WEBVTT - Judy Collins 0:00:08.560 --> 0:00:12.520 Welcome, Welcome, welcome back to the Bob West Podcast. My 0:00:12.680 --> 0:00:15.360 guest today he is the one to know me, Judy Collin, 0:00:15.880 --> 0:00:18.920 you'd be glad to have I'm thrilled to be here, Bob, 0:00:18.960 --> 0:00:22.640 thanks for inviting me. Okay, you actually played a gig 0:00:22.720 --> 0:00:25.840 last night at City Winery. How did that come together? Well? 0:00:25.840 --> 0:00:29.880 It was wonderful. I'm an old City Winery performer, and 0:00:30.000 --> 0:00:34.919 so I've already performed twice since uh, March or April 0:00:35.200 --> 0:00:38.520 May one, I guess May first. So it's been wonderful 0:00:38.760 --> 0:00:41.159 to get back. And I was also in New Jersey 0:00:41.520 --> 0:00:45.800 last week at a wonderful engagement in Eatontown. So I'm 0:00:45.840 --> 0:00:49.199 back on the boards and my book is full again 0:00:49.760 --> 0:00:53.160 of all those dozens and hundreds of concerts that were 0:00:53.159 --> 0:00:57.240 booked last year when we went into lockdown, and so 0:00:57.280 --> 0:01:00.920 they're all coming up now like Roses. Uh. So what 0:01:00.960 --> 0:01:06.080 do you do during lockdown? I practice the piano, I 0:01:06.160 --> 0:01:09.880 made lunch and dinner for the most part, looked for movies, 0:01:10.400 --> 0:01:16.240 had had zooms with friends and with various business enterprise. 0:01:16.280 --> 0:01:20.160 Started my own podcast called Since You've Asked, which is 0:01:20.200 --> 0:01:23.240 coming into being I think in July July, the eight 0:01:24.480 --> 0:01:27.200 and I have interviewed a number of people that I 0:01:27.240 --> 0:01:30.600 have enjoyed being with. It's it's you know, I think 0:01:30.640 --> 0:01:34.040 you will agree. I think I'm very attracted to your 0:01:34.120 --> 0:01:41.400 podcast and to your wonderful array of exploratory talks with people. 0:01:41.480 --> 0:01:43.640 And it is kind of a way of socialize, don't 0:01:43.640 --> 0:01:47.800 you think, among other you know, I talked to my 0:01:47.880 --> 0:01:50.320 shrink and I say, listen, I'm in a bad I'm 0:01:50.360 --> 0:01:52.280 in a bad mood. And all of a sudden, no 0:01:52.280 --> 0:01:55.120 matter what moods I start to podcast, it completely changes one. 0:01:55.400 --> 0:01:58.440 It changes your mood. It's wonderful. So it's good to 0:01:58.480 --> 0:02:02.120 be back on the wards and uh so that's what 0:02:02.200 --> 0:02:05.840 I did in the in the lockdown here in New York. 0:02:05.920 --> 0:02:09.760 We were here, I think we have I'm I'm terribly 0:02:09.840 --> 0:02:13.119 unhappy about the losses and the deaths that we've had here, 0:02:13.160 --> 0:02:15.920 and I know you've had them there, and I have 0:02:16.080 --> 0:02:18.760 to say that we've in that in the light of 0:02:18.800 --> 0:02:22.119 that that was going on, we've had a very privileged lockdown. 0:02:22.120 --> 0:02:24.359 In fact, I've had a rest. I haven't had a 0:02:24.440 --> 0:02:28.080 rest in about sixty years, so except for being sick 0:02:28.120 --> 0:02:31.760 a couple of times. So it's been a real strange 0:02:32.480 --> 0:02:34.600 kind of a gift for me. I've worked on all 0:02:34.639 --> 0:02:37.919 my own songs which are going to come out soon 0:02:38.000 --> 0:02:42.560 in an album, probably next year. So that's been very 0:02:42.639 --> 0:02:48.080 totalizing to me. Wow. So, uh, he's not very busy, 0:02:48.760 --> 0:02:52.560 you know, I'm busy. Okay, So what kind of movies 0:02:52.639 --> 0:02:56.040 did you watch during the lockdown? Oh? Everything you can 0:02:56.080 --> 0:03:03.560 think of the favorites. We just watched thirty episodes of Yellowstone. Now. 0:03:03.600 --> 0:03:07.440 I'm a Western girl, so I love Kevin Cosner, I 0:03:07.480 --> 0:03:11.080 love the rodeos, I love the mountains in Montana, I 0:03:11.160 --> 0:03:14.280 love the Indians. I love the fights about land and 0:03:14.320 --> 0:03:17.480 water and uh so that was a big part of it. 0:03:17.520 --> 0:03:21.280 We watched all of a couple of big We watched 0:03:21.320 --> 0:03:26.560 The Queen. We watched What's What's the early series about 0:03:26.639 --> 0:03:28.520 King Henry the eight and the guy who played in 0:03:28.639 --> 0:03:31.400 was very sin so it was distracting for a while. 