Speaker 1: Welcome, Welcome, Welcome back to the Bob Lefsett's podcast. My
Speaker 1: guest today is Gloria Gainer, who has a new EP. Gloria,
Speaker 1: why are you recording? Why now?
Speaker 2: Well, because I have some things to say. I have
Speaker 2: some things that I want to share with my audience
Speaker 2: that I think will be enjoyable for them but also
Speaker 2: valuable for them.
Speaker 1: So what do you want to share?
Speaker 2: I want to share hope. I want to share encouragement.
Speaker 2: I want to share empowerment and self esteem.
Speaker 1: Are these issues that you've wrestled with personally?
Speaker 2: Oh? Yeah, yeah, absolutely?
Speaker 1: So how do you maintain hope?
Speaker 2: I maintain hopeful my faith? I'm an avid Christian?
Speaker 1: And have you always been a believer?
Speaker 2: Well since I was sixteen years old?
Speaker 1: And was there a special event that triggered you?
Speaker 2: Then it's a silly event that triggered it. I was.
Speaker 2: I was at home and you remember the old Inquirer
Speaker 2: newspaper still left the still anyway, there was a they
Speaker 2: ran an article that they're saying that the Earth was
Speaker 2: going to collide with the moon. And you know how
Speaker 2: sometimes you can see the moon and it looks because
Speaker 2: of atmospheric changes. Get does look bigger right well, as
Speaker 2: a child, I didn't know about that. So when I
Speaker 2: saw that, I thought it was true that the Earth
Speaker 2: was moving closer to the Moon and eventually they were
Speaker 2: going to collide. And one night I during that period,
Speaker 2: I went to bed and woke up the next night
Speaker 2: that night to go to the bathroom, and on the
Speaker 2: way back to my bedroom, I looked out my window
Speaker 2: and I saw this red, thick fog. I went to
Speaker 2: the window, and the fog was so thick I couldn't
Speaker 2: even see the ground, and I couldn't see the neighbor's
Speaker 2: adjacent window, and so I determined that it was going
Speaker 2: to be happen. It was about to happen. And then
Speaker 2: I heard this noise louder than any noise I ever
Speaker 2: heard in my entire life, and I was certain it
Speaker 2: was going to happen. So I was going to go
Speaker 2: and wake up my parents and decided to know if
Speaker 2: if we were all going to die, then they didn't
Speaker 2: need to suffer the pretension with me that I just
Speaker 2: go to bed. I went to bed, and I prayed
Speaker 2: that the Lord would take us into heaven. And I
Speaker 2: woke up the next one, of course, and found out
Speaker 2: the sun was shining on both sides of the street
Speaker 2: and everything was fine. But I found out that the
Speaker 2: reason why I heard that noise, that this loud noise
Speaker 2: that I thought was the earth crashing with the moon
Speaker 2: was the first ever play to take off from the
Speaker 2: New Newark International Airport and we were in a flight
Speaker 2: path I'd never heard a plane pick off before. And
Speaker 2: the reason why, well, they even were talking about that
Speaker 2: the plane was delayed because of the fog that had
Speaker 2: this terrible fog that had rolled into Newark that morning.
Speaker 2: And the reason why the fog was read was because
Speaker 2: the bar across the street had forgotten to turn their
Speaker 2: neon sign off that night, the night before. So it
Speaker 2: was said up a perfect storm for a sixteen year
Speaker 2: older to suddenly find her faith and decide that it
Speaker 2: was time to give my heart to the Lord. So
Speaker 2: I asked my mother to take me to church and
Speaker 2: let me be baptized, and she did, and I've been
Speaker 2: a believer ever since.
Speaker 1: Well what did your parents think about you becoming a believer?
Speaker 1: Were they believers?
Speaker 2: Yes? Yeah, they were glad for the decision.
Speaker 1: Okay, so you start going to the church. Do you
Speaker 1: go to church still?
Speaker 2: Yeah? Yeah, I still go to church every Sunday that
Speaker 2: I'm at home, and well.
Speaker 1: And did you sing in church?
Speaker 2: Yes?
Speaker 1: I did.
Speaker 2: I didn't. When I was a kid, I didn't. I
Speaker 2: didn't go very much. I went for a few weeks,
Speaker 2: and then I stopped going as a kid because my
Speaker 2: mother didn't go to church. She was in and dated
Speaker 2: with church as a child and made a silent vow
Speaker 2: that if her children didn't want to go to church,
Speaker 2: she wouldn't make them go because she had to go
Speaker 2: like four times a week.
Speaker 1: And she just.
Speaker 2: Decided I wasn't going to do that. So after a
Speaker 2: few weeks, I just stopped going. I lost interest in
Speaker 2: what was going on in the church, but I didn't
Speaker 2: lose interest in God, and so I kept my faith.
Speaker 2: I just didn't participate in church until later years. I
Speaker 2: really started going back to church. And I had an
Speaker 2: incident that happened to me out in California that sent
Speaker 2: me running back to church.
Speaker 1: So what happened there, Well, I was.
Speaker 2: About to long story short, about to indulge in something new,
Speaker 2: various things with that we were very common out in
Speaker 2: California with drugs and stuff, and I felt the Holy
Speaker 2: Spirit grab me in my collar literally felt him, grabbed
Speaker 2: me in my calling and say that's enough.
Speaker 1: Wow. Okay, going back, So we live in a crazy
Speaker 1: world right now, politically, climate weather. For those of us
Speaker 1: who are not believers, how do we maintain hope?
Speaker 2: I have no idea. I cannot answer that one for
Speaker 2: you because I don't know what I would do without
Speaker 2: my Lord.
Speaker 1: Okay. Another thing you said you wanted to accomplish with
Speaker 1: the new ep IS address people's self esteem. Is this
Speaker 1: also something you've struggled with?
Speaker 2: Oh? Yeah, yeah, I stuff it with self esteem as
Speaker 2: a child because I had some very difficult things that
Speaker 2: happened to me when I was a child out and uh,
Speaker 2: and those things really chipped away at my self esteem.
Speaker 2: And so I had a and plus I was overweight.
Speaker 2: I had a huge appetite as a skinny little child,
Speaker 2: and decided to stuff myself until I started gaining weight
Speaker 2: and then couldn't stop. And then they went from calling
Speaker 2: me skinny Minnie and Lolo chopsticks to fatty arbuckle and
Speaker 2: porky pig. And so all of that chipped away at
Speaker 2: my self esteem. And so that at the time I
Speaker 2: became a young woman in my early twenties, I had.
Speaker 2: I was very low on self esteem.
Speaker 1: So how did you build up your self esteem?
Speaker 2: I built up my self esteem again with my faith.
Speaker 2: I really got involved in my faith and came to
Speaker 2: the conclusion that if God loved me, why should it
Speaker 2: matter what anyone else thinks.
Speaker 1: Okay, you mentioned weight. How did you end up losing
Speaker 1: the weight? Did you still struggle with body issues?
Speaker 2: Well? I was still struggling with that. And then I
Speaker 2: was told by my management that I was going to
Speaker 2: be elected Queen of Discos and I said, Oh, that
Speaker 2: must mean I'm going to be a star, So I
Speaker 2: think I better try to look like one. And I
Speaker 2: went to a doctor and he put me on this
Speaker 2: ridiculous diet that actually worked, but it was so so dangerous.
Speaker 2: I mean it was ridiculous. He put me on ups
Speaker 2: to shake my appetite. He put me on downs because
Speaker 2: the ups made me nervous. And I say he gave
Speaker 2: me a sideways because he gave me a thyroid tablet.
Speaker 2: And I lost forty five pounds in six weeks.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 2: The diet consisted of a glass of grayfood juice for
Speaker 2: breakfast and glass of grayfuo juice for lunch, and a
Speaker 2: glass of tomato juice for dinner. Period, I dreamed I
Speaker 2: saw fried chickens walking around in the yard.
Speaker 1: So when you stop that diet, how did you maintain
Speaker 1: your body?
Speaker 2: Well? I set some hard fast rules. Never eat after
Speaker 2: eight o'clock at night, never overeat, never eat more than
Speaker 2: one starch at a meal, and make sure you have
Speaker 2: six to eight glass of the water a day. As
Speaker 2: long as I maintain that, I kept the weight off.
Speaker 1: You know, I have a friend who was on television consistently,
Speaker 1: and on Christmas, he went to order takeout and he
Speaker 1: was sitting outside and a person came up to you
Speaker 1: and said, aren't you so and so? And he goes, yeah,
Speaker 1: he goes and the person said, you look like shit.
Speaker 1: And so what do you feel that when you leave
Speaker 1: the house that you have to have a certain appearance
Speaker 1: to what degree? Since you are a famous person, do
Speaker 1: you feel pressure to have a physical image commensurate with
Speaker 1: the image in people's mind.
Speaker 2: Well, there's not a whole lot of pressure on me
Speaker 2: for that. I mean, I just came back from from
Speaker 2: physical therapy. This is how I look when I go
Speaker 2: out of my house, no matter what doesn't have anything
Speaker 2: to do with my my stardom. It's just my own
Speaker 2: just how I want to be presented to public, to
Speaker 2: the public.
Speaker 1: And do you tend to be recognized?
Speaker 2: No, okay, not here anyway. I'm recognized outside of the
Speaker 2: United States, but not here.
Speaker 1: That's interesting. So if you're outside the United States, why
Speaker 1: do you think that is?
Speaker 2: I think they have They don't have as many artists,
Speaker 2: you know, not inundated with with with stars in other
Speaker 2: countries and uh and certainly not black stars in other countries,
Speaker 2: and so they're more likely to, you know, pay attention
Speaker 2: and take notice.
Speaker 1: So why are you going to physical therapy?
Speaker 2: I'm having problem with my back. I've had problems with
Speaker 2: my back since I was a kid.
Speaker 1: What's the diagnosis?
