Speaker 1: Hello, my friend. Welcome to Love Someone with Delilah. Sometimes
Speaker 1: I get so nostalgic about the eighties and nineties. It
Speaker 1: was a pretty exciting time in my life. I was
Speaker 1: a full fledged adult. I was working in the most
Speaker 1: frustrating and most glorious profession. I was in radio. Back then,
Speaker 1: I was falling in and out, and in and out,
Speaker 1: and in and out of love. I was having and
Speaker 1: raising babies. Back then, everything, everything, I mean everything was
Speaker 1: in motion in my life. And while I'm happy to
Speaker 1: have landed safely on the other side and enjoy the
Speaker 1: stability I have in my life now, sometimes sometimes I
Speaker 1: get a little wistful about those glory days. Anybody anybody
Speaker 1: feel that way? Anybody with me? Let me see a
Speaker 1: shoe of hands. How many of you close your eyes
Speaker 1: and look back on I don't know, the big bangs,
Speaker 1: the crazy fashions, and the wild times. I'm sure today's
Speaker 1: guest un loves Someone with Delilah can relate. This gifted
Speaker 1: singer songwriter has touched the hearts of pop fans around
Speaker 1: the world while creating the soundtrack to so many of
Speaker 1: our memories. She began her career as a co founder
Speaker 1: and lead vocalist of the all female new wave rock
Speaker 1: band The Go Gos and is a masked worldwide sales
Speaker 1: in excess of fifteen million albums and singles. They're nineteen
Speaker 1: eighty self pinned multi platinum debut album Beauty and the
Speaker 1: Beat international top ten singles in our Lips are Sealed
Speaker 1: and we Got the Beat, which became an anthem for
Speaker 1: independent women from ages eight to eighty. When the band dismantled,
Speaker 1: The Go Gos dismantled in eighty five, she wasted no
Speaker 1: time going solo. She quickly released Belinda in nineteen eighty six,
Speaker 1: scoring an out of the box gold certified smash hit,
Speaker 1: Mad About You and the hits, well, they just kept
Speaker 1: coming by. Now you all know, I'm about to introduce
Speaker 1: none other than the darling, beloved, dimpled, adorable Belinda Carlisle.
Speaker 1: The Grammy nominated Heaven is a Place on Earth on
Speaker 1: her sophomore album, climbed the top ten and no less
Speaker 1: than twelve countries while achieving multiple gold and silver certifications.
Speaker 1: It was followed with I Get Weak and Circles in
Speaker 1: the Sand, which put Belinda Mania into full effect. So
Speaker 1: much has happened since then. Blind came a mom relocated
Speaker 1: from LA to the south of France, wrote and recorded
Speaker 1: more music, teamed up with the Go Gos for a
Speaker 1: few reunions published in autobiography Lips Unsealed, discussing the fascinating
Speaker 1: late seventies Los Angeles punk scene and her hard won
Speaker 1: victory over substance abuse. The two years leading up to
Speaker 1: the pandemic, Belinda was extremely busy with a worldwide tour.
Speaker 1: After taking a forced break with the rest of US
Speaker 1: twenty twenty two, sub Belinda spending the summer in Europe,
Speaker 1: fulfilling commitments that had to be postponed because of COVID.
Speaker 1: Now she's got a new EP dropping and a US
Speaker 1: tour in July and August. We have so much to
Speaker 1: catch up on with Belinda Carlisle. Right after I spend
Speaker 1: a few minutes telling you about a podcast sponsor I
Speaker 1: am so grateful for. I recently sat down with the
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Speaker 1: G E l O W big alow dot com. Welcome
Speaker 1: Blinda Carlisle. Blinda. When I was approached to see if
Speaker 1: I would be interested in talking to you, I'm like,
Speaker 1: oh my god, I love that kid. She's so darling,
Speaker 1: she's so wonderful. And my sister's like, sis, she's she's
Speaker 1: not a kid.
Speaker 2: Well I kind of feel like a kid. I'm my
Speaker 2: son is more mature than me. That kind of makes
Speaker 2: me a kid. Sixty four going on sixteen.
Speaker 1: My son will always he was born more mature than me.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well that's a good thing. That's a good thing.
Speaker 1: It is because I wasn't very mature when I was
Speaker 1: raising him, and he was kind of like my my
Speaker 1: rudder on my boat. That kept me going in the
Speaker 1: right direction.
