty act. On October 21, 2006, the strong, charismatic, big-hearted
woman succumbed to the lung cancer that first struck her while in prison on a
drug charge. It was a tragic end for a bon vivant whose very entrance filled a
room with energy, a drummer who beat a path for girl musicians, a tomboy whose
skills and search for thrills included a facility with guns, a California dreamer who
created, and was passed up by, musical history.
2
4
The Runaways, Queens of Noise.
Chapter 2: California Girl
" Sandra Sue Pesavento was born July 10, 1959, in Long Beach, the last of
four daughters in a tight-knit, middle-class Italian-American family. Father Gene
worked for a gas company, mother Jeri held various jobs, including dental
assistant and chiropractor assistant, along with her domestic duties. Like many
residents who had been lured by warm weather, cheap housing, and abundant
jobs to the city nicknamed “Iowa by the Sea,” the couple had migrated from the
Midwest, in their case, Indiana.
5
The Pesaventos settled in Los Altos, a
neighborhood of ranch houses not far from the 405. Eisenhower was president,
and Johnny Hortonʼs version of the country song “The Battle of New Orleans”
was number one. From the oil refineries to the aerospace industry to Hollywood,
Southern California glistened with prosperity; in a few years, the Beach Boys
would be singing about good vibrations and desire for California girls.
" The doted-on baby of the family, Sandy was an extremely active and
generally happy child. Maybe because he realized he was never going to have a
son, Gene bonded with his youngest, fixing cars and playing ball together. “They
were close. She related to him and he related to her,” says Teri Miranti, the
second oldest daughter.
" Sandy became a tomboy, despite childhood bouts of ill health. Second
wave feminism and Title IX were opening doors for women, and the youngest
Pesavento eagerly rushed through them. That challenge to do whatever the guys
3
5
Chad Greene, “From ʻIowa by the Seaʼ to International City,” Long Beach Business Journal,
Janurary 17, 2006.
did was both Sandyʼs lifelong drive and part of her downfall. She played tennis
and basketball, swam competitively, ran track, surfed, water-skied, and rode
horses. “She was incredibly energetic, hysterical, very funny, athletic,” says Lori,
the third daughter. "
" Sandyʼs physical power and strong personality made her “a force to be
reckoned with,” says Ellen, the oldest sister. Lori recalls Sandy begging Gene for
a raise in their allowance. Their father was strict: “Do you think money grows on
trees?” he answered. But Sandy was not someone who took no for an answer.
One day Gene responded to her entreaties by taking her outside. There, tied to a
tree, dangled two dollar bills.
" Sandy was smart, but she struggled in school. Lori attributes her
difficulties to conditions with which she was diagnosed decades later: “Early on
she had a lot of challenges with academic performances primarily because she
had a lot of learning disabilities, which later on in life we learned that she had
ADHD. She had challenges that were around things like mood disorders, bipolar
disorders.”
" In fourth grade Sandy made it clear that she was not going to follow in the
classical path paved by her high-achieving sisters. The Pesaventos were
musical: Gene sang, Jeri had played violin, Ellen played violin, Lori viola, Teri
cello. Everyone wanted Sandy to be a violinist, so the daughters could form a
string quartet. Sandy tried. She lasted about two weeks. “She said, ʻno wayʼ,” her
mother says. “ʻYou know what: I can be the first girl drummer in Prisk Elementary
School.ʼ So she was happy with that. Thatʼs how it began.”
4
" West had almost no distaff role models in her chosen instrument. There
had been only two significant female drummers in rock and pop music up to that
point: Maureen Tucker of the Velvet Underground and Karen Carpenter. West
was as different from those musicians -- Tucker at once primitive and artsy,
Carpenter a subtle pop player best known for her sad, beautiful singing voice --
as they were from each other. Hard rock drummers such as Led Zeppelinʼs John
Bonham and Queenʼs Roger Taylor were her heroes. Sandy poured her
athleticism into pounding those skins.
" At first Sandy played a snare given to her by her grandfather. She played
it so loud, she was relegated to the garage. She played the schoolʼs drums and
fought to be not just the first girl drummer but to hold the first seat in her schoolʼs
band. Eventually she got a set of her own. When the family moved to Huntington
Beach, the movers promptly set up the kit in the bonus room over the garage.
Sandy began bashing, and Jeri worried what the neighbors would think.
" By that point, tragedy had shattered the Pesaventosʼ suburban idyll. On
January 25, 1971, Gene Pesavento died suddenly of a massive heart attack
while at home. Sandy, 11, had just returned from school. “It was very traumatic
for my family,” says Lori. “It was off the Richter scale.”
" Sandy was particularly devastated. She carried a letter from her father
with her until the end of her life.
6
5
6
Jan Miller. Personal interview. January 22, 2010.
" “When I first met her she talked a lot about her dad, how much she missed
him,” says Pam Apostolou, who befriended West in 1980. “Losing her dad was
really really hard on her. Her dad got her.”
" Perhaps the death deepened her connection to her mother, a relationship
that those who knew her say was the most important in her life. When Sandyʼs
family and friends circle the wagons around the painful details of Westʼs life --
which almost everyone does, even those who donʼt know Jeri -- they say they
want to protect the 82-year-old woman from any more suffering. Before Sandy
died, her mother made a scrapbook for her, of old photos, newspaper clippings,
lyrics, telegrams, etc. Thereʼs a page devoted to pictures of Sandy hugging her
short, sweet mom. “We were close,” Jeri simply says.
" In 1972 Jeri married Dick Williams, a former colleague of Gene, whose
wife had also recently died -- and who had three daughters, including a Sandy.
Thus Sandy earned the unfortunate family nickname “Sandy Pee” (Pesavento)
as opposed to “Sandy Wee” (Williams). Jeri and Dick each adopted the otherʼs
kids. Thereʼs a picture of all the girls on Christmas wearing long skirts; if you look
closely, you can see that Sandy had her jeans on underneath. The new, blended
family moved into a larger house in Huntington Beach, to a place where they
could start over on equal ground, not surrounded by memories of lost loved ones.
By this time, some of the daughters were in college or lived elsewhere. Still, the
Huntington house held five girls, three cats, and two dogs, all trying to navigate
their deep hurt, massive change, puberty, and each otherʼs spaces. Sandy
connected with the sportiness of the Williamses: Dick introduced her to her
6
lifelong love of water skiing, and new sister Cheryl shared a horse and a
bedroom with Sandy. But the dislocation, coming so soon after Geneʼs death,
was traumatic. This wasnʼt some happy-go-lucky Brady Bunch story (unless I
missed an episode where Cindy devotes her life to sex, drums, and rockʼnʼroll).
“Blended families arenʼt easy,” Teri says.
" “We were struggling at first, getting to know each other,” says Jeri, who
now resides in Desert Hot Springs with Dick. “To see the love thatʼs transferred
through all that, itʼs wonderful.”
" Sandy was outgoing, fun, easy to get along with, popular enough to be
elected governor of her class in 7th grade. But Lori recalls her transition into
puberty as rocky. “She was very androgynous. She was one of those girls who
didnʼt develop very early. In early adolescence, people used to make fun of her.
They used to call her a boy. That upset her.”
" Around this time, Lori and Sandy were realizing they had something in
common: They both liked girls. During her lifetime Sandy also had boyfriends, but
her primary relationships were with women. “She and I were very open with each
other,” Lori says. “She was very clear with me about her orientation. I donʼt sense
she ever really struggled with it.”
" Sandy also, eventually, came out to her parents, and they accepted her.
“We canʼt say okay, theyʼre not our daughters anymore just because they have a
different lifestyle,” Jeri says. “I donʼt agree with it. Itʼs not what I wished for them.
But on the other hand, theyʼre still wonderful daughters.”
7
" Music and sports were Sandyʼs outlets and her ways of gaining
acceptance. “Sandy early on was pretty determined that she wanted to play rock
music,” Lori says. “It was a way for her to translate the grief.” Ellen introduced her
youngest sister to the Beatles and Bob Dylan and taught her to play guitar. By
the mid-ʻ70s Sandy was listening to hard rock and playing in a local band.
" By 16 she had turned into the kind of suntanned blue-eyed beauty of
Beach Boys songs. She had a long, blond Farrah Fawcett ʻdo -- a golden mane
that she liked to flick back over her shoulder and out of her eyes. By the time
Joan Jett showed up at her door, Sandy was already an incredible sight behind
those Pearls, her long hair and muscled arms flying. “She would smash those
cymbals,” Jett says. “It was very rhythmic and percussive. She kept right on
time.”
" “Sandy showed that you donʼt have to be just hot or pretty and you donʼt
have to just be tough,” says Torry Castellano, drummer for the band the Donnas,
one of the many musicians who cite West as an influence and inspiration. “You
can be both. A lot of times people want to put women in the music industry in a
box. She did what she wanted to do.”
" “She was a phenomenal natural drummer,” Lori says. “I donʼt think the
boys in the business ever even saw that coming.”
8
Chapter 3: Queens of Noise
" Sandy wasnʼt supposed to be there. She lied to her parents: Told them
she went to Disneyland. But actually, she was at a happier place on earth on a
Saturday night during the summer of 1975: the parking lot of the Rainbow Bar
and Grill. Sandy had just turned 16, but she knew this Sunset Strip spot was the
place to hang out if you wanted to meet rock stars and/or their handlers.
" “She was with her friends from Huntington Beach,” says Kim Fowley, the
pop industry veteran who became the Runawaysʼ controversial, Svengali-style
manager. “They were up there standing around like everybody did that didnʼt
have ID to get into the Rainbow Bar and Grill or Roxy. They were up there as
tourists, weekend warriors coming to Hollywood.”
" Fowley speaks derisively of young suburbanites, but they were the
demographic key to the Runaways, whose homes ranged from the San
Fernando Valley to Orange County. Teenagers throughout the metropolitan area
converged on West Hollywood in the mid-ʻ70s, first at Rodney Bingenheimerʼs
English Disco then at places like the Sugar Shack (teens only) and the infamous
Starwood. Revelers discovered the music of David Bowie, the New York Dolls,
Sweet, and “Glycerine Queen” Suzi Quatro (Jettʼs hero) and could even rub
elbows with such stars as Led Zeppelin, who hung out on the Strip while in LA
recording, or just while basking in the sun and nightclubs. English glam found its
stateside coterie in kids who wanted their own debauched fashionista style, and
painted their face, teased their hair, and tightened their spandex accordingly. As
teenage scribe Lisa Fancher put it one of the first articles on the band, in the
9
fanzine Who Put the Bomp: “The predominantly white middle-class suburbs were
bound to have an outbreak of teen troublemakers like the Runaways. ... their
roots are TV, hanging around and going to Hollywood on weekends because itʼs
the only thing to do after five days of school and partying.”
7
" Lori says that her sister was seeking Fowley because he had run an ad
looking for an all-girl band. But that ad was a year old; when it failed to draw
anyone, the producer of such novelty hits as “Alley Oop” and the band the
Modern Lovers had moved on to other schemes. Nonetheless, Sandyʼs timing
was dead on. Just that afternoon, Fowley had auditioned a 16-year-old female
guitarist -- Jett. He was also already working with Jettʼs friend Kari Krome, a
lyricist. Lori and Joan both think it was Sandy who approached Fowley that
Hollywood night. This is how Kim tells the story:
" “Thereʼs Sandy standing there. Looked like [Beach Boy] Dennis Wilsonʼs
sister. She was with a bunch of musicians in a musicianʼs stance. One of those,