Speaker 2: Just muscular things. I just need some muscle strengthen. You know,
Speaker 2: when you get to be a certain age, if you
Speaker 2: haven't done things, you know, to say a body in motion,
Speaker 2: stays in motion, and certain things. When you get older,
Speaker 2: you just stop doing because it's just not a part
Speaker 2: of your day. And then when you go to do that,
Speaker 2: for whatever reason, your body is like, oh, oh no,
Speaker 2: we're not doing that anymore, don't we don't do that,
Speaker 2: And so you have to retrain and that's what I'm
Speaker 2: doing retrainings.
Speaker 1: So physical therapy is a working for you. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: just have physical therapy this morning. So we're on the
Speaker 1: same page. Yeah, okay, let's go back to the EP.
Speaker 1: So you say you want to get these messages across.
Speaker 1: How do you start or what did you do first?
Speaker 2: Well, the first thing I did was write the songs.
Speaker 2: And well, actually the first thing I did was get
Speaker 2: together with some pe people that I wanted to write with,
Speaker 2: and then we wrote the songs.
Speaker 1: And then stop there. Because you wrote with some very
Speaker 1: successful people, how did you hook up with these people?
Speaker 2: Through my producer Chris Stevens. He knows a lot of
Speaker 2: writers because he's a multi multi multi Grammy Award winner
Speaker 2: and so he knows a lot of He's in Nashville,
Speaker 2: which is a music town, and so he knows tons
Speaker 2: of writers and singers and musicians and he hooked me up.
Speaker 1: So everybody has a different style. What was it like,
Speaker 1: did you sit in the room together they say, Okay,
Speaker 1: we're going to write a song Nashville style.
Speaker 2: Well, no, we just we sat in the room together
Speaker 2: and said we're going to write a song Glory gainnerstyle.
Speaker 1: Well, I meant that's how they do it. Na. Oh yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: not that you couldn't write a country song, but having
Speaker 1: heard the song, I.
Speaker 2: Have written a country song. I have written a country song.
Speaker 1: So you were in the room, had these messages you
Speaker 1: wanted to get a out.
Speaker 2: I had to start, Well, you start with an idea.
Speaker 2: I start when I write. I start with an idea,
Speaker 2: what do I What do I want to talk about?
Speaker 2: And then what do I want to say about it?
Speaker 2: And then we start to figure out how to put
Speaker 2: those thoughts and feelings into into sentences, and then how
Speaker 2: to make them rhyme and uh yeah, and then we
Speaker 2: you know, separate them into verses and chorus. What what? What? What?
Speaker 2: What is the main point? The main point is what
Speaker 2: you want to repeat and make the chorus.
Speaker 1: So how long did it take to write these songs?
Speaker 1: And how many songs did you have to write to
Speaker 1: get the ones who are on the record.
Speaker 2: Uh, well, the ones that were on the record are
Speaker 2: the only ones we wrote. Actually we wrote. Uh it
Speaker 2: took us maybe three weeks, three four weeks.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm interested. You work with Liz Rose, who co
Speaker 1: wrote all the songs on the first couple of Taylor
Speaker 1: Swift Records, because you know there were multiple people you
Speaker 1: wrote with. Yeah, and I assumed they had different styles. Yes, Yeah,
Speaker 1: tell me what it was like working with Liz Rose.
Speaker 2: It was great working with her. The song that she
Speaker 2: came up with the idea for this song, and I
Speaker 2: loved it because I immediately thought of someone in my
Speaker 2: life that I felt that the song her idea reminded
Speaker 2: me of. So it was pretty easy for us to
Speaker 2: come up with the lyrics for that song because I
Speaker 2: already have feelings about it.
Speaker 1: Okay, you worked with people Michael Pollock worked with Marie Cyrus,
Speaker 1: Sam Tana who worked with Fits in the Tantrums, Matt
Speaker 1: Brownleo who worked with Michael W. Smith and Aliambrullia, Caitlin Smith,
Speaker 1: Miley Cyrus, and Meghan Trainer, Christi who had success with
Speaker 1: country artists like Jason Alden and Kenny Destiny. What was
Speaker 1: the difference in writing with all these different people, Well, each.
Speaker 2: One of them had each one had a different style,
Speaker 2: but uh, they all were lending themselves to what I
Speaker 2: wanted because they knew it was going to be my
Speaker 2: music and my my recording. The difference was getting used
Speaker 2: to their sort of slant on things and their uhh
Speaker 2: ideas about what the subject matter and and and and
Speaker 2: how it should be expressed and exactly what you wanted
Speaker 2: to express in each thing, and so.
Speaker 1: It was.
Speaker 2: It was a little bit different with each one, but
Speaker 2: the great thing was that they were all accommodating to
Speaker 2: me what I was looking for and what I wanted
Speaker 2: and what I wanted to end up with.
Speaker 1: And is it different writing with a woman as opposed
Speaker 1: to a man.
Speaker 2: No, No, not really.
Speaker 1: Okay, so the songs are written, what's the next step.
Speaker 2: The next step is the music, and so I have
Speaker 2: nothing to do with that. I the only musical instrument
Speaker 2: I can play is my phone.
Speaker 1: But sometimes with their phone.
Speaker 2: Now, so yeah, well I've got some recordings on my phone,
Speaker 2: but but not not not with musical and not as
Speaker 2: a musical instrument. So I leave that to them. I gave,
Speaker 2: you know, we give. I give the lyrics to Chris
Speaker 2: and uh and and I don't even I really even
Speaker 2: do melodies. I'm a strictly a lyricist. I once in
Speaker 2: a while I come up with a melody that that
Speaker 2: works and is pleasant to someone besides me.
Speaker 1: Okay, So he cut everything and then you just came
Speaker 1: in to sing mm hmm.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: So when you first heard the tracks, who say, okay,
Speaker 1: let's go or do you hear them and you go,
Speaker 1: that's not exactly what I envision? Can we change this?
Speaker 2: Sometimes? Sometimes I change a thing or two, or want
Speaker 2: to add an instrument or or I want something one
Speaker 2: thing to be more prominent than the other, and isn't
Speaker 2: the way. It isn't like that when he first presents
Speaker 2: it to me. But that's very rare. I kind of
Speaker 2: leave I Throughout my life, I've been working with people.
Speaker 2: I kind of pick people who I feel are the
Speaker 2: best that are available to me and then let them
Speaker 2: do their thing.
Speaker 1: Okay, And are you the type of vocalist do you
Speaker 1: sing it once or you have to warm up singing
Speaker 1: a million times? And they're comping among some number of tracks?
Speaker 1: How does it work?
Speaker 2: Generally? I don't have them, don't have a lot of takes.
Speaker 2: In fact, I have some recordings that have been released
Speaker 2: with first takes.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 2: So I don't generally have a lot of takes. I
Speaker 2: have more takes to Chris than I have with any
Speaker 2: other producer because he's very very don't want to stay
Speaker 2: picky exactly yes, that's better word.
Speaker 1: Okay. So when you're singing the songs in the studio,
Speaker 1: you know, some people insist that it be dark. Some
Speaker 1: people are self conscious, some people are in the mood.
Speaker 1: What's going through your head when you're singing.
Speaker 2: What's going through my head is what's going from my
Speaker 2: mouth into that microphone, and nothing else matters. I just
Speaker 2: want some water nearby, and that's it. I don't care
Speaker 2: about the lighting. I don't care about the space that
Speaker 2: I'm in. I don't care. I don't care.
Speaker 1: So how do you let yourself be free? Or you're
Speaker 1: such a pro you can just stand up and sing it,
Speaker 1: how do you get your state of mind in the
Speaker 1: right place.
Speaker 2: I just concentrate on what the song is about and
Speaker 2: the message that I'm trying to get across, and imagining
Speaker 2: people hearing it and what they're feeling getting the feelings
Speaker 2: that they're getting from the music and from what I'm singing.
Speaker 2: And that's where I am. I'm in concert, when i'm performing,
Speaker 2: when i'm singing, when I'm doing a recording.
Speaker 1: Okay, so the record is done. The record business is
Speaker 1: very different than it was in the pre internet era.
Speaker 1: When you have these gigantic kits and some of the
Speaker 1: most well known acts put out music and it's not
Speaker 1: known by many, even the biggest acts. We mentioned Taylor Swift,
Speaker 1: she may be very big, but a lot of people
Speaker 1: don't know her music. I only mentioned her. They don't
Speaker 1: know a lot of other people's music. So what are
Speaker 1: your expectations for the recordings?
Speaker 2: Well, my expectations is for the fans that I already
Speaker 2: have to hear the music and love it and then
Speaker 2: try to share it with their friends who don't know
Speaker 2: me or having heard these particular news songs, and that
Speaker 2: it was spread that way. I also hope that we'll
Speaker 2: get more exposure from the internet, you know, from the
Speaker 2: internet platforms, musical platforms on the Internet, and that will
Speaker 2: be spread throughout the nation and hopefully throughout the world
Speaker 2: that way.
Speaker 1: Okay, you mentioned your phone. Are you someone who is
Speaker 1: on the internet a lot? Are you only using your
Speaker 1: phone for phone calls?
Speaker 2: I'm not on the internet a lot. I go on occasionally.
Speaker 2: I've done some things on TikTok and I go on it,
Speaker 2: like this morning, I put on a message about my
Speaker 2: mother because it's my mother's birthday today.
Speaker 1: Gopy birthday. Thank you who would she have been oof.
Speaker 2: One hundred, one hundred and something that she was twenty
Speaker 2: something years older than I am.
Speaker 1: Okay, you put a post on TikTok. Did you do
Speaker 1: it yourself or did somebody help you? Oh?
Speaker 2: I did myself.
Speaker 1: So how'd you learn how to do it?
Speaker 2: I just went on and checked it out. Oh yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: I don't think anybody taught me. I just figured it out,
Speaker 2: followed the directions.
Speaker 1: Okay, well, you'll be amazed how many people from our
Speaker 1: age group can't do that. It's how often I know.
Speaker 2: Please don't remind me. I keep telling my friends coming
Speaker 2: to the twenty first century for crying out loud.
Speaker 1: You're speaking my language. You know. People say I hate TikTok,
Speaker 1: it's the worst. Have you ever been on?
