July 11, 2023 • 43 mins
This week, Rosie welcomes the dynamic lead singer of the Go-Go's, Belinda Carlisle, who has also had an incredibly successful solo career. Rosie and Belinda have met several times before in that 'showbiz' way, but it's not until this conversation that they realize they have a ton in common, both in their paths and their perspectives. Listen to their friendship blossom, and you'll understand why Rosie now calls Belinda her new best friend!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:11):
Hey, everybody, it is me Rosie O'Donnell, and you have
found my podcast Onward with Rosy O'Donnell. That's the goal, folks.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Onward.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
I was in New York for the fourth of July,
and people in public in the airports mostly were so
kind and so nice, so loving, and so many talking
about this podcast. You know, it's funny you do a
podcast in your own house with your headphones on and
talking to somebody, usually on the computer, and you don't
(00:40):
really think it's going out there to millions of people.
You know, you don't because you do it just a
tiny little thing in your house. And you know, people
were talking to me about the Reality Winter episode and
how much they loved that, and I was so glad
that we got to have her on and that people
can get used to her story, her name and what
an amazing American patriot she is and all the comments
(01:03):
about that episode were very moving and thank you so much.
And speaking of comments, we have the leave a voice
memo and people have been leaving them with questions and comments,
and I gotta tell you, they're so lovely. What you
guys are doing, what you're sending me all the love
that you're giving back to me is overwhelming. It is,
(01:26):
and I don't know, I kind of like being sixty one.
I kind of like growing older. I kind of like
having so many years to look back on my life,
my career, my family. People stop me and ask me questions,
how are my kids? How's this one? How's that one?
(01:47):
And it's really a beautiful thing. And I just wanted
to do a shout out to all of the Delta
Airlines flight attendants. You guys are the best. Seriously. I
took a red eyein and then I took the first
flight out, which was like a reverse red eye, So
I went for like three days or something because that
(02:08):
first flight everyone sleeps, you know, everyone sleeps, including me.
And when I woke up, this wonderful flight attendant his
name was Jay, I believe, said I saved you an
expeded it. I was like, are you the sweetest guy
in the world. So a shout out to all those
people and just everybody in general. The positivity is very
(02:29):
uplifting and helps me in so many ways. And you know,
like so many of us, I struggle with depression and
I'm medicated and I'm on top of it and taking
care of my mental health. But I will say this
injection of love gives me some serotonin and dopamine and
all those things my brain sometimes lacks. So thank you
so much for the beauty and your stories and your comments,
(02:51):
and I really really appreciate that I'm having a good
summer so far. My kid is so excited that the
pool there with a slide, although she does not allow
me to really take her going down this. I have
to like be like a Papa Razzi to get a
picture of her now. She just says no. I don't
know if she's gonna still do the videos with me
(03:12):
and attack me on TikTok, but we'll see, because she's
going to be eleven in January, and it feels like
those preteen years are crunching up on me. We have
a great show today, we really do. It is Belinda
Carlisle from the Go Gos. You know where you love her.
Here's the thing. I didn't really know very much about
Belinda Carlisle before I did the interview. She had been
(03:34):
on my talk show. But you really don't have time
to do in depth interviews and daytime TV. It's five
minutes if you're lucky, seven minutes if you go over.
But to have a full hour or forty minutes forty
five minutes to talk to someone, you really do get
to know them. And most of the people that I've
had on the show I already was friendly with. I
already know them, and like Ricky Lake, it's very different
(03:56):
to interview someone and find out who they are. And
I came to really really like her. I mean, I
like her so much. I was like, I want to
hang out with her.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
You know.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
She was honest and forthright and wonderful discussion about parenting
and about sobriety and just about life. And I love
it when women embrace the age that they are and
everybody is on the journey and we're all going the
same place. So old age man, it's not as bad
(04:26):
as they say. So we have Blinda Carlyle and she's
fantastic and stick around. At the end of the show,
we'll do some questions from you the listeners. Thank you
so much, Blinda Carlyle.
Speaker 3 (04:37):
Right now, well, hello Belinda Carlile, Hello Rasierdana.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
I haven't seen you in so many years.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
I now I remember the last time it was. It
was at the TV studio. That's right, and they all
rolled down with a massive hangover. I'm so sorry about that.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
But that's okay. I have loved doing all my research
about you and finding out that your life was not
at all what I had imagined.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
Well I know, I think, I think it's yeah, it's
it's it was, it has been and stillia is quite
a life.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
So yeah, yeah, and I read about you.
Speaker 4 (05:22):
Know.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
This is how silly I felt reading this. I know
all the words to the Go Gos and everything, but
I didn't realize it was a punk band.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
We started out if it was. Yeah, we started out
in the punk Stain in nineteen seventy eight when everybody
was in a bad It was like fifty kids. All
the kids were in bands and they were horrible. So
we thought, well, we can start a band and be
horrible too, right, And it was actually cooler to be horrible.
So that's how the Go Go started. And we had
(05:50):
no idea how to do anything.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
How did you know each other? Did you put an
ad for a band or were you friends? No?
Speaker 2 (05:57):
We just like we knew each other from the punk Stain.
Like I said, there were like fifty kids in the
very beginning. It exploded really quickly, but we all kinda
knew each other. And Margo, the original bass player, and
I were friends and she said. We were sitting on
a curb one night at a party in Venice, California,
and she said, let's form a band. And I said
(06:19):
I wanted to play bass, and she goes, no, I'm
playing bass. You can play, you can play drums, or
you can sing. And I had played well the drummer
that never played in a punk band called the Germs,
and so I said, okay, I sing, and that's how
it started. I had never sung before.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
Jane wanted to play rhythm guitar. She had no idea.
We asked Charlotte to join because she knew how to
plug in a guitar into an amplifier, and that's how
the band started. But we started from absolute I mean,
Charlotte did have classical training, but none of us knew
how to do anything. But that was the beauty of
(06:58):
the punk movement.
Speaker 1 (06:59):
Did you have like the group? Was it the sex Pistols?
Who was it that you were looking up to and
thinking that's the direction I want to go. Was there
one band or there were a couple of bands.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
Actually a lot of well, first of all, the LA
punk scene was amazing back then. There were some really
like amazing bands that were ahead of their time. But
we looked to the UK and we were influenced by
the more melodic pop bands like the Buzzcocks and even
the Clash. So and three of us grew up in
(07:29):
southern California with California radio, so that sort of California
melodic harmonies, beach boys, beach culture was kind of in
our DNA. So even though we started it as a
punk band, we always had pop overtones.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
Yeah, and then when.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
We became more musically proficient, it started sounding like a
pop band and people were going, Oh my god, what's
going on here?
Speaker 1 (07:53):
What happened to them?
Speaker 2 (07:55):
Exactly exactly.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
I read that you opened when you were very young.
You opened for Mad like our house Madness in the
middle of oh wow, what's that band?
Speaker 2 (08:05):
Yes, actually they really you know, meeting them was like
a big deal and you know, for the Go Gos,
because they asked us to come to the UK to
support them. So our manager, Ginger sold all of our belongings, everything,
and you know, Soldier car kept our apartment to finance
(08:29):
our trip over to the UK. Because really at that time,
before the age of information, you could say anything when
you were there, you could say you were big stars,
which we did in the UK, we weren't. In fact,
we kind of struggled, you know, opening for that band
because they had a whole other type of audience. It
was a lot of neo Nazis, a lot of a
(08:51):
lot of you know, mostly skinheads, very violent, you know,
and so we had to open and play for these
It was scary, believe me, it was scary.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
Yeah, But at the.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
Same time we really honed our skills and became a
really good little band from that whole time in the UK,
we opened for the Specials and a lot of the
two tone bands Wow, and we would ride home and
say what big stars we were. People didn't know better.
And we came back to la after, you know, after
(09:22):
three or four months, and you know, I guess our
strategy worked because there were kids wrapped around the block
Wow to come see us at the Star would Yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:32):
And it was really a meteoric rise, like it was
like two years from start to you were on the
pop Jarks, right.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
I mean, it went so fast. We formed the band
in nineteen seventy eight, and in nineteen eighty one we
were the biggest band in America.
Speaker 1 (09:49):
Now, how in earth did you survive that?
Speaker 2 (09:52):
Well, I mean, well, you know, as you do, as
most bands do with drugs and right exactly, but I
mean to go from zero to one hundred and being
self taught, we didn't have like a Simon Cowell or
a Svengale. We did all ourselves and it was a
female operation, female roadies, female management, no boys allowed, no
(10:17):
boyfriends around. And yeah, I mean that's kind of been
heard of, really and when you think, you know, when
you think about it, I mean, three years is nothing.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
No, especially in show biz you kidding? Yeah, yeah, years.
Usually you're waiting tables for a decade and then you
get a break, you know exactly exactly. I know for
me kind of when my show took off, it sort
of felt like that too, like a like a rocket
shipped me up to a different place and for a
while you totally are disoriented, y don't even really act.
(10:47):
And I read read tell me if this is true
that you had fear of imposter syndrome, which I believe
every artist has.
Speaker 2 (10:55):
Oh I probably I would say that they do. Most
every artist does. And yes, it was. I mean, it
was a combination of the way I grew up, you know,
and you know, in a very strict sort of Christian family.
And it was partly because three years is nothing, you know,
and all of our musician friends who had been working
(11:16):
for decades achieved nothing, and then here we were after
three years, I mean, like the biggest man in America
for five minutes.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
So yeah, more than five minutes, honey. That was That
was a pretty wild long run more with Belinda Carlisle
After this, I read every interview, so bear with me.