ʻHi, I bet everybody here should know Iʼm a musician.ʼ Like Billy the Kid coming
to town ready to have a gunfight. So I said, ʻAre you a musician?ʼ”
" Fowley gave West Jettʼs phone number. In short time Joan, a quiet
Quatro-look-alike in black leather and blue jeans, made that long bus ride. They
played basic rock progressions: Chuck Berry and Rolling Stones riffs, “just to get
a feel, ʻcause thatʼs really all I could do,” Jett says. It was the first time Jett had
ever played with anyone. “Once I had someone to play with, it was like oh my
10
7
Lisa Fancher, “Are You Young and Rebellious Enough to Love the Runaways?” Who Put the
Bomp, Spring 1976, p. 13.
god,” Joan says. “We just bonded over the straight, pure thing of rhythm guitar
and drums locking up. Sandy really helped me to develop who I am.”
" West and Jett played for Fowley over the phone. He was meeting with a
writer from Billboard. Kim held the phone to the reporterʼs ear, and the writer
started smiling. “At that moment I knew it would work,” Fowley says.
" West was already in a band with guys, but -- maybe to make up for that
lost string quartet opportunity with her sisters -- she wanted to play with women.
So did Jett. They and Fowley began auditioning players. One day a sexy guitarist
from Long Beach with long blond hair came to the rehearsal studio on Sunset
and Vine. Lita Ford played athletic leads that were as no nonsense as her
persona. She was the first female metal guitarist of any significance (and went on
to have a healthy career as such after the Runaways). Ford and West bonded
over their love of hard rock.
" “I walked in and Sandy and I hit it off right away,” says Ford. “I started
playing this old Deep Purple song, ʻHighway Star,ʼ an oldie but a goodie. She
knew the entire song; I couldnʼt believe it. We just jammed it out. As soon as we
did that, we were like, ʻI love you.ʼ”
" Fowley and Jett found Currie at the Sugar Shack. She had never been in
a band but looked the part: Brigitte Bardot with a David Bowie haircut, as Fowley
would say. Currie was a Promethean ingenue, a rape victim who strutted in a
corset like it was armor and sang like she was going to draw blood. Kim and
Joan crafted the dirty pop anthem “Cherry Bomb” for her audition. The song
11
introduced the Runawaysʼ theme: “wild girl(s)” who, like the firecracker, were
smoldering and explosive, sure to “make you sore.”
" The hardest part of assembling -- and, over the years, of maintaining -- the
Runaways was finding a bassist. In the first three months, the Runaways went
through several, starting with Michael “Micki” Steele -- booted for being too old,
she went on to play in the Bangles -- and, in December, ending with Jackie
Fuchs, redubbed Fox. Krome was gone by this time. Half the band took stage
names. Pesavento became West “because she looked so California,” says
Fowley. The Runaways were promptly signed to Mercury Records. For most of
them, it was their first band. None of them were older than 17.
" In 1975 pop music had a noble history of female vocal groups but not of
bands where women played the instruments. Such acts as Goldie and the
Gingerbreads and Fanny broke ground culturally, demonstrating that guitars were
not merely phallic extensions and singing about womenʼs joys and passions. But
sadly, they didnʼt have much impact commercially. And they werenʼt comprised of
five hot teenagers, three of whom, at least -- Lita, Sandy, and Joan -- could
seriously play. The Runaways created a West Coast version of glam rock that
was part metal, part bubblegum, and proto-punk. They were the link between the
New York Dolls and the Sex Pistols. Before them, L.A. was known for surf music
and soft rock. The Runaways provided the soundtrack for a dream going sour.
" None of the Runaways knew each other beforehand, but they got close
real fast, shoved into a van and sent touring across the U.S., and then England,
and eventually to Japan. There they were greeted with something like mass
12
hysteria, and the intense pressure cooker of bad management, ready drugs, and
hormonal horniness claimed its first victim. Enraged by the negligent destruction
of her prized bass, Fox cut herself with a broken glass and left the band.
8
(She
went on to become a high-powered Harvard-trained lawyer.) By that time, 1977,
Mercury had released two albums, The Runaways and Queens of Noise. A third,
Live in Japan, was recorded on that tour.
" “Being on the road was like taking a a small child and a few of her friends
to the zoo for the first time,” says Currie. “There was wonderment of everything
we were experiencing, good or bad. We were a family. We spent years together
protecting each other, making each other better performers, making each other
who we are today. When I look back at the videos of the Runaways, Iʼm
astonished how great that band was. Still to this day Iʼve never seen anything like
it. The five of us together were exceptional. We were magical together; we cared
about each other a lot.”
" The Runaways were like a girl gang, or deranged sorority. They were
forging and experiencing something woefully rare: the power of females working,
creating, living, and loving together. Occasionally, the love was physical. Currie
got intimate with both Jett and West. “Back then in the mid ʻ70s, that was just
what happened,” Currie says. “At that time, David Bowie and Elton John,
everybody was coming out. We experimented together. We had fun. We loved
each other.”
13
8
Fox and others discuss this incident in detail in Edgeplay, Victory Tischler-Blueʼs 2004
documentary.
" Homosexuality may have been an experiment for Currie, but West was
undoubtedly happy to find her own preference accepted and supported. Not that
she or anyone else in the band made coming-out statements.
" “When it came to her fans and the public, it was hush hush,” says Jerry
Venemann, a Runaways fan from San Dimas who became one of Westʼs closest
friends -- she called him her brother. “It wasnʼt like she was ashamed of it. It just
wasnʼt something she wanted to be discussed. She just didnʼt want that to be a
part of the music. She hated labels period.”
" After all, even some of the Runaways had a tough time accepting same-
sex relationships. Ford almost didnʼt join because she was so shocked by her
first encounter with Sapphic love.
" “I had never been around people like the Runaways,” she says. “They
were gay and I wasnʼt. It was wild to me. My parents had never explained to me
that people are gay. When I met them I was like, ʻYou like girls but youʼre a girl.ʼ I
didnʼt like it and I didnʼt want to be around it. After three days of being in the
Runaways I left, I quit. Two weeks later I thought about it. I sat there and thought,
ʻTheyʼre not bothering me. Theyʼre cool. Thereʼs nothing wrong with them except
for their sexual preference. I want to go back.ʼ And they called me. They said,
ʻLita, we canʼt find anybody who can play guitar like you can. Please come back.ʼ
And I was like, ʻYes, Iʼm coming.ʼ I threw my amp in the back of my car and drove
back and gave everybody a hug.”
" The Runaways had to become each otherʼs support, because by choice
and by circumstance, they were separated from their families. Currieʼs parents
14
had recently divorced; her mother had moved to Indonesia, and her father was
slipping into eventually fatal alcoholism. Jettʼs father had left. Perhaps caught up
in their own sorrows, the others didnʼt even realize West had issues as well. Her
parents had long since figured out that she hadnʼt gone to Disneyland that day
and were deeply concerned about her young involvement in a scene they didnʼt
understand -- and if they had understood, might have worried about even more.
They loved Sandy. But they didnʼt care for the music -- even her sisters didnʼt
really like it -- and they certainly didnʼt care for Fowley. “When he walked in the
door, I was not happy,” says Jeri Williams. “He was not good news.”
" The Williamsesʼ parental concern could have felt to West like lack of
support. The bandʼs name was a gimmick, but maybe, in a sense, she was
running away from a conservative upbringing. In order to be closer to the band
and the action, Sandy was living with her sister Teri in Westwood. Teri was in
college and had her own life to live.
" “I think that family didnʼt know what to do with her need to be a drummer,
her need to kick ass, her need to dominate the world of rock ʻnʼ roll and be a
crusader,” Fowley says. “I think that was her burning need to get out there. They
understood it but it was uncomfortable. ʻWhy isnʼt she like other girls wanting to
go to college and marry a doctor or lawyer? We could have grandchildren some
day.ʼ Possibly that was what they had in mind for her. This is conservative
Orange County, behind the orange curtain, George Bush country, Ronald
Reagan country. She escaped the golden ghetto.”
15
" Fowley tells a story of West that is eerily similar to Loriʼs childhood tale,
and indicative of how the hitmaker became an unlikely, and unwilling, father
figure for the Runaways. “She said, ʻIʼm going to quit this band unless I get a
truck. Iʼve got to get a truck because Iʼve got to haul these drums in something. I
want a blue truck. I must have that truck or I wonʼt be here anymore.ʼ ʻOkay
hereʼs your truck.ʼ ʻOkay thank you.ʼ And she had this truck that was her pride
and joy. I didnʼt have a car. Nobody else did. She got that truck.”
" Like a family, the Runaways fought. One day, not long after she joined the
band, Currie found herself lifted in Westʼs strong arms and thrown clear across a
Porsche. Currie had proven to be to the diva role born, and had been having one
of her frequent shouting contests with Fowley. Sandy was there to pick Cherie up
off the ground on the other side and apologize. “ʻIʼm so so sorry. We have to stop
this. I canʼt lose this band,ʼ” Currie says West said. Itʼs the only time Cherie can
remember Sandy getting upset.
" Sandy hated the fighting. She got along with everyone and she wanted
everyone to get along. “She was our Switzerland,” says Victory Tischler, aka Vicki
Blue, who replaced Fox (and was later replaced herself). “She wanted us to
make the music,” says Currie. “She was the great mediator.”
" Perhaps because of her sports background, West saw the Runaways as
a team. While other band members were taking shots at each other, she was
quick to punch out anyone who threatened or insulted her bandmates, a situation
that happened rather often. Sandy told Venemann a story about an incident late
in the groupʼs career, when they were hanging out with the Sex Pistols in
16
London. They were on a houseboat on the Thames, and Sid Vicious kept pawing
at Jett, who was in no mood, or condition, for love. West told him to quit. Vicious
kept harassing Joan. So Sandy picked up the skinny bassist and dropped him in
the shallow, muddy river.
" And then it began to seem that the people the Runaways most needed
protection from were the people with whom they were working.
"
" Much has been said about Fowleyʼs role with the Runaways. He is at
once credited with creating the band and with tearing the girls apart. He believed
in them passionately but he ripped them off financially. Floria Sigismondiʼs film
The Runaways does a good job of depicting both the former child starʼs
charismatic appeal and his sliminess; as portrayed by Michael Shannon, Fowley
steals the film, just like any good villain. Thereʼs no doubt Fowley, who was 36 at
the bandʼs inception, was the Runawaysʼ evil genius, picking out their name and
accompanying bad-girl image, priming and primping -- and pimping? -- them for
rock stardom.
" The Pesavento/Williams despise Fowley. He came to their house
promising tutors and chaperones. “Those were promises that never happened,”
Jeri says. Well-behaved schoolgirls were the opposite of what he was grooming.
He was selling JD sexpots. The girls went along with this to a degree, dressing
and posing provocatively; they were just developing their womanly bodies, and
they could feel the power of their sexual appeal. But sometimes, the sexploitation
went too far. An English ad for Queens of Noise, for example, featured
17
disembodied crotch shots of the teenagers in S&M gear. This was pedophiliac
fetishism infused with misogyny. In one infamous Crawdaddy article that was a
last straw for Currie, Fowley told the reporter that he could have put together a
band of dwarves but picked girls instead, and that the best thing Currie could do
would be to hang herself.
9

