(First appeared in BAM magazine, 10/10/97)

Belinda Carlisle Dishes the Dirt on Her Queen Fandom, the Go-Go's, cocaine, Rob Lowe, the Spice Girls and--oh yeah--Her New Album

When the Go-Go's debut album Beauty and the Beat went double platinum, it set new standards for women in rock. Recently, scribes have been attributing the Go-Go's talent to Jane Wiedlin and Charlotte Caffey. But in most people's minds, Belinda Carlisle was the Go-Go's. She exemplified the California experience during the '80s: parties, guys and good times. She set fashion trends, which were equally emulated and detested but nevertheless were.
 

She came from "T.O." (Thousand Oaks), and went wild in Hollywood in the mid-'70s. An avid Queen and Roxy Music fan, she soon discovered punk rock with her friends Darby Crash, Pat Smear and Pleasant Gehman. This natural progression, via British rock magazines, led our beloved Belinda to dubbing herself Dottie Danger. She was the drummer for the Germs but never actually drummed. She later met Jane Wiedlin and formed the Go-Go's. The rest is history.

After the Go-Go's ended in a blur of bickering and drug use in 1985, Belinda married Morgan Mason, son of actor James Mason. Carlisle emerged a year later with her solo debut, Belinda. The video for the single "Mad About You" showcased a cleaner, leaner Belinda. Success again was her friend, but Belinda didn't seem so cool. She was thought of as the rich bitch. The party girl image had been replaced by a more mature look. It seemed she had forgotten her roots. People couldn't understand how she could marry Mason, a former Reagan cabinet member. "Did you hear she had her molars removed to give her those cheek bones?!?" was a common query. 

Her U.S. success started to dwindle following 1988's Heaven on Earth, while her European success continually escalated (she even sold out Wembley!). She and Mason later had a child and left LA for France. They currently reside in London.

Belinda is back with her first U.S. release in four years, A Woman & a Man. The release finds her back with Miles Copeland (of IRS fame) on his new label, Ark 21. The disc is a mix of pop and adult contemporary. The standout track on the CD is "California"--featuring backing vocals from none other than Brian Wilson--on which she sings, "I remember I was in the tanning salon/When I heard that River Phoenix was gone."

Yep, Belinda has been thinking a lot about her old home state...
 

The lyrics on "California" are so burnt...

They're supposed to be. It's tongue in cheek. You know, doing something so stupid when something so tragic is going on. I love the lyrics of that song. I hope people get the joke.

On your last album, Real, you and Charlotte Caffey wrote almost all of the songs. With A Woman and & a Man you're back with Rick Nowels and Ellen Shipley [songwriters who Carlisle worked with on all of her other albums], and you're not writing as much. Why?

With every album it's different. I just do what I want to do as I go along, and I'm pretty lazy by nature. I'm not driven to be a singer/songwriter. I never have been. I've always been more concerned with having a good time [laughs] than working. Unfortunately, that's probably cost me a lot of publishing money in the past with the Go-Go's. But I have no regrets because I had the most fun.

How is it to be back with Miles Copeland?

It's great. I know him really well and I trust him. I have been in legal battles with him twice in the past. But he's definitely pro-artist. Rock 'n' roll managers, etc. are not the most upstanding people, but in this case it's better the devil you know.

With the resurgence of punk rock, have you ever thought of doing a Dottie Danger punk rock album?

Hmmm... Actually, I just did a version of the Sex Pistols' "Submission" with a great new punk band in England called Radiator. It came out great. It's going to be on an EMI compilation which is 100 years of EMI. I still love punk rock, but I don't think it would be totally honest to do a whole album of that stuff.

What do you think of the Spice Girls?

I like their spirit because I know they're like the Go-Go's in a lot of ways. I know from being at different events that they are also at that they really have a good time and that they're big party girls. They take advantage of their fame, which they should do. It was what the Go-Go's did. And I like their thing about "girl power" because we were about that too. Their music is like...ehhhh...take it or leave it. But I love how Geri is always kicking her leg up at the paparazzi with no underwear on and her pussy's totally hanging out. It's hysterical. They're gross in interviews too.

The Go-Go's were never really gross in interviews...

Us?!? We could be really gross. We'd talk about pooping and farting. I think there was a point when things got glossed over and we felt we had to behave--the pressure of being American sweethearts. I remember lighting up a cigarette backstage after a show when we were big and people were like, "You smoke?!" People thought we were perfect--apple pie. And we weren't.