(11:56):
But you spoke about them always commenting on your weight,
which you know, I didn't remember that as being a
thing with you, to tell you the truth, maybe because
I had my own issues with weight. You just were right,
the beautiful one in the go gos right that you
were always the face of the go gos right right,
And that must have put a lot of pressure as
you were how old you were so young, I was.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
Let's see, twenty three years old. I never thought about
my weight. I never had a problem with my weight
and the way I looked. And I guess because I
was normal, you know, or sort of normal, like a
pretty young girl. But I was cute and chubby. I
was pretty and plump. I'd been hitting the deli trays
(12:40):
and that really really messes with your brain as a
young girl, and it was very, very damaging. And you know,
I mean it was like that up until fairly recently,
but now it's and I love this with women, it's
their name and then how old you are? Totally and
don't do that to men. It's like Evelynda of sixty four,
(13:01):
she's sixty four, right, So how did that feel for you?
I never had an issue with my age. I still
really don't, but when I turned sixty, it was kind
of like whoa sixty? You know, that was the one
that made me think, like because in my mind, sixty
is like Sada Thompson from Family, you know, Ethel from
I Love.
Speaker 1 (13:20):
Lucy, Like, it's not like you, Belinda Carlisle. You know.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
Yeah, yeah, well, I mean, as we know, it's inevitable.
And I think for me it's not so much the
physicality of it, but it was like finally realizing that
maybe I have another twenty twenty five years, yes, you know,
and I've had sixty that they've flown right by each maybe,
(13:46):
and you know, sixty four now, But yeah, it was
just weird, like on a psychological sort of level. You know,
of course it's not great. You know, seeing your body
is sort of like you.
Speaker 1 (13:57):
Know, betray you.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
Yeah, exactly, but I mean that's just the way it is.
So I could kind of accept that. It was just
see the like, wow, I mean, I'm like three quarters
of my life have you know, it's it's done.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
It's why that's why I name this show Onward, because
I hit sixty and I was like, everything in the past,
I'm leaving in the past, onward to the last twenty
five years, you know.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
Right right right, And I think that, I mean, you know,
I'm probably even more active than I was in my
thirties and doing you know, lets of great crazy things.
But and it is just a number. And I was
talking to a friend and he goes, so, let's just
face it, we're old, and I was like, excuse me,
and you know, I mean, I am sixty four. But
(14:46):
I think old is like it it's like really negative.
Take on its Yeah, it doesn't have to be negative
at all.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
Right, there's a way, in a way that you're given
the uh, everybody knows that you have some wisdom to
share when you're all right. When I'm on a set now,
I'm like the Angela Lansbury. You know, I'm the oldest
woman on the set and they're all young kids and
ask me what was it like back then? And you know,
you start to think, how did it go this fast?
(15:15):
And you know, where did you grow up? Did you
grow up in La? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (15:18):
I grew up in southern California. I did.
Speaker 1 (15:21):
And you were the oldest of seven children.
Speaker 2 (15:23):
Yes, I was. Yeah, it was a guinea pig, yeah,
and yeah, I mean it was a great place to
grow up, California. It was amazing back then. And you know,
a typical dysfunctional family, right, but that's what that's my
formative years.
Speaker 1 (15:37):
We're in California and your dad had a drinking problem,
and your stepdad or just your stepdad.
Speaker 2 (15:43):
Just my stepdad. My dad left when we were I
was about five and I didn't really know him, but
my stepfather did. He was a terrible alcoholic, but he
got sober right after I left home. So, you know,
I mean, going through my issue of addiction and alcoholism myself,
I you know, I forgave him, you know, for because
(16:07):
he was abusa. Then you know, I mean back then,
kids were beaten with the belt and that's how it
was done and totally and you know it was it
was harsh, but that's all he knew. And you know,
I mean he was actually when he got sober, like
an amazing, beautiful human being.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
No kidding.
Speaker 2 (16:26):
It wasn't when I was growing up, that's for sure.
Speaker 1 (16:28):
Now when you had your son, did you go through
moments of going, I gotta, I gotta cut this back,
because I know what it did to me when there
was drinking an alcoholic behavior in the house or did
it not sort of register until you were ready to
be done?
Speaker 2 (16:42):
It didn't register until I was ready? Well, it registered well, okay.
I was always to be able to witness myself, even
when I was like ten, I always had me and
then I had this. It was weird. I could always
do that. So even in my when I was like
way out there, I could always go, okay, you know
(17:03):
you you know, are a mess and you know you
need to get it together. So I always knew, but
I really had no interest really in cleaning it up.
I was doing it for other people, not for myself.
Speaker 1 (17:18):
Had you tried to get sober before for other people?
Speaker 2 (17:21):
Yeah, I did it the first time after the go
gos broke up. I did my version, which was I
couldn't drink but no cost wine, just wine, just wine,
you know, and and no cope, no pills. I could
do acid and hallucinogens. That was fine, and that's how
I functioned for a good five seven years. And then
(17:45):
of course that does not work, so and then it
took me another another fifteen seventeen years of you know, drama,
drop pain and suffering and drama. And I was like, okay,
I'm ready. And then when I was ready, I was ready.
It was like not, I was down, not an issue.
Speaker 1 (18:06):
And did you go to a twelve step? Did you
do the whole?
Speaker 2 (18:09):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (18:09):
I did blue book everything good for you.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
I got a sponsor, and you know, I've done you know,
I did the invent personal inventory, which I likened to
wearing cement and rubber boots and treading through quicksand which.
Speaker 1 (18:24):
Was like it was so it's hard to do.
Speaker 2 (18:28):
Yeah, and I really had a lot of blocks with that,
but I'm so glad I did it, and I've done
it twice, actually gone through the steps twice now. But yeah,
I mean that's the only thing I mean I tried
doing it my way.
Speaker 1 (18:40):
Didn't work, don't we all right? Ye? Yeah, exactly we
got a handle on this, you know, exactly exactly you
don't have a handle on it. When you say I
don't have a handle on it and you have to
say it, you know, did the others try Did they
try to do it to vengeance? Did they? Because I
read that your son has said he had no idea
that you were using drugs or drinking to excess through
(19:02):
his childhood, that he doesn't have a memory of that.
Speaker 2 (19:06):
I think he did once when I was really I mean,
I came on from a trip and I had taken
some pills and I was like slurring and stumbling around
the kitchen, and that's when he kind of he kind
of knew. And my husband's like, go to bed, you know,
we don't want you around right now. And he didn't know.
But I think part of, you know, he probably buried
(19:27):
a lot of it because sure, yeah, you know, but
you know, it's it's it was when I was ready.
I was ready.
Speaker 1 (19:36):
Yeah, do you have advice? Like we have someone in
our family and it's you know, it's very difficult when
there's a lot of you know, drug abuse, and someone
told me somebody who's in AA and I go to
alan On and I go to try to help myself
get through this difficult time with her, and you know,
(19:58):
they said, if one more person to save me, I'd
be dead, right, Yeah, totally almost. The trying to help
doesn't help.
Speaker 2 (20:07):
It doesn't help. I mean, I can't tell you. And
as as when I was drinking and using the promises
that I made never again, and I meant them and
really meant what I said, but I knew way to
down on the side, there was no way I could
keep my promise even though I wanted to.
Speaker 1 (20:23):
And I meant to.
Speaker 2 (20:26):
But I mean the advice because I'm actually I have
a friend right now that's really suffering from a partner
who is just way out there.
Speaker 1 (20:35):
You know.
Speaker 2 (20:35):
I mean, I've been through the drama on both sides
of the drama, and I just I would just say
alan On. The big books from alan On is amazing.
It's amazing total, you know, and there's a few there's
a really forgot the name of the book, but there's
a classic codependent codependent no.
Speaker 1 (20:52):
More, no more.
Speaker 2 (20:53):
Yeah, that's an amazing Yeah, she's amazing and that's that
book I recommend, and I say, and I tell him,
you just let go save yourself. Whatever happens with him
is gonna happen. You can't do anything about it. In fact,
it makes it worse.
Speaker 1 (21:10):
But it's so hard, and it's so hard, it's so
so hard. When you let go, you think, what if
the worst happens? You know, but that is going to happen,
and maybe that's gonna change the behavior, maybe you.
Speaker 2 (21:22):
Know exactly exactly, and hanging on doesn't really how And
if anything happened when you were hanging on, you would
blame yourself too.
Speaker 1 (21:30):
So well, that's the other thing, you know. I try
to say, I can't do anymore until you're ready to
get well, and yeah, and then I find myself doing
more because I feel like guilty. And then I go, oh,
now I'm really not gonna do it, you know. Yeah,
I know from the book. I know from going to
alan On that that's the worst thing you can do
is to be to give in, you know. Yeah, but
(21:54):
we can't help.
Speaker 2 (21:55):
It sometimes, No, No, it's it's uh, you know, especially
if you're really loved the person, and it's you know,
my husband stuck around for years and I don't think
if I had carried on, I don't think he'd be around.
But I remember when after I during the first week
after sobriety, I had to go to London to go
to work, and all of a sudden it just hit
(22:17):
me all the pain that I caused people around me,
and I had like a breakdown in the middle of Herod's.
And so I called him and I said, why did
you Why did you stick around?
Speaker 4 (22:31):
You know?
Speaker 1 (22:31):
And and he said I could.
Speaker 2 (22:33):
Always see the real you underneath all the crap, you know,
and Beau, yeah, and so you know. But but he,
I mean, he was there, but he backed way off
the last few years, you know, and you know, he
would get really pissed off with me and everything when
i'd like go on a bender. But I think if
(22:55):
I had carried on, he probably would have walked to Ben.