" Currie, who quit the Runaways in 1977 while they were recording their
third album, Waitinʼ for the Night, thinks Fowley was shrewd but vile (the two
have made their peace in recent years). In her memoirs, she recounts an incident
where he taught the girls to have sex, using a drugged-up woman as his
blackboard.
10
Fowley denies that incident, but says he did teach the girls to be
tough: “I used to give bastard and bitch lessons. Youʼve got to be a monster to
deal with monsters. I was horrible, but not awful.”
" The family still blames Fowley for exposing Sandy to the sex, drugs, and
rockʼnʼroll lifestyle that ultimately derailed her. The financial shenanigans, verbal
abuse, and sexploitation sent Switzerland to war. In Edgeplay: A Film About the
Runaways, Tischler-Blueʼs compelling but troubling 2004 film about her former
band, Sandy speaks bitterly of Fowley, and most of the people who know her say
she remained angry with him much of her life. “I thought he was an absolutely
freakish guy,” says Lori of the tall, gaunt producer, who dressed like a dandy and
monologued like Oscar Wilde meets Jack Kerouac. “I think he took advantage of
them in a lot of ways. His interest was for his own pocket.”
18
9
Charles M. Young, “Run-Run-Run-Run Runaways,” Crawdaddy, October 1976, pp 36-37.
10
Currie, pp. 129-45.
" There were serious money issues. Bun E. Carlos, drummer for Cheap
Trick, remembers when his band and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers opened
for the Runaways in 1977 in Detroit. The girls were driving a rental car they
hadnʼt returned and were “living off nothing, no advances, peanuts. The gild was
off the lily for the band. They were out there paying their dues and suffering. We
knew they were being taken advantage of.” Still, Carlos says: “Without Kim, they
wouldnʼt have been there at all, thatʼs for sure.”
" Fowley and Jett were/are friends, and Ford and Blue also speak of him
with mixed feelings. Joan firmly rejects the charge that the girls were his victims.
" “This whole abuse thing is maddening to me,” Jett says. “I think in
hindsight people have to create monsters, but they should look at their own shit
and responsibility in not making it happen. If you feel abused, get the fuck out.
Nobody was forced to stay.” Jett canʼt imagine that the dandyish manager
pushed the tough drummer around. “Kim Fowley did not want to get punched by
Sandy. She could have bent him and broken him in half.”
" Fowley denies either knowledge or memory of many of the charges
against him. He did not go on the road with the band and leaves much of the
blame for unhealthy hijinks on the tour manager, Scotty Anderson (who got
Currie pregnant, according to her book), ignoring the fact that he was the one
who hired the girlsʼ non-keepers. Fowley admits he was in over his head as the
Runawaysʼ manager. “At one point I became the surrogate authority figure, which
was a problem. It was overwhelmingly stressful, because I was a guy who made
records. From ʻ59 to ʻ75 I was a producer in recording studios. I didnʼt ever have
19
to form a band from scratch. In retrospect I wish I would have just been the
songwriter.
" “Their age group was rebelling against parents, teachers, Sunday school.
The feminist movement started in the early ʻ70s, here we were in ʻ75. Suddenly I
have five warriors, cheerleaders with atomic weapons, ready to kick ass.”
" In the end, it was Fowleyʼs ass the Runaways kicked. The girls fired him in
late ʼ77 and hired Toby Mamis, who worked with Blondie. In 1983 Sandy sued
Fowley, Polygram Records, and Mamis for breach of contract and an accounting
of monies owed. Fowley countersued for $1 million.
11
The cases went nowhere.
“It was Dodge City,” Fowley says. “One day she barked. I barked back. And then
after I barked back, the barking stopped.”
" In the ʻ90s, led by Jett and her manager Kenny Laguna, the former band
members successfully sued Fowley and Mercury Records for back royalties.
" Fowley last saw West in 2001; thereʼs a photo of them together on his
MySpace site. He says they talked like it was 1975. “We were in the war
together.” The West he knew in the ʻ70s was happy. “She was California lifestyle
surfer athlete drummer who had a heart of gold and could sing. And was a really
nice person who could have been a drummer in any famous band, male or
female. She was underrated. And was very explosive temperament wise. But
was a good soul.”
20
11
Pesavento Sandra, et al v. Bad Boys Music, et al, June 16, 1983. Kim Fowley v. Sandy
Pesavento et al, Nov. 4, 1983.
" By 1978, the Runaways were ready to be taken seriously. They had a new
manager and a new producer, John Alcock, a Brit who had worked with Thin
Lizzy and John Entwistle. The band was just a trio now: West, Jett (who also
sang lead), and Ford (on lead and bass guitars). Blue was pictured on And
Now ... The Runaways, but the producer says he never even met her. “I left the
band,” Tischler-Blue says. “I didnʼt like it. It wasnʼt what I had hoped it would
be.” (Laurie McAllister became the Runawaysʼ last bassist.)
" Alcock says he was brought in because the Runaways wanted a harder
sound.
" “They had a sense of frustration that they were previously not really
allowed to develop as musicians,” says Alcock. “They wanted to focus more on
the music and less on the image.”
" Over three tumult-filled years, gimmick had devolved into parody for the
Runaways. Thanks in part to Fowleyʼs machinations and eminent quotability, a
respectable amount of ink was spilled on the Runaways from the outset,
particularly in England and Japan. They were featured on the cover of Creem
and Crawdaddy. They attracted the admiration of such esteemed critics as
Charles M. Young and Billy Altman. But even the favorable reviews were not
always tasteful. In article after article, male journalists slobbered over the
Runaways, jotting down their body measurements (as Young did in the
Crawdaddy cover story), passing over their musical talents.
12
Writing in Creem,
21
12
Young, p. 41.
Patrick Goldstein called the Runaways “lissome Lolitas” and “Mr. Fʼs creations.”
13