0:03:33.200 --> 0:03:36.240 We have one of our favorites, which I really recommend 0:03:36.240 --> 0:03:39.680 to everybody, is called The Night Manager, and it's I 0:03:39.760 --> 0:03:43.040 think six or eight episodes and it's a John Lacarae 0:03:43.320 --> 0:03:48.440 book of course, taken into the into the theater of television, 0:03:48.560 --> 0:03:51.000 and it is superb. I must say that was one 0:03:51.000 --> 0:03:53.160 of our favorites. I would go back and watch. In fact, 0:03:53.280 --> 0:03:55.480 we did, I think watched that twice. We had a 0:03:55.480 --> 0:03:59.240 whole year, and then we went back and picked the highlights, 0:03:59.440 --> 0:04:02.120 and we're giving them another run. I even watched my 0:04:02.200 --> 0:04:05.880 I even watched my own movie. I can't listen to myself, 0:04:05.920 --> 0:04:08.360 so good credit for that. Let me ask you something, 0:04:08.440 --> 0:04:13.680 you so so upbeat invaluable. I'm kind of stunned. Is 0:04:13.720 --> 0:04:18.039 this your normal personality? Yes, this is me. This is me, 0:04:18.560 --> 0:04:20.760 you know. I was born an optimist, and my sister 0:04:20.839 --> 0:04:25.000 always accuses me of taking on that that costume at 0:04:25.000 --> 0:04:28.159 all times, not taking it off very often. No, I 0:04:28.240 --> 0:04:31.760 have to be well. The first thing that you have 0:04:31.880 --> 0:04:35.760 to do as a singer. I think the practicing is 0:04:35.960 --> 0:04:39.560 initially the daily routine has to be done once a 0:04:39.640 --> 0:04:42.120 day because you're a pianist, so you have to keep 0:04:42.120 --> 0:04:44.600 the fingers in shape. You have to keep doing your 0:04:44.680 --> 0:04:47.320 chair and doing your motort, and you have to keep 0:04:47.360 --> 0:04:50.520 writing because if you're writing poems, you might see that 0:04:50.600 --> 0:04:52.360 one or two of them come out as a sound, 0:04:52.480 --> 0:04:55.760 so sometimes they are poems and they won't fit into 0:04:55.839 --> 0:04:58.680 the lyric quality that has to be there for a song. 0:04:59.279 --> 0:05:02.280 So they then you have to eat well. You're breathing 0:05:02.360 --> 0:05:05.200 when you're singing, so that's good. That keeps your spirits up. 0:05:05.480 --> 0:05:08.880 And I have to keep my My routine involves having 0:05:08.920 --> 0:05:13.920 to exercise at least five times a weekend, usually uh 0:05:13.960 --> 0:05:17.719 three or four miles of walking, sometimes five. So it's 0:05:17.760 --> 0:05:21.359 the exercise and I eat well. I can't eat junk. 0:05:22.120 --> 0:05:25.560 I don't Oh, we don't smoke anymore. I don't drink anymore. 0:05:25.560 --> 0:05:29.880 So what's left but to have fun. Let's go back 0:05:29.880 --> 0:05:32.480 a chapter. You say you're a Western girl. You certainly 0:05:32.480 --> 0:05:36.320 grew up in the West, but you know, having you 0:05:36.360 --> 0:05:38.760 pretty much lived in the city since then, is your 0:05:38.839 --> 0:05:42.120 mind in the Western? Do you actually go visit the West? 0:05:42.720 --> 0:05:45.880 For years, I have visited. I've gone on ski trips, 0:05:45.920 --> 0:05:50.080 I've gone hiking ventures. I usually go to Colorado. That's 0:05:50.120 --> 0:05:53.719 the place that my heart lies, and I've and I 0:05:53.760 --> 0:05:57.560 have so such strong pull to Colorado a lot of 0:05:57.560 --> 0:05:59.200 a lot of my writing. I just wrote a new 0:05:59.279 --> 0:06:01.719 called new song called Girl from when I was a 0:06:01.760 --> 0:06:04.159 girl in Colorado, and I think it's going to actually 0:06:04.200 --> 0:06:08.039 be very strong piece in the album. I'm starting to 0:06:08.080 --> 0:06:10.200 do it in public now and a few other things. 