Speaker 1 (22:57):
How long have you been married? It's a miracle with
all of the time that you were not ready to
get well and you've been married over thirty years, right.
Speaker 2 (23:05):
We've been together thirty nine years?
Speaker 1 (23:07):
Oh, congratulations in carlesle so change. You know a lot
of difficult circumstances too. It wasn't like a cake walk for.
Speaker 2 (23:14):
You now, for for either of us to be honest.
Speaker 1 (23:18):
What does he do? Is he in the recording industry
or no?
Speaker 2 (23:20):
No, no, he's just he does a lot of financial
staff and and he's retired now he's into his finance
thing and and playing around with that. And no he doesn't.
He's not in the music business. He doesn't manage me.
He suggests that at once a long time a guy's
in no way, you know, it's just very smart.
Speaker 1 (23:38):
Youp it separate, youep it separate. And is you have
one child? You ever want a son? And how when?
How how old was he when he came out to you?
Speaker 2 (23:46):
He was fourteen? And he I mean, I always kind
of knew, you know, yeah, they're like they're like little
little hands along the way.
Speaker 1 (23:56):
Sure, yeah, of course.
Speaker 2 (23:58):
But but I was saying when we went on a
little afternoon trip to this lake near where we lived,
and he said, mom, I have something to tell you.
Or I was driving and he said, I like boys,
and I went.
Speaker 1 (24:16):
And I had to stop signing, damn it.
Speaker 2 (24:19):
And I had to pull over and catch my and
catch my breath. Even though listen, all my friends since
I was in high school have been ninety percent of
be garre lesbian, right, and but when it's your child,
it's like the first thing I thought of is what
kind of world is he going to have to put
up with, especially living in provincial France, I mean where
it's very very kind of old fashioned, you know, very traditional.
Speaker 1 (24:42):
So that was like a.
Speaker 2 (24:45):
Whole that was like a really like a whole thing.
Because he had been coached by p Flag. It is
an amazing organization on how to come out. So and
since then I've done a lot of we do a
lot of work together for Pea Flag great. But they
said come out to your mom my, momy d. Never
come out to your father because you don't know if
(25:07):
it's you don't know, you know, it's a reflection of
their masculinity, especially being an only son.
Speaker 1 (25:13):
So I thought, okay, don't tell dad.
Speaker 2 (25:16):
I'm going to figure out how we're gonna you know,
even though my husband's like totally gay friendly, just like,
don't say anything. So what does he do the next
day at school at the school assembly?
Speaker 1 (25:28):
I am gay, Oh my god, I love him to
the whole school. What a brave young boy.
Speaker 2 (25:35):
And so everybody though, because we lived in a small village,
you know, and friends. Everybody knew that he was gay
except for my husband. So I was like, okay, how
am I gonna you know? I went to my therapist
and how do I deal with this? And she said
let him tell him? And I said no, no, no, instinctively, no,
that's not that's not good.
Speaker 1 (25:56):
So I did.
Speaker 2 (25:57):
It took me about three months to even though I
knew it would be okay, it's still it's hard to say.
It's hard to say. So, yeah, I dropped. I dropped
Duke opic the bus stop.
Speaker 1 (26:09):
It was.
Speaker 2 (26:09):
It was like a junior in high school. I went
home and Morgan comes out of the shower where I said,
I have something to tell you, Dickie Lex boys, it's like,
he said, who cares?
Speaker 1 (26:22):
What did he say?
Speaker 2 (26:23):
He said, oh, this is just a phase. I said
I don't think so. So I said, you two deal
with it. Leave me out. You guys got to figure
it out. Because they would all be like, well he
said this, and he said that. I said, just leave
me out. You guys have to figure it out. I'm
I'm I'm done. So it took them a good year
of like going back and forth, and Duke would get
(26:45):
mad about him, saying it's a phase.
Speaker 1 (26:47):
You know.
Speaker 2 (26:48):
It took about a year though for him to finally
accept the accept it.
Speaker 1 (26:52):
Not that he he was he.
Speaker 2 (26:53):
Was fine with it, but you know it's his only somebody.
Speaker 1 (26:58):
Everybody needs time to adjust, even the gay people me.
You know, when you first figure out you're gay, whether
you're ten or you're fifteen, you have to give yourself
some time to get used to the idea. And you
really have to give your family the courtesy of that
time too, because it's a shock and it doesn't mean
that you're not loved, right, but an instant, you know,
(27:20):
reaction that some kids are so needy and wanting of
they don't want to be disowned by their family. It's
not always right at the right time, you.
Speaker 2 (27:28):
Know, exactly exactly. So it all happened perfect, Okay, So
he was fourteen. He immediately got elected to a student
body president. And what the great thing is is that
like five or six kids came out right after hated
how great so it was. It was a really good thing.
Speaker 1 (27:44):
Yeah, that's wonderful. You know, I have a little daughter
who's ten, I have four grown children in their twenties,
and I adopted a baby at fifty. You know, wow, Yes,
all my kids are adopted. But this baby has autism
and she's like very verbal, and about six months ago
she started telling me that her stuffed animals were non binary,
(28:04):
and I was like, really, I go, how do you know?
She's like, I can tell. And then she starts telling
me about characters in her little video game thing she
plays that are non binary. And then finally she says, Mom,
I'm non binary. And I said, fantastic. What do you
want for dinner? You know, yeah, exactly, No, I don't
(28:24):
know where it's going to go. They say a large
percentage of autistic kids when they examine the thoughts the
way they do, they examine this, you know, in a
higher percentage than non autistic kids. But she's getting very
insistent on they them. So we went to a birthday
party for my eighty two year old friend, and my
(28:44):
eighty two year old friend said, hey, she wants something
to drink, and she turns and says, it's they They
That is just eighty two. You gotta calm your role on.
Speaker 2 (28:54):
That is so funny yea for her?
Speaker 1 (28:57):
Look good?
Speaker 2 (28:57):
You know, I mean Dick SETTI knew since it was
Evan when he fell in Love with the Boy on Casper,
the movie, you know, and I had there was one
thing he wouldn't mind me just saying this. But when
Broke Back Mountain came out, it was playing at our
local theater and I had to delay it for a
week because I had to work, and he threw like
a temper tantrum. I want to sit in the whole Wow,
(29:21):
you know so and you know they're like little hints
like that along the way.
Speaker 1 (29:25):
So he's kind of responsible for your new EP Kidsman, exactly,
what a wonderful story this is. He had Starbucks just
hanging out.
Speaker 2 (29:36):
Well, he never goes into the Starbucks, and he went
into the Starbucks on sunset and Diane Warren was there
and she never grows at that certain time. She went
always a little bit later. So he walked up to
Diane and he said, I'm Belinda Carlile. Soon she went,
you know, and I'm not going to repeat what she's like,
(29:56):
she you know, swear, yeah, yeah she does. But she said,
get your mom on the phone. I have hits. So
they called me and it was like out of the
blue because I was planning on slowing down and you know,
during my you know, I just living a quiet life,
you know.
Speaker 1 (30:13):
Yes, And.
Speaker 2 (30:15):
They called me and it was like on FaceTime and
She's going come to the studio. I have hits for you.
And I was like, well, do I have a choice?
First of all, because you don't say naughty Donnie R. Yeah,
but I was like, do I really want to do this?
It's like a big commitment and now I'm not in
this mindset now. And I went to the studio and
(30:36):
usually like I was kind of just I was done.
And I mean because my last two albums, so I
was in French, because because I lived in France for
twenty four years and I loved French bop. The other
one was Mantra chant every Day. So I thought, no,
it never happened because good pop songs go to younger
artists or artists that are charting.
Speaker 1 (30:57):
And I'm sixty four, right.
Speaker 2 (30:58):
So I went to the studio and what she played me,
I was like, oh my god, this is amazing. I mean,
why are you giving it to me?
Speaker 1 (31:07):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (31:09):
But no, but but it's true. So she played me
and I'm very fuscyd too. I'm not saying just everything
and just won't do it for the sake of doing it.
So she played me five really good songs and I
was like, yeah, let's do it. So that's how it happened.
It was a chance meeting, a couple of coincidences that
(31:30):
came about, and that's why it's called kismet.
Speaker 1 (31:33):
Yeah. Do you believe in coincidences? I don't.
Speaker 2 (31:35):
Yeah, I think I don't think that. I don't think
there was such such thing. Now me either, I don't
think there's such thing.
Speaker 1 (31:41):
And the one that people that come into contact with
you and you with them, there's a meaning in something. Now,
whether or not we're back here enough to observe what
that is, won't that be a wonderful thing to be
able to figure all that out at the end. Perhaps
that's that's my dream of when we leave the body
and we're no longer using it, that we get to
(32:01):
sort of have a bird's eye view. Yeah, it's happening
and figure out kind of the thing exactly Confuse us? Well,
I'm doing course in miracles right now.
Speaker 2 (32:11):
And one of the things that said, because it says,
basically there's no coincidences, but every encounter is a chance
to heal your childhood pain. And I love that, buddy.
I thought that's so great. And yeah, this was not
a coincidence. It was I was it was like the
universe saying, now you can't it's not the right time
(32:34):
to retire.
Speaker 1 (32:35):
Yeah, yeah, exactly. I did it once when I left
my show. I was forty and my mom died at forty,
so I thought, I want to be an available mother
for my kids that she wasn't able to be like
the school parent and all that, you know, right, and
so I did that. But then, you know, you always
are drawn back by something that people you know, and
you find yourself doing something more creative and maybe different
(32:59):
than you had before. Did you ever have hobbies during that?