Speaker 3: No?
Speaker 1: I said, at least go on see what it is.
Speaker 1: So you post on TikTok? Will you ever scroll on
Speaker 1: TikTok see what's going on?
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, I've got some I've followed a few people
Speaker 2: because I love dancing, so I follow some dancers on TikTok.
Speaker 1: And you post this stuff. But to what degree do
Speaker 1: you interact with your fans?
Speaker 2: Not a whole lot, not a lot, Because I'm on
Speaker 2: there along. I feel like I'm on there too long
Speaker 2: when I'm posting, and then I don't have toime to
Speaker 2: hang out on there.
Speaker 1: So what does your normal day when you're not on
Speaker 1: the road look like?
Speaker 2: Hmm, normal day when I'm not on the road, Well,
Speaker 2: I've go to physical therapy nowadays, physical therapy, looking over
Speaker 2: my wardrobe and making sure that I'm ready and have
Speaker 2: what I want and my clothes have been taken care of,
Speaker 2: any cleaning or alterations that need to be done for
Speaker 2: things that I might want to wear, and checking my makeup,
Speaker 2: and then all of those things that I need on
Speaker 2: the road, praying, studying the Bible, reading, watching television. I'm
Speaker 2: an avid TV fan and and and as I live alone,
Speaker 2: I'm often eating alone, and I don't like eating alone,
Speaker 2: so I watch TV while I eat, which I don't
Speaker 2: don't think it's very good, but I do it anyway.
Speaker 2: And uh yeah, changing things, decorating my home, writing, writing songs,
Speaker 2: writing just thoughts, some things that I plan to soon
Speaker 2: put on onto social media. Even if I don't do
Speaker 2: it myself, I'll give it to my social media person
Speaker 2: to post.
Speaker 1: You know, So, what do you watch on TV?
Speaker 2: I'm in love with Equalizer, that the series with that's
Speaker 2: her name, just right out of my head, Queen Latifa,
Speaker 2: I like, I like, I like Detective stuff pretty much
Speaker 2: what I want and I and I love Marvel comics.
Speaker 2: I love Marvel. I'm a Marvel Yeah yeah, yeah, like
Speaker 2: all the superheroes.
Speaker 1: How did you get into that?
Speaker 2: Since I was a kid.
Speaker 1: So you used to read those comic books? Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: so you've seen all the movies, the Superman, the Adventure.
Speaker 2: Yes, yes, yes, Smallville even Yeah.
Speaker 1: So if I wanted to discuss the Marvel universe, you
Speaker 1: could participate in them, I think so. Yeah. Okay, So
Speaker 1: how many days a year are you on the road
Speaker 1: these days?
Speaker 3: Oh?
Speaker 2: I'm only doing like thirty shows a year, not a lot.
Speaker 1: Okay, So you're talking about being home the glory gainer.
Speaker 1: Business is business unto itself. To what degree do you
Speaker 1: socialize with friends, go to dinner, talk on the phone.
Speaker 2: Well, I go. And I have a vacation place in
Speaker 2: Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, and I love it there because
Speaker 2: that's where my social life really comes to life because
Speaker 2: everyone there is either retired or on vacation, so they're
Speaker 2: always up for fun. And so that's a great place.
Speaker 2: Matter of fact, I'm playing and go down this summer
Speaker 2: and spend a few weeks there here, not so much
Speaker 2: because everybody's busy and running, and most of my friends
Speaker 2: at my age, of course have grandchildren and they're all
Speaker 2: involved with their grandchildren and all of that, and I
Speaker 2: don't have any children, so it's not as much. But
Speaker 2: I do, you know, go to plays and and once
Speaker 2: in a while go to the movies and sometimes have
Speaker 2: friends over to watch a movie in my home theater.
Speaker 2: I have some dinners at home because I love to cook,
Speaker 2: so I have friends over for dinner. And yeah, that's
Speaker 2: pretty much.
Speaker 1: So you love to cook. What are a couple of
Speaker 1: your specialties.
Speaker 2: Well, there's one that my that that's probably my my
Speaker 2: friend's favorite. That's that I call chicken a lah gainer,
Speaker 2: and it's a it's a chicken dish that I came
Speaker 2: up with years ago when my husband called me with
Speaker 2: forty five minutes he was gonna arrive in forty five
Speaker 2: minutes with company for dinner. Came up with this quick
Speaker 2: meal and my friends love it because it really tastes
Speaker 2: like you've been cooking for hours, but it's really quick
Speaker 2: and simple to pull together, and they use it often.
Speaker 1: How do you make it?
Speaker 2: Well, you roast chicken parts at four hundred and twenty
Speaker 2: five degrees so that the skin is crispy. While that's happening,
Speaker 2: you make a sauce of cream of chicken, soup, sour cream,
Speaker 2: and milk. And when the chicken is crispy and done,
Speaker 2: you pour the soup over the chicken so that it
Speaker 2: gets a little bit on the skin, but mostly it's
Speaker 2: the meat of the chicken is soaking and it goes
Speaker 2: back crispy again. But with the flavor now of this sauce,
Speaker 2: and then you serve that with saffron rice and some
Speaker 2: colorful vegetables. You have her delicious.
Speaker 1: So when am I coming over?
Speaker 2: Whenever you're feelful?
Speaker 1: Okay, So how did you learn how to cook?
Speaker 2: With my mother? My mother was a great cook, and
Speaker 2: she had to be a well, she didn't have to
Speaker 2: be a good cook. But I'm praise God that she
Speaker 2: was a good cook because we were very poor. And
Speaker 2: what I remember my mother sending me an off and
Speaker 2: telling story of my mother sending me to the store
Speaker 2: for dinner. With the quarter she told me to get
Speaker 2: fifteen cents worth of bacon skins and ten cents worth
Speaker 2: of beans, and she made a delicious dinner at which
Speaker 2: we had two or three people for company from my
Speaker 2: friends came to eat because my mother made dinner fun.
Speaker 2: She made the she made She said she didn't have
Speaker 2: the the she couldn't afford baking powder to make bread rice.
Speaker 2: So she made crackers like animal crackers. She made them
Speaker 2: in animal shapes, and she let us play with them
Speaker 2: at the table and use our imagination and just have
Speaker 2: fun eating and enjoying one another's company. And so they
Speaker 2: love to come over for dinner. Okay, So where did
Speaker 2: you grow up in Newark, New Jersey?
Speaker 1: You know Newark in the sixties, there were riots in Newark.
Speaker 1: There was a lot of racial tension. What was it
Speaker 1: like when you were growing up there?
Speaker 2: Yeah, riots and racial tension, but it was fun and
Speaker 2: it was I tell you something we used to have.
Speaker 2: Something used to happen in my neighborhood. I don't know
Speaker 2: how far it went, but it happened in my neighborhood.
Speaker 2: And when I grew up and found out that it
Speaker 2: wasn't happening in other neighborhoods or in other cities, I
Speaker 2: really felt a sense of sadness for the rest of
Speaker 2: the world, because what would happen is in the summer,
Speaker 2: spring and summer, one kid would come out with a
Speaker 2: set of bongos and he sits there on the corner
Speaker 2: playing the bongos, and another kid would come out with
Speaker 2: acoustic guitar, and somebody would come out with a horn,
Speaker 2: and we'd have a band. And then people would come
Speaker 2: out and sing, and before you knew it, the whole
Speaker 2: neighborhood stand out on the corner singing and playing songs
Speaker 2: together and dancing and having great fun. And I thought
Speaker 2: that happened everywhere in the spring and summer. And when
Speaker 2: I found out it didn't, I thought, oh my god,
Speaker 2: they did.
Speaker 1: They did have that. Oh I'm sorry. So were your
Speaker 1: parents from Newark?
Speaker 2: Yes, well they were. My mother was from Alabama, my
Speaker 2: father was from Newark.
Speaker 1: So how'd your mother get from Alabama to New Jersey?
Speaker 2: Her mother brought her to Newark when she was five
Speaker 2: years old. She said. The first thing is the biggest
Speaker 2: thing she remembers, with all the yellow buggies, which were
Speaker 2: yellow taxicabs.
Speaker 1: And how did your parents meet?
Speaker 2: I don't know, I honestly don't know. How they meant.
Speaker 1: And what did they do for a living.
Speaker 2: My mother was a seamstress and my father was a
Speaker 2: fireman and a musician.
Speaker 1: How many kids in the family.
Speaker 2: Five boys and two girls?
Speaker 1: Are you in the hierarchy?
Speaker 2: I had a younger brother and a younger sister and
Speaker 2: four older brothers.
Speaker 1: So that's a lot of kids. Did you feel like
Speaker 1: you were lost in the shuffle or no?
Speaker 2: No, not really. I kind of blended in being tom girl.
Speaker 2: I was a tomgirl. My brother and I used to
Speaker 2: climb thing. Well, you got such a thing for climbing,
Speaker 2: and I still have a thing for heights, taking pictures
Speaker 2: from great heights and craziness like that. I took a
Speaker 2: picture at Grand Canyon. It was so dangerous it took
Speaker 2: me two hours to go to sleep that night. I thought,
Speaker 2: what were you thinking? I was hanging off for a
Speaker 2: cliff that was a mild drop. It was a beautiful picture,
Speaker 2: but what a stupid thing to do.
Speaker 1: How old were you when you did it?
Speaker 3: This was just a few years ago, So what were
Speaker 3: you thinking? I don't know, I don't know, just that
Speaker 3: it was going to be a great picture, you know.
Speaker 1: I was at the Grand Canyon like fifteen years ago
Speaker 1: and on the south rim, you know, you can walk.
Speaker 1: The path was like a little dirt path and you
Speaker 1: could reach to your left and that was a mild drop.
Speaker 1: I mean I was scared walking on the.