What if a gram fell out of your purse backstage?

[With mock innocence] Gram?! Me? What's a gram?

Your old roommate, Pleasant Gehman, said you have a good John Belushi coke story.

That's a great story. John Belushi used to always introduce the Go-Go's at our shows. He became friends with the band. I remember Kathy [Valentine, Go-Go's bassist] and I bought half a gram. See, I do know what a gram is. We were at the Mudd Club with John and we asked him if he wanted to do a line. He was like, "No!!!!" He gave us this whole big lecture about drugs and how, when we got famous, people would be offering us drugs and that we had to be careful. Literally a week later, he called us in our hotel room at one in the morning and asked if he could come up. We were thinking, "This is weird." He pulled out this huge vial of coke and started pouring it on his hand and doing it. We were horrified. From that point on, it seemed like it really went downhill for him. That was the evil of drugs hitting us right in the face [laughs]. The impact of that lasted five minutes--then we forgot about it. 

How bad did you get with cocaine?

Well I used to do blow in my walk-in closet while my boyfriend was sleeping.

Who?

Mike Marshall from the Dodgers. That horrible baseball player. He was a turd anyway. I mean, for your boyfriend not to know what you're up to--what was I thinking? I look back at that period and thank God I fucked around! It wasn't a total waste of a year and a half. Hanging out with those Dodgers' wives was so not me. Jocks in general are so gross.

Is it true you owned a racehorse during that period?

Yes, I had a racehorse for a while. I bought it when I was high on cocaine.

What was it's name?

Erlanik.

What does that mean?

I have no idea. I had it for a year. I used to go see it race. That whole period was such a blur. I was so high.

You've been referred to as the quintessential LA girl and now you live in London. Is it weird to visit?

Not at all. It doesn't feel like home anymore, but it's comfortable. The mini-malls are hideous. They've ruined the whole landscape and have homogenized LA. They will all be torn down in 10 years anyway because they're so cheap. Whoever put those ones in front of the Hollywood Cemetery should be shot! They're evil. 

Would you move back?

Not after the last earthquake. I'm still not over it. My son was born the day the riots started. After that I knew that we were going to get out eventually. I didn't want to raise my son here. In London, the schools are great and it's relatively safe. You can do city things without worrying about what night of the week it is.

How did you meet Pat Smear, Darby and Pleasant?

Basically, trying to meet Queen. It was so funny though because I was recently at a Foo Fighters show and [Queen guitarist] Brian May was there. And I was like, "Oh my God! I met you along time ago [laughs] I tried to get your autograph at the Beverly Hilton!" He didn't know what to say. Then I was sitting with Pat, and I was like, "Brian May is here--isn't it weird?" Queen were really great, though. God bless Freddie Mercury. He was my first rock 'n' roll crush.

Were the Go-Go's really competitive with each other?

It's weird because Jane and I were best friends before the band. Then we were pretty competitive during the Go-Go's. Mostly about guys. There was competition, but mostly about sex. Unfortunately, some of us had the same taste. Now Jane and I are great friends again. It's come full circle.

The Go-Go's have reunited twice. Will it happen again?

No. Besides difficulties within the band, it's just better to leave it alone. The retrospective album [1995's Return to the Valley of the Go-Go's] was a nice ending because it had all of those old rehearsal tapes and really showed the progression of the band. It was great to do old songs like "Fun With Ropes," which is such a great song, when we toured the album. But it was never meant to be permanent. Jane, Charlotte and I are working on a tell-all Go-Go's book with Pleasant. We all kept diaries. It's a great American success story. It's an inspirational story and a lot can be learned from it. Plus, there's lots of juicy gossip.

Like Rob Lowe?

Oh God. That was definitely a share the experience thing for the band.

Is it weird not to have a huge U.S. draw?

It would be nice to have, but it feels normal. I haven't had a big U.S. market in almost 10 years. What's weird is that literally every day that I'm in this country, people recognize me and say the nicest things about the Go-Go's. I don't really run around thinking about what I do for a living, so to be reminded about it as part of the Go-Go's is really bizarre. [Laughs] I hope that we get inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame! That's all I care about now is getting inducted. Or abducted. I'd love to be abducted by aliens. 

(c) 1997 John Padgett