CHERIE CURRIE 'Will Never Forgive' LITA FORD For Backing Out Of THE RUNAWAYS Reunion When SANDY WEST Needed A 'Boost'

Cherie Currie has once again said that a full reunion of iconic 1970s rockers THE RUNAWAYS will now probably never happen.

Speaking to Marko Syrjälä of Metal Rules and SySi Media, Currie outlined her relationships with fellow former bandmates Joan Jett, Lita Ford, Jackie Fox and Sandy West and the previous attempts to get the band back together.

"I played with all the girls," she said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET). "I played with Lita… And just in the last decade. Lita, Joan… I always played with Sandy [who died of lung cancer in 2006 at the age of 47], God rest her soul. Jackie… I played with every member of THE RUNAWAYS individually. And even Lita will say, 'Oh, I can work with Cherie.' I mean, I'm easy to work with. I just wanna have fun. But they… Lita hates [Joan's longtime manager] Kenny Laguna; that's never gonna change."

Cherie explained that the chances of THE RUNAWAYS reuniting are very slim "because Lita and Joan don't see eye to eye." She added: "I really hoped it would happen, but now I absolutely believe it will not… Unless there's a miracle on Joan and Lita's side, which I doubt. But I can't control people. And it's too bad because it could have been great."

Currie reflected on the one time that a RUNAWAYS reunion almost happened more than 25 years ago, saying: Joan wanted to do it. Lita approached me and Sandy back in 1997 and had us get Joan on board, and Joan said, 'Okay. Let's do it.' And Kenny went out of his way, got a record deal; we were gonna book a tour. And then the first telephone conversation with all of us, Lita just went completely off the rails and said, 'Nah, I'm not doing this,' because she hates Kenny so much. And then they made me call Lita, and Lita just said, 'I'm a household name. I don't need this bullshit.' I said, 'Please do it for Sandy West, Lita. Do it for Sandy.' And she wouldn't. And for that I will never forgive Lita. Because Sandy really, really could have used a boost. But people are selfish in this life. I don't know why people are so self-consumed and so selfish. But Lita was very selfish when she did that and did not consider Sandy whatsoever. And here we lost her just seven years later."

When Syrjälä told Currie that Ford said in a previous interview that it was Jett who ultimately decided against a RUNAWAYS reunion, Cherie said: "No, she's wrong. It was [Lita who decided against it] first. She brought it all together. She stopped it. And then Joan didn't wanna do it [when it was brought up again later]. It's, like, you know what, Lita… Lita was the one that started the whole thing. She should have followed through, but she didn't. And so she can't blame Joan for that. Even though I'm not a hundred percent on the 'rah-rah, Joan' fan club anymore, I call it the way it is. And Lita really… She started it. We were there. And she walked. So she has no right to say anything anymore."

Two months ago, Currie told "Waste Some Time With Jason Green" about the possibility of a RUNAWAYS reunion: "Joan uses the excuse that we're not teenagers anymore, we're not THE RUNAWAYS anymore [as to why she doesn't want to do it]. But to me, I think it's incredibly selfish. You do things for the fans, and when you start thinking that you're doing things for yourself after all these years of being successful in this business… I really think that both Lita and Joan owe it to the fans. But that's just me."

Cherie went on to say that she has "always been ready" to take part in a RUNAWAYS reunion. "But I didn't even consider such a thing until Lita reached out to me in '97 and asked me and Sandy to talk Joan into it," she explained. "And we did. And then right when we had the record deal and the tour and everything that Kenny had put together, Lita walked. Just from one conversation. We had a conference call with me and Sandy and Joan and Lita and Kenny, and Lita just couldn't stand hearing the sound of Kenny's voice, and she just said, 'You know what? I'm out.' And that was it. And then she came back again after THE RUNAWAYS movie, [and then] Joan says, 'No. I don't wanna do it.' And it's just crazy, because it's the same bullshit that I went through with these girls when I was a teenager. It's just kind of, like, 'Wow.' I don't know what to say; I just don't. It's frustrating because I know it would have been amazing to do. And it's frustrating. You can't make people do something they don't wanna do."

Currie added: "I have stood on that stage as an adult in my late 50s… with Lita, and with Joan as well, and it was really like time had stopped every time I had gotten on stage with those two. It's just too bad we could never have done it together, 'cause it would have absolutely been amazing."

The first true girl band of the 1970s, THE RUNAWAYS toured internationally and made a dent in the charts before calling it quits at the end of that decade.

In November 2018, Ford told the Daily Mail that a reunion of THE RUNAWAYS will probably never happen. She explained: "Joan Jett is very much in 'Joan Jett land,' I guess you could say. Will she ever come out of Joan Jett land? I don't think so. I think her manager controls that and it's really up to him and her. It seems to me like Joan Jett's manager just runs her life in every way, shape, or form. He's very controlling and he has a real problem with me. He has a real issue with me. He sees me as a threat, which is ridiculous, because she's like my sister and I love Joan. It's ridiculous, it's uncalled for, and it's caused a little bit of rivalry between her and I, which is totally uncalled for. It's his fault."

Ford claimed that Jett's manager has prevented her from even talking about a RUNAWAYS reunion with Jett.

"The hard part is just trying to communicate with Joan without her manager involved," she added.

"We had dinner a couple of years ago, what was supposed to be a girl's night out, and she brought her manager with her.

"So it's like, "Dude, answer the question. I'm trying to ask you a question. Are you interested in putting THE RUNAWAYS back together?' She never answered the question."

In a 2015 interview with the WHMH (Rockin' 101) radio station, Lita explained that she decided against a possible RUNAWAYS reunion in the early '90s because "NIRVANA was just kicking in, and it was really bad timing; it wouldn't have worked. People would have just turned their nose up at it."

A movie about THE RUNAWAYS' brief history, starring Dakota Fanning as Currie and Kristin Stewart as Jett, came out in 2010.