Speaker 2: On. Yeah, there was a there was a there was
Speaker 2: a spot there. We saw a girl taking the picture
Speaker 2: as we were walking by. We decided we want to
Speaker 2: come back and take a picture, and we did. And
Speaker 2: this is this one spot where there's about a one
Speaker 2: foot I don't know what a step and beyond and
Speaker 2: right on the outside of that step was it was
Speaker 2: it was like almost like a stool, but that's all
Speaker 2: there was, and we would step down. We stepped down
Speaker 2: on that step, held onto the ground, stepped down on
Speaker 2: that step, sat on the stool and took the picture.
Speaker 2: There was a whole canyon behind you. And it's a
Speaker 2: beautiful picture. But how stupid can you.
Speaker 1: Be when you say we? Who is we?
Speaker 2: My manager?
Speaker 1: So you've been around the world? Where have you not been?
Speaker 2: Oh, there's a lot of tons of places I haven't been.
Speaker 2: I've only been to ninety countries. And there's how many
Speaker 2: countries are there in the world, like four hundred or something.
Speaker 1: Is there any place you haven't been that is on
Speaker 1: your bucket list.
Speaker 2: I want to go to probably like Nigeria. I haven't
Speaker 2: been to that kind of part of Africa. The parts
Speaker 2: of Africa that I've been to are like Egypt and
Speaker 2: Cape Town, Johannesburg, Bapuda, Swana, But those are like really
Speaker 2: well known places. I just want to go like real
Speaker 2: get into the crux of it Africa.
Speaker 1: Are you the type of person who's into genealogy, your history,
Speaker 1: et cetera. Not really, okay, So what are a couple
Speaker 1: of the place you know? I certainly haven't traveled as
Speaker 1: much as you have, but I find, you know, the
Speaker 1: places where the people don't really speak English that well
Speaker 1: and more of the beaten path are a better experience.
Speaker 1: So where are some of the places you've gone and
Speaker 1: had great experiences?
Speaker 2: My best experience the only place I've ever been in
Speaker 2: the world where you walk down the street and people
Speaker 2: come out of the stores and say, welcome to our country.
Speaker 2: When you go into a store, you have to have
Speaker 2: a coke or a coffee or a tea before you
Speaker 2: can even tell them what you came in there for.
Speaker 2: And that's Lebanon.
Speaker 1: Really, How long ago was that your experience. Leven has
Speaker 1: been through a lot of changes. Yeah.
Speaker 2: No, the last time I was in Lebanon was probably
Speaker 2: twelve years ago. The first time was in nineteen eighty five,
Speaker 2: during the war, right, Yeah. Matter of fact, they had
Speaker 2: me on sixty minutes and they said, on one street
Speaker 2: there's Gloria Gainer, the next street there's the war.
Speaker 1: So you were there to play a gig.
Speaker 2: I was there to do several shows.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Okay, in the back of your mind you say, well, no,
Speaker 1: should I be here?
Speaker 2: Well, not until after they told us they bombed the
Speaker 2: place that we were supposed to work in the night
Speaker 2: before the show. That was all right up until then.
Speaker 1: Okay, So you're growing up. What kind of kid are you?
Speaker 1: You're a good student. You have a lot of friends.
Speaker 2: No, I didn't have any friends. I didn't have any
Speaker 2: friends because I was a neighborhood conscience.
Speaker 1: Tell me more.
Speaker 2: I was practical to a fault, and so I believe
Speaker 2: that it made sense to obey your parents rather than
Speaker 2: go along with what your friends wanted to do, even
Speaker 2: though if you thought it was gonna be fun, because
Speaker 2: you were gonna get found out, you were gonna get punished,
Speaker 2: and you're gonna get spanked and it wasn't gonna be
Speaker 2: worth it in the end. So I just wouldn't do things,
Speaker 2: and I would try to talk to them out of it.
Speaker 2: And so they didn't like me very much until they
Speaker 2: got in trouble and then they called me to come
Speaker 2: and talk their parents out of the punishment.
Speaker 1: And you said you were tom Boy. Were you playing
Speaker 1: ball et cetera in the show?
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, a lot of kickball. I was
Speaker 2: just talking about that recently with a friend of mine.
Speaker 2: I love playing kickball Hopscotch double Dutch.
Speaker 1: Yeah. And so how were you in school?
Speaker 2: Well, I had a teacher say I can always if
Speaker 2: no one else, I can always depend on Gloria giving
Speaker 2: me her undivided attention.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 2: And that was because of being practice. Was just being practical.
Speaker 2: I got to pay attention. So when when school is over,
Speaker 2: I can go home quickly do my homework and have
Speaker 2: time to go out and play.
Speaker 1: So how did the lives of your siblings play out?
Speaker 2: Well, they all grew up and I was the only
Speaker 2: one that wanted children. I'm the only one that doesn't
Speaker 2: have any. So they all grew up and had children.
Speaker 2: My brothers went to the armed forces one at a
Speaker 2: time and came out, got married, had children and.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so you wanted to have children and you didn't
Speaker 1: have children Is that a big regret?
Speaker 2: Not a regret anymore. It was a regret when I
Speaker 2: was a child bearing age, Not a regret anymore. Something.
Speaker 1: This is my life. Okay. So you're in school, say
Speaker 1: people are singing out on the street. At what point
Speaker 1: do you say, hmm, this is interesting and might like
Speaker 1: to do this for a living.
Speaker 2: Oh, very early on, probably when I was in fact,
Speaker 2: as matter of fact, I know when I made it
Speaker 2: the stage the decision that I was going to be
Speaker 2: a singer. And I was thirteen years old. I was
Speaker 2: standing in the stairwell of my building waiting for my
Speaker 2: friend to come down and play, and a neighbor came down.
Speaker 2: A woman came down the stairs and I was standing
Speaker 2: there singing, And when she reached me, she said, glory,
Speaker 2: was that you singing? I said, yes, ma'am. She said,
Speaker 2: oh my god, I thought that was the radio. And
Speaker 2: I was singing a song by Frankie Lyman, why do
Speaker 2: Foods Fall in Love? And he was the same age
Speaker 2: as I am, and so I thought if he could
Speaker 2: do it. I can do it too, So that's what
Speaker 2: I'm gonna do. I'm gonna be a singer.
Speaker 1: So what were your first steps?
Speaker 2: It was hard. I really wanted to be a singer,
Speaker 2: and I had no idea how to go about it.
Speaker 2: And I thought I was going to just run over
Speaker 2: to New York and run bust into a record company
Speaker 2: and just stand there and start singing. And of course
Speaker 2: I never did that, but got took cold, and so
Speaker 2: one night my brother and I, Well, first thing that
Speaker 2: happened was that I happened to be babysitting for a
Speaker 2: friend of mine. I was on vacation for my job.
Speaker 2: She needed somebody for a couple of weeks, and I
Speaker 2: went to babysitter for her. And while I was babysitting
Speaker 2: for her, I heard somebody walking in the apartment upstairs,
Speaker 2: and I reasoned that if I could hear them walking,
Speaker 2: they could hear me singing if I sang loud enough.
Speaker 2: I just wanted somebody to hear me sing. At that point.
Speaker 2: I didn't want accolades or anything. I just wanted someone
Speaker 2: to hear me sing, to recognize that I could sing.
Speaker 2: Because my brothers weren't paying attention to me because I
Speaker 2: was a girl. So I did that for a couple
Speaker 2: of weeks and then went back to work, and my
Speaker 2: brother and I went to this school. I was a
Speaker 2: sales auditor at at Bamberger's department store. Yeah, so my
Speaker 2: brother and I passing by this club on the way
Speaker 2: to the bus stop, and I said, I heard about
Speaker 2: this group. Let's go in and see them, and so
Speaker 2: we did. And while I was sitting there, they played
Speaker 2: a song that I knew, and so I'm singing it
Speaker 2: to myself, not where anyone could hear me, but singing
Speaker 2: it to myself. And then someone went on the stage
Speaker 2: and said, ladies and gentlemen, as a young lady in
Speaker 2: the audience, she has a wonderful voice. We don't know
Speaker 2: her last name, but her first name is Gloria, and
Speaker 2: if we give her a great round of applause, maybe
Speaker 2: we can get her up to do a number for us.
Speaker 2: And so at first I was afraid. I was petrified,
Speaker 2: but I went up and sang this song that I
Speaker 2: had heard them play earlier, which was Save Your Love
Speaker 2: for Me by Nancy Wilson, and got a standing ovation,
Speaker 2: and they came over and asked me if I wanted
Speaker 2: to sing with them because the singer that they had
Speaker 2: was unreliable. She hadn't showed up that night, and I said, yeah,
Speaker 2: I would love to. And in that I recognized the
Speaker 2: wisdom of my mother, who had told me, you need
Speaker 2: to prepare for war in peacetime, which I translated to
Speaker 2: mean that if I was going to be a singer,
Speaker 2: I need to be prepared for So I'd had her
Speaker 2: make me some dresses, and so I was already and
Speaker 2: I went home that they asked me that they wanted
Speaker 2: me to sing with them, and I said, well, we
Speaker 2: can get together for a couple of weeks. And the
Speaker 2: other thing that I had done was that I'd written
Speaker 2: down in an autograph album from high school all this
Speaker 2: every song that every time I learned the song, I
Speaker 2: would write it down in that book. And by this
Speaker 2: time I had like nearly two hundred songs. So I said,
Speaker 2: I'll get my book and come back, and you can
Speaker 2: choose a repertoire because any songs that you want from
Speaker 2: from my songs because I know them all. And came
Speaker 2: back the next night and started singing with them and
Speaker 2: never looked back.
Speaker 1: Okay, you start to sing with them first, night. You know,
Speaker 1: you get this supplause, but playing can be a grind.
Speaker 1: How long did you do? What happened? Could you quit
Speaker 1: your day job? What was going on?
Speaker 2: Well? First, I was working three jobs. I singing. I
Speaker 2: was working at Bamburgers from nine to five, working in
Speaker 2: the beauty culture because I had told my mother I
Speaker 2: wanted to be a singer. She said, that's nice, but
Speaker 2: in case you don't make it, you need to have
Speaker 2: some work under your belt because if you don't something,
Speaker 2: because if you don't, nobody's going to want to hear
Speaker 2: ten years from live from now that you never had
Speaker 2: a job. So I went to beauty culture school and
Speaker 2: so I was working at Bamburgers from nine to five,
Speaker 2: working in the beauty shop from five to ten, and
Speaker 2: then working in a nightclub from ten thirty to two
Speaker 2: in the morning.
