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June 18, 2025 15 mins
In this unforgettable episode of That's Rad, Hannah sits down with the legendary Cyndi Lauper for a colorful, candid, and emotional conversation. As she embarks on the final leg of her Girls Just Want to Have Fun Farewell Tour, Cyndi reflects on the wild ride of a career that’s broken barriers, inspired generations, and earned her a place in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. From her boldest fashion moments (and a few she’s willing to laugh at now) to her connection with 60s icon Joan Baez, Cyndi opens up about the music, the movement and the magic behind it all. She and Hannah explore what it means to stay true to yourself in an ever-changing industry, and how fun, fashion, and fierce activism have always gone hand-in-hand. It’s raw, it’s real and it’s all Cyndi. Don’t miss it.
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Episode Transcript

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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome back to another episode of That's rad with Hannah Tyler. Hey,
it's Hannah in today. Oh my gosh, this is buckle up.
We are in for a ride with Cindy Lopper, the
musical icon, the activist, the fashion icon, the woman herself.
This was so much fun to sit down and talk
to her, talking about everything from her upcoming farewell tour

(00:21):
to her induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame,
and then at the end we of course we got
to talk some fashion and her connection to Joan Biaz.
I could geek out about this for another ten minutes,
but instead we'll just play it. So please welcome Cindy Lapper.
Hope you enjoy.

Speaker 2 (00:37):
Hey, how you doing, Hannah. It's Cindy. Cindy.

Speaker 3 (00:40):
How are you this morning?

Speaker 2 (00:42):
I'm good, I'm good. Oh my gosh. And let's be
really early by you. How the hell are you? You
know now you're in Greensboro. I don't know where I
am now. Okay, I'm in North Carolina. Okay, wake up,
here we go.

Speaker 3 (00:54):
Cindy.

Speaker 1 (00:55):
Thank you so much for taking time out of your
day to hang out with me this morning.

Speaker 3 (00:58):
I'm so glad you're here.

Speaker 2 (01:00):
Oh, thank you. Thank you. How are you doing?

Speaker 3 (01:02):
You know what, I can't complain.

Speaker 1 (01:03):
It's a beautiful Monday morning and I'm talking to you
and I get to see you soon when you're in
Raleigh on your girls. Just want to have fun, farewell
to her.

Speaker 2 (01:11):
I know I played Raleigh in my nineteen eighty four fun.
Oh wow.

Speaker 3 (01:17):
So it's kind and yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:18):
The last leg I wanted to do I had them
because there were places like Raleigh that I didn't get
to play. I wanted to say goodbye to everybody in
a nice way. And there's it's a show that I've
always wanted to do. It has performance art and really

(01:39):
try to make it really beautiful. There's a lot of
nice collaborations. There's one piece that I do with Kusama
yah Yuli kusamare this inspiration from artists? I can get
into that, but I'm sure you know, I don't know
how many people are into art. It was inspired by

(02:02):
the living art most Innt and Sonya Delaney. We tried
to directly collaborate with, but you know, unfortunately, the last
person that you could contact was the eighty six year
old lawyer who never I mean short of going through
his ouse and knocking on his door in palace. You know,

(02:25):
I just you know, so we're inspired. There's an inspirational thing,
and there's music, and there's you know, performance art, and
and so I'm excited.

Speaker 1 (02:35):
I love that you're bringing art on this level to
people who maybe haven't exposed themselves to it before. So
when you say performance art, what are you meaning by
that for someone who maybe isn't up to date on
the art scene.

Speaker 2 (02:47):
I saw it like Robbie Williams did it like that,
and I saw I first saw this stuff. I saw
it at the Morgan Library in Manhattan, in New York,
they always have wonderful shows and exhibits, and they had
this piece with a poet who had worked with Sonya Delaney,

(03:12):
Robert Dulaney, Matisse, Picasso's. He had these people do their
paintings and he had his poetry intertwined. And when I
saw it, I thought, Hm, that'ks like an album cover to.

Speaker 1 (03:28):
Me, you know.