Speaker 2: Same here. I used to call my son grandpa. I
Speaker 2: used to take him down to the punk rock store
Speaker 2: to get him punk rocklis and it is no all
Speaker 2: buttoned up with you a shirt pecked. But yeah, he's
Speaker 2: more mature than me.
Speaker 1: I tried to talk my son when he was about
Speaker 1: I don't know, seven or eight, so early nineties, tried
Speaker 1: to talk him into letting me pierce his ear, and
Speaker 1: he was like, you're kidding me right, Like you're kidding.
Speaker 1: I'm like, no, it would look really cool. Come on,
Speaker 1: He's like, mom.
Speaker 2: Yeah, no, believe me.
Speaker 1: I know.
Speaker 2: I was like, come on, grandpa, let's like wrap it
Speaker 2: up a bit. But he was like no. And he's
Speaker 2: so more mature than me. But you know it's I
Speaker 2: think he appreciate I'm sure your son appreciates you now,
Speaker 2: and and he did then, but you know, maybe he didn't.
Speaker 2: Maybe they didn't get us.
Speaker 1: You know, my son still doesn't get me, but oh,
Speaker 1: does he love me. He's such a good, good young man.
Speaker 1: I love that so Blinda Carlisle. When when my sister,
Speaker 1: who is also my podcast director, but when she I
Speaker 1: started talking about your new music, I had to go
Speaker 1: check it out. And girlfriend, you look so healthy, so fabulous.
Speaker 1: I was enjoying watching you as much as I was
Speaker 1: enjoying listening to you.
Speaker 2: Oh thank you. What can I say? You know? I mean,
Speaker 2: I guess it's just clean living, you know, And you
Speaker 2: know I do have a routine and stuff. And I
Speaker 2: did lose about forty pounds when I had problems with
Speaker 2: my knee. So yeah, I just thought, you know, I'm
Speaker 2: you know, I'm not going to let it all go
Speaker 2: in my sixties, and there's no reason why I can't
Speaker 2: keep it together and be healthy and look great.
Speaker 1: You know, well, you certainly look great, and I'm glad
Speaker 1: to hear that you are healthy. Somebody said to me
Speaker 1: one day, I said, I don't know. In my head,
Speaker 1: I still feel like I'm I don't know, twenty eight
Speaker 1: thirty years old. Like when people ask me how old
Speaker 1: I am, I have to stop and count on my
Speaker 1: fingers because I don't think of myself as the age
Speaker 1: that I am. And they said Delilah, that's because the
Speaker 1: soul never ages, and I thought that's true.
Speaker 2: You're right, that that's true. Yeah, I mean, I you know,
Speaker 2: I don't I feel like if if someone asked me,
Speaker 2: how do you feel, I'd say probably thirty two? You know,
Speaker 2: I was for some reason, I always go to that number.
Speaker 2: And I certainly don't don't look or act my age,
Speaker 2: you know, and I don't have any intention to. It's
Speaker 2: just a number, really, sixty four. It's just a number.
Speaker 1: It is just a number. But damn does it look
Speaker 1: good on you?
Speaker 2: Oh? Thank you, thank you.
Speaker 1: Let's talk about your new music and the fact that
Speaker 1: folks are finally going to have a chance maybe to
Speaker 1: go see you this summer. Is that right?
Speaker 2: Right? Yeah, it's I'm it's a continuation of my I
Speaker 2: just did a big tour in the UK called the
Speaker 2: Decadess Tour, and it was, yeah, pretty much material from
Speaker 2: all of my solo albums and of course a few
Speaker 2: go those songs thrown in there because that is part
Speaker 2: of my career. And with the US tour, I'll be
Speaker 2: performing maybe a couple of songs off my Knew at EP,
Speaker 2: including my single Big Big Love.
Speaker 1: So that was the first one I listened to after
Speaker 1: they let me know I had an opportunity to talk
Speaker 1: to you, and I was grinning, I was smiling. I
Speaker 1: was in the car with my seven year old, who,
Speaker 1: after the first time we listened to it, was singing along.
Speaker 1: Tell me about this big, big love that you've got
Speaker 1: in your life and your heart and your world, or
Speaker 1: hopefully you've got it.