In The Village Voice, Robert Christgau, the self-appointed “dean of rock critics,”
pronounced them “bimbos.”
14
" By 1978, these “creations” wanted some R-E-S-P-E-C-T. As West told
NMEʼs Chris Salewicz, “Weʼre putting our lives into music.”
15

" Given the times, Currieʼs corsets, and the kitschy qualities of such songs
as “Dead End Justice” (a Shangri-Laʼs style operetta that proved prophetic for
West), itʼs doubtful whether the Runaways ever stood a chance of being taken as
seriously as, say, such male peers as the New York Dolls, the Ramones, and Sex
Pistols (all of whom had bimbo qualities, but were probably never so labeled).
Spun as a gimmick (“they could have been dwarves”), the novelty of an all-girl
band had passed by the time the members were entering their ʻ20s. The male-
dominated media and record companies had been titillated by a group with a
blond bombshell front and center, not by four badass players. Mamis couldnʼt
even find a U.S. home for And Now ... The Runaways. And who could really
blame the labels: The album was a mess of schizo styles and lame covers.
" The Runaways were splitting into musical corners. West and Ford had cut
their teeth on metal, Alcockʼs forte. The glam fan Jett was getting more and more
22
13
Patrick Goldstein, “The Runaways: Lissome Lolitas or Teenage Trash,” Creem, February 1977.
14
Robert Christgau, “Consumer Guide, The Village Voice, Mar. 21, 1977. Viewable at http://
www.robertchristgau.com/xg/cg/cgv3-77.php. The review says, in full: “I'll tell you what kind of
street rock and roll these bimbos make--when the title cut came on I thought I was hearing Evita
twice in a row. Only I couldn't figure out why the singer wasn't in tune.” He gave the band a C
minus (later, he changed it to a C).
15
Chris Salewicz, “The Runaways: And I Wonder ... I Wah Wah Wah Wah Wonder ...,” NME, July
24, 1976.
into punk. Joan says she felt pushed out of her own band, as the other members
cozied up to the new producer, and turned down her requests to do songs like “I
Love RockʼnʼRoll.”
" “We all had dark stuff going on toward the end of the band, after Cherie
left,” Jett says. “I felt that was the lineup. I just sensed it was going to slowly die. I
knew the public wouldnʼt really accept me as the lead singer. I was too whatever
-- not the taste of what people wanted to see. But we were still out there trying.
You can see it. Look at any picture of us as a four-piece; you wonʼt find one
picture of us smiling. We were depressed. In the studio I could just feel a pulling
away, of the producer and Sandy and Lita into this world that didnʼt seem to have
room for me. I thought to myself, Iʼm not getting fired from the band I started.”
" West tells a similar story in Edgeplay.
16
She says Alcock “had the hots” for
her; the producer admits there was a “flirtation.” But he disputes that it was
merely artistic differences that ruptured the Runaways. “The reason the
Runaways broke up has much more to do with the business stuff surrounding the
whole affair,” he says. “When youʼve got a band of musicians that donʼt have a lot
of money, the stresses and strains of that are enough to break them up.”
" If Jett says Alcock was pulling Ford and West to one side, he says that
Mamis was pulling Jett to another. Itʼs a classic rockʼnʼroll story: Just as Fowley
had done with Currie, the manager was trying to make the singer the star. Toby
and Joan wanted to shoot a movie about the Runaways. Lita and Sandy felt that
living off the bandʼs past image would be a step backward.
23
16
Edgeplay.
" Whatever the various causes, the decision was mutual: “We decided New
Years Eve 1978 would be our last gig,” says Jett.
" Whether they starve on the prairie or fall apart in the studio, pioneers tend
to have short lives. In some ways, the Runaways reinforced and propagated
sexist stereotypes of women in rock: They got their moniker and shtick from a
male music hustler; they sometimes peddled low-grade, retro, soft-porn images;
and the volatility of their lineup sent negative messages about the limits of girl
love. But overall, the Runaways were ahead of their time. They embodied and
promoted what decades later would be called “girl power.” “Everything could
have happened except that time in history, it wasnʼt possible because the society
was too misogynist,” says Kenny Laguna, the songwriter and producer who
became Jettʼs and, more recently, Currieʼs manager. “Joan always says the
Runaways owned their own sexuality. Thatʼs why they ran into walls.”
" The Runaways were misunderstood in their lifetime, but they continue to
influence other musicians -- not to mention to inspire a movie that can attract
such top teen stars as Kristen Stewart (as Jett) and Dakota Fanning (as Currie).
“Sandy knew what she wanted and she went after it,” says Stella Maeve, who
plays West in The Runaways. “They wanted to be in an all-girl rock band and
they made it happen.”
" Since the Runaways showed it could be done, women rock bands have
proliferated: The Go-Goʼs, the Bangles, Girlschool, Frightwig, Lunachicks, L7,
Babes in Toyland, Bratmobile, the Donnas, Sleater-Kinney, etc. Many of those
24
musicians explicitly cite the Runaways as inspirations. “I was a fan when I first
heard them when I was a teenager and found out they were teenagers and all
girls and were that tight and awesome,” says Theo Kogan, singer for the ʻ90s all-
girl group the Lunachicks. “They were inspirational.”
" “They went out on a mission to prove that girls could have fun and play
music and own their sexuality and not be judged,” says Phanie Diaz, drummer for
the 21st-century Texas trio Girl in a Coma.
" The saddest thing about the end of the Runaways is how much emotion it
evokes for the members 30 years later: sadness, anger, love, joy. Jettʼs voice,
which minutes before had broken into sobs remembering West, still pitches with
hurt as she talks about the end. Sandy never got over it. Those were the best
years of her life and she didnʼt recover from their conclusion. Ask her parents
why they let their youngest run away and join the rockʼnʼroll circus, and thereʼs a
simple answer: Who could stop her?
" “It was her whole life,” Jeri Williams says. “That was her dream. What
were you going to do? ... It was awfully early for it to happen. But she was happy
doing that, thatʼs for sure.”
" Drummers are the backdrop. Theyʼre set furthest from the front of the
stage in the conventional stage lineup and they provide the backbeat, not the
front vocals. They are, stereotypically, the strong silent type. Sandy was
muscular, and more of a physical thinker than an intellectual one, but she was
also a showman. She could twirl her sticks like a Wild West gunman. “She was
25
the hardest rocking female drummer of that era,” says Cheap Trickʼs Carlos.
“Part of the reason was because there werenʼt any. And because she was. She
always sat up straight on that kit. She had a big cymbal and she wasnʼt just
tapping the drums, she was whacking them.”
" Sandy took the spotlight for one song in the Runawaysʼ live set: a cover
of the Troggsʼ 1960s garage-rock classic “Wild Thing.” “Wild Thing,” like its three-
chord cousin “Louie Louie,” is rock music at its most primitive: emotive, sexy,
barely spoken, all played between the lines. West was a good singer (and
guitarist) as well as a drummer, but thereʼs nothing fancy in her delivery, captured
in a video moment in Japan. She just plays straight and true and fast and short.
The instruments stop on the verses and West raises one of those long, sinewy
arms -- she had arms like Tina Turner has legs -- and sings: “Wild thing, I think I
love you.” Then she smashes the sticks down for two beats. “I want to know for
sure.” Sheʼs pointing at the audience. “Cʼmon on and hold me tight.” Her hand is
in the sky now, twirling. “You move me.” The song was Westʼs signature, one she
carried with her to her post-Runaways bands.
" After the Runaways, Sandy West became Wild Thing.

