CHER
Finally, Cher's clubby new album, Living Proof is arriving Stateside.
To celebrate, we sat down with this inimitable icon with a mad batch of questions about her storied career and where it's taken her.
By Adam Mattera
Photo: Frank Micelotta
There are so many Chers in the public consciousness-the current version: platinum-blonde-wigged electro-voiced dancequeen-that it's
I tell her when I told friends I was due to meet a certain single-named icon of the 20th century somebody guessed Kermit. "Well, he's looking good for his age," she laughs. "You know, I did a show with him in the 70s.
I think we did a duet..." Yes, she's done it all.
Congratulations on the new record! It's more of the disco-flavored Cher we love. I reckon you're responsible for the vocoder's rehabilitation. How do you plead?
Well, it's not a vocoder, but I plead guilty. It sounds like it. If you listen to a vocoder and a pitch machine it's different. We wanted to use a vocoder on Believe, but you have to lay down the vocal and the vocoder at the same time and we'd already done the vocal. But Mark, my engineer, played with the pitch machine and came up with that sound by turning it up too fast. Listen to "Different Kind of Love Song" on the new album, it's all over that.
Do you have copies at home of everything you've ever sung on through the years?
No. I'm not a big keeper of that kinda stuff. I always think if you need it you can go find it someplace and I don't listen to my own music. If we're going to do a show someone else will come up with copies of all the old stuff so I can relearn the songs. The fun of it is doing it, not listening back to it. Like when you do a film, it's the process. Then you might watch it once or twice and that's it. Kinda like a concert-you do it and it's gone, but you had a great experience.
Have you ever had a Big Mac?
Yes. I hated it. I don't like McDonald's. I hate want they stand for. Except when I was a teenager, Mr Croc had the first McDonald's where I lived and he used to be there cooking everyday. That was like a hundred years ago. It was on Van Nuys Boulevard when I used to walk home from school. I would stop and get [a burger] and they used to be like 20 cents or 18 cents.
In your life, have you been more of a gypsy, a tramp or a thief?
Oh, a gypsy for sure. Even when I was little my mom moved around a lot, and I've always been on the road or moving. I don't like staying in one place. I had one house for ten years and that's the longest I've ever stayed in one place. That was when the kids were little. I bought the land when Elijah was born and it took a few years to build and we stayed there for ten years. I just built a new house, so it's got a few years in it yet.
If Michael Jackson is a 10 and a newborn baby is 1, where would you put yourself on the plastic surgery scale?
Oh... 4. [Laughs]
Is it true your passport just says "Cher?" That you officially have one name only?
Yeah. When my kids were young because they both have different fathers I was going around as Cher Bono Allman and it was just such a pain in the ass. Nobody called me anything but Cher anyway, so I went to court and petitioned to have one name. They got a lot of people to come in-kind of like a jury-and they asked them "Would you know who this person was if you just heard the word Cher?" They all said yes, of course.
I read a story about Chastity trying to stop you from getting a mohawk when she was 14. Was your relationship with her anything like Edina and Saffy in Ab Fab?
[Laughs.] Well I wasn't as bad as Edina, for sure, but I guess sometimes Chas was more of the grown-up. That was a funny day. Me and Chas were watching this TV show about punk kids in London-she must have been 14-and I got up and said, "Boy, I love that haircut." Chas threw herself against the door and said "Mom, have you lost your mind? You're too old to get a mohawk!" Eventually she gave up, but I didn't do it. Not until much later anyway.
If you could turn back time to one time in your life when you were your happiest, when would that be?
I think between 1986 and 1988. That was my happiest time-my children were both little and still at home. Chas was going to the High School of the Performing Arts and we were living in New York. And I did one movie after another and then I did an album and then I won the Academy Award and it was a great time. I had a really nice boyfriend that I liked and I loved New York. Everything was perfect. It was really busy and really fulfilling.
You once said the first single you ever made wasn't played on the radio because it was seen as a "faggot song." What was that all about?
It was for Phil Spector and it was a song called "Ringo, I Love You." Because my voice was so low they thought it was a man so they wouldn't play it on the radio. And I wasn't even a Ringo fan.
Is Richie Sambora a Tommy Lee in the trouser department? What is Tommy Lee supposed to be?
[I explain.] Oh. Well, I'm not a kiss-and-tell kind of girl.
Here's a scenario: I'm 18 and I'm gay and I'm scared about how to tell my parents. What advice would you give me? Do you think they'll still love me
That's such a hard one. [Long pause] First of all, sometimes it's not best to start with your parents. If there's anybody in your family that you feel would be more open sometimes it's better to go to them and use them as an ally. Then go to the parent who is going to be more accepting. And don't give up on them. I mean my reaction to Chastity wasn't great, it was very un-Cher like. But also, I was upset because she told everyone in the family before me; I was the last one. I was angry and hurt. But she was smart, because she told everybody that would go "Okay, that's fine." And it took me about a month or two and then everything was fine. When you do tell your parents, don't expect them to be perfect and don't give up trying. I think a parent always thinks that they did something wrong, like "Oh, if we'd made more cookies" or "Oh, if we'd gone out more." And also you feel too that this is going to make life much more difficult for your child. I remember thinking "Oh God, the newspapers are going to make this doubly hard for Chas because she's my daughter." A million things go through a parent's mind, so you have to give them a minute to sort things out. Eventually they realize that nothing's really different, but sometimes people don't get to that obvious thing immediately.