0:06:10.800 --> 0:06:13.800 So yes, I live in the city. I've lived in 0:06:13.839 --> 0:06:16.800 New York since nineteen sixty three when I moved here, 0:06:17.400 --> 0:06:19.159 and I've been in the same apartment here in New 0:06:19.240 --> 0:06:23.520 York for fifty years. But people associate me, Oh, I 0:06:23.560 --> 0:06:28.160 love Los Angeles. I have roots there too, certainly musical roots. 0:06:28.240 --> 0:06:31.760 And I've done a number of recordings there. And so 0:06:32.200 --> 0:06:36.680 I think the ocean and the West. Uh, the West 0:06:37.200 --> 0:06:39.760 in all its glory, has a great pulp. But I'll 0:06:39.760 --> 0:06:42.960 tell you there's nowhere. There's nowhere like New York. Yesterday 0:06:43.080 --> 0:06:46.479 night before last, we went to Monday night, we went 0:06:46.560 --> 0:06:52.560 to an opening of a Renaissance exhibition of the Medici paintings, 0:06:52.600 --> 0:06:56.720 portraits really and the The few days before that, we 0:06:56.760 --> 0:06:59.560 went over to the met and we wandered for a 0:06:59.640 --> 0:07:02.200 number of hours through the Asian Wing, which is one 0:07:02.200 --> 0:07:06.080 of the great treasures of this city. And of course 0:07:06.120 --> 0:07:08.640 I have friends here. I have roots here. I know 0:07:08.760 --> 0:07:11.640 all where all the good restaurants are, and some of 0:07:11.680 --> 0:07:15.240 them are still open by God, and so that's been 0:07:15.240 --> 0:07:19.080 a treat um I have. I have all kinds of friends, 0:07:19.120 --> 0:07:21.800 you know, in l A. Well, the truth is, I 0:07:21.840 --> 0:07:24.720 didn't move to Los Angeles I did work there. I 0:07:24.760 --> 0:07:27.920 had an affair there was a very important affair with 0:07:27.960 --> 0:07:31.040 Steven Stills. But I never moved there. I think I 0:07:31.040 --> 0:07:34.200 would be dead if I'd moved there. I'm too susceptible 0:07:34.280 --> 0:07:36.760 to the rhythms there. And it was the age of 0:07:36.840 --> 0:07:40.480 drugs and overdoses, and I would have been right there 0:07:40.520 --> 0:07:42.600 in the middle of it. And I in New York. 0:07:42.680 --> 0:07:46.800 I had my therapist, I had my my lovers, and 0:07:46.880 --> 0:07:49.920 my husband now of well, my my life partner, but 0:07:50.400 --> 0:07:54.160 and my husband and my life partner of forty three years. 0:07:54.240 --> 0:07:56.920 So New York is where it's at for me. There's 0:07:56.960 --> 0:08:00.480 nothing like it. It's stimulating. My friends are not all decisions. 0:08:00.560 --> 0:08:02.680 Some of them are painters, some of them are writers. 0:08:02.720 --> 0:08:07.880 Some of them are just weird. So you know, Colorado, 0:08:08.000 --> 0:08:10.240 Denver's in the flats and then in the mountains. Are 0:08:10.240 --> 0:08:12.120 you more of a mountain girl or do you like 0:08:12.160 --> 0:08:15.200 to see the mountains in the distance. I'm a mountain girl. 0:08:15.240 --> 0:08:20.360 I had when I was a teenager. I was living 0:08:20.400 --> 0:08:23.200 in Denver, of course, and when I was starting to 0:08:24.280 --> 0:08:28.560 have those summer jobs, I started out working at a 0:08:28.600 --> 0:08:31.080 place called Sportsland Valley guest Ranch over on the other 0:08:31.120 --> 0:08:33.920 side of birth it well, I started skiing. Of course, 0:08:34.280 --> 0:08:36.760 my brother's skied all the time. I had to practice, 0:08:37.000 --> 0:08:39.400 so I was not up on the slopes as often 0:08:39.600 --> 0:08:42.880 as they were. So I'm not as great as skiers there, 0:08:42.920 --> 0:08:46.000 but I'm a very I'm fifty five or sixty years 0:08:46.000 --> 0:08:47.880 of skiing, and you know, it does teach you how 0:08:47.920 --> 0:08:52.360 to ski. So I'm a mountain girl and working in 0:08:52.360 --> 0:08:58.760 in the mountains, uh at at guest ranches, and then 0:08:58.960 --> 0:09:02.320 after I got out