Suzi Quatro has spent decades embodying rock’s rule-breaking spirit.
But her most surprising brush with the law didn’t happen onstage — it happened behind the wheel.
The Detroit-born bass guitarist recently revealed that she had been driving illegally in the U.K. for more than 50 years, after unknowingly relying on a U.S. license that was only valid for the first 12 months she lived there.
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Quatro has called England home since relocating there in the 1970s, building a fanbase that stretches across Europe and Australia. Despite her many years in the country, she admits she was unaware of a key rule of the road.
“I was told when I started to drive in this country that my American license was fine,” she tells the British newspaper The Mirror. “And over the years I was insured, I had speeding tickets.”
Despite those encounters, no one ever flagged the issue. Under U.K. law, U.S. driving licenses are only valid for 12 months — meaning that, for decades, Quatro had technically been driving illegally.
In other words, she’d been living out “Breaking the Law” — just not in the way she might have expected.
“Can you believe it?” she says with a laugh. “I only found out in January because the U.S. laws changed too, and they won’t renew your American license unless you can prove you have been in the particular state your license is from for the last six months.
”And of course, I can’t. I live here. So I needed a British license,” she confirms. “I’m 75, for god’s sake," she adds. "I’ve been driving since I was 16.”
The revelation adds an unexpected twist to Quatro’s legacy as a genuine rock trailblazer. Emerging in a male-dominated scene in the early 1970s, she helped redefine what a frontperson could be — commanding the stage with a bass guitar and an unapologetic presence.
“I gave women a voice in rock and roll,” she once told Guitar Player columnist Sue Foley. “There wasn’t anybody for me to model myself after. I never knew where I belonged until I got onstage. I shocked a lot of people. I was playing with a band of guys, and I was in charge.”
That same defiant spirit carried through her rise in the decade, including touring with fellow Detroiter Alice Cooper — a run that nearly resulted in her breaking his nose — and scoring a Top 5 hit in 1978 with “Stumblin’ In.”
Quatro remains as active as ever. She recently released Freedom, her latest album, which features a collaboration with Cooper on a cover of the MC5 classic “Kick Out the Jams.”
“It’s all about getting back to who you are,” she states. “We all wear masks to get by in this world. For me, it’s all about being comfortable in your own skin, having nothing to prove to anyone, and not accepting any BS.”