Did you when you were living in France, did you
learn to paint? Did you learn to do ceramics?
Speaker 5 (33:06):
Well?
Speaker 2 (33:06):
Those paintings are behind me. Two of them on the
outside are mind fantastic. But yeah, I I took it
up during the pandemic again that was that was my hobby.
Speaker 1 (33:17):
But in France, yeah.
Speaker 2 (33:20):
I mean I got really into it. I mean, I
think getting into the French pop was like a hobby.
I mean, I'm a I eat books, I would read
all the time, and hiking. I was really into the
grail so I was like a grail freak. So and
Mary Magdalene freaks. So we lived in the area of
France where oh there was all those legends. So I
(33:41):
was really into, you know, looking for the grail. You know,
what is the whole grouse? That was like the big
hobby that I took up when I was in France.
Speaker 1 (33:50):
Are you excited to go on tour now? Or does
it fill you with dread? It's a lot of work.
It's a lot of where people don't realize it. People
think you come for the concert and that's it. That's
oh boy, I've seen what it takes and it's a lot. Yeah,
it's a lot.
Speaker 5 (34:04):
I just.
Speaker 2 (34:07):
No, I'm not drowning out. I did. I just did
sixteen shows in three weeks in the UK. Wow, And
that like even for a twenty year old, that's really hard.
But I do have a whole It's a lot of physicality.
So I have a whole thing that I do and
I do it. I started doing it a month before
I go on the road, which my vocal exercises. I
(34:28):
do a ton of ton of uh breath work Prodayama. Yeah,
you know, I'm getting my lungs, you know, sort of
like ready up.
Speaker 1 (34:38):
You ready to go?
Speaker 2 (34:38):
Yeah, And then when I'm on the road, I mean
it's hard even if you're doesn't matter how you travel,
it's you know, it's still traveling. And yeah, and you
know you have the shows, you have, the sound checks,
you have, you.
Speaker 1 (34:52):
Know, the whole thing, the travel press, the endless press, right,
so you still have it. When you get into a city,
they make you do the morning radio stuff.
Speaker 2 (35:00):
No, I won't do it anymore.
Speaker 1 (35:01):
I just say no.
Speaker 2 (35:02):
I just say no, No, it's too much at some point.
It's it's too much when you're twenty. It'd be way
too much at sixty four. So so no, I just
say no. I mean I should, but I can't do it.
I can't do I can't multitask that much anymore.
Speaker 1 (35:18):
No, nor can I.
Speaker 2 (35:19):
I mean I do like two weeks at a time,
and I do. I have it, so you know, two
on went off, two one went off, So it's it's fine,
but anything for months and months I have no desire
to do that. Yeah, and it's it's just it's just
really hard. You know.
Speaker 1 (35:37):
I heard that you sold out all your shows in England.
Speaker 2 (35:39):
Yeah, I mean that was pretty amazing because I was
saying too. I was doing an interview there and I
was saying, like, literally, twenty years ago, I was like
at a really like bad, bad, bad bad place, and
and it you know, I remember going to a venue
and twenty people should right, you know, and I was
(36:01):
playing the shitty club and and you know, I had
no backstage. It was like really dirty, and I thought,
this is like this is really bad. This is you know,
is this where her word ends? And then I got
new management. I cleaned up, you know, my act and everything,
and then it was like, uh, he had a lot,
played the long game. It's just building it back little
(36:23):
by little. I did festivals. I did all the small
clubs again, and then this last tour was like three
to five thousand a night, like sold out.
Speaker 1 (36:33):
That's fantasmic.
Speaker 2 (36:34):
I mean it was like it's kind of like a
nice little redemption story because it was really really really bad.
Speaker 1 (36:42):
Yeah, and you really did sort of do it without
all of the public scrutiny. Now, maybe I missed it,
but you know, it's not like people are saying, oh,
crazy Belinda Carlisle out there drunk and drugged. You know,
like no one sort of you were. You were very
functioning drug addict and alcohol like it seems.
Speaker 2 (37:01):
Well, yeah, except towards the end it was got pretty hard.
I wasn't showing up. I always I always took my
makeup off at nighttime too, and I would show up
even though I wasn't good shape, but I'd show up.
But towards Theanna wouldn't even show up. So it was
it was it was time.
Speaker 1 (37:19):
Yeah. So yeah, you know, and I'm proud of you.
I mean, that sounds scarid, but it's such a such
a huge accomplishment. You know, people think that if they
don't get sober the first time, it's all over, or
if it's been over this amount of years, forget it,
and your living testament to the fact that that's simply
not true.
Speaker 2 (37:36):
Yeah, and it's like, I'm you know, you can teach
an old dog new tricks, basically. That's that's kind of
my story. You know, it took me a long time.
Forty seven was when I when I really got sober,
and I was like every day, I said, for since
I was seventeen, right probably before that. So yeah, it
took a while, but I got there.
Speaker 1 (37:56):
Yeah, that's a great that's a great story in your
book that you wrote about you getting sober. What what's
the name of that one. It's called Lips Unsealed. Lips Unsealed. Yeah,
I must have missed that because I would have known
all this so that when I was reading it, I
was like, I didn't know any that's journey right. Yeah. No,
you're lovely. I've been a fan of yours forever and
(38:17):
I'm always will be. You know somebody who was at
your concerts and on uh in Jones Beach believe.
Speaker 2 (38:24):
Yes, yes, that's bitch.
Speaker 1 (38:26):
We're right on the ocean there and still get outside
And it was fantastic and I loved having you on
my show. And it's great to hear you doing so well. Blind.
Thank you look beautiful. You look absolutely stunned.
Speaker 2 (38:38):
Thank you, and thank you for having me. It's so
nice to talk to you.
Speaker 1 (38:41):
And yes, it's great to see you again too, and
thank you for being here. Welcome back. That's Belinda Carlisle,
(39:08):
my new best friend. I just love her. I'm so
thankful she did the show and I got to know
a little bit more about her. I hope you enjoyed it.
We have some listener voice memos. That's you, guys. Here's
the first question hit it.
Speaker 4 (39:21):
Hi, Rosie, my name is Kate. I am so happy
that you have started this podcast. When I tuned in
for the first time and heard your voice again, a
flood of memories came back to me. I am such
a fan of yours, and your show was a big
part of my childhood and a special thing I shared
with my mom every day we'd watch after school. And
(39:43):
I love that you talked about all the things her
and I loved Broadway musical theater Bet Midler. She even
surprised me once with tickets to your show. Now I'm
a mom of two kids myself, and my appreciation and
understanding for my mom became so much once I became
a mother. So my question for you is, if you
(40:05):
could ask your mom a question or a piece of
advice about parenthood, what would it be? Thank you so much?
Speaker 1 (40:14):
Wow, Okay, thank you so much. It's beautiful. Really, you know,
it's so hard for me to imagine that I could,
as a grown up, have a mom. You know, my
mom's been gone since nineteen seventy three. I was the
age Dakota is now ten when she died, and it's
(40:34):
very overwhelming. I will tell you that the time I
missed my mother the most was when my children were
first placed in my arms. That was the I thought, Oh,
I wish my mother was here to see this. And
then when my son got engaged, I was overwhelmed with
emotion about wanting to tell my mother that my son
(40:55):
got engaged. So I'm not sure what I would ask
her if she were alone life now, but boy, I
would give anything for a conversation with her. I miss her.
I miss her every day and I would love to
know what kind of parental advice you would give me.
You know, thank you, Kate for the question. I appreciate
(41:17):
to give those kids a kiss, and we have one
more I think today, let's hit it.
Speaker 5 (41:21):
Hey, Rosie, my name's Billy and I'm from Pittsburgh, and
I have a twofold question for you. Over the years,
you've had opportunities to meet celebrities from all kinds of
artistic fields, and some of them you mentioned were your heroes.
I can remember watching you when you had Barbara Streisan
on your show and how emotional that was for you
after meeting her. Was there any other celebrity that made
(41:41):
you feel that way? Or has it all just been
a normal human experience meeting people. I saw Maria Kerry
one time in concert and I was a few rows
away and she pointed at me and my legs went jelly.
The second part of my question, was there for a
moment when you had high hopes for meeting somebody they
obviously do not need to be named that turned out
to be not as you expected. Love your podcast and
(42:02):
have a great day.
Speaker 1 (42:04):
Thank you, Billy, Thank you very very much. You know,
I kind of didn't have expectations of people. I was
always waiting to see what would be, you know. I
wanted to know who they were, and I was ready
to accept wherever it was that they were at. I
don't think of anyone specifically, but there was one guest
(42:25):
on the show that is a funny person, and I
expected a funny person, and it was kind of a
serious person, and I was very shocked at this. Now,
it wasn't like anything they did was wrong. It's just
like my expectation was it was going to be like
Marty Short. You know, Marty Short comes on your talk
(42:47):
show and you say one sentence to him, and he
can go on for forty minutes and I will be
peeing in my pants. That's what happens when Marty Short
is around. So I was expecting a kind of Marty
Short intensity and energy, got sort of the opposite. The
actual person is kind of quiet and introverted, which I
did not expect because of their career. So there you go.
(43:09):
But there's nobody that I would go, oh my god,
I hated this person. You know, there really wasn't. But
thank you, Billy, thank you for your questions and everyone,
thank you for the comments. Really, thank you so much.
