2 days ago
Belinda Carlisle on The Go-Go's and THAT wild night with Ozzy Osbourne
It's been a year of mixed blessings for Belinda Carlisle. There have been plenty of positives for the singer, who turns 67 today: a rapturously received set with her former band The Go-Go's at Coachella in April, her first English-language solo album in 29 years, and perhaps most importantly, 20 years of sobriety.
But there has also been sadness. Carlisle admits she cried when she heard rock great Ozzy Osbourne had died last month. She knew the singer socially, and wasn't shocked to hear that he had passed away, after decades of hard living followed by a Parkinson's disease diagnosis in 2019.
However, it served as a reminder of her own wilder days. When The Go-Go's played alongside the Black Sabbath frontman at 1985's Rock In Rio festival, pianist Charlotte Caffey was kicked out of Osbourne's dressing room for being too rowdy – which, as Carlisle points out today, 'is a really hard thing to accomplish.
'They were really fun,' Carlisle says of the mega-selling post-punk outfit, over Zoom from her home in Mexico City. 'The thing is, we were doing the same thing as the guys. But because you're women – or girls – everybody was like, 'That is scandalous.'
'Rock In Rio was something else. It was quite the pinnacle of The Go-Go's partying. I'm so glad I did all that. I have really funny memories … until it started to not be funny, when it got to be a big problem. We were young, we were single, we had money, we were famous. And we took advantage of every single minute, as any young rock band should.'
Even more poignant for Carlisle was the death in June of Beach Boys creative force Brian Wilson. Despite his years of ill health, she still wasn't prepared to farewell the artist she says influenced her musical tastes more than any other, from her childhood in '60s Los Angeles to today.
She guested with The Beach Boys on stage, and describes Wilson agreeing to sing backing vocals for her 1996 song 'California' as 'one of the best days ever. My first album was Pet Sounds,' she continues. 'He's part of my DNA.'
Memories of Carlisle's home state were also the driving force for her new album Once Upon A Time In California, which features covers of songs by artists such as Dionne Warwick, Harry Nilsson and The Carpenters. Their music offered her an escape from her 'dysfunctional family' – a religious mother and an alcoholic, abusive stepfather – and spurred a life-changing notion.
'I lost myself in the pop music on the radio,' she recalls. 'Every day after school, I'd go to my best friend's house. We'd listen and sing along. And I thought, 'Maybe one day I want to be a singer.' That was a fantasy I had as a little girl.'
After The Go-Go's broke up in 1985, Carlisle had a run of enduring solo hits including 'Heaven Is A Place On Earth', 'Summer Rain' and 'Leave A Light On'. But the '90s and 2000s brought diminishing returns as her addictions took hold and music tastes changed.
She was dropped by her record label a day after turning 40, but Carlisle says she now feels liberated by 'not being on a treadmill anymore' trying to recreate her chart heyday. Plus, she adds with a laugh, 'All the good songs are going to be taken up by younger artists like Miley.'
Last year, Carlisle finally made good on her long-awaited tour of Australia, and says she enjoyed it so much that she plans to return in early 2027: 'I did discover Tim Tams, and I can't wait to come back and get some more.'
The Go-Go's and their perennially difficult intra-band relationships remain on hiatus, but she has learnt to 'never say never with that band. It's a really complicated dynamic, and it's been complicated for 40-odd years. We all keep in touch. Everybody is civil. There was a lot of healing and love going on this time, which was nice.'
Next year, Carlisle will celebrate 40 years of marriage to producer husband Morgan Mason. It's one of her proudest achievements, she says, along with the couple's son (writer/commentator James Duke Mason, 33), The Go-Go's 2021 Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame induction, and the ubiquitous 'Heaven Is a Place on Earth'.
So too is the sobriety she says turned a life that was shrinking into something that is 'so huge now. It was probably the most important thing I've ever done in my life,' she adds. 'Because I wouldn't be here if I didn't. That's when the most interesting part of my life began.'
Once Upon A Time In California (Demon Music) is out August 29. Read the full interview with Belinda Carlisle in tomorrow's issue of Stellar.
