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Telegraph
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
Belinda Carlisle: ‘No more rock and roll lifestyle. I get up at 3.30am to chant and do breathwork'
How do famous names spend their precious downtime? In our weekly My Saturday column, celebrities reveal their weekend virtues and vices. This week: Belinda Carlisle Born and raised in California, Belinda Carlisle, 66, was a founding member of the all-female new wave band The Go-Go's before striking out on her own in the mid-'80s. She achieved a number of hits including Heaven Is a Place on Earth, Leave a Light On and Circle in the Sand, and is heading to the UK to tour in September after the release of her latest album, Once Upon a Time in California. She's also the co-founder and ambassador of Animal People Alliance (APA), a non-profit that provides care to street animals in India and Thailand, and jobs with living wages to vulnerable people to improve their quality of life. She lives in Mexico City with her husband, the film producer Morgan Mason. They have a son. 3.30am Every day I wake up at about 3.30am. I make myself a coffee, climb back into bed, close my eyes and listen to a spiritual leader like Eckhart Tolle or Ram Dass on Audible. It sounds really pretentious, but it's not. I've been studying these spiritual teachings for a long time. This sounds morbid, but I'm really interested in death and what happens after. A lot of these teachings deal with that, and reincarnation, and provide me with a lot of comfort. It changes your perspective on everything. I'll also do some chanting and breathwork. And transcendental meditation if I have any spare time. 6am I'm out the door for a big walk around my local park, Bosque de Chapultepec, for an hour or 90 minutes. After that I'll come back and wake up my husband. And then it's time for my Pilates practice. I've been doing Pilates for 30 years. I have my own equipment so I'll just jump on the reformer and do stretching and a lot of whatever I think I need that day. Then I'm ready for the day. Breakfast follows. It's nothing elaborate, usually an egg with a piece of toast. 10am I try not to spend too long on my emails over the weekend, but if I don't [do any] they pile up, so I try to do a little every day. After that I have an online Spanish lesson for an hour. I take Spanish lessons two or three times a week, and I also practise on Duolingo. I kind of had a head start as I speak French, although now I confuse the two. I love learning Spanish. It's hard but it's really good for your brain, and especially being an older person, it's kind of important. My goal is to be fluent in a couple of years. 11.30am If it's just my husband and me, we'll go for an early lunch. There are so many restaurants nearby that it's hard to choose where to go. We usually walk unless we visit another neighbourhood like Condesa or Roma; then we'll take an Uber. I've been living in Mexico City for about five years but I don't really eat any Mexican food now, which is funny. I think I just kind of burned myself out on it. I'm vegetarian and there's amazing patisseries and bakeries near us. There's one place we like to go that serves locally grown salads and vegetables. If I'm with my Mexican friends, lunch will be later. After eating we always visit another park close to us that has an aviary. The birds recognise my husband because he always feeds them peanuts. So we'll just wander and sit there for a bit. 3pm Now it's naptime. I like jumping into bed and watching movies and dozing. I never find any films on Netflix. I'm really out of touch with anything that's super-current. But I love an old post-war Italian film or a Japanese film. Actually, as part of my Spanish lessons I'm also watching a [reality TV] series called Love Is Blind in Spanish with English subtitles. I love it. 5.30pm We usually stay in on Saturday night. I can count on two hands how many nights I go out a year. I don't even like going out for dinner. I just like staying in and being cosy, and either cooking or ordering food through Uber Eats. If we order in, we'll go for pizza or Indian. Sometimes we'll watch something afterwards. I did go off reading for a while but now I'll read at the end of the day, usually non-fiction like an autobiography or a travel book. 7.30pm I'm usually asleep at about this time. I try to push it to 8pm, but I'm so tired because I'm up so early. My husband will stay up and watch the big screen in the TV room till about 11pm. My life is very different to how it used to be. I definitely enjoyed the rock and roll lifestyle and I'm happy that I had all these great experiences, but it wasn't sustainable. I'm happier now. I love not having any drama. I love really enjoying the daytime. I'm glad I'm at this point in my life.
News.com.au
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- News.com.au
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.
Daily Mail
05-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Pop icon Belinda Carlisle teases Australian tour as she announces new album inspired by her youth
Belinda Carlisle is gearing up for a triumphant return with her brand-new album Once Upon A Time In California. The Heaven Is a Place on Earth hitmaker, 66, last toured Australia in September 2024, performing to packed theatres across the country during her Decades tour. And with her latest album set for release in August, the singer has sparked speculation she's already eyeing off another run of live dates. Now, the beloved frontwoman of Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees The Go-Go's is returning to her roots, unveiling a nostalgic ten-track collection steeped in the golden sounds of her Californian upbringing. 'This collection of songs is the best representation of what I loved back then that I could think of,' Belinda said in a statement to Daily Mail Australia about the upcoming album. From A-list scandals and red carpet mishaps to exclusive pictures and viral moments, subscribe to the DailyMail's new showbiz newsletter to stay in the loop. 'Listening to it brings back so many memories of a time and a California that doesn't really exist anymore… Here's to the California of my dreams.' Once Upon A Time In California is a deeply personal project, reimagining iconic tracks that shaped her as a young artist. Produced by Gabe Lopez and recorded in LA, the album features moving renditions of Anyone Who Had A Heart, Superstar, If You Could Read My Mind, The Air That I Breathe, and more. 'I lived and breathed music – it was my great escape,' she continued. 'Every day after school and during the summer holidays, I'd be glued to the radio singing along. Always fantasising about being a singer myself, one day.' Far from a typical covers album, Belinda's latest work is a heartfelt tribute to the spirit and innocence of the California she once knew – a time, she says, that was 'unique and magical.' The album follows the success of her 2023 EP Kismet, and the momentum of her sold-out Australian tour last year, where fans across Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth got a chance to relive her iconic hits live. Speaking previously to Australian radio, Belinda reflected on her decades-spanning career, saying: 'I've worked with some amazing people like Brian Wilson and George Harrison – but Australia has always held a special place in my heart.' 'I lived and breathed music – it was my great escape,' she continued. 'Every day after school and during the summer holidays, I'd be glued to the radio singing along. Always fantasising about being a singer myself, one day' With The Air That I Breathe now available as the album's lead single and pre-orders open, fans are already buzzing over the possibility of another Australian tour. 'I've always loved coming to Australia - the audiences are just incredible,' she said. 'There's just a warmth and excitement that makes performing here feel really special.' Once Upon A Time In California will be released on CD, vinyl and digital platforms on August 29. Pre-orders are now live, and the album's first single is available to stream.