Speaker 2 (03:28):
And of course a lot of people now they stream,
they don't know about album covers, and I mean that
vino is very popular again, But those were like paintings. Yeah,
they were so exciting, you know, to do. And even
as a kid, you know, you look forward to that
album cover, you know, and you read every single thing,

(03:49):
and you know, it was really an exciting moment. So
when I saw the exhibit, I thought, oh man, this
is like us, so you know, I was inspired by it.
I also got a great creative director, Brian Burke, who
had worked with a creative guy from Circus LA and

(04:13):
they do creative visuals, and I just wanted to do
this creative visual thing, which I always tried to do
but unfortunately as I went along sometimes it was like
Spinal Club, you know. So now I was actually able
to work with someone. So when I had an idea

(04:33):
to do stuff, I wasn't trying to talk the lighting
guy into it. We actually had people who do this
kind of thing, so it was it's exciting to me.
And plus it's a celebration and it makes a lot
of people happy. And you know, I share my story.

(04:55):
Of course, it's my story, it's my music go through.
I put as much of it as I could in
I switched some things around for this show because it's
the Shed, it can't be the same, but it's a
lot of art in it, and I am I try
and do things that make you laugh, stories and songs

(05:19):
that are thoughtful. You know, all I can do is
share the stories that I know. But I think it's
important and hope that it's inspiring to people to share
their stories. Oh buy each other?

Speaker 3 (05:35):
And can I quick just point your opener.

Speaker 1 (05:38):
Jake Wesley Rogers is so fantastic and amazing, is he not?

Speaker 2 (05:43):
He is? And that's why he's with us on this story.
Plus we have Tracy Young, She's you know, she's gonna
rock it out. As you come in, You're gonna be
listed up, you know, right.

Speaker 1 (05:55):
And then you got a busy year, you got this
tour and finally in acted into the Rock and Roll
Hall of Fame coming up this spot. What is that
feeling like to know that this career that you have
built from the ground up is being recognized at such
a huge level.

Speaker 2 (06:11):
I think it's really it's a it's it's a wonderful accolade, uh,
because I am and I've always been part of a
community that's able to contribute to the world and the country,

(06:31):
you know, and still believe that rock and roll can
save the world. I just believe that. I mean, even
think of like Stevie Van Sants and all the great
things he's done, and all the great things the community
has done. I mean I've ad near the world and
uh you know farm Aid, yeah, and then and even

(06:55):
fire Aid up to Fire eight. I mean, it's just
there's a lot of them, I'm sure not mentioning everything,
and I think that it's important that as a community,
rock and roll community, we remember that and coming together

(07:17):
is a great thing. And plus, you know, on the
weird thing is that it's not weird, but my first
song as a lead singer in a rock band, because
you know, that's how I started in a color bands
in a rock and roll band and was a Bad Company.
Oh and Bad Company's being industed. So it's kind of

(07:39):
wild for me. You know, I remember it so clearly
because you know, as a young singer, I heard Jimmy
Shelter and I was like, oh my god, I want
to be heard right. And then I was doing this
old background thing, which is so much fun because you
get to sing loud and blah blah blah. And you know,

(08:04):
unfortunately I was wearing platforms and I kept falling all
the time. And the perspective the PRIs, yeah, the shoes here,
and the perspective manager came and looked at the band
and said, Okay, you know the chick in her back,
she sings good, but she keeps falling on those shoes.

(08:28):
Make her be the lead singer, and then I'll manage
your band. Then she won't be falling so much. So
that's what happened.

Speaker 3 (08:37):
The shoes really changed your life.

Speaker 2 (08:40):
I guess so. But it's all about the shoes, isn't it.

Speaker 1 (08:44):
Shoes.

Speaker 2 (08:45):
I do shoe piece after shoe piece. Nobody recognizes. Come on,
there's a shoe piece in the back of She's so unusual.
I did a shoe piece the night of the American
Music Awards, and don't ask me how. I talked them
into it, but they let me do it, except they
wouldn't let me staple anything. Literally had to go around

(09:05):
with Pat Birch, who was helping me. Of course, he
was my wonderful teacher, and you know, she taught me
a lot, and she choreographed me, which you know that's
hard to do because you know, I don't dook good
on those shoes. So we had to hold each shoe
up while the corp and disunion with staple.

Speaker 3 (09:27):
Oh my god.

Speaker 2 (09:29):
Yeah, it it took a long time, but you know,
but that was a performance art piece because on that show,
everything was the whole set was black and white. I
wore black and white. My makeup was in black and
white except for my hair and what I was painting,
which to me was so exciting that I was able

(09:50):
to do that, except when I got to the Red
of the World thing and I couldn't wash my hair
and I had this really great Italian way to jacket,
just a little like Michael Jackson's drum major red jacket,
and unfortunately the flakes of paints that I had in
my hair kept falling on my jacket, so it looked

(10:11):
like really weird Dan herself. Then I'd take that off
and all I had was the shirt and the pants,
and I was like, what's going to make this look
dressed up? So I put you know, I had the
jewelry on it and the period and think about how
it sounded, you know, And so I was sorry that

(10:32):
I made everybody crazy that night. I didn't realize I
was worried about what I look like. Unfortunately.