Speaker 2: Well, if I go back to the song, well in
Speaker 2: my life, I've I've been married for thirty eight years,
Speaker 2: and if my husband thirty six years and my husband
Speaker 2: thirty eight years, so I still have my big, big
Speaker 2: love in my life. And of course I have my son,
Speaker 2: and I have a really wonderful life. But with this song,
Speaker 2: the way it all happened is very strange. I wasn't
Speaker 2: planning to do anything else. I was going to just
Speaker 2: really slow down, and you know, I've pretty much done
Speaker 2: everything in my career, which has spent over forty years.
Speaker 2: And then my son ran into Diane Warren at a
Speaker 2: coffee bean and tea leaf and she said, what is
Speaker 2: her mom doing? Let's get her on the phone, and
Speaker 2: so they facetimed me and she goes get down to
Speaker 2: the studio. Now I had some hits for you, and
Speaker 2: I thought, well, do I really want to go there
Speaker 2: and open up that door, because it's a big commitment
Speaker 2: to do something like that. So I thought I'd be
Speaker 2: really stupid.
Speaker 1: Not to hear her out.
Speaker 2: And so I went to the studio and she played
Speaker 2: me Big Big Love and I one of the other
Speaker 2: songs at the EP and I freaked out, and I thought, Okay,
Speaker 2: I want to sing these songs. So that's that's kind
Speaker 2: of how it all happened.
Speaker 1: And you can't really say no to the woman who
Speaker 1: has written more hit songs than all other writers. Add
Speaker 1: it up. I mean, that's like saying no to a tornado.
Speaker 1: You don't say no to Diane Warren.
Speaker 2: No, but I was afraid to commit. And you know,
Speaker 2: I know Diane, and I've worked with her to wrote
Speaker 2: a couple of hits for me back in the eighties,
Speaker 2: And I mean, yeah, you don't say no to Diane Warren.
Speaker 1: You can't just gloss over. She wrote a couple of
Speaker 1: hits for me back in the eighties. Didn't you guys
Speaker 1: work together on I Get Weak?
Speaker 2: Yes? She wrote I Get Weak in a song called
Speaker 2: Wrote Without You, which was a hit in Europe. And
Speaker 2: besides being like an unbelievable songwriters who's a great person.
Speaker 2: So when I love her, I adore her. So yeah,
Speaker 2: I ended up recording five songs that there I called
Speaker 2: the ep Kismet because that kind of encapsulates everything that
Speaker 2: happened and why I'm talking to you, because it was
Speaker 2: truly was divine intervention and like all these weird kind
Speaker 2: of coincidences and the things it happened that led me
Speaker 2: to actually singing and then end up and when we're
Speaker 2: talking to you about news stuff.
Speaker 1: I can't remember the first time I met Diane, but
Speaker 1: we've had lunch, we've we've spent time together, we've spent
Speaker 1: time together on the phone. And the thing that hit
Speaker 1: me was I was expecting to meet somebody with an
Speaker 1: ego because I have been playing her music for almost
Speaker 1: what forty five years? Something crazy right, And I met
Speaker 1: a woman who is so freaking funny and humble and
Speaker 1: down to earth right and hysterical, snarky, funny, real as
Speaker 1: a heartbeat. I'm like, how can you you have this
Speaker 1: much talent and this much success and this much just
Speaker 1: oozing out of you and be so incredibly humble? And
Speaker 1: I realize that that's what real talent looks like. She
Speaker 1: loves her truth, you know.
Speaker 2: Well, she certainly does that, and she's like totally normal.
Speaker 2: I mean, there's no pretense there at all. She loves
Speaker 2: what she does. I don't know how she does what
Speaker 2: she does, but she, I mean, that's her life, you know,
Speaker 2: is writing these beautiful love songs. And yep, she's the
Speaker 2: greatest living songwriter and probably one of the greatest songwriters
Speaker 2: that ever lived. And I'm sure twenty years from now,
Speaker 2: it'll just you know, she will have overtaken everybody. I mean,
Speaker 2: she's had so many hits, just countless, and I'm lucky
Speaker 2: that I get to work with her.
Speaker 1: Yes, you are very lucky that you get to work
Speaker 1: with her, and we're very lucky that we get to
Speaker 1: hear you again.
Speaker 2: Thank you. Yeah, it's yeah, I'm really excited about these songs.
Speaker 2: And yeah, I feel very like it was a gift,
Speaker 2: so I'm very humbled by it.
Speaker 1: So tell me about the eighty for Brady.