of high school and went to 0:09:02.360 --> 0:09:05.480 college for a year, had a job in Rocky Mountain 0:09:05.520 --> 0:09:11.559 National Park running running a wilderness site in the Rocky 0:09:11.600 --> 0:09:14.600 Mountain National Park which was called Friend Lake Lodge. It 0:09:14.720 --> 0:09:17.960 was a lodge which had been in existence since nineteen ten, 0:09:18.760 --> 0:09:21.480 and when we got there, we were the first people 0:09:21.520 --> 0:09:23.480 to run it for a couple of years because nobody 0:09:23.480 --> 0:09:26.240 wanted to live there without electricity, which we didn't care. 0:09:27.160 --> 0:09:31.439 And I can live by starlight or moonlight or firelight anytime. 0:09:32.280 --> 0:09:35.640 And it was really the event of a lifetime. Really. 0:09:35.679 --> 0:09:39.280 I had to bake pies and bread on a wood stove, 0:09:39.360 --> 0:09:41.240 and I got by the end of the summer, We're saying, 0:09:41.280 --> 0:09:44.400 you know, you really can't get a decent meal without 0:09:44.480 --> 0:09:49.400 cooking it in a was so so I'm very I 0:09:49.679 --> 0:09:53.200 very much romanticized the Rockies. Yes, things have changed. I 0:09:53.280 --> 0:09:57.079 tried to buy that place, but the government had started 0:09:57.120 --> 0:10:01.120 Operation sixty four, which was intend to move all of 0:10:01.160 --> 0:10:05.960 the commercial quotes commercial enterprises out of the National Park. 0:10:06.040 --> 0:10:08.679 So we lost that and I would have wound up 0:10:09.400 --> 0:10:11.680 working for the parks. I was probably if I hadn't 0:10:11.679 --> 0:10:15.320 started singing songs for money. So when was lost? Time 0:10:15.360 --> 0:10:18.760 you skied? I'm a big skier in Colorado. I love 0:10:18.840 --> 0:10:21.960 I love skis, you know. I I skied pretty much 0:10:21.960 --> 0:10:25.360 every year either either Veil or Aspen or Winter Park 0:10:26.000 --> 0:10:29.920 and primarily those places. And about four or five I 0:10:29.920 --> 0:10:33.760 have I decided that I really had to give it 0:10:33.840 --> 0:10:37.000 up because I couldn't afford to have another injury, frankly 0:10:37.400 --> 0:10:40.439 because of my schedule, because I'm on the road. Because 0:10:41.200 --> 0:10:44.079 I just couldn't do it anymore. It's too dangerous. It's 0:10:44.120 --> 0:10:49.079 a dangerous sport. And I have I have a um 0:10:49.120 --> 0:10:53.679 A replacement shoulder, I have lots of pins in my legs. 0:10:53.880 --> 0:10:57.800 And uh, I really said to myself, it's after the 0:10:57.880 --> 0:10:59.960 last big one. And I went back after the show 0:11:00.080 --> 0:11:03.160 to replacement, and I skied for a few more years. 0:11:03.240 --> 0:11:06.000 But I love it, love it, love it. But I'm 0:11:06.000 --> 0:11:08.839 not going to ski across country. It's there's no no 0:11:09.760 --> 0:11:12.920 fair comparison. And I like the speed and the wind, 0:11:13.080 --> 0:11:16.200 and I couldn't agree more. The freedom. You know. The 0:11:16.200 --> 0:11:18.520 great thing about skiing, I'm like tennis or something. At 0:11:18.520 --> 0:11:21.840 any ability level, you can reach your limit and both 0:11:21.920 --> 0:11:29.080 enjoy it and be scared. Right exactly, So these injuries 0:11:29.120 --> 0:11:32.960 were all as results of skiing. Yes, but that's why 0:11:33.000 --> 0:11:35.760 I think so. Yes, I'd like to go back, and 0:11:35.800 --> 0:11:38.720 who knows? I may, I may, I may go back 0:11:38.800 --> 0:11:41.440 because I have a brother who's a ski instructor still 0:11:41.480 --> 0:11:45.560 at Veil, and oh yes, Dave has hung in there. 0:11:45.600 --> 0:11:48.800 You know, Dave's life consists of getting injured in the 0:11:48.840 --> 0:11:52.880 winter and then spending the summer rehabbing. That's his life. 0:11:53.000 --> 0:11:55.640 He's in another one. They've taken one of his shoulders 0:11:55.640 --> 0:11:58.400 apart three or four times. They're giving up trying to 0:11:58.440 --> 0:12:01.840 find place, think places to put all this gear that 0:12:01.920 --> 0:12:04.560 has to go back there when he gets an injury. 