26
Chapter 4: The Dark Side
" Key words and phrases come up over and over again in friendsʼ, loversʼ,
and colleaguesʼ recollections of West, like hooks or refrains of songs: “Big heart,”
“good heart,” “loyal,” “strong.” And then thereʼs “the dark side.” In the decades
after the Runawaysʼ breakup, West went through harrowing struggles with
chemical addiction and criminal behavior.
" Despite the bandʼs wild-girl reputation, West did not appear to have drug
problems while in the Runaways. She certainly drank and partied. Teri Miranti,
her sister, recalls meeting up with the band at Studio 54 in New York, where Yul
Brunner kept hitting on her. The description in The Runaways of West as “the girl
with a joint in her mouth and a chip on her shoulder”
17
is inaccurate: She didnʼt
like marijuana. Budweiser and cocaine -- an unlikely combination of high and
low-brow intoxicants -- were her poisons of choice. And then, much later, crystal
meth. She smoked Marlboros constantly. After all West went through in her 47
years, the cigarettes are what killed her.
" The Runaways did introduce West to a way of living that she never
figured out how to move beyond. At the age when she should have been learning
practical life skills, Sandy was shooting heroin with Keith Moon, according to a
story she told her sister Ellen. (Thatʼs the only report of West doing smack;
perhaps she figured partying with rockʼs greatest all-time drummer was a special
occasion.) Venemann blames his “sisterʼs” drug problems “on the situations that
27
17
The Runaways.
the Runaways were put in. They didnʼt just have their peers partying with them.
They had management and peers giving them drugs while on the road. Itʼs the
Judy Garland syndrome: ʻDo this to go onstage. Do this to go offstage.ʼ Sandy,
like some of the rest of them, got conditioned to the idea that music went hand in
hand with drugs.”
" Immediately after the Runawaysʼ breakup, West was optimistic, happy.
She planned to start a new, mixed-gender band with Ford, working with Alcock
(proving Jettʼs suspicions). But after a few months, when that failed to get off the
ground and Ford also moved on, Sandy began to realize the enormity of what
she had lost, and perhaps to anesthetize the pain. She and Alcock also parted
ways.
" She was trying to get her own group, the Sandy West Band, together. The
music was all right. But if labels thought the Runaways were dead without Currie,
they certainly werenʼt interested in a band fronted by a drummer. Laguna says he
tried to help West but had a hard enough time selling Jett (dozens of labels
passed on her before she and Laguna formed the indie Blackheart and made “I
Love Rock n Roll” a giant hit). When Sandy saw the success Joan and Lita were
having as solo artists (Ford hit the charts with hair-metal anthems “Kiss Me
Deadly” and “Close My Eyes Forever”), she was determined to compete on her
own. But she didnʼt have anyone like Laguna or Fordʼs manager Sharon
Osbourne pushing her. And she might not have trusted them if she did.
" “She had a very healthy ego,” says Ellen Pesavento. “She became
delusional about how great she was. She had visions of being a really big star
28
getting an enormous amount of attention. Meanwhile there was the deterioration
of the addiction, all that going downward.”
" Sandy compartmentalized her life, hiding her drug use from people that
wouldnʼt approve. She could be a tremendous amount of fun and a dear friend.
Pam Apostolou met West in 1980, when the drummer was bartending. They
became like sisters almost immediately. Apostolou remembers Sandy as a
woman bursting with energy, a free spirit who liked to waterski. “The girl never
wore a top,” the Hollywood-based graphic designer says. “When she would stay
over here, weʼd have a few friends over, a fire pit in the backyard, and play
music. The next morning weʼd all get up, and thereʼs Sandy in the kitchen,
wearing boxers, no top, making pancakes for all of us.”
" West lived off and on with Venemann, who was eight years younger than
she. Their relationship was Platonic, but he says Sandy was a physically
outgoing, affectionate person. “We would kiss and hold hands,” Venemann says.
“She was always so playful. Weʼd go into Wal-Mart and sheʼd grab my hand and
say, ʻLetʼs skip through the aisle.ʼ”
" Music remained Sandyʼs great love. Venemann, also a drummer, joined
the Sandy West Band, taking over the kit when West moved upstage for certain
songs. She reunited with Currie in 1990. They played gigs together with Jackie
Fox and others, including shows in New York with the Lunachicks.
" “Iʼll never be as good on a stage because sheʼs not there,” says Currie.
“Thereʼs something between me and Sandy that will never be reproduced. She
and I had a connection spiritually in every way. On that stage she and I played off
29
each other all the time. Her dynamic performances made me a better performer.
Iʼll never forget looking over my shoulder to see that smiling face.”
" Family still remained important to Sandy. But she didnʼt see her parents
and sisters that often. She seemed to feel alienated by how different her life had
become from theirs. Instead, people like Apostolou and Venemann became her
surrogate siblings; she would bring them with her to family gatherings.
" “Sandy was amazing in the way she drew people to her and created her
own whole family,” says Ellen. “She was closer to her family of choice. She felt
such shame with her biological family. We didnʼt see her very much. That was
tough.”
" “I donʼt think Sandy felt that people really understood her, other than her
very close friends,” says Apostolou. “She just wanted to be loved.”
" Often, West turned to fans for friendships. Some of those people --
Venemann, Varga, New York writer Kathleen Warnock, Bay Area social worker
Shelley Clarke -- were vital links in her support network.
" “She was a wonderful person, very personable, very welcoming to
everybody, regardless of who they were,” says Clarke. “She had a presence
about her. When she walked into a room it was definitely noticed.”
" But there were also hangers-on who took advantage of her, who just
wanted to party with a rock star. She would disappear with these people, into
black holes of drug-fueled behavior. “Because Sandyʼs life didnʼt move forward
as well as the othersʼ, it was easier for her to fall back on drinking and drugs,”
says Alcock. “She started doing some fairly heavy partying with people I didnʼt
30
know, somewhere down in the beach communities. Those were not great
people.”
" West was known as a hard-partying girl. Thommy Price, who drummed for
Mink DeVille during the Runawaysʼ heyday and later joined Joan Jettʼs
Blackhearts, used to run into her at music-industry conventions. They became
fast friends after she burst into a quiet party he was throwing and took it over.
“She was very intense,” he says. “She lived a hard life, like most of us drummers
do or did. I donʼt think she was surrounded by the best people later on. That has
a lot to do with why sheʼs not around today. She lived life to the fullest.”
" Casual partying turned into a search for the ever-greater high, then into
addiction. This was a time when recreational drug use in America was turning
from idealistic experimentation into deadly, habitual use of new forms and
techniques of narcotics.
" “She came over to the house and she was freebasing cocaine, which I
tried desperately to get her to stop,” says Currie. “Thatʼs what almost took my life.
It was extremely difficult to watch her do it. Having been in her position, I knew all
the begging in the world wouldnʼt stop her. Itʼs one of the toughest things to quit.”
" Family and friends staged interventions; West went into rehab a few times.
But she always fell off the wagon.
" A girlfriend reportedly introduced West to what Ellen calls “the evil drug.
The thing that was destroying her was crystal meth. One time I drove her home. I
just remember trying to relate to her. I looked at her and saw her teeth getting
31
black. I saw the tremors. She was disconnected, couldnʼt have a coherent
conversation.”
" The beautiful California girl looked old beyond her years. “It was
heartbreaking,” says her oldest sister.
" Sometimes, when West disappeared from friendsʼ and familiesʼ lives, she
would be in jail. Sandyʼs life of crime began harmlessly enough: On a Runaways
tour, she, Currie, and Jett were arrested in England for stealing hotel keys. Her
stateside arrest record starts in 1988, when she was picked up in Orange
Country for driving under the influence. There were at least six arrests after that,
in multiple counties: more DUIs, possession of controlled substances,
possession of illegal substances, driving with a suspended license. She was able
to serve some of her sentences concurrently. Friends say she took her jail time in
stride, that in some ways, it was easier for her to be institutionalized, because
she was being taken care of -- just like she had been in the Runaways.
" “She told me that in some ways being in prison reminded her of being in a
band,” Varga says. “She said, ʻI was living in such a bad way that when I went