Speaker 2: Well, that was Diane too. I was recording my vocals
Speaker 2: and in Mexico City from the EP and Diane said,
Speaker 2: do you want to sing with Dolly, Cindy, Gloria and
Speaker 2: Debbie and I said, yes, yes, I do, and so
Speaker 2: everybody did their and the song was great. It's a
Speaker 2: very uplifting pop song about friendship. And everybody did their
Speaker 2: parts individually in different parts of the country, and we
Speaker 2: did the video parts separately. And I'm just hoping that
Speaker 2: one of these days something brings us all together so
Speaker 2: we can sing it together in the same room. But
Speaker 2: it was such an honor for me to sing with
Speaker 2: those women.
Speaker 1: Let's just go through that list slowly for our list listeners.
Speaker 1: It was you, Dolly Parton, who is like everybody's mom.
Speaker 1: You know, she's just like every female artist I ever
Speaker 1: get to talk to, And I say, who who was
Speaker 1: your icon?
Speaker 2: Like?
Speaker 1: Who did you look up to? Dolly Pardon? Doesn't matter
Speaker 1: what genre, everybody respects the hell out of what that
Speaker 1: woman has done professionally aluah and musically and just in
Speaker 1: the world. How many kids has she helped to learn
Speaker 1: how to read?
Speaker 2: I know, I know that right there. You know, reading
Speaker 2: opens up a whole new world for anybody. I mean,
Speaker 2: I've always I always told my son, I don't care
Speaker 2: if you can count, but if you can read, you know,
Speaker 2: that opens up everything. And he's an avid reader. So, yeah, Dollie,
Speaker 2: Debbie who was I worshiped Debbie Harry in high school.
Speaker 1: Totally Debbie Harry, what a trailblazer.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I worship her, Tending Opera who I love and
Speaker 2: I've worked just before, and who's an amazing character and
Speaker 2: you know, has done so much for the world. And
Speaker 2: Roya Estefan, who I absolutely adore too and I've worked
Speaker 2: with her once, you know, back in the eighties, and
Speaker 2: lovely person. So yeah, amazing, amazing group of women.
Speaker 1: If you ever do get to do what you just said,
Speaker 1: get to be in person with all these women singing.
Speaker 1: Promise me I get to be there, Okay, I promise.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I hope it happens. That would be amazing.
Speaker 1: I have a few, like bucket list things I want
Speaker 1: to do. I want to get all my grandkids in
Speaker 1: one family photo. That's one of my bucket list things
Speaker 1: I want to do. But being at a concert with
Speaker 1: you women, Dolly and Cindy and Gloria and Debbie and
Speaker 1: you would be one of those bucket list things, especially
Speaker 1: if Diane Warren was there watching all of the hits
Speaker 1: she's written for all of you over the years come
Speaker 1: to life. That would be so cool.
Speaker 2: Now, that would be amazing. That was amazing. Who knows,
Speaker 2: I haven't feeling something to come along and it'll happen.
Speaker 2: I don't know how, but I'm sure it will.
Speaker 1: That would be wonderful. I hope you are all enjoying
Speaker 1: our conversation today. We've got a little more time with
Speaker 1: our guests, Melinda, but I want to pause to tell
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Speaker 1: stroke month, Think and act fast my friends. Belinda, my sister,
Speaker 1: asked me this what makes you want to get up
Speaker 1: in the morning? And I said, uh, Anna, my do
Speaker 1: Like she's she's putting her nose in my face, saying, mom,
Speaker 1: I gotta go, get me, you know, let me out,
Speaker 1: Let's go. And she goes, yeah, that's a that's a
Speaker 1: literal thing, says what what makes you want to get
Speaker 1: up and live the life you live? And so I
Speaker 1: thought I would ask.
Speaker 2: You that I love life. I love I get excited
Speaker 2: for each day. I get up at four am every
Speaker 2: day and I have a whole you know. I start
Speaker 2: my day with it with a great teacher like Ramdas
Speaker 2: or Eckhart Toolei or sag Guru uh someone like that.
Speaker 2: And then I go into an hour and a half
Speaker 2: of chanting and breathing in yoga and that's every daily practice.
Speaker 2: And that's how I start my day. I mean, I
Speaker 2: you know, that's my foundation. And I just love I
Speaker 2: don't know, I just love life, and I love living
Speaker 2: in Mexico. I'm in nature all the time. But that's
Speaker 2: what keeps me going, and that's what I just I love.