0:12:04.559 --> 0:12:06.560 But he's still at it Veil and he still has 0:12:06.679 --> 0:12:09.800 has clients. I mean, he's got to be seven years 0:12:09.840 --> 0:12:12.240 younger than I I am. I thinking I made it too. 0:12:12.280 --> 0:12:16.040 So he's whatever that is, seventies something. But he also 0:12:16.200 --> 0:12:18.560 works all the time because he's a great builder. He 0:12:18.720 --> 0:12:22.680 built about ninety of the maybe you know them, the 0:12:22.760 --> 0:12:29.120 pine Um houses in Veil in the early sixties, and 0:12:29.160 --> 0:12:30.839 then he went off to went off the tracks for 0:12:30.920 --> 0:12:33.320 one then he came back and they all they all 0:12:33.400 --> 0:12:36.439 have to keep Dave Collins on board because he knows everything, 0:12:36.480 --> 0:12:39.160 you know, he has the he's like being a national 0:12:39.200 --> 0:12:42.080 treasure in Japan. He knows all the things to do 0:12:42.160 --> 0:12:44.640 with all the building tricks and all the things that 0:12:44.720 --> 0:12:47.800 people need to have done when they're building or rebuilding. 0:12:48.480 --> 0:12:51.480 And so he promised me that maybe next year he 0:12:51.520 --> 0:12:53.240 is going to retire, but I don't believe it, and 0:12:53.320 --> 0:12:57.080 certainly not from skiing. Okay, so you say that you're 0:12:57.120 --> 0:13:00.080 eighty two. We live in a world where every but 0:13:00.120 --> 0:13:03.280 he's lying about the rangel though now you can look 0:13:03.280 --> 0:13:08.080 at you're so upfront. So how do you feel about aging? Well, 0:13:08.120 --> 0:13:12.080 it's a fortunate journey because you could get off anywhere 0:13:12.080 --> 0:13:19.080 along the way, and I haven't. I I like what's 0:13:19.120 --> 0:13:21.320 going on in my life a lot. I like it 0:13:21.720 --> 0:13:27.600 I am always willing to say that somebody might be 0:13:27.720 --> 0:13:32.560 right instead of wrong. So I'm open to improvement, and 0:13:32.600 --> 0:13:36.040 I think that's never ending. Learning is never ending, and 0:13:36.400 --> 0:13:40.080 curiosity is never ending. And I live in a very 0:13:40.080 --> 0:13:45.040 interesting world which we all do challenging, certainly as challenging 0:13:45.120 --> 0:13:49.200 as the sixties world, though, I mean, nothing nothing comes 0:13:49.280 --> 0:13:52.040 up to Vietnam. Nothing does. There was a big piece 0:13:52.040 --> 0:13:53.800 in the Times, I don't know if you saw it 0:13:53.880 --> 0:13:59.720 last week about it was. It was about ten pages, 0:14:00.000 --> 0:14:04.080 well pages, uh, and about the big report that was 0:14:05.400 --> 0:14:08.200 came out in nine one about all of the lies 0:14:08.360 --> 0:14:12.840 and all of the horrible Anyway, nothing really beats Vietnam, 0:14:12.960 --> 0:14:16.280 and frankly, we'll never get over paying for it. I 0:14:16.360 --> 0:14:19.080 said all the time as we were marching against the war, 0:14:19.120 --> 0:14:21.320 I said, you know, this is this comes with the price. 0:14:21.560 --> 0:14:23.920 This it's not just the people that are dying, both 0:14:23.960 --> 0:14:30.160 in Vietnam and our American soldiers. It's it's it's a price, 0:14:30.560 --> 0:14:33.880 and it's gonna it's gonna come to one of these days. Okay, 0:14:33.920 --> 0:14:37.320 So how is your health other than these physical injuries 0:14:37.480 --> 0:14:40.960 with h you know, the shoulder, etcetera. Perfect for a 0:14:41.080 --> 0:14:42.720 check out. Okay, So you could you can live for 0:14:42.760 --> 0:14:45.920 another twenty years? Twenty years is what I'm counting on. 0:14:46.160 --> 0:14:49.320 Maybe I come from also a line of people who 0:14:49.400 --> 0:14:52.640 live a long time, and I have an aunt who's 0:14:52.680 --> 0:14:56.080 a hundred now, and some of my mother's aunts and 0:14:56.200 --> 0:15:00.800 uncles from uh the Bird line, in the Cope line 0:15:00.840 --> 0:15:03.360 of her family. The Birds and the Copes live a 0:15:03.360 --> 0:15:07.040 long time hundred and four hundred and five. So who knows. However, 0:15:07.280 --> 0:15:10.680 I'm getting I'm in the game for today. That's plenty 0:15:10.840 --> 0:15:13.640 for me. Well how do you feel, I mean, I'm 0:15:13.680 --> 0:15:16.400 fourteen years younger than you and I'm experiencing it. How 0:15:16.400 --> 0:15:20.040 do you feel about your friends and people you know? Passing? 