Next week we got Kristin chenow here. Cheno, my buddy,
the little pine size Prozac herself. She makes me so
happy and I love her so very much. She's here
(43:31):
and we have some intense conversations as always, So Kristin
Chenowick next week, and hope you enjoyed. Belinda Carlisle, and
thank you for finding us here at Onward
Hey, everybody, it is me Rosie O'Donnell, and you have
found my podcast Onward with Rosy O'Donnell. That's the goal, folks.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Onward.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
I was in New York for the fourth of July,
and people in public in the airports mostly were so
kind and so nice, so loving, and so many talking
about this podcast. You know, it's funny you do a
podcast in your own house with your headphones on and
talking to somebody, usually on the computer, and you don't
(00:40):
really think it's going out there to millions of people.
You know, you don't because you do it just a
tiny little thing in your house. And you know, people
were talking to me about the Reality Winter episode and
how much they loved that, and I was so glad
that we got to have her on and that people
can get used to her story, her name and what
an amazing American patriot she is and all the comments
(01:03):
about that episode were very moving and thank you so much.
And speaking of comments, we have the leave a voice
memo and people have been leaving them with questions and comments,
and I gotta tell you, they're so lovely. What you
guys are doing, what you're sending me all the love
that you're giving back to me is overwhelming. It is,
(01:26):
and I don't know, I kind of like being sixty one.
I kind of like growing older. I kind of like
having so many years to look back on my life,
my career, my family. People stop me and ask me questions,
how are my kids? How's this one? How's that one?
(01:47):
And it's really a beautiful thing. And I just wanted
to do a shout out to all of the Delta
Airlines flight attendants. You guys are the best. Seriously. I
took a red eyein and then I took the first
flight out, which was like a reverse red eye, So
I went for like three days or something because that
(02:08):
first flight everyone sleeps, you know, everyone sleeps, including me.
And when I woke up, this wonderful flight attendant his
name was Jay, I believe, said I saved you an
expeded it. I was like, are you the sweetest guy
in the world. So a shout out to all those
people and just everybody in general. The positivity is very
(02:29):
uplifting and helps me in so many ways. And you know,
like so many of us, I struggle with depression and
I'm medicated and I'm on top of it and taking
care of my mental health. But I will say this
injection of love gives me some serotonin and dopamine and
all those things my brain sometimes lacks. So thank you
so much for the beauty and your stories and your comments,
(02:51):
and I really really appreciate that I'm having a good
summer so far. My kid is so excited that the
pool there with a slide, although she does not allow
me to really take her going down this. I have
to like be like a Papa Razzi to get a
picture of her now. She just says no. I don't
know if she's gonna still do the videos with me
(03:12):
and attack me on TikTok, but we'll see, because she's
going to be eleven in January, and it feels like
those preteen years are crunching up on me. We have
a great show today, we really do. It is Belinda
Carlisle from the Go Gos. You know where you love her.
Here's the thing. I didn't really know very much about
Belinda Carlisle before I did the interview. She had been
(03:34):
on my talk show. But you really don't have time
to do in depth interviews and daytime TV. It's five
minutes if you're lucky, seven minutes if you go over.
But to have a full hour or forty minutes forty
five minutes to talk to someone, you really do get
to know them. And most of the people that I've
had on the show I already was friendly with. I
already know them, and like Ricky Lake, it's very different
(03:56):
to interview someone and find out who they are. And
I came to really really like her. I mean, I
like her so much. I was like, I want to
hang out with her.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
You know.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
She was honest and forthright and wonderful discussion about parenting
and about sobriety and just about life. And I love
it when women embrace the age that they are and
everybody is on the journey and we're all going the
same place. So old age man, it's not as bad
(04:26):
as they say. So we have Blinda Carlyle and she's
fantastic and stick around. At the end of the show,
we'll do some questions from you the listeners. Thank you
so much, Blinda Carlyle.
Speaker 3 (04:37):
Right now, well, hello Belinda Carlile, Hello Rasierdana.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
I haven't seen you in so many years.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
I now I remember the last time it was. It
was at the TV studio. That's right, and they all
rolled down with a massive hangover. I'm so sorry about that.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
But that's okay. I have loved doing all my research
about you and finding out that your life was not
at all what I had imagined.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
Well I know, I think, I think it's yeah, it's
it's it was, it has been and stillia is quite
a life.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
So yeah, yeah, and I read about you.
Speaker 4 (05:22):
Know.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
This is how silly I felt reading this. I know
all the words to the Go Gos and everything, but
I didn't realize it was a punk band.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
We started out if it was. Yeah, we started out
in the punk Stain in nineteen seventy eight when everybody
was in a bad It was like fifty kids. All
the kids were in bands and they were horrible. So
we thought, well, we can start a band and be
horrible too, right, And it was actually cooler to be horrible.
So that's how the Go Go started. And we had
(05:50):
no idea how to do anything.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
How did you know each other? Did you put an
ad for a band or were you friends? No?
Speaker 2 (05:57):
We just like we knew each other from the punk Stain.
Like I said, there were like fifty kids in the
very beginning. It exploded really quickly, but we all kinda
knew each other. And Margo, the original bass player, and
I were friends and she said. We were sitting on
a curb one night at a party in Venice, California,
and she said, let's form a band. And I said
(06:19):
I wanted to play bass, and she goes, no, I'm
playing bass. You can play, you can play drums, or
you can sing. And I had played well the drummer
that never played in a punk band called the Germs,
and so I said, okay, I sing, and that's how
it started. I had never sung before.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
Jane wanted to play rhythm guitar. She had no idea.
We asked Charlotte to join because she knew how to
plug in a guitar into an amplifier, and that's how
the band started. But we started from absolute I mean,
Charlotte did have classical training, but none of us knew
how to do anything. But that was the beauty of
(06:58):
the punk movement.
Speaker 1 (06:59):
Did you have like the group? Was it the sex Pistols?
Who was it that you were looking up to and
thinking that's the direction I want to go. Was there
one band or there were a couple of bands.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
Actually a lot of well, first of all, the LA
punk scene was amazing back then. There were some really
like amazing bands that were ahead of their time. But
we looked to the UK and we were influenced by
the more melodic pop bands like the Buzzcocks and even
the Clash. So and three of us grew up in
(07:29):
southern California with California radio, so that sort of California
melodic harmonies, beach boys, beach culture was kind of in
our DNA. So even though we started it as a
punk band, we always had pop overtones.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
Yeah, and then when.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
We became more musically proficient, it started sounding like a
pop band and people were going, Oh my god, what's
going on here?
Speaker 1 (07:53):
What happened to them?
Speaker 2 (07:55):
Exactly exactly.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
I read that you opened when you were very young.
You opened for Mad like our house Madness in the
middle of oh wow, what's that band?
Speaker 2 (08:05):
Yes, actually they really you know, meeting them was like
a big deal and you know, for the Go Gos,
because they asked us to come to the UK to
support them. So our manager, Ginger sold all of our belongings, everything,
and you know, Soldier car kept our apartment to finance
(08:29):
our trip over to the UK. Because really at that time,
before the age of information, you could say anything when
you were there, you could say you were big stars,
which we did in the UK, we weren't. In fact,
we kind of struggled, you know, opening for that band
because they had a whole other type of audience. It
was a lot of neo Nazis, a lot of a
(08:51):
lot of you know, mostly skinheads, very violent, you know,
and so we had to open and play for these
It was scary, believe me, it was scary.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
Yeah, But at the.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
Same time we really honed our skills and became a
really good little band from that whole time in the UK,
we opened for the Specials and a lot of the
two tone bands Wow, and we would ride home and
say what big stars we were. People didn't know better.
And we came back to la after, you know, after
(09:22):
three or four months, and you know, I guess our
strategy worked because there were kids wrapped around the block
Wow to come see us at the Star would Yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:32):
And it was really a meteoric rise, like it was
like two years from start to you were on the
pop Jarks, right.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
I mean, it went so fast. We formed the band
in nineteen seventy eight, and in nineteen eighty one we
were the biggest band in America.
Speaker 1 (09:49):
Now, how in earth did you survive that?
Speaker 2 (09:52):
Well, I mean, well, you know, as you do, as
most bands do with drugs and right exactly, but I
mean to go from zero to one hundred and being
self taught, we didn't have like a Simon Cowell or
a Svengale. We did all ourselves and it was a
female operation, female roadies, female management, no boys allowed, no
(10:17):
boyfriends around. And yeah, I mean that's kind of been
heard of, really and when you think, you know, when
you think about it, I mean, three years is nothing.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
No, especially in show biz you kidding? Yeah, yeah, years.
Usually you're waiting tables for a decade and then you
get a break, you know exactly exactly. I know for
me kind of when my show took off, it sort
of felt like that too, like a like a rocket
shipped me up to a different place and for a
while you totally are disoriented, y don't even really act.
(10:47):
And I read read tell me if this is true
that you had fear of imposter syndrome, which I believe
every artist has.
Speaker 2 (10:55):
Oh I probably I would say that they do. Most
every artist does. And yes, it was. I mean, it
was a combination of the way I grew up, you know,
and you know, in a very strict sort of Christian family.
And it was partly because three years is nothing, you know,
and all of our musician friends who had been working
(11:16):
for decades achieved nothing, and then here we were after
three years, I mean, like the biggest man in America
for five minutes.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
So yeah, more than five minutes, honey. That was That
was a pretty wild long run more with Belinda Carlisle
After this, I read every interview, so bear with me.