Speaker 2: I love life, and I feel very lucky to be here.
Speaker 2: So I have so many friends that aren't and every
Speaker 2: day is a gift, amen. I mean, I know that
Speaker 2: I have a really amazing life, and I know how
Speaker 2: lucky I am. And I don't watch the news. I
Speaker 2: have my bubble. I figure if there's anything bad or good,
Speaker 2: I'll hear about it. And you know, what you have inside,
Speaker 2: you see outside, you project outside. So you know, I
Speaker 2: just love. I love every day. I love waking up.
Speaker 2: I have trees right outside my window, and I just, yeah,
Speaker 2: I know how fortunate I am to have that, to
Speaker 2: be able to love it so much. You know, very simple.
Speaker 1: I tell my listeners every night, if you can start
Speaker 1: your day with an attitude of gratitude. And I know
Speaker 1: it sounds corny, I know it sounds trite, but if
Speaker 1: you can start first thing in the morning, before your
Speaker 1: feet hit the floor, and just go through a list
Speaker 1: of things. Every morning, I go through a list of
Speaker 1: things and I thank the Almighty for how blessed I am.
Speaker 1: It sets the tone for the whole day.
Speaker 2: Absolutely. You know, it's what's inside. You know, everything is internal,
Speaker 2: so it's whatever's going on inside is what you see outside.
Speaker 2: So that's that's how I live. And you know, there's
Speaker 2: so many amazing I mean, the teachers that we have
Speaker 2: on you know that are living right now on the planet.
Speaker 2: There's some amazing Jo Spenza, amazing people out there. So yeah,
Speaker 2: I mean that's how I started. I start my day
Speaker 2: with one of them and as a reminder to live
Speaker 2: in a moment, to be grateful, and that sets the
Speaker 2: tone of the day.
Speaker 1: And when are you coming on tour?
Speaker 2: Well, I have you know, I just finished a big
Speaker 2: tour in the UK. I have three months, oh if ya,
Speaker 2: and then I start the East Coast at the end
Speaker 2: of June. I have a little two week run and
Speaker 2: then I have the West Coast in August, and then
Speaker 2: I have Australia at the end of the year and
Speaker 2: then you know, we'll see what happens.
Speaker 1: Well I hope that when that happens, I get to
Speaker 1: come and see you and say hi and give you
Speaker 1: a hug and just tell you how much I've appreciated
Speaker 1: your music, your energy. Thank you, the joy that you
Speaker 1: bring to my show into my heart with your voice.
Speaker 2: Oh, thank you so much. It's so nice. Thank you.
Speaker 1: It's very true you are. You're like a daffodil, you
Speaker 1: know how daffodils just when you see them, you smile
Speaker 1: like you can't help but smile. Yeah, to see daffodils,
Speaker 1: because they're bright and they're cheerful, and they're beautiful and
Speaker 1: they sway in the wind. And you're like a daffodil,
Speaker 1: just optimistic and bright and beautiful.
Speaker 2: Oh, thank you so much. It's so sweet to say
Speaker 2: thank you for having me on your show.
Speaker 1: Thank you, Belinda. God bless you, and I'll talk to
Speaker 1: you soon.
Speaker 2: Oh bless you. Thank you so much.
Speaker 1: Bye bye, Belinda. Carlyle, a beloved pop icon who after
Speaker 1: decades in the music business, shows no sign of slowing down.
Speaker 1: Does she Like most of us, She's more grounded than
Speaker 1: she was back in the eighties, but just as talented
Speaker 1: and sharing the same energy, that same vibe as she
Speaker 1: did when she burst onto the scene. You can listen
Speaker 1: to Big Big Love now and will very very soon
Speaker 1: be able to download the entire five track ep Kismet.
Speaker 1: She'll be touring in America beginning in Julia, she said.
Speaker 1: Check to see if she'll be anywhere near you or
Speaker 1: someplace you'd like to hop on a plane and go visit.
Speaker 1: You'll find all the info at b E l I
Speaker 1: N d A Carlyle c A R l I s
Speaker 1: l E dot net, Blinda Carlile dot net, and at
Speaker 1: ticketmaster dot com. I hope you have enjoyed today's conversation
Speaker 1: and all the fascinating conversations we have here on love Someone.
Speaker 1: I hope they entertain you. I hope they inspire you
Speaker 1: to use the gifts, the talents that you have to
Speaker 1: make this world a better place, one heart at a time,