Speaker 1: How long did that go on?
Speaker 2: Oh, about two or three years.
Speaker 1: That's a tough schedule, it was, It was okay. So
Speaker 1: was there any upward mobility at Bamburgers or you were
Speaker 1: just one of many people working there?
Speaker 2: Well, No, what happened was I did a cop I
Speaker 2: was just one of many people working there, and then
Speaker 2: I got into a contest at a club one night
Speaker 2: when Deal and Walwould happened to be one of the contestants.
Speaker 2: But I won the contest and two of the people
Speaker 2: there were a couple of guys that were recording for
Speaker 2: Johnny Nash on his label, and they took me to
Speaker 2: Johnny Nash and I did my first recording there.
Speaker 1: Wait, wait, wait, a little bit slower from the time
Speaker 1: that you step on stage with the band to the
Speaker 1: time you go to Johnny Nash's house. How long is that?
Speaker 2: Five years? By five years?
Speaker 1: Five years? So how do you maintain your optimism? Oh?
Speaker 2: I was just loving what I was doing. I was
Speaker 2: just loving it.
Speaker 1: So playing in clubs you were loving it? Oh?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I was loving it. And then of course I
Speaker 2: hoped that one day i'd record. But in the meantime
Speaker 2: I was loving what I was doing.
Speaker 1: And how many nights a week would you sing? Six
Speaker 1: six nights a week? How many cents.
Speaker 2: Nine to two am, every hour forty five minutes performing
Speaker 2: fifteen minutes rests?
Speaker 1: And how did you maintain your voice?
Speaker 2: Well? I didn't drink or smoke, and I vocalized consistently
Speaker 2: and just took care of my throat.
Speaker 1: Okay, what'd you give up first beauty school or Bamburgers.
Speaker 2: Bamburgers Okay, yeah, And did you.
Speaker 1: Ever work in a salon like as a regular job.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I was saying I was working from Bamberger's at
Speaker 2: nine to five, beauty shop from five to ten, and
Speaker 2: then the club. I did that for five years.
Speaker 1: So you're in a contest with Dion Warwick. So, Dion Warwick,
Speaker 1: this is before she signs the scepter. She has no hits, right,
Speaker 1: I think not? So how did you feel when she
Speaker 1: had success before you?
Speaker 2: I don't remember, honestly, don't remember if I thought anything
Speaker 2: about it at all.
Speaker 1: Okay, And you know she ultimately had the Psychic Network
Speaker 1: on TV. Oh okay, I remember that if someone came
Speaker 1: to you, would you take a check for that or
Speaker 1: say no? Not for me?
Speaker 2: Yeah? I said no, no. I never believed in it anyway.
Speaker 1: Okay. So this one contest you win. Were there a
Speaker 1: lot of contests?
Speaker 2: No, that was the only one.
Speaker 1: So tell me exactly how you end up beating Johnny Nash.
Speaker 2: I was. I did that contest and two of the
Speaker 2: people in the audience were singers, and they had they
Speaker 2: recorded for Johnny Nash. They liked my voice and thought
Speaker 2: that he should hear me singing that they should record me.
Speaker 1: Okay, so they say, should record. What was the next step?
Speaker 1: You went to meet Johnny Nash.
Speaker 2: And I went to meet Johnny Nash. I went to
Speaker 2: meet Johnny Nash and he listened to me singing. He said, yep,
Speaker 2: you shet, They're right, You're great, and he recorded me.
Speaker 1: Okay. So how did you decide what material to record?
Speaker 1: And what happened then?
Speaker 2: Well, he kind of decided he had somebody write a
Speaker 2: song for me and didn't like the song. It's kind
Speaker 2: of corny. But I had an opportunity to record. I thought,
Speaker 2: if I recorded, this is the only opportunity I have
Speaker 2: to record. If I dropped this, I may not never
Speaker 2: have another opportunity. If I take this, it might lead
Speaker 2: to something more.
Speaker 1: And it did. And at what point do you change
Speaker 1: your last name.
Speaker 2: With Johnny Nash? He told me, Gloria Fowls is not
Speaker 2: a stage name. Nobody will be able to pronounce it,
Speaker 2: nobody'll be able to spell it. No, you need another name,
Speaker 2: And I think he said, I think you should use
Speaker 2: a name that starts with a G, because then your
Speaker 2: fans will probably give you a nickname. They'll call you
Speaker 2: Gig And I said, well, that's that sounds nice, but
Speaker 2: I don't know any names that start with G. He said, well,
Speaker 2: let me see. There's Gainer. I said, that's good.
Speaker 1: And on your passport does it say fouls or Gainer?
Speaker 2: It says Gainer fowls.
Speaker 1: Okay, So you make this record with Johnny Nash, the
Speaker 1: record comes out and what.
Speaker 2: The record comes out? And I began to do a
Speaker 2: little touring and did a few performances, you know, with
Speaker 2: on the tours, and came back and the record didn't
Speaker 2: really do anything. It did absolutely nothing, And so I
Speaker 2: just got with a band. I got a band and
Speaker 2: got first I got an agent, and the agent got
Speaker 2: me a band, and I began and to stop singing
Speaker 2: that song because I never liked it anyway. And the
Speaker 2: band we did top forty songs with my band. So
Speaker 2: we're traveling up and down the East coast doing top
Speaker 2: forty songs until I was discovered by a go go girl,
Speaker 2: actually discovered me again. She was working in the club
Speaker 2: where I was performing, and she took me to her well.
Speaker 2: She brought her manager, told her manager to come and
Speaker 2: hear me sing, and then He took me to Paul
Speaker 2: Leka at Columbia Records, who took me to Clive Davis
Speaker 2: who had me do some auditions for him, and I
Speaker 2: sang for him, and he decided he would record me.
Speaker 2: So he had this two brothers, Marvin and Mervin Steele
Speaker 2: write my first, well my second recording, which was Honeybee.
Speaker 1: Okay, so ultimately it ends with you in Columbia. Why
Speaker 1: is that what you mean?
Speaker 2: It ends with me at Columbia.
Speaker 1: Okay, you're on Columbia Okay?
Speaker 2: Ye did that end?
Speaker 1: Oh? Yeah? I mean how do you end up moving
Speaker 1: to MGM?
Speaker 2: Well, Clive Davis left the company to form his own company,
Speaker 2: but I was signed to the company. I wasn't signed
Speaker 2: to him, so he couldn't take me with him. So
Speaker 2: I was left at the company and then a company
Speaker 2: nobody was interested in an artist that had been brought
Speaker 2: there by somebody was no longer there, so I was
Speaker 2: just kind of just hanging out there. And then, praise God,
Speaker 2: the president of MGM Records heard Honeybee that I had
Speaker 2: recorded at Columbia decided he wanted me on his label,
Speaker 2: so he bought the contract.
Speaker 1: Okay, And what were the first steps there.
Speaker 2: Well, first of all, I had to if you see
Speaker 2: my documentary, you see me my what do you call it,
Speaker 2: my docky drum, you'll see me running across New York
Speaker 2: to get the contract and sign it before six o'clock
Speaker 2: that night so that I could be moved over to
Speaker 2: MGM Records, and I recorded Never Can Say Goodbye I
Speaker 2: Never Can Say Goodbye album there. They wanted cover song
Speaker 2: for the album, and I thought that the version that
Speaker 2: my band and I were doing was good and that
Speaker 2: I should record that. And so I told the president
Speaker 2: that and he sent someone to see my show because
Speaker 2: I said, used to send someone to see the show
Speaker 2: and see the response to this version of Never Can
Speaker 2: Say Goodbye, And he did, and they agreed and it
Speaker 2: became this covered the title song of my first album.
Speaker 1: Okay, that was very successful. After all these years in
Speaker 1: the trenches, you know, in excess of a decade, did
Speaker 1: you you had a lot of ups and downs? Did
Speaker 1: you still believe?
Speaker 2: Oh? Yeah, But I was doing what I wanted to do.
Speaker 2: And that's why I tell people all the time, if
Speaker 2: you you know, they say, if you if you work,
Speaker 2: if you work at what you love, you never work
Speaker 2: a day in your life, and that is just so true.
Speaker 2: It's so true. I was loving what I was doing
Speaker 2: and the progress as I was making doing it was
Speaker 2: kind of incidental.
Speaker 1: Okay, what's it like to have a hit?
Speaker 2: It's awesome, It's wonderful. I remember the first time I
Speaker 2: was in a public place and heard my song playing.
Speaker 2: I wanted to go around saying, that's me, that's me,
Speaker 2: that's me, that's me. Of course, I didn't just stood
Speaker 2: around trying to see people's reactions to it, if anybody
Speaker 2: was reacting to it.
Speaker 1: And how did your life and opportunities change with a hit?
Speaker 2: Well, my opportunities to buy nice things certainly did change,
Speaker 2: because I was for making more money and doing more
Speaker 2: performances and making more money and loving you know it
Speaker 2: even more, and getting an opportunity to travel, something I'd
Speaker 2: always wanted to do but hadn't had an opportunity. So
Speaker 2: now I'm traveling, and then, you know it expands and
Speaker 2: I'm not only traveling in the country, but now I'm
Speaker 2: traveling the world.
Speaker 1: Okay, And you wrote a song on that album and
Speaker 1: co wrote another, So what point did you begin writing songs.
Speaker 2: I began writing songs while I was working with Johnny Nash,
Speaker 2: I wrote a song. As matter of fact, I wrote
Speaker 2: a song, and I can't remember now. I think that
Speaker 2: the song that I wrote, the first song that I wrote,
Speaker 2: is on the B side of Honeybee and it's called
Speaker 2: let Me Go Baby. I think kind of corny song,
Speaker 2: but yeah, it's a start.