away, that was the only stability I had for a year. When I got back out it was back
into the chaos.ʼ”
" In a sense West was lucky, getting put away for minor charges, when she
was involved in much worse things. She wrote about her violent past in the
autobiography she worked on at the end of her life, though in veiled, blurred
terms -- no names named. She gave those notes to Varga, asking her to get
them published. “The people she surrounded herself with at the end of the
32
Runaways were really bad people,” Varga says. “She was around when things
were being shot.”
" West was more explicit in her interviews for Edgeplay. “Sandy got involved
with mob-type figures,” says Tischler-Blue. “Because Sandy had this all-
American girl look, people wouldnʼt red-flag her. She started running drugs into
the recording studios. Sandy loved coke. That was this turn that took her down a
very different road. That road led to the underbelly of the Hollywood music scene.
At that time there were some really bad characters moving around. Heavy-duty
drug people. Gunrunning people.”
" Thanks to drugs, music and the mob have often been bedfellows, from
Frank Sinatra to Lil Wayne. The 1980s was the era of the Wonderland murders,
the bloody 1981 incident in which four people were bludgeoned to death down in
Laurel Canyon, in a drug-related incident that allegedly involved a porn star
(John Holmes) and a club impresario (the Starwoodʼs Eddie Nash). Hard drugs
and big money were making Hollywood mean. And Sandy West had a growing
rage, with no fear.
" Looking tough but emotional, Sandy talks about “the dangerous
adventures of me” in the most moving scenes in Edgeplay. “Maybe that was the
self-destructive side of me. Maybe I was out to push it. I was fearless. You go
down and break somebodyʼs door down. Theyʼve got guns all over you, youʼve
got guns all over them. You donʼt know whoʼs going to get killed. ... I had to break
somebodyʼs arm once. I had to shove a gun down somebodyʼs throat once and
33
watch them shit their pants. And you look around and say, I just wanted to be a
drummer in a rock band.”
18
" Edgeplay is one of the many sore spots that, 30 years later, still divide the
Runaways from each other. Saying it was “too Jerry Springer,” Jett refused to
participate.
19
Tischler-Blue says Jett and Laguna tried to stop the film and
prevented the bandʼs publishing company from licensing Runaways songs. Jeri
Williams walked out on it. It severed Currieʼs and Blueʼs friendship. Even Ford,
who is working on another TV project with Blue, wishes it could have focused
more on the music. Vicki admits itʼs not about music: “Edgeplay is a movie about
child abuse disguised as a rock documentary.”
" Some of Westʼs friends, family, and bandmates say Tischler-Blue exploited
Sandy, filming her confessions in a vulnerable moment and then using them
against her will. The erstwhile Runaways bassist admits that the drummer tried to
get the footage from her. She tells of an incident 10 years ago, when West
showed up at her house, pounding on her door, packing a gun, demanding the
film.
" “She has this look in her eyes,” Tischler-Blue recalls. “Sheʼs high like Iʼve
never seen her high before. Tries to push her way in. She says, ʻJoan wants the
footage. Iʼm here to get it.ʼ The violence, that side of her: I saw that look in her
eyes.”
34
18
Edgeplay.
19
Joan Jett. Personal interview. February 5, 2010
" Tischler-Blue says the cops came but she declined to press charges.
Laguna says he and Jett did not tell Sandy to get the footage. “I believe that
Sandy did that because she and Cherie were really upset after they did their
interviews,” Laguna says. “They felt they had been taken advantage of. Sandy
was upset and she was capable of trying to scare her and say Joan did it.”
" But apparently West forgave her friend for the film. Maybe she was looking
to relieve her burden of guilt through confession and was relieved to see some of
her dark secrets exposed to the light of day. Apostolou says Sandy liked
Edgeplay. The old rhythm section became close in Sandyʼs last years; Vicki
spent a lot of time with her in her last years. “Sheʼd spend the night and hold me
all night,” says Blue. “There was a safety and familiarity. I miss her. I wish she
could see [The Runaways movie]. I wish she could have found a place in her
where she could find acceptance of what she accomplished in her life.”
" Itʼs unfair to Westʼs strength to paint her as a victim. There were definitely
people who did not help West in her life, and may have hurt her a lot: Fowley,
Alcock, the friends and fans who pressed her into drugs and crimes. But she was
fiercely, stubbornly independent. She carried a gun and ran drugs because she
wanted to prove that she could be as tough as the guys around her. Varga says
in her memoirs, West accepts responsibility for her own actions. “She doesnʼt try
to blame anybody. She made her own choices. Unfortunately they were the
wrong ones.”
" The one thing that definitely bothered Sandy the rest of her life was the
breakup of the Runaways. She is angry and sad about it in Edgeplay. “I donʼt
35
know why we broke up,” she says, her tough face streaking with tears. She
always wanted the band to reunite, and nothing pained her more than the fact the
members still couldnʼt get into a room together. Yet in the notes she left with
Varga, she realizes that she herself may have been the one to sabotage it. A
reunion was in the works. But Ford came out to see West when she was in a
particularly bad period. Not long after, Ford backed out.
" By the first decade of the 21st century, West was living in demeaned
circumstances for a former rock star: in a mobile home in San Dimas. Thereʼs
evidence she was getting her life together. She was living with Jan Miller, a quiet
widow nine years older than West with an adult son, with whom she became
legal domestic partners. She had formed a band with musicians out east,
including guitarist Varga, which they jokingly called Blue Fox, after the
Runawaysʼ bassists. A four-song self-released EP by West called The Beat Is
Back captures her multiple talents: singer, songwriter, guitarist, pianist, drummer.
She was working different jobs -- handyman, vetʼs assistant, drum instructor. She
had a dog, CJ, that was her child. She loved animals. “She said, ʻI just want to
settle down and have a family,ʼ” Miller says.
" But then she got arrested again, for possession of drugs and
paraphernalia. In the era of three strikes youʼre out, this was one offense too
many. This time, West was sentenced to state prison in Chowchilla, not county
jail, for 18 months. The environment was much more intense, as the former rock
star found herself surrounded by hardcore criminals.
36
" Before she went in, she did rehab one more time, at a facility specifically
for musicians. Friends say this stint may have succeeded better than others.
“She really was a different person,” says Varga. “She said, ʻItʼs taken me almost
30 years to get over this band. I really just have to let it goʼ.”
" West didnʼt have time to find out if she was cleaned up for good. Not long
after arriving at Chowchilla, she developed a bad cough. It was small cell lung
cancer. The deadly, aggressive kind.
" West petitioned for compassionate release but was denied. Miranti said
she got excellent treatment in prison. Still, it must have been horrific to undergo
chemotherapy and radiation, then go back to a cell. She returned to Millerʼs care
when she was released; they moved to a house in West Covina. By this point,
Westʼs family was back in her life, helping take care of her. She was surrounded
by her six sisters, parents, and family of choice. Currie and Blue were there
often. Jett saw her when she was on tour in Pomona. She and Ford talked on the
phone.
" Sandy Westʼs last months were full of pain, as the cancer, which moved to
her brain, ate away at her. She lost some of the things that defined her: her
golden hair and the strength to drum. She gained religion and a determination to
do good. When she recovered, she said, she planned to speak to young people
about the perils of drug use. “Through her suffering, and she really did suffer a
lot, she became closer to her faith and wrote quite a few songs that were
spiritual,” Jeri Williams says.
37
" Sandy moved to a hospice. On October 21, Ellen had the feeling she had
to get there right away, so she drove like crazy from San Francisco. A half-hour
after her arrival, Sandy “West” Pesavento died.
" “It was one of the most peaceful moments that I have ever witnessed in
my life,” says Miranti. “There were most of us surrounding her bed. I was on one
side, Lori on the other. I had been holding her hand and Lori had been holding
her hand. Before she took her last breath she started raising her arms straight up
over her head. She had pretty much not moved nor talked in days. We all looked
at each other; we didnʼt know what was going on. The nurse said just hold her
hands. She raised her arms up like she was reaching up. It was one of the most
amazing experiences. I just believe she was going to be with God.”