Speaker 1 (10:40):
Yeah, I just watched that documentary not too long ago,
and I loved that moment because as someone who it's
all about the outfit right.

Speaker 3 (10:47):
I was like, oh, yes, girl, like it is so
relatable in that moment, I.

Speaker 2 (10:53):
Didn't realize what they were laughing. They you all knew
it was my earing. Why didn't they just say, right, you.

Speaker 3 (10:59):
Take them out?

Speaker 1 (10:59):
Okay, Cindy, I know you're on a limited time here.
I do just want to touch real quick about your
charity work that you have. Girls just want to have
Fundamental Rights and the Tides Foundation and just the awareness
you have brought through your touring for these organizations.

Speaker 2 (11:15):
Well, here's the thing. We sell these colored wigs, and
you know I'm going to wear different colored wigs. Of course,
underneath the wig is usually green or skink or blue
or something. But we sell cold wigs at an affordable price,
nothing crazy, and this way everybody can join the party love.

(11:39):
But all the proceeds of those wigs goes to the girls.
Just want to have fundamental rights funds that helps women's
health issues, everything from safe and legal abortions and pre
natal care, post natal care, Kansas screenings, and right down
to sanitary napkins, which if you're below the poverty line

(12:01):
is hard to get and you you have to pay
for them, which shouldn't be but you know, because Biagara
unbelievably waitings, Biacar is free. Sanitary napkins are not okay,
so you know, we uh you know. So that was inspired, Hannah,

(12:22):
and by looking going out in the twenty sixteen seventeen,
you know, there was all those protests and you know,
I saw peaceful, peaceful protests where I saw young women
with these signs that said girls just want to hand
fundamental rights. And I thought, oh my god, they heard

(12:44):
me because I used to get in trouble in the
eighties for talking about, you know, women's rights and you know,
things like that, what are your women's no? I used
to laugh because you know, it's just like when they
said you can make girls just want to have fun
an anthem. Yes, you know, but they didn't realize who

(13:06):
they were talking to, because honestly, Hannah, I burnt my
training bra at the first demonstration, the Woman's demonstration by
the Alison Wonderland Statue in the sixties, late sixties, right.
I was there with my friend Susan, and we wouldn't
have been there had me. Susan Monthly all my friend

(13:28):
and my partner in a group, a little folk group.
She was writing to Joan Baez's mother as a kid, right,
and John Baiez's mother told her about this demonstration and
all this whole thing, and we got involved and there
we were right. And so I burnt my training bra

(13:52):
for my mother, for me, my mother and my grandmother.
Because they feel like, if you don't know where you
came from, you don't know where you're going. Yeah, that's
why it's important to know women's history, the real history
of America as opposed to the fake ones, because you
can make better decisions when you're better educated. And also

(14:13):
it's important to share your stories because when you share
your stories, you share your humanity. It's a gray area
where most people live. They don't live in black and white. Yeah,
they live in the gray area. And that's where it's
called humanity. So I'm in the field, the humanity field.

Speaker 3 (14:37):
You know, people don't live in black and white.

Speaker 1 (14:38):
They live in a gray but thankfully they have Cindi
Lauper to bring some color into their world.

Speaker 2 (14:44):
Well, it's a lot of people do, but thank you,
and I hope that you com It's a celebration and
it makes people happy. They leave happy, and that's the
most important thing. That people leave happy and feel hopeful,
and that's the most important Cindy Lauper.

Speaker 3 (15:01):
The girls just want to have fun. Farewell tour.

Speaker 1 (15:04):
Make sure to get your tickets and get there early
to see Jake Wesley Rogers.

Speaker 3 (15:08):
Incredible and transy.

Speaker 1 (15:10):
Yes, I have the biggest just musical crush on Jake.
I saw him on a personal note at the Bottle
Rock and he had this whole Elton thing going on.
It's fantastic. So get your tickets now up at our website.
Mixed ninety nine to five Triia dot com. Cindy, thank
you from the bottom of my heart for being on today.

Speaker 2 (15:29):
Thanks Banna, Okay, Sweety, I have a good day you too.

Speaker 1 (15:31):
Bye.
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