Speaker 1: Okay, you continue to record for MGM, you don't have
Speaker 1: a hit as big as that initial hit. What's the
Speaker 1: experience for you?
Speaker 2: I'm loving what I'm doing. I'm loving what I'm doing,
Speaker 2: and I always say, you know, people say, well, do
Speaker 2: you always try to make sure that the song that
Speaker 2: you the new recording that you're doing, is better than
Speaker 2: the last. No. I try to make sure that everything
Speaker 2: I do, when I do it, i'm doing my best.
Speaker 2: Then may not be as best as good as my
Speaker 2: best was last week, but it's my best now. And
Speaker 2: my mother would say even an angel can't do better
Speaker 2: than her best.
Speaker 1: Okay. How do you end up moving from MGM.
Speaker 2: To they merged or one bought the other and something
Speaker 2: like that, so you're.
Speaker 1: Working with different people now that it was Polydor or
Speaker 1: the same people, same people Okay, disco, depending who you
Speaker 1: listen to, rock the boat in nineteen seventy four, there
Speaker 1: are all these disco songs. Then, of course, in seventy
Speaker 1: seven seventy eight through Saturday Night Fever, the world becomes
Speaker 1: reware a disco. While this is happening, what do you
Speaker 1: think about disco?
Speaker 2: I think disco is great. I think like about disco then,
Speaker 2: as I think about disco now, and keep saying, because
Speaker 2: I know it to be true, Disco music is the
Speaker 2: only music in the history of music ever to bring
Speaker 2: together people from every race, creed, color, nationality, and age group.
Speaker 1: Okay, how do you end up recording? I will survive.
Speaker 2: Well? I had had an accident on stage. I fell
Speaker 2: backwards over a monitor and finished the show, went out
Speaker 2: to breakfast with the group afterwards, went home, went to bed,
Speaker 2: woke up the next morning paralyzed on the waist down.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 2: Ended up in hospital for three months, and during which
Speaker 2: time the record company told me they were not going
Speaker 2: to renew my contract. And so I'm praying, really calling
Speaker 2: on my faith and crying out to God. Left the
Speaker 2: hospital with nothing but knowing that God was going to
Speaker 2: do something, just didn't know what. And sure enough, within
Speaker 2: a week or so, the record company called and said
Speaker 2: that they weren't renewing my contract because they had gotten
Speaker 2: a new president over from England, where I was popular.
Speaker 2: He'd had a hit with a song there that he
Speaker 2: wanted to repeat the success with here in the United States.
Speaker 2: He specifically wanted me to record that song. Sent me
Speaker 2: out to California to record this song, and while I
Speaker 2: was there, I asked the producers what would be the
Speaker 2: B side, and they said they didn't know, or asked
Speaker 2: me what kind of songs I like. I said, I
Speaker 2: like songs that are uplifting and encouraging and have good
Speaker 2: melodies and lyrics. And so they had a little pow
Speaker 2: wow and came back and said, we think you're the
Speaker 2: one we've been waiting for to record this song we
Speaker 2: wrote two years ago. And that was I was sur vive.
Speaker 1: Okay, they come in, they say they have this song.
Speaker 1: They play a demo for you. How do you hear
Speaker 1: the song?
Speaker 2: They give me the words they've written down X matter
Speaker 2: for He didn't have anything. He wrote the verds down
Speaker 2: for me and I looked at it and I thought,
Speaker 2: in fact, I said, then, what are you nuts? You're
Speaker 2: gonna put this on the B side? Said this is
Speaker 2: a hit song. I'm standing here relating the fact to
Speaker 2: this song, the fact that I'm in a back brace
Speaker 2: and hoping I'll survive that. I'm relating to the fact
Speaker 2: that my mother only passed away a few years ago,
Speaker 2: something I never thought, I said, vived. Everybody's going to
Speaker 2: relate to whatever they're going through and hoping they'll overcome.
Speaker 2: They're going to relate it to this song. I said, Well,
Speaker 2: that's the deal we made. I said, well, if it's
Speaker 2: left to me, it won't stay on the B side.
Speaker 1: Okay, he writes down the lyrics. What's the next step?
Speaker 2: Well, I recorded it.
Speaker 1: Did you walk in and they already had a track.
Speaker 2: And you just said no, No, they had to No,
Speaker 2: they just had the they I don't know what they had.
Speaker 2: They just gave me the words, but I suppose they
Speaker 2: had a demo of it, and then they recorded it.
Speaker 2: They got my key, I sang it, They got my key.
Speaker 2: They they made the track and they and I recorded it.
Speaker 1: Okay, you're there. You see the lyrics, you saying this
Speaker 1: is a hit? Yes? Are you singing and going? Man,
Speaker 1: this is my tick? This is great.
Speaker 2: No, I'm just thinking this is a hit song. I'm
Speaker 2: gonna have a hit song. That's what I'm thinking. I'm
Speaker 2: gonna have his song.
Speaker 1: Okay, So the song is recorded, how long after that
Speaker 1: is released and how long after that does it catch fire?
Speaker 2: Well, it was released on the on the B side
Speaker 2: about I guess about three months later, and they gave
Speaker 2: me a box of the CDs and me and my
Speaker 2: management team took took the who who at the time
Speaker 2: was my husband slash manager. We took it to Studio
Speaker 2: fifty four and as a matter of fact, he wasn't
Speaker 2: my husband yet, he was just my manager and boyfriend
Speaker 2: and had it played there and the audience immediately jammed
Speaker 2: the dance floor. And I'm thinking, this is a New
Speaker 2: York jaded audience. Okay, if they're immediately responding to a
Speaker 2: song that they're hearing for the first time like this,
Speaker 2: I am absolutely right. This is a hit song. So
Speaker 2: we gave him the DJ the box of CDs, told
Speaker 2: him to give them to his DJ friends have them
Speaker 2: play it and their clubs, and they did, and people
Speaker 2: began to request it, and then people going to call
Speaker 2: the record company at radio stations asking for it because
Speaker 2: now they want to hear it in traffic on the
Speaker 2: way to work. On the way home from work and
Speaker 2: all of this, and the record company got calls from
Speaker 2: the radio station saying, where is this song? We keep
Speaker 2: asking a requests for it, and they had to say,
Speaker 2: with much chagrin, I on the B side of that
Speaker 2: other record. And so then they flipped it and the
Speaker 2: next time they released it, they made it the A side.
Speaker 1: Okay, going back to Studio fifty four, were you a
Speaker 1: club rat or were you just aware are these clubs? No?
Speaker 2: It was definitely not a club rat. I never believed
Speaker 2: in working where I performed. I didn't hang out where
Speaker 2: I performed a matter of fact, I tried to go
Speaker 2: to the Studio fifty four one night with some friends
Speaker 2: of mine who had come over from England and wanted
Speaker 2: to experience it because they'd heard all about it. And
Speaker 2: the guy that I call the casting director was the
Speaker 2: guy behind the velvet rope, came over to my car
Speaker 2: and said, Mims, Caanna, you don't want to come in
Speaker 2: here tonight?
Speaker 1: Steve.
Speaker 2: No, it wasn't Steve. It was someone he had hired.
Speaker 1: And he said, why didn't you want to come that night?
Speaker 2: Because it was too much debauchery going on inside? And
Speaker 2: I said, thank you, very much and drove off.
Speaker 1: And at that point, where were you living?
Speaker 2: I was living at that point and back in New
Speaker 2: Jersey because I had moved in with my ex husband,
Speaker 2: who actually wasn't my husband yet, moved in with my
Speaker 2: husband after being released from the hospital just before doing
Speaker 2: I Will Survive.
Speaker 1: Okay. The dream back then, certainly is to go to
Speaker 1: the big city. So what point do you leave Newark
Speaker 1: and live in the city before you move back?
Speaker 2: No, I left there. I've left New York and moved
Speaker 2: into the city. I think I've moved into the city
Speaker 2: right after recording. Never can say goodbye.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So how did you meet your rex's husband?
Speaker 2: That's a long, wonderful story. Actually short, long story short,
Speaker 2: his mother introduced us.
Speaker 1: We'll tell it to give me a little bit more
Speaker 1: than that.
Speaker 2: His sisters was singing background for me in my shows,
Speaker 2: and they showed me pictures of him, of showing pictures
Speaker 2: of they were sharing picture family pictures, and I saw
Speaker 2: his picture and I said, that's my husband. She said
Speaker 2: what I said, that's my husband. I'm going to marry him.
Speaker 2: Of course she laughed it off, and some weeks later
Speaker 2: I was at their house waiting for them to go
Speaker 2: to do a show with me, and he came in
Speaker 2: to visit his father who's ailing, and his mother introduced
Speaker 2: us and we invited him to the show that night.
Speaker 2: He came to the show and ended up taking me
Speaker 2: home and that started there.
Speaker 1: Okay, it was literally love at first sight for you.
Speaker 2: How about oh yeah, well that's what he said.
Speaker 1: Okay, you're living in nightclubs. You're an entertainer before you
Speaker 1: meet your ex husband, you know, because you portray yourself
Speaker 1: as a goodie goodie. Okay, you're always blowing the whistle.
Speaker 1: So did you have relationships with other people who just
Speaker 1: didn't meet the right person?
Speaker 2: No, not really. I went out a couple of times
Speaker 2: with a couple of guys, but I know I didn't really.
Speaker 1: Okay, and then you want children. Why did you not
Speaker 1: end up having children?
Speaker 2: Well it was just wasn't in the cars for me,
Speaker 2: I guess.
Speaker 1: Okay, so you meet this guy. How did he become
Speaker 1: your manager?
Speaker 2: Well? He I started going out with him, but he
Speaker 2: had managed his sisters, the girls who were singing with me,
Speaker 2: He had they had a group on their own before
Speaker 2: they started singing with me, and he was their manager.