" Sandy West is buried in Forest Lawn cemetery in Cypress, next to her
father. No, Jeri corrects me: Sandyʼs body is buried; “sheʼs in heaven.” Currie,
Blue, and Laguna were at the funeral. Months later, Currie played a memorial
concert, along with the Bangles. The singer also carved a statue of Sandy as a
mermaid that stands outside a music store in Dana Point.
" There are many different explanations for and interpretations of what
happened to Sandy. “Itʼs such a Greek tragedy,” Ellen Pesavento says. “The
disappointment for her was so beyond what I can imagine. She was an extremely
sensitive person. Her skin was thin. She came from a deep feeling nature, not a
deep mental nature. Everything affected her emotionally. Trying to deal with
painful emotions was where the medication came in. Maybe when she was
38
younger, if drugs and alcohol hadnʼt been so prevalent in her lifestyle, she would
have had a fighting chance. I think the deck was stacked against her. She
needed another big win and never got that in her life. Thatʼs a hard one: to fall off
a high peak and try to climb back up.”
" Maybe West was too powerful for a world that doesnʼt like powerful
women. She had a habit of referring to herself as a man or a gentleman. Tischler-
Blue says they talked about her being a candidate for gender reassignment. But
others think Sandy was comfortable in her skin, even if the world wasnʼt always
comfortable with her. “She wasnʼt a boy or a girl,” Venemann says. “She was wild
thing.”
" West had two dying wishes, Miller says: To have her autobiography
published and the music she was working on released. Varga is working on both.
However, Westʼs family is not eager to have her secrets exposed.
" The family donates its share of Westʼs royalties to the hospice and a
scholarship fund at the Rockʼnʼroll Camp for Girls in Portland, Oregon. So Sandy
is not only still inspiring other women to rock, sheʼs helping pay for them.
" West did live long enough to sell her life rights to the producers of The
Runaways and to know that the band might be immortalized in film. However,
she has only a bit part in Sigismondiʼs movie, which focuses on the relationship
between Currie and Jett. At the end of the film, Joan, Cherie, and even Kim
Fowley (!) each get a paragraph of text, saying what happened to them after the
time period depicted in The Runaways. Thereʼs no mention of what became of
West.
39
" According to Varga, Westʼs autobiography starts with her sitting in prison
and recounting a memory from the greatest time in her life: the four years in
which she played drums for the Runaways. “She remembers sitting up in her
drum riser looking out over crowds of thousands of people, her heart so full --
ʻthereʼs no better feeling than this everʼ,” Varga says. “If Sandyʼs in heaven, sheʼs
absolutely just remembering her best gigs over and over again.”
40
References
Interviews:
All quotations are from personal interviews conducted by the author, except
where noted.
John Alcock. Phone interview. February 18, 2010.
Pam Apostolou. Phone interview. February 11, 2010.
Bun E. Carlos. Phone interview. February 25, 2010.
Torry Castellano. Phone interview. February 25, 2010.
Shelley Clarke. Phone interview. February 15, 2010.
Cherie Currie. Phone interview. February 10 and March 5, 2010.
Phanie Diaz. Phone interview. February 19, 2010.
Lita Ford. Phone interview. October 21, 2009, and February 5, 2010.
Kim Fowley. Phone interview. February 5, 2010.
Joan Jett. Phone interview. January 26, 2010 and February 5, 2010.
Theo Kogan. Phone interview. February 27, 2010.
Kenny Laguna. Phone interview. January 15 and February 5, 2010.
Stella Maeve. Phone interview. February 26, 2010.
Jan Miller. January 22, 2010.
Teri Miranti. Phone interview. February 1, 2010.
Ellen Pesavento. Phone interview. February 5, 2010.
Lori Pesavento. Phone interview. January 21, 2010.
Thommy Price. Phone interview. February 18, 2010.
Floria Sigismondi. January 23, 2010.
41
Victory Tischler-Blue. January 18, 2010.
Lauren Varga. Phone interview. February 7, 2010.
Jerry Venemann. February 12, 2010.
Kathleen Warnock. February 2, 2010
Jeri and Dick Williams, January 18, 2010
Publications and Articles
Altman, Billy. “I Knew Kim Fowley and Lived: Confessions of a High Flying Jett.”
Creem, February 1981: 26, 53-4.
Christgau, Robert. “Consumer Guide.” The Village Voice, Mar. 21, 1977.
Viewable at http://www.robertchristgau.com/xg/cg/cgv3-77.php.
Currie, Cherie, with Tony OʼNeill. Neon Angel: A Memoir of a Runaway. New
York: It Books, 2010.
Fancher, Lisa. “Are You Young and Rebellious Enough to Love the Runaways?”
Who Put the Bomp, Spring 1976: 12-14.
Goldstein, Patrick. “The Runaways: Lissome Lolitas or Teenage Trash? Our
Reporter Gets Into It.” Creem, February 1977.
Greene, Chad. “From ʻIowa by the Seaʼ to International City,” Long Beach
Business Journal, Jan. 17, 2006.
Kubernik, Harvey. “Runaway girls.” Melody Maker, July 17, 1976: 18.
Salewicz, Chris. “The Runaways: And I Wonder .... I Wah Wah Wah Wah
Wonder ....” NME, July 24, 1976.
Spitz, Marc, and Brendan Mullen. “Queens of Noise.” Spin, December 2001:
119-22.
Young, Charles M. “Run-Run-Run-Run Runaways.” Crawdaddy, October 1976:
35-41.
42
Recordings
The Runaways. The Runaways. Phonogram, 1976. Reissued by Cherry Red,
2003. CD.
---. Queens of Noise. Phonogram, 1977. Reissued by Cherry Red, 2003. CD.
---. Waitinʼ for the Night. Phonogram, 1977. Reissued by Cherry Red, 2003. CD.
---. Live in Japan. Phonogram, 1977. Reissued by Cherry Red, 2003. CD.
---. And Now ... The Runaways. Cherry Red, 1979. Reissued 2008. CD.
Sandy West. The Beat Is Back. Sandy West, 2000. CD
Films
Edgeplay: A Film About the Runaways. Dir. Victory Tischler-Blue.
Sacred Dogs, 2004.
Foxes. Dir. Adrian Lyne. Casablanca, 1980.
The Runaways. Dir. Floria Sigismondi. River Road Entertainment,
2010.
Court Documents
Pesavento Sandra, et al v. Bad Boys Music, et al, June 16, 1983.
Kim Fowley v. Sandy Pesavento, et al, Nov. 4, 1983.
43
Comprehensive Bibliography
Alcock, John. Phone interview. February 18, 2010.
Altman, Billy. “I Knew Kim Fowley and Lived: Confessions of a High Flying Jett.”
Creem, February 1981: 26, 53-4.
Apostolou, Pam. Phone interview. February 11, 2010.
Carlos, Bun E. Phone interview. February 25, 2010.
Castellano, Torry. Phone interview. February 25, 2010.
Christgau, Robert. “Consumer Guide.” The Village Voice, Mar. 21, 1977.
Viewable at http://www.robertchristgau.com/xg/cg/cgv3-77.php.
Clarke, Shelley. Phone interview. February 15, 2010.
Currie, Cherie. Phone interview. February 10 and March 5, 2010.
Currie, Cherie, with Tony OʼNeill. Neon Angel: A Memoir of a Runaway. New
York: It Books, 2010.
Diaz, Phanie. Phone interview. February 19, 2010.
Fancher, Lisa. “Are You Young and Rebellious Enough to Love the Runaways?”
Who Put the Bomp, Spring 1976: 12-14.
Ford, Lita. Phone interview. October 21, 2009, and February 5, 2010.
Fowley, Kim. Phone interview. February 5, 2010.
Fowley, Kim v. Sandy Pesavento, et al, Nov. 4, 1983. Court documents.
Goldstein, Patrick. “The Runaways: Lissome Lolitas or Teenage Trash? Our
Reporter Gets Into It.” Creem, February 1977.
Greene, Chad. “From ʻIowa by the Seaʼ to International City,” Long Beach
Business Journal, Jan. 17, 2006.
Jett, Joan. Phone interview. January 26, 2010 and February 5, 2010.
Kogan, Theo. Phone interview. February 27, 2010.
Kubernik, Harvey. “Runaway girls.” Melody Maker, July 17, 1976: 18.
44
Laguna, Kenny. Phone interview. January 15 and February 5, 2010.
Lyne, Adrian, Dir. Foxes. Casablanca, 1980.
Maeve, Stella. Phone interview. February 26, 2010.
Miller, Jan. Personal interview. January 22, 2010.
Miranti, Teri. Phone interview. February 1, 2010.
Pesavento, Ellen. Phone interview. February 5, 2010.
Pesavento, Lori. Phone interview. January 21, 2010.
Sandra, Pesavento et al v. Bad Boys Music, et al, June 16, 1983. Court
documents.
Price, Thommy. Phone interview. February 18, 2010.
Runaways, The. The Runaways. Phonogram, 1976. Reissued by Cherry Red,
2003. CD.
---. Queens of Noise. Phonogram, 1977. Reissued by Cherry Red, 2003. CD.
---. Waitinʼ for the Night. Phonogram, 1977. Reissued by Cherry Red, 2003. CD.
---. Live in Japan. Phonogram, 1977. Reissued by Cherry Red, 2003. CD.
---. And Now ... The Runaways. Cherry Red, 1979. Reissued 2008. CD.
Salewicz, Chris. “The Runaways: And I Wonder .... I Wah Wah Wah Wah
Wonder ....” NME, July 24, 1976.
Sigismondi, Floria. Personal interview. January 23, 2010.
Sigismondi, Floria, Dir. The Runaways. River Road Entertainment,
2010.
Spitz, Marc, and Brendan Mullen. “Queens of Noise.” Spin, December 2001:
119-22.
Tischler-Blue, Victory. Personal interview. January 18, 2010.
45
Tischler-Blue, Victory, Dir. Edgeplay: A Film About the Runaways.
Sacred Dogs, 2004.
Varga, Lauren. Phone interview. February 7, 2010.
Venemann, Jerry. Personal interview. February 12, 2010.
Warnock, Kathleen. Phone interview. February 2, 2010.
West, Sandy. The Beat Is Back. Sandy West, 2000. CD.
Williams, Jeri and Dick. Personal interview. January 18, 2010.
Young, Charles M. “Run-Run-Run-Run Runaways.” Crawdaddy, October 1976:
35-41.
46