0:15:20.720 --> 0:15:24.160 I hated, I hated. I lost a couple of friends 0:15:24.160 --> 0:15:29.800 to the COVID Dynamic. Wonderful writer named Patty Bosworth was 0:15:29.840 --> 0:15:31.520 a very close friend of mine. She was one of 0:15:31.520 --> 0:15:35.240 the first to could leave. She was finishing a book 0:15:35.280 --> 0:15:41.080 on UH Paul Robeson. I'm hoping that it's coming out. 0:15:41.120 --> 0:15:44.400 I think her publishes. Her publishers said in her oh 0:15:44.520 --> 0:15:47.880 bit that she was that it was ready to roll. 0:15:48.040 --> 0:15:51.080 I haven't seen any announcements about it. And that was 0:15:51.120 --> 0:15:52.960 a year ago that she died A little over a 0:15:53.040 --> 0:15:57.640 year ago. But of course, yeah, it's terrible. I mean, 0:15:57.680 --> 0:16:00.960 people die and the ones you don't expect to die, 0:16:01.640 --> 0:16:08.120 and you know, only the only the young die young. Okay, now, 0:16:08.240 --> 0:16:10.560 needless to say, just talking about the music business, it's 0:16:10.600 --> 0:16:14.960 completely changed from the sixties and seventies from today. And 0:16:15.000 --> 0:16:18.920 one of the big things is stars were much bigger 0:16:19.160 --> 0:16:23.000 back then. Without going into all the technology, why does 0:16:23.080 --> 0:16:26.720 this affect your outlook? It's like, okay, you have all 0:16:26.760 --> 0:16:31.440 this visibility in the sixties and seventies and nobody has 0:16:31.480 --> 0:16:34.560 that level of visibility or do you just put your 0:16:34.560 --> 0:16:38.040 eyes forward and keep going. Well, the work is what 0:16:38.240 --> 0:16:42.400 it's all about, of course, the contact. It's interesting because 0:16:42.560 --> 0:16:50.480 during the pandemic I did too viral full fully operational shows. 0:16:50.560 --> 0:16:54.560 I went to UH September twenty three. We got in 0:16:54.560 --> 0:16:59.040 the car in our masks and we drove to We 0:16:59.040 --> 0:17:02.920 were driven to Norfolk, Virginia, where I sang to an 0:17:02.960 --> 0:17:06.479 empty theater. It's called the Chrysler Theater, gorgeous theater. And 0:17:06.520 --> 0:17:09.120 we stayed in a hotel. There was a hilton there 0:17:08.720 --> 0:17:12.040 was full. Fully, we didn't eat any food there. We 0:17:12.080 --> 0:17:14.680 took all of our food with us, but we had 0:17:14.680 --> 0:17:18.119 a wonderful time, and I sang into this gorgeous, gorgeous theater. 0:17:18.600 --> 0:17:21.640 I don't have a problem with that. I love my audiences. 0:17:21.720 --> 0:17:26.200 But frankly, after all the years of television and recordings 0:17:26.240 --> 0:17:29.520 in recruit recording studios where you don't have an audience, 0:17:29.800 --> 0:17:32.160 and I'm a radio girl. I grew up my father 0:17:32.320 --> 0:17:34.520 was in the radio. He had a radio show for 0:17:34.600 --> 0:17:37.199 thirty years, and so I was on the show and 0:17:37.240 --> 0:17:39.040 I listened to the show, and I was used to 0:17:39.320 --> 0:17:42.159 I'm used to singing wherever it is that I am, 0:17:42.200 --> 0:17:44.880 with or without an audience. Then I did a big 0:17:44.920 --> 0:17:48.280 town Hall show which I just signed about a hundred 0:17:48.280 --> 0:17:51.240 and fifty posters from that show, which I did here 0:17:51.320 --> 0:17:55.119 at town Hall in January, again empty theater. Well, I've 0:17:55.160 --> 0:17:58.480 been in