Speaker 2: So I figured he and plus he was a policeman
Speaker 2: and told me that he had gone to John Jay's
Speaker 2: School of law. And what really made me decide to
Speaker 2: make him my manager was that my manager had We
Speaker 2: were on our way out going somewhere. One day, my
Speaker 2: boyfriend and I and my manager came running downstairs with
Speaker 2: these papers for me to sign, and I signed the
Speaker 2: papers and gave them to him, and my boyfriend said,
Speaker 2: what was that? I said, I don't know. He said,
Speaker 2: why did you sign it? He said, because he told
Speaker 2: me to. He asked me to. He said, you signed
Speaker 2: papers without telling without reading them. I said, he's my manager.
Speaker 2: He's not going to have me do anything wrong. He said,
Speaker 2: he may not have anything you do anything wrong, but
Speaker 2: there's such a thing as conflict of interest. And he
Speaker 2: started telling me all about that and how the things
Speaker 2: in my contract could be good for my manager and
Speaker 2: not good for me. And with all of that, I
Speaker 2: started questioning my manager and asking him about things, and
Speaker 2: he was like really reluctant to tell me about with things,
Speaker 2: you know, he just didn't want to explain things to me.
Speaker 2: And so I got the idea to get my papers
Speaker 2: from the lawyer that my manager used. That was our lawyer,
Speaker 2: and he said, you shouldn't be our lawyer, you should
Speaker 2: be his lawyer, and you're a lawyer. Anyway, I got
Speaker 2: the papers and found out that some things were not
Speaker 2: right and decided that I was going to fire him
Speaker 2: as my manager and make my boyfriend my manager. So
Speaker 2: that's what I did.
Speaker 1: Okay, was your boyfriend soon to be husband a good manager?
Speaker 3: No?
Speaker 1: No, he was not.
Speaker 2: He wasn't knowledgeable enough, and he he had some character
Speaker 2: flaws that did not allow him to learn. Tell me
Speaker 2: a little bit more, well, he had low self esteem,
Speaker 2: and so he was afraid to be around I believe
Speaker 2: he was afraid to be around the other managers for
Speaker 2: fear that they would show him up, and therefore he
Speaker 2: couldn't learn from them because he wasn't around them.
Speaker 1: And how long did it take you to learn that
Speaker 1: he wasn't good?
Speaker 2: It took me quite a while to learn that he
Speaker 2: wasn't good, because the first manager that I had was cracked,
Speaker 2: and I wasn't around any other managers to know what
Speaker 2: he didn't know, or to know what he wasn't doing
Speaker 2: that was right or that he should have been doing.
Speaker 2: So it took me quite a while to find out
Speaker 2: that he wasn't a good manager. I found out he
Speaker 2: wasn't a good husband before I found out he wasn't
Speaker 2: a good manager.
Speaker 1: That was what I was going to ask. So how
Speaker 1: did you find out he wasn't a good husband? Oh?
Speaker 2: Well, he was cheating on me.
Speaker 1: How'd you find out?
Speaker 2: I caught him? I mean I didn't actually catch him
Speaker 2: in the act, but I found evidence in the house
Speaker 2: when I came home, you know.
Speaker 1: And how long you been married at that point.
Speaker 2: When I first found out? Twenty years? Twenty years?
Speaker 1: Okay, so you found out? How long from when you
Speaker 1: found out till the end of the marriage?
Speaker 2: Another five years?
Speaker 1: And why another five years?
Speaker 2: Because I was hoping that he would change. I would
Speaker 2: hoping that he was. I was, you know, trying to
Speaker 2: talk to him, and as a Christian, I know that
Speaker 2: God hates divorce, and so I was trying to honor
Speaker 2: my faith and hoping that he would, you know, become
Speaker 2: a Christian. Would well, he would say he was a Christian.
Speaker 2: But I was hoping that he would, you know, just
Speaker 2: do the right thing, you know.
Speaker 1: And how did it end?
Speaker 2: It ended with me divorcing him.
Speaker 1: But when you said I'm done, did he say give
Speaker 1: me one more chance, No, I'll be good.
Speaker 2: Mm hmm.
Speaker 1: So it ended with him, how'd you find a new manager? Ah?
Speaker 2: Well, I had been working in this agency with him
Speaker 2: that he fired unbeknownst to me. But I the girl
Speaker 2: who worked in the agents, one of the well the girl,
Speaker 2: it was only one girl working in the agency. What
Speaker 2: was it?
Speaker 1: It was.
Speaker 2: Ideal Entertainment. And after working with her for a few weeks,
Speaker 2: I bought her a sign to put over her desk
Speaker 2: that said, do you want to talk to the man
Speaker 2: in charge of the woman who knows what's going? And
Speaker 2: so I decided to contact her. I contacted her to
Speaker 2: be a personal assistant while I looked for a manager.
Speaker 2: I could not find a manager. And during the time
Speaker 2: that I was looking for a manager, we were working
Speaker 2: together and I realized she was managing my career. She
Speaker 2: was doing all the things that a manager was supposed
Speaker 2: to do and doing them, you know, upfront and right
Speaker 2: out in the open and looking out for me. And
Speaker 2: so I finally made her my manager.
Speaker 1: And is she still your manager?
Speaker 2: She's still my manager?
Speaker 1: Okay, looking back, were you ripped off?
Speaker 2: Oh poof, Yes, yes, terribly, terribly. Tell me a little
Speaker 2: bit more well, there was some advances taken from royalties
Speaker 2: you know, that I didn't know about.
Speaker 1: There was.
Speaker 2: Monies used that I didn't know had been that had
Speaker 2: been used. When the divorce came and the moneies weren't available,
Speaker 2: I first found out they were, you know, had been misappropriated.
Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, let's go back. I will survive because that
Speaker 1: and we are a family or probably the two biggest,
Speaker 1: longest sustaining disco hits. It is beyond belief successful. What's
Speaker 1: it like being at the center of that.
Speaker 2: It's wonderful. It's wonderful for me because I what I
Speaker 2: take from that is that I will forever have something
Speaker 2: that helps me to accomplish what I always wanted and
Speaker 2: always will want to accomplish with every show, and that
Speaker 2: is to give my audience something that lasts them beyond
Speaker 2: the duration of my concert.
Speaker 1: Okay, you have this scar gansu and hit. You don't
Speaker 1: have a hit of that level. You don't have a
Speaker 1: big hit after What's going through your mind? You're saying, well,
Speaker 1: I haven't got the right song, the record company is
Speaker 1: not working, the time moved on. What are you thinking.
Speaker 2: I'm thinking I'm going to continue doing what I do
Speaker 2: because whether my the level of my career goes up
Speaker 2: or down, I am always going to be able to
Speaker 2: perform and I'm always gonna love it, and so I'm
Speaker 2: always going to be successful.
Speaker 1: Okay, are you the type of person because you work
Speaker 1: with a lot of people? Are you the type of
Speaker 1: person who maintains relationships with all the other acts? Are
Speaker 1: you more of a singular loaner type person.
Speaker 2: Well, I'm the kind of person that would would maintain
Speaker 2: friendships if we weren't ships passing in the night. We're
Speaker 2: just ships passing in the night, and a few people
Speaker 2: that I have passed, you know, and wanted to become
Speaker 2: friends with. Littlev on the other coast. Everybody lives on
Speaker 2: the west, on the East coast, you know, and I'm
Speaker 2: over here on the West coast. So I don't really
Speaker 2: have long term friends in the business. I have long
Speaker 2: term friends outside of the business. Friends that are people
Speaker 2: that I've been friends with for twenty thirty forty years.
Speaker 1: Okay, you did not write I will survive. No, So
Speaker 1: subsequent to that and today are you working to survive?
Speaker 2: And oh no, no, I'm working because I love it absolutely.
Speaker 2: I could stop right right now.
Speaker 1: Okay, So In the New York Times article about you,
Speaker 1: they start talking about you doing tours singing to tape.
Speaker 1: How did that start?
Speaker 2: My ex husband decided that it would be cheaper if
Speaker 2: we didn't have a band and we didn't have because
Speaker 2: we wouldn't have the salaries and we wouldn't have the
Speaker 2: airfares for them, and I could sing to tracks.
Speaker 1: How did you feel about it?
Speaker 2: I hated it. I hated it, but he was my
Speaker 2: manager and I felt like I didn't have control.
Speaker 1: Okay, the peak of disco was almost fifty years ago.
Speaker 1: Has there always been a need for I will survive
Speaker 1: such that? Really you never fall below the radar screen,
Speaker 1: You're not the trams with disco inferno? Whatever? Is it
Speaker 1: such that it's so iconic, kind of like dominic Lean
Speaker 1: an American pie. People always know what, people always are
Speaker 1: calling you, always working. Is it like that?
Speaker 2: It's absolutely like that. It's absolutely like that. And really
Speaker 2: I really feel that this song is like they said,
Speaker 2: we think you're the one we've been waiting for to
Speaker 2: record this song that we wrote two years ago. I
Speaker 2: always believe that God told them, sit down, write a song,
Speaker 2: hold on till I'm going to send you somebody because
Speaker 2: he told me. God told me, no one can keep
Speaker 2: you from getting what I have for you except you.
Speaker 2: So I believe that this song is a gift from
Speaker 2: God and will carry me through to the end.
Speaker 1: Now there's a docu drama, there's a footage, there's one
Speaker 1: where somebody's playing your role. There's a book in terms
Speaker 1: of legacy. Do you feel you get the respect and
Speaker 1: acknowledgment you deserve? I do. Yeah. So, being Gloria Gainor
Speaker 1: who has this amazing career, what kind of doors does
Speaker 1: that open?
Speaker 2: I don't know. I never thought about it because I
Speaker 2: don't really use my name like that, you know, to
Speaker 2: open an.
Speaker 1: Let me put it in a different way. You pull
Speaker 1: up the studio fifty four, the guy who's the bouncer comes,
Speaker 1: j I'll goes not tonight. He's doing that for you.
Speaker 1: He's not doing that for every car that pulls up. Okay,
Speaker 1: So how much of that do you experience? Oh?
Speaker 2: Well, that kind of thing I experienced quite a bit.
