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It's Go-Go's Week on BlogHer.com! I'm interviewing Belinda Carlisle on her new tell-all memoir about her 25 years of hiding her drug use after supposedly going sober in the late '80s.
Read Part 1 here, and come back later this week for interviews with the other Go-Go's about their farewell tour this summer ...
You’ve been completely sober now for five years. Are there still some things that might "trigger" you -- for instance, a certain smell or certain songs?
God, smells are so weird! Every so often, I’ll come across a smell that smells exactly like the hallway of my coke dealer in Marina Del Rey, which is odd.
In terms of music, there’s a French artist named Francis Cabral who does these really melancholy French songs and I just can’t listen to him anymore. I was listening to his music all the time in those last few years of my using, so hearing it brings back some really bad memories. I tried listening to some of his albums just the other day and I just couldn’t do it.
And another weird thing is locations. I did most of my damage in London, and when I first got sober, I couldn’t walk down certain streets because it brought back so many bad memories. Frankly, it was only just a month ago that I was able to drive by a certain hotel in London because of all the really bad memories attached to it.
But you know what? Those kinds of triggers can also serve as a good thing, because it reminds you of how painful it all was and it kind of keeps you from wanting to go back there.
I’d imagine that hearing some of your early songs might be a trigger, as well. So after all these years, what’s your reaction to hearing one of your songs on the radio or in public? Is it an 'old hat' or still special?
Oh, it’s always totally special even after all this time, and in fact, anytime a song I’ve been a part of comes on the radio, I totally turn it up! And if a song comes on when I’m in a store or something, I still get a great feeling, and I’m always really proud. I don’t think that will ever go away.
The only time I ever don’t like it is when I’m in a nail salon, and for some reason, that seems to happen all the time! So if I’m sitting there in a salon, relaxing and getting my nails done and "Our Lips are Sealed" comes on, I feel like everyone’s watching me, waiting for my reaction or something. [Laughs]. And I’m thinking, "Should I tap my toes? Hum along?" That’s the only time I don’t like it and it's only because it puts the focus on me.
I was reading your book at the same time that Lindsay Lohan was detained in Paris after her passport was "stolen." There are obvious similarities between you two, so I’m curious to hear your thoughts on her.
Well, first let me tell you this really weird thing that happened to me [in connection to] Lindsay Lohan. About six months ago, I woke up from a really deep sleep and out of nowhere, I heard this big, loud voice say, "Lindsay Lohan’s going to die." And like, I don’t even think about Lindsay Lohan, which made it all the more weird. But it freaked me out so much that I felt like I had to tell someone about it so it wouldn’t happen, you know?
I can definitely see myself in her, but in a way I think she’s worse off because the media sort of feeds into her shame. I could kind of get away with my partying because we were living in a different time then.
And that thing about her losing the passport? I’ve been there, and I can almost guarantee that that happened because she’d done way too much blow and couldn’t get on the plane.
It just makes me so sad, and I really hope she gets help, because she really could die. She was so incredibly talented, and now her