(11:56):
But you spoke about them always commenting on your weight,
which you know, I didn't remember that as being a
thing with you, to tell you the truth, maybe because
I had my own issues with weight. You just were right,
the beautiful one in the go gos right that you
were always the face of the go gos right right,
And that must have put a lot of pressure as
you were how old you were so young, I was.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
Let's see, twenty three years old. I never thought about
my weight. I never had a problem with my weight
and the way I looked. And I guess because I
was normal, you know, or sort of normal, like a
pretty young girl. But I was cute and chubby. I
was pretty and plump. I'd been hitting the deli trays
(12:40):
and that really really messes with your brain as a
young girl, and it was very, very damaging. And you know,
I mean it was like that up until fairly recently,
but now it's and I love this with women, it's
their name and then how old you are? Totally and
don't do that to men. It's like Evelynda of sixty four,
(13:01):
she's sixty four, right, So how did that feel for you?
I never had an issue with my age. I still
really don't, but when I turned sixty, it was kind
of like whoa sixty? You know, that was the one
that made me think, like because in my mind, sixty
is like Sada Thompson from Family, you know, Ethel from
I Love.
Speaker 1 (13:20):
Lucy, Like, it's not like you, Belinda Carlisle. You know.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
Yeah, yeah, well, I mean, as we know, it's inevitable.
And I think for me it's not so much the
physicality of it, but it was like finally realizing that
maybe I have another twenty twenty five years, yes, you know,
and I've had sixty that they've flown right by each maybe,
(13:46):
and you know, sixty four now, But yeah, it was
just weird, like on a psychological sort of level. You know,
of course it's not great. You know, seeing your body
is sort of like you.
Speaker 1 (13:57):
Know, betray you.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
Yeah, exactly, but I mean that's just the way it is.
So I could kind of accept that. It was just
see the like, wow, I mean, I'm like three quarters
of my life have you know, it's it's done.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
It's why that's why I name this show Onward, because
I hit sixty and I was like, everything in the past,
I'm leaving in the past, onward to the last twenty
five years, you know.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
Right right right, And I think that, I mean, you know,
I'm probably even more active than I was in my
thirties and doing you know, lets of great crazy things.
But and it is just a number. And I was
talking to a friend and he goes, so, let's just
face it, we're old, and I was like, excuse me,
and you know, I mean, I am sixty four. But
(14:46):
I think old is like it it's like really negative.
Take on its Yeah, it doesn't have to be negative
at all.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
Right, there's a way, in a way that you're given
the uh, everybody knows that you have some wisdom to
share when you're all right. When I'm on a set now,
I'm like the Angela Lansbury. You know, I'm the oldest
woman on the set and they're all young kids and
ask me what was it like back then? And you know,
you start to think, how did it go this fast?
(15:15):
And you know, where did you grow up? Did you
grow up in La? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (15:18):
I grew up in southern California. I did.
Speaker 1 (15:21):
And you were the oldest of seven children.
Speaker 2 (15:23):
Yes, I was. Yeah, it was a guinea pig, yeah,
and yeah, I mean it was a great place to
grow up, California. It was amazing back then. And you know,
a typical dysfunctional family, right, but that's what that's my
formative years.
Speaker 1 (15:37):
We're in California and your dad had a drinking problem,
and your stepdad or just your stepdad.
Speaker 2 (15:43):
Just my stepdad. My dad left when we were I
was about five and I didn't really know him, but
my stepfather did. He was a terrible alcoholic, but he
got sober right after I left home. So, you know,
I mean, going through my issue of addiction and alcoholism myself,
I you know, I forgave him, you know, for because
(16:07):
he was abusa. Then you know, I mean back then,
kids were beaten with the belt and that's how it
was done and totally and you know it was it
was harsh, but that's all he knew. And you know,
I mean he was actually when he got sober, like
an amazing, beautiful human being.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
No kidding.
Speaker 2 (16:26):
It wasn't when I was growing up, that's for sure.
Speaker 1 (16:28):
Now when you had your son, did you go through
moments of going, I gotta, I gotta cut this back,
because I know what it did to me when there
was drinking an alcoholic behavior in the house or did
it not sort of register until you were ready to
be done?
Speaker 2 (16:42):
It didn't register until I was ready? Well, it registered well, okay.
I was always to be able to witness myself, even
when I was like ten, I always had me and
then I had this. It was weird. I could always
do that. So even in my when I was like
way out there, I could always go, okay, you know
(17:03):
you you know, are a mess and you know you
need to get it together. So I always knew, but
I really had no interest really in cleaning it up.
I was doing it for other people, not for myself.
Speaker 1 (17:18):
Had you tried to get sober before for other people?
Speaker 2 (17:21):
Yeah, I did it the first time after the go
gos broke up. I did my version, which was I
couldn't drink but no cost wine, just wine, just wine,
you know, and and no cope, no pills. I could
do acid and hallucinogens. That was fine, and that's how
I functioned for a good five seven years. And then
(17:45):
of course that does not work, so and then it
took me another another fifteen seventeen years of you know, drama,
drop pain and suffering and drama. And I was like, okay,
I'm ready. And then when I was ready, I was ready.
It was like not, I was down, not an issue.
Speaker 1 (18:06):
And did you go to a twelve step? Did you
do the whole?
Speaker 2 (18:09):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (18:09):
I did blue book everything good for you.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
I got a sponsor, and you know, I've done you know,
I did the invent personal inventory, which I likened to
wearing cement and rubber boots and treading through quicksand which.
Speaker 1 (18:24):
Was like it was so it's hard to do.
Speaker 2 (18:28):
Yeah, and I really had a lot of blocks with that,
but I'm so glad I did it, and I've done
it twice, actually gone through the steps twice now. But yeah,
I mean that's the only thing I mean I tried
doing it my way.
Speaker 1 (18:40):
Didn't work, don't we all right? Ye? Yeah, exactly we
got a handle on this, you know, exactly exactly you
don't have a handle on it. When you say I
don't have a handle on it and you have to
say it, you know, did the others try Did they
try to do it to vengeance? Did they? Because I
read that your son has said he had no idea
that you were using drugs or drinking to excess through
(19:02):
his childhood, that he doesn't have a memory of that.
Speaker 2 (19:06):
I think he did once when I was really I mean,
I came on from a trip and I had taken
some pills and I was like slurring and stumbling around
the kitchen, and that's when he kind of he kind
of knew. And my husband's like, go to bed, you know,
we don't want you around right now. And he didn't know.
But I think part of, you know, he probably buried
(19:27):
a lot of it because sure, yeah, you know, but
you know, it's it's it was when I was ready.
I was ready.
Speaker 1 (19:36):
Yeah, do you have advice? Like we have someone in
our family and it's you know, it's very difficult when
there's a lot of you know, drug abuse, and someone
told me somebody who's in AA and I go to
alan On and I go to try to help myself
get through this difficult time with her, and you know,
(19:58):
they said, if one more person to save me, I'd
be dead, right, Yeah, totally almost. The trying to help
doesn't help.
Speaker 2 (20:07):
It doesn't help. I mean, I can't tell you. And
as as when I was drinking and using the promises
that I made never again, and I meant them and
really meant what I said, but I knew way to
down on the side, there was no way I could
keep my promise even though I wanted to.
Speaker 1 (20:23):
And I meant to.
Speaker 2 (20:26):
But I mean the advice because I'm actually I have
a friend right now that's really suffering from a partner
who is just way out there.
Speaker 1 (20:35):
You know.
Speaker 2 (20:35):
I mean, I've been through the drama on both sides
of the drama, and I just I would just say
alan On. The big books from alan On is amazing.
It's amazing total, you know, and there's a few there's
a really forgot the name of the book, but there's
a classic codependent codependent no.
Speaker 1 (20:52):
More, no more.
Speaker 2 (20:53):
Yeah, that's an amazing Yeah, she's amazing and that's that
book I recommend, and I say, and I tell him,
you just let go save yourself. Whatever happens with him
is gonna happen. You can't do anything about it. In fact,
it makes it worse.
Speaker 1 (21:10):
But it's so hard, and it's so hard, it's so
so hard. When you let go, you think, what if
the worst happens? You know, but that is going to happen,
and maybe that's gonna change the behavior, maybe you.
Speaker 2 (21:22):
Know exactly exactly, and hanging on doesn't really how And
if anything happened when you were hanging on, you would
blame yourself too.
Speaker 1 (21:30):
So well, that's the other thing, you know. I try
to say, I can't do anymore until you're ready to
get well, and yeah, and then I find myself doing
more because I feel like guilty. And then I go, oh,
now I'm really not gonna do it, you know. Yeah,
I know from the book. I know from going to
alan On that that's the worst thing you can do
is to be to give in, you know. Yeah, but
(21:54):
we can't help.
Speaker 2 (21:55):
It sometimes, No, No, it's it's uh, you know, especially
if you're really loved the person, and it's you know,
my husband stuck around for years and I don't think
if I had carried on, I don't think he'd be around.
But I remember when after I during the first week
after sobriety, I had to go to London to go
to work, and all of a sudden it just hit
(22:17):
me all the pain that I caused people around me,
and I had like a breakdown in the middle of Herod's.
And so I called him and I said, why did
you Why did you stick around?
Speaker 4 (22:31):
You know?
Speaker 1 (22:31):
And and he said I could.
Speaker 2 (22:33):
Always see the real you underneath all the crap, you know,
and Beau, yeah, and so you know. But but he,
I mean, he was there, but he backed way off
the last few years, you know, and you know, he
would get really pissed off with me and everything when
i'd like go on a bender. But I think if
(22:55):
I had carried on, he probably would have walked to Ben.
Speaker 1 (22:57):
How long have you been married? It's a miracle with
all of the time that you were not ready to
get well and you've been married over thirty years, right.