Speaker 2: I mean, if I go to a restaurant and I
Speaker 2: have done that a couple of times, not a lot,
Speaker 2: but I've done it a couple of times where I
Speaker 2: really want to get into this restaurant because I have
Speaker 2: people from out of town that I want to experience it,
Speaker 2: and we can't get in, so I send one of them,
Speaker 2: tell them you have Glory Gainner outside and and yeah,
Speaker 2: and they'll let us and they'll make room for us. Yeah,
Speaker 2: it's always nice.
Speaker 1: Tell me about a couple of famous people you met
Speaker 1: that impressed you a couple of well.
Speaker 2: Michael Jackson, of course impressed me. He not only impressed
Speaker 2: me with his talent, but he impressed me with his kindness.
Speaker 2: And and my impression of him actually didn't come through
Speaker 2: my meeting him. It was nice to meet him after
Speaker 2: having heard accounts from people who worked with him about
Speaker 2: how kind and generous he was, So it was wonderful
Speaker 2: meeting him, and I was impressed with him. And then
Speaker 2: he called me and told me he was impressed with
Speaker 2: me because you see me perform, and that he truly
Speaker 2: enjoyed my performance. We did a show at Madison Square
Speaker 2: Garden the night before that, Faithful nine to eleven, and
Speaker 2: I was on that show. So he called me the
Speaker 2: next day and told me how much he was impressed
Speaker 2: with my performance. And I had done his song. Never
Speaker 2: could say goodbye, And but I dedicated. I will survive
Speaker 2: to him. So yeah, not a lot.
Speaker 1: How about non musicians.
Speaker 2: Non musicians, Oh yes, yes, actors and of course I'm
Speaker 2: gonna lose the names right now. I met Jeffrey Wright,
Speaker 2: who I was very much impressed with. Love his work.
Speaker 2: I met Harry Belafonte, love his work and told him so.
Speaker 2: In fact, I told them both and just saw a
Speaker 2: movie with what was the one who played? Oh god,
Speaker 2: h Samuel Well. I met Samuel L. Jackson. That was
Speaker 2: wonderful meeting him. Charles Barklay, great meeting him. And one
Speaker 2: one one really great experience I had was I was
Speaker 2: over in Spain and we're doing a show and I
Speaker 2: was at this event that I didn't really know what
Speaker 2: the event it was.
Speaker 1: It was the premiere of The.
Speaker 2: Expendables, okay, and they were out, the cast were outside
Speaker 2: taking I was outside building around and with with the
Speaker 2: people who were in attendance, and they were taking pictures
Speaker 2: and I wanted to meet them because I'm a big
Speaker 2: fan of those at that series of show of movies.
Speaker 2: And uh so I gathered my nerve and walked over
Speaker 2: to them and I said, gentlemen, Glory Ganner, may I
Speaker 2: take a picture with my American toys and spun around
Speaker 2: in front of them and stretched my arms out to
Speaker 2: take this picture. And they were like, oh my god,
Speaker 2: glory Ganer glory again, which I never expected. I never
Speaker 2: expected them to know who I was. And so there
Speaker 2: was Wesley Snipes and Arnold Swarzenegger and who else was there?
Speaker 2: Like I said, names always escaped me, but you know
Speaker 2: the whole cast of those guys, and it was just
Speaker 2: great taking a bitch of But I was so disappointed
Speaker 2: to find none of the pictures showed up in the
Speaker 2: papers the next day. And my tour manager who took
Speaker 2: pictures had a car accident that night and ended up
Speaker 2: in the hospital with broken ribcage and the camera was smashed,
Speaker 2: So no pictures.
Speaker 1: I don't know what the God's message is on that.
Speaker 1: I don't either, But that's a pretty bold move. Are
Speaker 1: you normally that bold?
Speaker 2: No? Never, I've never done anything like that before.
Speaker 1: Since Okay, you're in America, forget Europe, and it comes
Speaker 1: out that you're a Gloria Gainer? Does anyone not know
Speaker 1: who you are?
Speaker 2: You know what? People know the song? Far far more
Speaker 2: people know the song than know the name. Because I've
Speaker 2: had you know introduced me. This is Gloria Gaynor. And
Speaker 2: the people they're looking like, oh, nice to meet you.
Speaker 2: This is Gloria Gaynor. And they're like, okay, do you
Speaker 2: know the song I Will Survive? Yeah, well this is
Speaker 2: the one who's saying. Oh. They then they light up.
Speaker 1: And how about young people? Young people know I will
Speaker 1: survive too?
Speaker 2: Right from A to eighty. My audience is from A
Speaker 2: to eighty.
Speaker 1: Okay, let's say I come to see you. What am
Speaker 1: I going to expect?
Speaker 2: Well, the same thing I always say to my audience.
Speaker 2: Something old, something new, something borrowed, nothing blue.
Speaker 1: Nothing blue. Wow. Okay, it's a business, it's a skill.
Speaker 1: Every once in a while you're there and the audience
Speaker 1: is so enthusiastic, they're with you the whole time. Other
Speaker 1: times you have to win them over. So what are
Speaker 1: some of the skills you use?
Speaker 2: I talked to them. I talked to them. You know,
Speaker 2: I used to go to England a lot. I haven't
Speaker 2: been in England that much recently, but I used to
Speaker 2: go to England a lot, and because they're so laid back,
Speaker 2: I came up with this speech that I used to
Speaker 2: say before every show. Because I knew they were going
Speaker 2: to be non responsive, so in order to get them
Speaker 2: to be responsive, I would say, welcome to my show.
Speaker 2: It's wonderful to have you here. I understand that the
Speaker 2: British are very reserved. We will have no reserve this evening.
Speaker 2: You will remember that everyone in front of you, behind you,
Speaker 2: to the side of you is the very soul of discretion.
Speaker 2: No one will tell that you had a wonderful time
Speaker 2: this evening. So clap your hands, stump your feet, sing along,
Speaker 2: and do whatever makes you happy without knowing anyone else,
Speaker 2: and we will have a wonderful time this evening. You're
Speaker 2: already getting me excited, and that would just tay down
Speaker 2: the barriers.
Speaker 1: And yeah, okay, you've done thousands of shows. Tell me
Speaker 1: two shows that were really memorable for you, and why.
Speaker 2: One show that was merely memorable for me was not
Speaker 2: that long ago, just a few months ago, and that
Speaker 2: was in Rio where my audience was one hundred and
Speaker 2: fifty thousand people.
Speaker 1: What were the circumstances that you were playing. Was it
Speaker 1: a multi act bill? What was the bill?
Speaker 2: It was a multiac bill. Yeah, it's a multiac bill,
Speaker 2: and I thought that several acts were on at once.
Speaker 2: They had several stages, but only one stage was lit
Speaker 2: up and in use at a time, so each act
Speaker 2: had one hundred and fifty thousand people. It was incredible.
Speaker 2: It was really incredible.
Speaker 1: Okay, did they know why I Will Survive in Rio?
Speaker 2: Oh yes, oh yes, and they sing along and I
Speaker 2: sing it in Spanish, which I'm disappointed to know find
Speaker 2: that they don't really want to hear it in Spanish. Well,
Speaker 2: they don't want to hear it in Spanish and real
Speaker 2: because they speak Portuguese, right, But in Spanish speaking countries
Speaker 2: they don't want to hear it because they've bothered to
Speaker 2: learn it in English, so they want to sing. But
Speaker 2: it was wonderful hearing them sing it in English along
Speaker 2: with me one hundred and fifty thousand people at one time.
Speaker 2: It was incredible. The other show outstanding show for me
Speaker 2: was that show at Madison Square Garden the night before
Speaker 2: nine to eleven. And because the response to me in
Speaker 2: New York, which was practically my hometown, was incredible. I
Speaker 2: was told by a number of people that nobody got
Speaker 2: the response that I got except Michael Jackson.
Speaker 1: I believe that. Okay, so you're divorced. Any romance since then? No, no, no, no.
Speaker 2: As I told my friends, one let's bill to answer
Speaker 2: and one let's the egg to fry. Don't sound like
Speaker 2: a sad song to me.
Speaker 1: Okay, if you bumped into somebody and you felt something,
Speaker 1: would you run with it or would you say no?
Speaker 3: No?
Speaker 2: Well, listen, I'm open to whatever God has for me.
Speaker 1: Okay, are you going to die on stage?
Speaker 2: I probably will.
Speaker 1: Is it any harder to do it now?
Speaker 2: Physically?
Speaker 1: Yes?
Speaker 2: But otherwise absolutely not.
Speaker 1: Well you're talking about physical therapy, how about vocally? Yeah?
Speaker 2: No, no, not at all and.
Speaker 1: All this experience. Are you basically in the glory of
Speaker 1: gainer business or are you a student of the game.
Speaker 1: You're listening to new stuff, You're aware of what other
Speaker 1: people are doing. What's your viewpoint?
Speaker 2: To some degree, I listen to what other people are doing.
Speaker 2: I don't like a lot of what other people are doing,
Speaker 2: so I'm not listening to a lot of it. But
Speaker 2: I do try to keep up and fresh, and I
Speaker 2: add songs to my show that I know the young
Speaker 2: audiences will know, like I sing Seas and Unstoppable, and
Speaker 2: my background singers do some stuff from Bruno Mars, and
Speaker 2: you know, we add stuff to the show current stuff
Speaker 2: to the show. You know from time to time, do
Speaker 2: you have.
Speaker 1: To rehearse on the road to go on the road
Speaker 1: where everybody's done it so many times? Well, o, old machine,
Speaker 1: we just show up.
Speaker 2: No, I don't rehearse. We rehearse whatever's new.
Speaker 1: But other than that, No, Okay, you have survived. Okay,
Speaker 1: you're in your ninth decade. What advice do you give
Speaker 1: to everybody else to survive?
Speaker 2: Put most of your energy into becoming the best version
Speaker 2: of you that you can possibly be.
Speaker 1: I think we'll leave it at that. That's Gloria Gainor
Speaker 1: she's got a new EP. Very honest and open. Gloria,
Speaker 1: thanks so much for taking this time with my audience.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much. It's been a leisure.
Speaker 1: Until next time. This is Bob left sets playh