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I used to be one of those little girls who ~ oh I could stay mad for days if
you did something, I'd pout absolutely. My mother would say, 'She's pouting, don't
even bother her.' |
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See, my granddad was a country and western singer, and a pool player. He really
supported himself playing pool, but he looked at himself as a a serious singer.
I started singing with him when I was about four. The first song we sang was 'Are
You Mine?,' by Red Sovine. |
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See I moved a lot. I was born in Phoenix and I moved from there when I was
a baby to Los Angeles and I lived there until I was about five and a half or six.
And then we moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico and I lived there for a year and
a half, two years. And then we moved to El Paso, Texas and I lived there for five
years, 'till the end of the seventh grade. Then we moved to Salt Lake City, Utah
and I lived there until the end of the ninth grade. Then we moved back to Los
Angeles, and I lived there for my tenth grade and eleventh grade year. And then
we were transferred again to San Francisco ~ to up by Stanford University ~ so
I was a brand new senior there. Then I went to junior college that was halfway
down the peninsula, in San Mateo for two years. Then I went all the way back to
the other side to San Jose State [University] for another three years,
then, when I was in a band with Lindsey. And then Lindsey and I moved back to
Los Angeles in about 1971. |
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[On the effects of moving so much while growing-up]
I did make friends I just didn't have time to make too many. So I was very adaptable,
I learned to make friends quickly and to accepted quickly because I didn't have
enough time to waste ~ to be snooty for 6 months until I decided to come down
to earth and be a part of everything didn't work at all. So, I just had to be
real amiable, and friendly and open to people, Or, I would be alone for a year
and then we would move. |
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[What did you listen to when you were growing up?]
The Ronettes ~ that kind of girl singing group. And the Supremes, Beach Boys,
Spinners, and a lot of R&B. |
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A month before I turned 16, my mom and dad said I could take guitar lessons.
They really didn't know if I was going to like it or not, so they rented me a
little guitar, and hired a Spanish classical guitar player, and I took six weeks
of guitar lessons, twice a week. And this teacher decided he was going to go to
Spain to study, and I loved his guitar so much that they bought it from him for
me, for probably a thousand dollars. It was a Goya, a classical guitar; it was
very tiny. I still have it. I sat down and wrote a song. It was pretty goofy,
but it had a chorus and two verses and it had an end. And from that second onwards,
I knew I wanted to be a songwriter. |
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[On her first song] Okay, it went, I've loved and I've lost, but
I am sad but not blue/I once loved a boy who was wonderful and true/But he loved
another before he loved me/and I knew he still wanted her ~ 'twas easy to see.
I truly had fallen, cat's-meow-pajamas, for an incredible guy, and he ended up
going out with my best friend. And they both knew I was going to be crushed. I
think I've always called it I've Loved and I've Lost. When I said, I'm
sad but not blue, I was accepting the fact that they were going to be together.
I was horrified, but I really loved both of them, and I knew they didn't do it
purposefully to hurt me. |
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I wrote my first song on my sixteenth birthday. I finished that song hysterically
crying, and I was hooked. From that day forward when I was in my room playing
my guitar, nobody would come in without knocking, nobody disturbed me. My parents
were very supportive and wouldn't let anyone disturb me until I came out. They'd
even let me miss dinner if necessary, it was that important. They could hear that
I was working, at sixteen years old, and they would leave me alone. |
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My granddad was a country and western singer, and he left his family and took
freight trains and traveled all over, playing in bars and supporting himself by
playing pool. So my mom and dad thought, Well, there she goes. She's gonna walk
down the same road as her grandfather. And luckily I became a bit more successful
than he was. |
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My
mom said that I started singing when I was very young. They always had music going
for me because I seemed to have such a love for it. Even as a baby in a crib,
I wanted music. My Dad's father was a country and western singer, so he brought
music into my life as soon as I was able to understand music at all. I was singing
duets with my grandfather when I was four. My grandfather rode the railway trains
across the country and played in different places. He played harmonica, fiddle,
and guitar. He wasn't a great musician, but he was a really good songwriter. I'm
kind of the same way. I consider myself a good songwriter, but I'm not a very
good musician.