I'LL NEVER RETIRE THE LEATHER!'

SHE'LL KEEP ROCKING OUT UNTIL HER LAST BREATH

- Paul Ewart.

No-nonsense, ballsy and badass, Suzi Quatro remains one of music’s true trailblazers. Now 73, the singer has no plans to retire – or hang up the trademark leather jumpsuit that’s as iconic as Suzi herself.

“I was bitten by the Elvis bug and when I saw him wearing his, I said to myself: ‘I’m going to wear that,’” Suzi tells us of the outfit. “And I did. It’s just me … God knows why! But it is and I still wear it now, and I don’t plan to stop.”

While Suzi is very much America’s reigning ‘First Lady of Rock’, when she sat down with New Idea recently it’s clear Australia owns a special piece of her heart.

“I have actually lost count of how many times I have been here. I stopped counting at 36,” she says with a laugh. “It seems that your country gets me and I get you. There’s a special synergy between us. I like to think [we] both have a high no bulls--t attitude to life.”

After completing her most-recent tour of Oz late last year, Suzi is currently touring Europe and the UK.