Speaker 2 (23:05):
We've been together thirty nine years?
Speaker 1 (23:07):
Oh, congratulations in carlesle so change. You know a lot
of difficult circumstances too. It wasn't like a cake walk for.
Speaker 2 (23:14):
You now, for for either of us to be honest.
Speaker 1 (23:18):
What does he do? Is he in the recording industry
or no?
Speaker 2 (23:20):
No, no, he's just he does a lot of financial
staff and and he's retired now he's into his finance
thing and and playing around with that. And no he doesn't.
He's not in the music business. He doesn't manage me.
He suggests that at once a long time a guy's
in no way, you know, it's just very smart.
Speaker 1 (23:38):
Youp it separate, youep it separate. And is you have
one child? You ever want a son? And how when?
How how old was he when he came out to you?
Speaker 2 (23:46):
He was fourteen? And he I mean, I always kind
of knew, you know, yeah, they're like they're like little
little hands along the way.
Speaker 1 (23:56):
Sure, yeah, of course.
Speaker 2 (23:58):
But but I was saying when we went on a
little afternoon trip to this lake near where we lived,
and he said, mom, I have something to tell you.
Or I was driving and he said, I like boys,
and I went.
Speaker 1 (24:16):
And I had to stop signing, damn it.
Speaker 2 (24:19):
And I had to pull over and catch my and
catch my breath. Even though listen, all my friends since
I was in high school have been ninety percent of
be garre lesbian, right, and but when it's your child,
it's like the first thing I thought of is what
kind of world is he going to have to put
up with, especially living in provincial France, I mean where
it's very very kind of old fashioned, you know, very traditional.
Speaker 1 (24:42):
So that was like a.
Speaker 2 (24:45):
Whole that was like a really like a whole thing.
Because he had been coached by p Flag. It is
an amazing organization on how to come out. So and
since then I've done a lot of we do a
lot of work together for Pea Flag great. But they
said come out to your mom my, momy d. Never
come out to your father because you don't know if
(25:07):
it's you don't know, you know, it's a reflection of
their masculinity, especially being an only son.
Speaker 1 (25:13):
So I thought, okay, don't tell dad.
Speaker 2 (25:16):
I'm going to figure out how we're gonna you know,
even though my husband's like totally gay friendly, just like,
don't say anything. So what does he do the next
day at school at the school assembly?
Speaker 1 (25:28):
I am gay, Oh my god, I love him to
the whole school. What a brave young boy.
Speaker 2 (25:35):
And so everybody though, because we lived in a small village,
you know, and friends. Everybody knew that he was gay
except for my husband. So I was like, okay, how
am I gonna you know? I went to my therapist
and how do I deal with this? And she said
let him tell him? And I said no, no, no, instinctively, no,
that's not that's not good.
Speaker 1 (25:56):
So I did.
Speaker 2 (25:57):
It took me about three months to even though I
knew it would be okay, it's still it's hard to say.
It's hard to say. So, yeah, I dropped. I dropped
Duke opic the bus stop.
Speaker 1 (26:09):
It was.
Speaker 2 (26:09):
It was like a junior in high school. I went
home and Morgan comes out of the shower where I said,
I have something to tell you, Dickie Lex boys, it's like,
he said, who cares?
Speaker 1 (26:22):
What did he say?
Speaker 2 (26:23):
He said, oh, this is just a phase. I said
I don't think so. So I said, you two deal
with it. Leave me out. You guys got to figure
it out. Because they would all be like, well he
said this, and he said that. I said, just leave
me out. You guys have to figure it out. I'm
I'm I'm done. So it took them a good year
of like going back and forth, and Duke would get
(26:45):
mad about him, saying it's a phase.
Speaker 1 (26:47):
You know.
Speaker 2 (26:48):
It took about a year though for him to finally
accept the accept it.
Speaker 1 (26:52):
Not that he he was he.
Speaker 2 (26:53):
Was fine with it, but you know it's his only somebody.
Speaker 1 (26:58):
Everybody needs time to adjust, even the gay people me.
You know, when you first figure out you're gay, whether
you're ten or you're fifteen, you have to give yourself
some time to get used to the idea. And you
really have to give your family the courtesy of that
time too, because it's a shock and it doesn't mean
that you're not loved, right, but an instant, you know,
(27:20):
reaction that some kids are so needy and wanting of
they don't want to be disowned by their family. It's
not always right at the right time, you.
Speaker 2 (27:28):
Know, exactly exactly. So it all happened perfect, Okay, So
he was fourteen. He immediately got elected to a student
body president. And what the great thing is is that
like five or six kids came out right after hated
how great so it was. It was a really good thing.
Speaker 1 (27:44):
Yeah, that's wonderful. You know, I have a little daughter
who's ten, I have four grown children in their twenties,
and I adopted a baby at fifty. You know, wow, Yes,
all my kids are adopted. But this baby has autism
and she's like very verbal, and about six months ago
she started telling me that her stuffed animals were non binary,
(28:04):
and I was like, really, I go, how do you know?
She's like, I can tell. And then she starts telling
me about characters in her little video game thing she
plays that are non binary. And then finally she says, Mom,
I'm non binary. And I said, fantastic. What do you
want for dinner? You know, yeah, exactly, No, I don't
(28:24):
know where it's going to go. They say a large
percentage of autistic kids when they examine the thoughts the
way they do, they examine this, you know, in a
higher percentage than non autistic kids. But she's getting very
insistent on they them. So we went to a birthday
party for my eighty two year old friend, and my
(28:44):
eighty two year old friend said, hey, she wants something
to drink, and she turns and says, it's they They
That is just eighty two. You gotta calm your role on.
Speaker 2 (28:54):
That is so funny yea for her?
Speaker 1 (28:57):
Look good?
Speaker 2 (28:57):
You know, I mean Dick SETTI knew since it was
Evan when he fell in Love with the Boy on Casper,
the movie, you know, and I had there was one
thing he wouldn't mind me just saying this. But when
Broke Back Mountain came out, it was playing at our
local theater and I had to delay it for a
week because I had to work, and he threw like
a temper tantrum. I want to sit in the whole Wow,
(29:21):
you know so and you know they're like little hints
like that along the way.
Speaker 1 (29:25):
So he's kind of responsible for your new EP Kidsman, exactly,
what a wonderful story this is. He had Starbucks just
hanging out.
Speaker 2 (29:36):
Well, he never goes into the Starbucks, and he went
into the Starbucks on sunset and Diane Warren was there
and she never grows at that certain time. She went
always a little bit later. So he walked up to
Diane and he said, I'm Belinda Carlile. Soon she went,
you know, and I'm not going to repeat what she's like,
(29:56):
she you know, swear, yeah, yeah she does. But she said,
get your mom on the phone. I have hits. So
they called me and it was like out of the
blue because I was planning on slowing down and you know,
during my you know, I just living a quiet life,
you know.
Speaker 1 (30:13):
Yes, And.
Speaker 2 (30:15):
They called me and it was like on FaceTime and
She's going come to the studio. I have hits for you.
And I was like, well, do I have a choice?
First of all, because you don't say naughty Donnie R. Yeah,
but I was like, do I really want to do this?
It's like a big commitment and now I'm not in
this mindset now. And I went to the studio and
(30:36):
usually like I was kind of just I was done.
And I mean because my last two albums, so I
was in French, because because I lived in France for
twenty four years and I loved French bop. The other
one was Mantra chant every Day. So I thought, no,
it never happened because good pop songs go to younger
artists or artists that are charting.
Speaker 1 (30:57):
And I'm sixty four, right.
Speaker 2 (30:58):
So I went to the studio and what she played me,
I was like, oh my god, this is amazing. I mean,
why are you giving it to me?
Speaker 1 (31:07):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (31:09):
But no, but but it's true. So she played me
and I'm very fuscyd too. I'm not saying just everything
and just won't do it for the sake of doing it.
So she played me five really good songs and I
was like, yeah, let's do it. So that's how it happened.
It was a chance meeting, a couple of coincidences that
(31:30):
came about, and that's why it's called kismet.
Speaker 1 (31:33):
Yeah. Do you believe in coincidences? I don't.
Speaker 2 (31:35):
Yeah, I think I don't think that. I don't think
there was such such thing. Now me either, I don't
think there's such thing.
Speaker 1 (31:41):
And the one that people that come into contact with
you and you with them, there's a meaning in something. Now,
whether or not we're back here enough to observe what
that is, won't that be a wonderful thing to be
able to figure all that out at the end. Perhaps
that's that's my dream of when we leave the body
and we're no longer using it, that we get to
(32:01):
sort of have a bird's eye view. Yeah, it's happening
and figure out kind of the thing exactly Confuse us? Well,
I'm doing course in miracles right now.
Speaker 2 (32:11):
And one of the things that said, because it says,
basically there's no coincidences, but every encounter is a chance
to heal your childhood pain. And I love that, buddy.
I thought that's so great. And yeah, this was not
a coincidence. It was I was it was like the
universe saying, now you can't it's not the right time
(32:34):
to retire.
Speaker 1 (32:35):
Yeah, yeah, exactly. I did it once when I left
my show. I was forty and my mom died at forty,
so I thought, I want to be an available mother
for my kids that she wasn't able to be like
the school parent and all that, you know, right, and
so I did that. But then, you know, you always
are drawn back by something that people you know, and
you find yourself doing something more creative and maybe different
(32:59):
than you had before. Did you ever have hobbies during that?
Did you when you were living in France, did you
learn to paint? Did you learn to do ceramics?