town Hall since nineteen sixty four. I've been 0:17:58.480 --> 0:18:02.800 singing there, and town How asked me, would I repeat 0:18:03.200 --> 0:18:06.040 some of the material that I did in nine, which 0:18:06.080 --> 0:18:10.560 involved a number of songs by Tom Paxton, Billiatt Wheeler, 0:18:11.119 --> 0:18:14.000 Bob Dylan, and so we did a repeat of a 0:18:14.080 --> 0:18:16.040 number of those things. Of course, we mixed in the 0:18:16.440 --> 0:18:20.960 current some of the current songs, but it was fantastic 0:18:21.000 --> 0:18:24.440 and of course, town Hall is a gorgeous theater with 0:18:24.560 --> 0:18:27.119 or without people in it, and it's historic, and it 0:18:27.240 --> 0:18:30.640 sort of resonates. It gave me a chance to talk 0:18:30.680 --> 0:18:34.880 about to change, to sort of upgrade my my spield, 0:18:35.560 --> 0:18:39.960 you know my spield. I'm funny on stage. I take 0:18:40.160 --> 0:18:43.040 the time and the energy to be funny. I have 0:18:43.280 --> 0:18:46.000 done this for a long time, and to tell stories, 0:18:46.480 --> 0:18:50.159 because it came through working at the Carlisle in New 0:18:50.240 --> 0:18:53.840 York a lot and having that weekly you know, seven 0:18:54.000 --> 0:18:57.520 six or seven days, six days a week, going in 0:18:57.680 --> 0:19:00.679 and talking while you're working. And of course I have 0:19:00.720 --> 0:19:03.439 a lot of stories having lived all this time and 0:19:03.560 --> 0:19:06.000 known a lot of people, and had a lot of lovers, 0:19:06.080 --> 0:19:10.000 and and had a lot of strange things happened to me. 0:19:10.600 --> 0:19:14.320 And so I was very comfortable. But I also went 0:19:14.400 --> 0:19:17.960 back through the history of town Hall and talked about 0:19:18.040 --> 0:19:20.760 some of the people. The people that first open town 0:19:20.760 --> 0:19:24.280 Hall in New York was the Suffragettes. They hired the 0:19:24.280 --> 0:19:28.760 theater and they started out in nineteen one. Was it 0:19:28.880 --> 0:19:31.919 twenty one? I think so. And then everybody you can 0:19:32.000 --> 0:19:36.400 think of performed there, saying they're played in the my 0:19:36.560 --> 0:19:39.359 my teacher, Dr Brico, when I say that I watched 0:19:39.359 --> 0:19:42.199 one of my watched my movie during the lockdown. I 0:19:42.240 --> 0:19:44.919 meant it. I made a movie which was nominated for 0:19:44.920 --> 0:19:48.920 an Academy Award in nineteen seventy five, about my teacher, 0:19:49.080 --> 0:19:53.080 Antonio Brico, and she I'm on the stage there where 0:19:53.119 --> 0:19:57.080 I had been in nineteen sixty four, almost fifty years before, 0:19:57.720 --> 0:19:59.960 and she had been on the stage during the war 0:20:00.040 --> 0:20:03.280 because she had her own orchestra in New York which 0:20:03.359 --> 0:20:06.680 played at Town Hall and at Carnegie Hall. So it 0:20:06.760 --> 0:20:11.920 was a wonderful experience, and I'll tell you it's draw 0:20:12.240 --> 0:20:15.119 It was a very successful experience, and it gave me, 0:20:15.600 --> 0:20:19.040 referring to your idea about exposure. A lot of people 0:20:19.119 --> 0:20:21.840 have watched it, and town Halls got very excited. In fact, 0:20:21.840 --> 0:20:24.720 they made not a CD but a vinyl. So I 0:20:24.800 --> 0:20:29.200 just saw beside vinyls and and posters. I mean, can 0:20:29.280 --> 0:20:32.639 it get any better? I don't know. Okay, let's go 0:20:32.680 --> 0:20:35.600 back to the beginning. You're you know, and some of 0:20:35.600 --> 0:20:38.800 this I know from Wikipedia, as opposed to just living 0:20:38.800 --> 0:20:41.800 and knowing your career from having experienced it. So you 0:20:41.920 --> 0:20:45.480 grow up in Seattle at age four, you move right. 