Suzi Quatro: ‘It is absolutely crazy I’m not in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. But I’m in good company!’

Your new album is called Freedom and the title track interpolates The Girl Can’t Help It. You’re going to be rocking until they take you out in a box, aren’t you?

When I was 35, a journalist stupidly asked me, “When are you going to retire?” I said, “I will retire when I go on stage, turn my back on the audience, shake my ass, and there’s silence.” This followed me my whole career, so when I got to 65, I said, “I will retire when I go on stage, turn my back on the audience and my ass shakes by itself.”

I’m 76 now but at 75 I gave my final quote on this subject, and it was serious – I will retire when I go on stage and do not deliver to my standard. When I feel that, I’m done.

There’s also a cover of MC5’s Kick Out the Jams, with Alice Cooper. Tell me a bit about Detroit in the 60s, where you had Motown on one hand and yourself, Alice, Iggy and MC5 on the other? What a time to be alive!

What a city! We had Motown, which we all bowed down to, we were weaned on it. But all the white rock’n’roll groups, they all had that danger, that edge, that foot-on-the-gas desperation. I’ve talked about it with Brother Wayne Kramer, who passed not long ago, and Alice, and we don’t know why that is, but we can never get rid of that. It was a special time.

What’s the most chaotic thing that’s happened to you on stage?

We were doing a show once, going down a storm, and I have a section with the drummer where we’re both playing, because I’m a trained percussionist, so it’s like Gene Krupa and Buddy Rich. Then the PA blew, and all the audience could hear were drums. We looked at each other, and went, right, let’s go!

So, we did a 15-minute drum solo together, because whatever happens on stage, the golden rule is you use it – you have to make it work. Finally, somebody from the side of stage put his thumbs up, and we went back into the song. Everybody thought it was part of the show.

You’re a veteran road hog. What’s the first thing you do when you get to your hotel?

I set up my room. The computers go on the table. My diary gets opened. My stage clothes get hung up on the hooks. My boots get put out. My pyjamas go on the bed. I turn the bed down, then before I leave the room for the gig, I close the curtains and check all the lights to get the correct ambience. That way, when I come in after the show, it feels like home.

How about your most chaotic encounter with a fan?

Most of them are great but this wasn’t nice. A couple of years ago I was coming out to do my final song, and everybody had their hands up for a high-five. So did a little bit of that, and one girl grabbed my hand, held on to it with a death-grip and tried to pull me off the stage. I tried to pull back and my entire jumpsuit ripped, right across my ass.

I finally got free and I walked backwards to my monitor – very professional! – and I sat down and did the rest of the song, not moving. As soon as the song was over, the monitor guy came and put a towel around my waist, and I walked off. I wish I could find that girl because I would love to give her a piece of my mind. I was really upset.

There has already been a documentary about you. If there was a biopic of your life, who would play you?

We’re working on that right now, we’re doing the screenplay as we speak. Scarlett Johansson springs to mind. But whoever plays me, I would have to meet them, because I would need to feel something that you can’t act, and that’s the Suzi Quatro vibe. Don’t ask me to explain it but I would have to feel they have that vibe about them.

If you had to appear on a reality TV show tomorrow, which one would it be?

There’s only one — Strictly Come Dancing.

Before you went solo, you were in a group with your sisters, the Pleasure Seekers, whose best-known song is What a Way to Die. Was that inspired by the Who’s My Generation?

I don’t know who inspired that; it was just about getting drunk and crazy. But what I love about that song is that I was only 15, and my style was set right from the beginning. It wasn’t something I developed through the years. Nobody ever told me how to stand, how to sing, how to play, what to do. I always just did what I felt, and I like that about me.

What’s an album you always return to?

I’ve got a few. Bob Dylan’s Blonde on Blonde. Jackson Browne’s Running on Empty. And Tom Petty’s first album. Those are the three that just popped to mind that I will play nonstop and never get tired of.

Tell me why you’re not in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

It is absolutely crazy. It used to bother me but now I’ve read up on lots of people who aren’t in it, and I’m in good company! I always thought it was a no-brainer, because there was never a woman playing an instrument in a rock’n’roll band with world success before me. I just hope they’re not waiting for me to die so they can do it posthumously.

• Suzi Quatro is touring Australia between 14 November and 6 December. Freedom is out now