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University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses

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Allison Wolfe: the personal is political

Asset Metadata

Creator McDonnell, Evelyn (author)

Core Title Wild thing: how Sandy West was lost, the true story of a teenage runaway rock'n'roll outlaw

School Annenberg School for Communication

Degree Master of Arts

Degree Program Specialized Journalism (The Arts)

Publication Date 05/04/2012

Defense Date 04/25/2010

Publisher University of Southern California (original), University of Southern California. Libraries (digital)

Tag Edgeplay,Jackie Fox,Joan Jett,Kim Fowley,Lita Ford,OAI-PMH Harvest,Runaways,Sandy West,Vicky Blue,women in rock

Place Name California (states)

Language English

Contributor Electronically uploaded by the author (provenance)

Advisor Page, Ellis Tim (committee chair), Kun, Joshua (committee member), Tongson, Karen (committee member)

Creator Email elmcdonn@usc.edu,evelyn@evelynmcdonnell.com

Permanent Link (DOI) https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-m2994

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Legacy Identifier etd-McDonnell-3687.pdf

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Document Type Thesis

Rights McDonnell, Evelyn

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Source University of Southern California (contributing entity), University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses (collection)

Repository Name Libraries, University of Southern California

Repository Location Los Angeles, California

Repository Email cisadmin@lib.usc.edu