0:20:45.520 --> 0:20:49.960 We moved to to Los Angeles where my dad got 0:20:49.960 --> 0:20:55.359 a job at the CBS radio station in Hollywood. And 0:20:55.440 --> 0:21:02.800 so those years from from already five to forty nine, 0:21:03.359 --> 0:21:07.399 we're in in Hollywood and in the midst of stardom, 0:21:07.480 --> 0:21:12.640 and that's where he met got got all kinds of 0:21:12.680 --> 0:21:17.000 stars that he met. But he also got um involved 0:21:17.040 --> 0:21:22.320 with people who what's the diet guru Gaylord Houser. So 0:21:22.440 --> 0:21:25.160 from then on we ate right, you know, we didn't 0:21:25.200 --> 0:21:27.960 need any white things. We didn't need any any white 0:21:28.040 --> 0:21:31.840 rice or white bread. And he was always on a 0:21:31.880 --> 0:21:35.640 health kick, so that I'm sure that helped everybody. And 0:21:35.680 --> 0:21:40.760 then after Denver, after Seattle and then Hollywood, we moved 0:21:40.760 --> 0:21:45.399 to Denver in n Now, your father was blind. He 0:21:45.600 --> 0:21:48.960 was he was blind from the age of four, and 0:21:49.200 --> 0:21:55.720 he had I think, a stunning career and really life. 0:21:55.720 --> 0:21:58.399 He was He was brilliant, he was funny. He he 0:21:58.520 --> 0:22:01.240 read everything in Braille. He thought, if you hadn't read 0:22:01.440 --> 0:22:03.399 Moby Dick by the time you were seven, there was 0:22:03.440 --> 0:22:07.359 something fundamentally wrong with you. And so I got rid 0:22:07.600 --> 0:22:13.520 the Russians and Ruskolnikov and and Mark Twain, and I 0:22:13.560 --> 0:22:16.959 grew up in a literate and musical household that was. 0:22:17.160 --> 0:22:19.199 There was none like it. And I played the piano 0:22:19.320 --> 0:22:22.200 from the age of about five, maybe four and a half. 0:22:22.480 --> 0:22:26.840 But let's go back at chapter how did your parents meet? Ah? 0:22:27.240 --> 0:22:31.000 They I had my mother right out her a story 0:22:31.320 --> 0:22:34.880 of her meeting my father. And and she was in Seattle. 0:22:34.880 --> 0:22:40.520 They broth in Seattle. She was one of nine kids. 0:22:41.320 --> 0:22:45.480 She was in her early twenties, well I think she was. 0:22:46.280 --> 0:22:50.879 She was twenty two, maybe three, and she was in college. 0:22:51.200 --> 0:22:55.480 And she got on a bus to go home, and 0:22:55.960 --> 0:23:00.080 this fellow was there, she said, dressed nicely, dressed in 0:23:01.240 --> 0:23:04.840 and she noticed he sat down and began pulled out 0:23:04.880 --> 0:23:07.560 a very large book and began running his hands over 0:23:07.880 --> 0:23:10.280 at which at which point she realized he was blind. 0:23:10.720 --> 0:23:12.520 He didn't have a dog, he didn't have a cane. 0:23:12.560 --> 0:23:16.480 So there was only his appearance with the Briale book 0:23:16.520 --> 0:23:20.879 that gave her the clue. And when she got up 0:23:20.920 --> 0:23:23.480 to get off, he got up, got up to get off, 0:23:23.520 --> 0:23:26.960 it's the same spot. And she tried to help him, 0:23:27.000 --> 0:23:28.760 you know, she said, can I give you a hand 0:23:28.840 --> 0:23:32.439 or something? And he brusquely refused that. He said, I 0:23:32.440 --> 0:23:34.760 don't need any help or something. Then it turned out 0:23:34.800 --> 0:23:38.320 that he was walking in her directions, and he was 0:23:38.359 --> 0:23:41.480 going to a club called Kenny's, which was on Queen 0:23:41.560 --> 0:23:45.760 Anne Hill, right near her parents home. And they started 0:23:45.800 --> 0:23:48.760 talking and he said, why don't you come and see me? 0:23:49.040 --> 0:23:52.200 And they did, the family and her sisters and her 0:23:52.240 --> 0:23:54.919 best friend, Eleene. They started to go to Kenny's to 0:23:54.960 --> 0:23:57.159 hear daddy play the piano and say. My father had 0:23:57.200 --> 0:23:59.639 a gorgeous voice, and he sang all the Rodgers and 0:23:59.760 --> 0:24:04.360 heart wonderful hits of the day. And he said to her, now, 0:24:04.520 --> 0:24:09.119 I'm having my radio debut next Saturday night, so I 0:24:09.160 --> 0:24:11.800 hope that you and your friends and your family will listen. 0:24:12.600 --> 0:24:15.760