Joan Jett and Cherie Currie Respond to Jackie Fox's Rape Allegations

Last week, the Huffington Post ran an interview with Jackie Fuchs—who went by Fox—former bassist for rock group, the Runaways. Fuchs gave a chilling account of Kim Fowley, the band’s manager and producer, raping her at a party in front of a room full of people, which included other band members. Fuchs describes seeing rhythm guitarist Joan Jett and lead singer Cherie Currie staring at her, while Kari Krome, a musician and songwriter who was also at the party, says she saw Jett and Currie “snickering” during the attack.

In the article, reporter Jason Cherkis says Currie had intended to write about the rape in a memoir. According to Pitchfork, a footnote was added that said, “Eleven years later, another publisher released a book containing Currie’s account. It doesn’t mention Jackie in relation to the rape.” When asked by Cherkis about the incident, Jett, through a rep, denied witnessing the event as it had been described. After the interview was published, both Jett and Currie have made comments about the ordeal through their Facebook pages. On Friday, Jett posted the following:

“Anyone who truly knows me understands that if I was aware of a friend or bandmate being violated, I would not stand by while it happened. For a group of young teenagers thrust into 70s rock stardom there were relationships that were bizarre, but I was not aware of this incident. Obviously Jackie’s story is extremely upsetting and although we haven’t spoken in decades, I wish her peace and healing.” – Joan Jett ‪#‎JoanJett‬

On July 10, Currie posted, “All I can say is if Joan, Sandy and I saw an unconscious girl being brutally raped in front of us, we would have hit him over the head with a chair.” A day after Jett’s statement, she followed up with this post:

I have been accused of a crime. Of looking into the dead yet pleading eyes of a girl, unable to move while she was brutally raped and doing nothing. I have never been one to deny my mistakes in life and I wouldn’t start now. If I were guilty, I would admit it. There are so many excuses I could make being only one month into my sixteenth year at the time that people would understand but I am innocent. When I return from Sweden I will seek a qualified polygraph examiner to put to rest any and all allegations. I will make public the questions, answers and results of that test. I will prove I am telling the truth. I will not allow anyone to throw me under the bus and accuse me of such a foul act. I will fight for myself. It is the only thing I can do and I’m glad to do it.

She then makes another update, referring to a 2009 blog post by Fuchs that talks about Currie’s memoir:

Just for posterity case. I asked Jackie back in 2000 to write that chapter with me. This is what I got from her. Her last quote is the kicker. “We should respect one another, as people, as musicians, and most of all as humans. Sordid sex tales don’t do that and aren’t very interesting anyway. They should be left where they belong — in Cherie’s imagination.” (Thank you Dave) Hard to read.

Fuchs left the Runaways in 1977 during the band’s Japan tour and was replaced by Vicki Blue. The band parted ways two years later, in 1979.