THEGAYUK APRIL/MAY ISSUE 3
2014
INTERVIEW
there would be, but just in
case, and then I just let them
two deal with it. They would
come to me as the go
between and I was like na-ah
I can’t do this anymore you
two have to figure it out.
Actually they went back and
forth for about a year before
my husband finally accepted
it wasn’t just a phase. Now
he or myself can’t imagine it
any other way. My husband
went to West Hollywood and
bought him a rainbow
bracelet and so he’s like right
in there and is very, very
proud of our son.
You must have had some
outrageous moments
especially in the 80s and
90s in your career, can
you tell us a story?
Ah, not off the top of my
head. It was was all one big
outrageous moment blurred
into another outrageous
moment but I don’t have
them any more so much. I
mean I have them in
different ways, but the GoGo’s... we were in our early
20s, we were famous, we
were rich, we had no
responsibilities, we weren’t
married, so we went wild, as
we should, and we took
advantage of the
circumstances.
Are these exciting times to
live in compared with the
80s?
I think probably it was better
then because first of all we
couldn’t get away with now
what we could back then.
There’s just no way, there’s too
many cameras around. There’s
still lots of drugs now I’m sure
but back then it was a bit more
94
❝
I didn’t think I’d
ever become an
addict. I didn’t
understand and
most people
didn’t really
understand the
nature of
addiction, not
like they do
now, so I
thought oh not
me I can control
everything and
of course I
found out
otherwise.
❞
innocent and I thought I was
invincible and most youth
probably think they’re invisible
so I can’t imagine having as
much fun now as we did back
then. The world’s a lot more
dangerous now then it was
back then.
You say you felt invincible
back in the 80s was this a
factor of why you fell into
drugs?
Oh yeah. Because I didn’t think
I’d ever become an addict. I
didn’t understand and most
people didn’t really understand
the nature of addiction, not
like they do now, so I thought,
‘oh not me I can control
everything’ and of course I
found out otherwise.
When you look at the
tragic death of Whitney,
does it make you angry?
The thing that makes me angry
about drug deaths, like Philip
Seymour Hoffman and
Whitney, is that people make
assumptions about addicts or
alcoholics. There’s not a lot of
understanding. The press sort
of cheapens it in a way. We
didn’t need to know there were
70 bags of heroin around
Philip Seymour Hoffman’s
body. We didn’t need to know
about Whitney Houston
drowning in the bath tub
having a heart attack on coke.
Unless you’ve really gone
through an addiction with a
family member or yourself,
people don’t really have that
much understanding about it.
When I grew up we had to
watch this stupid drug movies
in school and all that made me
want to do is go out and do
drugs. We all know that they’re
bad and they’re always going to
be around. I think to legalise,
regulate and tax them and put
money into education and take
away the stigma. I think the
public needs to understand the
nature of addiction more than
addicts themselves as they’re
living it.
Who would make up the
ultimate Girl/woman band
now? Cher, Dolly?