Speaker 5 (33:06):
Well?
Speaker 2 (33:06):
Those paintings are behind me. Two of them on the
outside are mind fantastic. But yeah, I I took it
up during the pandemic again that was that was my hobby.
Speaker 1 (33:17):
But in France, yeah.
Speaker 2 (33:20):
I mean I got really into it. I mean, I
think getting into the French pop was like a hobby.
I mean, I'm a I eat books, I would read
all the time, and hiking. I was really into the
grail so I was like a grail freak. So and
Mary Magdalene freaks. So we lived in the area of
France where oh there was all those legends. So I
(33:41):
was really into, you know, looking for the grail. You know,
what is the whole grouse? That was like the big
hobby that I took up when I was in France.
Speaker 1 (33:50):
Are you excited to go on tour now? Or does
it fill you with dread? It's a lot of work.
It's a lot of where people don't realize it. People
think you come for the concert and that's it. That's
oh boy, I've seen what it takes and it's a lot. Yeah,
it's a lot.
Speaker 5 (34:04):
I just.
Speaker 2 (34:07):
No, I'm not drowning out. I did. I just did
sixteen shows in three weeks in the UK. Wow, And
that like even for a twenty year old, that's really hard.
But I do have a whole It's a lot of physicality.
So I have a whole thing that I do and
I do it. I started doing it a month before
I go on the road, which my vocal exercises. I
(34:28):
do a ton of ton of uh breath work Prodayama. Yeah,
you know, I'm getting my lungs, you know, sort of
like ready up.
Speaker 1 (34:38):
You ready to go?
Speaker 2 (34:38):
Yeah, And then when I'm on the road, I mean
it's hard even if you're doesn't matter how you travel,
it's you know, it's still traveling. And yeah, and you
know you have the shows, you have, the sound checks,
you have, you.
Speaker 1 (34:52):
Know, the whole thing, the travel press, the endless press, right,
so you still have it. When you get into a city,
they make you do the morning radio stuff.
Speaker 2 (35:00):
No, I won't do it anymore.
Speaker 1 (35:01):
I just say no.
Speaker 2 (35:02):
I just say no, No, it's too much at some point.
It's it's too much when you're twenty. It'd be way
too much at sixty four. So so no, I just
say no. I mean I should, but I can't do it.
I can't do I can't multitask that much anymore.
Speaker 1 (35:18):
No, nor can I.
Speaker 2 (35:19):
I mean I do like two weeks at a time,
and I do. I have it, so you know, two
on went off, two one went off, So it's it's fine,
but anything for months and months I have no desire
to do that. Yeah, and it's it's just it's just
really hard. You know.
Speaker 1 (35:37):
I heard that you sold out all your shows in England.
Speaker 2 (35:39):
Yeah, I mean that was pretty amazing because I was
saying too. I was doing an interview there and I
was saying, like, literally, twenty years ago, I was like
at a really like bad, bad, bad bad place, and
and it you know, I remember going to a venue
and twenty people should right, you know, and I was
(36:01):
playing the shitty club and and you know, I had
no backstage. It was like really dirty, and I thought,
this is like this is really bad. This is you know,
is this where her word ends? And then I got
new management. I cleaned up, you know, my act and everything,
and then it was like, uh, he had a lot,
played the long game. It's just building it back little
(36:23):
by little. I did festivals. I did all the small
clubs again, and then this last tour was like three
to five thousand a night, like sold out.
Speaker 1 (36:33):
That's fantasmic.
Speaker 2 (36:34):
I mean it was like it's kind of like a
nice little redemption story because it was really really really bad.
Speaker 1 (36:42):
Yeah, and you really did sort of do it without
all of the public scrutiny. Now, maybe I missed it,
but you know, it's not like people are saying, oh,
crazy Belinda Carlisle out there drunk and drugged. You know,
like no one sort of you were. You were very
functioning drug addict and alcohol like it seems.
Speaker 2 (37:01):
Well, yeah, except towards the end it was got pretty hard.
I wasn't showing up. I always I always took my
makeup off at nighttime too, and I would show up
even though I wasn't good shape, but I'd show up.
But towards Theanna wouldn't even show up. So it was
it was it was time.
Speaker 1 (37:19):
Yeah. So yeah, you know, and I'm proud of you.
I mean, that sounds scarid, but it's such a such
a huge accomplishment. You know, people think that if they
don't get sober the first time, it's all over, or
if it's been over this amount of years, forget it,
and your living testament to the fact that that's simply
not true.
Speaker 2 (37:36):
Yeah, and it's like, I'm you know, you can teach
an old dog new tricks, basically. That's that's kind of
my story. You know, it took me a long time.
Forty seven was when I when I really got sober,
and I was like every day, I said, for since
I was seventeen, right probably before that. So yeah, it
took a while, but I got there.
Speaker 1 (37:56):
Yeah, that's a great that's a great story in your
book that you wrote about you getting sober. What what's
the name of that one. It's called Lips Unsealed. Lips Unsealed. Yeah,
I must have missed that because I would have known
all this so that when I was reading it, I
was like, I didn't know any that's journey right. Yeah. No,
you're lovely. I've been a fan of yours forever and
(38:17):
I'm always will be. You know somebody who was at
your concerts and on uh in Jones Beach believe.
Speaker 2 (38:24):
Yes, yes, that's bitch.
Speaker 1 (38:26):
We're right on the ocean there and still get outside
And it was fantastic and I loved having you on
my show. And it's great to hear you doing so well. Blind.
Thank you look beautiful. You look absolutely stunned.
Speaker 2 (38:38):
Thank you, and thank you for having me. It's so
nice to talk to you.
Speaker 1 (38:41):
And yes, it's great to see you again too, and
thank you for being here. Welcome back. That's Belinda Carlisle,
(39:08):
my new best friend. I just love her. I'm so
thankful she did the show and I got to know
a little bit more about her. I hope you enjoyed it.
We have some listener voice memos. That's you, guys. Here's
the first question hit it.
Speaker 4 (39:21):
Hi, Rosie, my name is Kate. I am so happy
that you have started this podcast. When I tuned in
for the first time and heard your voice again, a
flood of memories came back to me. I am such
a fan of yours, and your show was a big
part of my childhood and a special thing I shared
with my mom every day we'd watch after school. And
(39:43):
I love that you talked about all the things her
and I loved Broadway musical theater Bet Midler. She even
surprised me once with tickets to your show. Now I'm
a mom of two kids myself, and my appreciation and
understanding for my mom became so much once I became
a mother. So my question for you is, if you
(40:05):
could ask your mom a question or a piece of
advice about parenthood, what would it be? Thank you so much?
Speaker 1 (40:14):
Wow, Okay, thank you so much. It's beautiful. Really, you know,
it's so hard for me to imagine that I could,
as a grown up, have a mom. You know, my
mom's been gone since nineteen seventy three. I was the
age Dakota is now ten when she died, and it's
(40:34):
very overwhelming. I will tell you that the time I
missed my mother the most was when my children were
first placed in my arms. That was the I thought, Oh,
I wish my mother was here to see this. And
then when my son got engaged, I was overwhelmed with
emotion about wanting to tell my mother that my son
(40:55):
got engaged. So I'm not sure what I would ask
her if she were alone life now, but boy, I
would give anything for a conversation with her. I miss her.
I miss her every day and I would love to
know what kind of parental advice you would give me.
You know, thank you, Kate for the question. I appreciate
(41:17):
to give those kids a kiss, and we have one
more I think today, let's hit it.
Speaker 5 (41:21):
Hey, Rosie, my name's Billy and I'm from Pittsburgh, and
I have a twofold question for you. Over the years,
you've had opportunities to meet celebrities from all kinds of
artistic fields, and some of them you mentioned were your heroes.
I can remember watching you when you had Barbara Streisan
on your show and how emotional that was for you
after meeting her. Was there any other celebrity that made
(41:41):
you feel that way? Or has it all just been
a normal human experience meeting people. I saw Maria Kerry
one time in concert and I was a few rows
away and she pointed at me and my legs went jelly.
The second part of my question, was there for a
moment when you had high hopes for meeting somebody they
obviously do not need to be named that turned out
to be not as you expected. Love your podcast and
(42:02):
have a great day.
Speaker 1 (42:04):
Thank you, Billy, Thank you very very much. You know,
I kind of didn't have expectations of people. I was
always waiting to see what would be, you know. I
wanted to know who they were, and I was ready
to accept wherever it was that they were at. I
don't think of anyone specifically, but there was one guest
(42:25):
on the show that is a funny person, and I
expected a funny person, and it was kind of a
serious person, and I was very shocked at this. Now,
it wasn't like anything they did was wrong. It's just
like my expectation was it was going to be like
Marty Short. You know, Marty Short comes on your talk
(42:47):
show and you say one sentence to him, and he
can go on for forty minutes and I will be
peeing in my pants. That's what happens when Marty Short
is around. So I was expecting a kind of Marty
Short intensity and energy, got sort of the opposite. The
actual person is kind of quiet and introverted, which I
did not expect because of their career. So there you go.
(43:09):
But there's nobody that I would go, oh my god,
I hated this person. You know, there really wasn't. But
thank you, Billy, thank you for your questions and everyone,
thank you for the comments. Really, thank you so much.
Next week we got Kristin chenow here. Cheno, my buddy,
the little pine size Prozac herself. She makes me so
happy and I love her so very much. She's here
(43:31):
and we have some intense conversations as always, So Kristin
Chenowick next week, and hope you enjoyed. Belinda Carlisle, and
thank you for finding us here at Onward
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