I read that you and Madonna hated each other. I've also read that she was set to direct the video to "Dove L'Amore" but didn't in the end. What's the truth? Also, did you like Evita?
I thought she was great in Evita. And the truth is when I first met Madonna I liked her but I thought that she was really rude. Then someone asked me on TV, "What do you think of Madonna?" and I was trying to think of what to say that would be polite or whatever, and I said "I think she's kind of a cunt." And it was everywhere. My manager was hitting his head against the wall. But we've hung out together since then... And I think that Madonna is not under the impression that she can't be a bitch, That's the truth and she can be. She can be tough. I don't know why I said that, though. It's something you'd never say even if it were true. She can be a lot of fun too. I've had great times with her. So it's somewhere in the middle. And the video-yeah, she loved the song but when it came to the time she was busy and I only had a window of two days because I was on the road.
What's your hair like underneath those wigs? I've wanted to know for years.
This is my hair. That's it-it's just hair! That's what it's like.
You hear "Believe" in a department store while you're buying a new pair of shoes. Do you acknowledge it to the girl behind the counter or do you pretend it isn't happening?
[Laughs.] Well, it usually takes me a minute to realize. I'll be in a store and hear something and think "that's really familiar" and then I realize it's me. So usually it would be like a gleeful kind of thing. Sometimes it's embarrassing I suppose.
Whenever the "If I Could Turn Back Time" video comes on MTV I am still transfixed to this day. When you see it now do you laugh or blush?
Oh, I laugh. The funny thing about that video was that we shot it for like three days and on the last day at the last minute we decided to do that piece. There was a whole storyline-I was in a carriage with a horse and a big cape, and then I was in a speedboat... And when we shot the actual performance piece [on the ship] they threw out all the rest and kept that. It was played on MTV for like nine weeks and then they banned it and wouldn?t play it 'til after 10 at night. I still think it's hysterical. The sailors were great.
What do you consider your best vocal performance on record? Personally, I'd go for "The Gunman."
I think maybe it might be. It's definitely on this album. "Rain, Rain" is a really good vocal. "Song for the Lonely" is a difficult song to sing so maybe that. I still think I'm not a great singer, I'm a better performer. I still think it's better to watch me sing, than hear me sing. I have a distinctive voice, but it's not a great voice.
Is it true you fell out with Diana Ross after you had a drag queen do an impersonation of her in one of your shows? Or was it because she stole Gene Simmons from you?
It was neither. I wasn't going out with Gene when they met. But when they were first together, me and Gene were still really good friends and I think Diana didn't feel comfortable with it. I've seen her several times since all that and we get on fine. It can be difficult though when an old girlfriend is still best friends with your boyfriend. And I was living in the same house [with him] when they were going out together too. He bought this apartment from me and I was still living there with the kids when Diana was going out with him. I think Diana didn't like that and I can see why.
When you finally got credibility from your peers winning an Oscar for Moonstruck why did you ruin it by wearing that crazy outfit to the show? Was it a "fuck-you" to the establishment for ignoring you before?
I didn't wear a crazy outfit that night. It was the year I didn't get nominated for Mask, that's when I wore the crazy outfit. And that was a "fuck-you." They said I wasn't nominated because I wasn't serious, I didn't dress properly, my boyfriends were too young...This whole list of things and I thought this is just ridiculous. So I wore that ridiculous outfit. But to tell you the truth I thought it was beautiful. It was made really well-all cashmere and hand-beaded, that feather headdress-Bob [Mackie] did an incredible job.
I've seen Moonstruck at least 15 times and love it. There's a real magic about that film. Was it as fun to make as it is to watch?
It was so much fun that none of us had any idea it was going to be so successful, because it just seemed too easy. Everybody would sit around off-camera talking and hanging and then we would just get up and go sit around on-camera. I always love working with a team, like when I did Come Back to the Five and Dime... on stage it was so much fun. I think it's because I started with a partner on stage for years and you always miss that.
I've heard that you practice your songs while vacuuming. Is this true? I can't imagine you doing housework.
I don't vacuum. I hate housework. I practice my songs when I have to practice my songs!
Does being famous still mean anything to you? Does it change over the years?
I think that it does. I think it's something that you'd like to say you don't care about and if you have it it's easy to say you don't care about it. But most famous people would be devastated if it all stopped. There's the odd occasion when people are following you or trying to shoot pictures of you in the bathroom and you go "Fuck off, I don't want this-it's not worth it!" But the truth is once you've had it, it's like part of you, it would be like losing your arm. I've been famous since I was like 18, so it's all I've ever known as an adult. I remember going to Japan once and people didn't know who I was. I was with Greg [Allman] and they knew him. I had Chas with me-she was seven-and it was great, like a vacation.
What do you consider your greatest hair triumph-and worst disaster? Personally I'm a big fan of your Moonstruck-era mass of black curls.
Well, my most ridiculous one was for the opening number of the Believe concert�this mass of red hair that went everywhere. I loved it�it was crazy. But I think the best look is that white hair with a big knot in it on the new album cover.
Finally, this is the one question I've been dying to ask you: Do you believe in life after love?
Yes, I do. People have asked me that a lot and yes, it seems silly, but I really do.
Adam Mattera is editor of Attitude Magazine in London. His work appears courtesy of Attitude.
