Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Rock and roll star turned actress, critically acclaimed for playing Annie Oakley in Annie Get Your Gun.
On the island
Eight records
That was the first time I was aware of anything other than my dad's corny music, which is what we thought of it as. I was seven. It was nineteen fifty seven, and he was on the Ed Sullivan Show.
When I Fall in LoveFavourite
The first time I heard this, I was very, very impressionable. I was about ten. ... That was the first time I heard a proper, proper love song, and I used to actually sit in my sister's room and play this and cry and think about one day when I would fall in love.
(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay
He was one of my earliest idols. I used to lose my voice every night trying to imitate him. I chose this one because it's something I can listen to time and time again sitting on the dock of the bay.
I just fell in love with her from that moment on. And the song I chose actually wrote the lyrics herself, and I think it tells her whole story.
He's from Detroit, and I used to work with him when I was sixteen, seventeen. And he was great then. This was way before he made it. I just chose it simply because I love the song.
There's a little part of me. That even though I'm a happily married woman with two children, I likes to think she's a bit of a desperado. And the words in this is like when you're gonna let somebody love. You know that little lonely part in all of us that we keep to ourselves and think, Who's ever gonna discover the secret part of me?
And people are always asking me What it's like to be on the road. ... But Jackson Brown did. And on this album he recorded it in hotel rooms and on buses and everything. And if you want to learn about the road, this is the album you listen to. But there's one song on here that I particularly like called Rosie.
In the past sort of five or six years, this is the favorite record that I've liked ... I think he's a bit strange, I know, but he's extremely talented. And this particular song ... So intense, it's analytical of his life. ... And it would keep me dancing on this desert island for quite a while.
In conversation
Presenter asks
1:09How soon after you were born do you remember music in your life?
Very, very long ago. We were about three and four, I think. ... And there's tapes of us singing duets with all of his sisters together and all that. We had one of those kind of families where everybody stood up and did a turn and all that.
Presenter asks
3:13Were you encouraged, therefore, to become a professional musician yourself? I mean, was there any doubt you might be anything other than that?
There was never any doubt in my mind. No, never. We all learned, all five children learned ... to read and play piano. And then from there we took it wherever we liked. I played drums in school and then learned how to read and play drums. And then when I was fourteen I taught myself bass.
Presenter asks
4:57How did [the all-girl band] come about?
The Beatles had just Been booked on the Ed Sullivan show. One of my girlfriends called me up and said, Quick, quick, switch on the television. ... and she said Why don't we start an all girl band? So I called my older sister Patty and we decided that would be a good idea. Five of us got together. ... Everybody took an instrument. And nobody took the bass. So I was left the bass. It was as tall as me. That is how I started playing bass guitar.
The keepsakes
The luxury
I think I could probably make up word games, but I couldn't imitate a piano, so I think I'd have to take a piano.
Presenter asks
8:26How come that you didn't get exploited as such? You didn't get ruined by this industry, which ruins so many young people?
Oh, well, you gotta go right back to your upbringing for a start. I mean, I had a strict Catholic upbringing. Drugs never held any interest for me. The CD Sauda show business never held any interest for me. All I was interested in was getting out there and performing. So with that attitude Maybe I was saved a bit from all the ... All the bullshit.
Presenter asks
12:40Do you actually like being on the road?
It is, it is all those things. It's a love-hate relationship. Once you've been on the road. It's really hard to ever ever come off it. ... Twenty-two years now I've been on the road. That's a long time. I've still not lost the appetite for it. I don't like the travelling,'cause I'm not a good flyer. I don't like that part, but once I get to the places then it's exciting.
Presenter asks
20:00What do you feel yourself when you're asked to do the part [of Annie Oakley]?
It's a role I wanted to do since nineteen. eighty one. ... I've always wanted to do a musical, I will do soon. ... John came back, called me up. That's how it happened. And I said, Yes. Isn't that funny?
“I think I would be able to cope very well. One thing I learned a long time ago is to like my own company. Also being a Gemini helps because you're two different people. I can have arguments with myself.”
“I thought that I didn't have to display myself that way. I thought it was sexier to cover up rather than uncover. I still think the same now. Had my first success in the leather jumpsuit, I'm completely covered from head to toe. Yet everybody thought it was the sexiest thing going, so it just proves my point.”
“Life pulls me back. I'm very, very much down to earth. All my ego, and I do have one, comes out on the stage. That's the only place it needs to come out.”
“The thing that's nice about rock and roll is you don't have to analyze it. or think about it, or do anything but feel it. It's completely crude. It's completely natural. It's let your hair down, scream, shout, go for it, sweat a bit, and come out happy.”