Cyndi Lauperhas never been the pop in who does things the quiet way.
Forty years after she blew up into an Eighties pop icon, shes still making a great big noise.
That was just the beginning.
Cyndi Lauper is on her farewell tour through December.Thiago Ribeiro/AGIF/AP
Last year, her documentaryLet the Canary Singtold the whole story of her career.
Its just important to look for a path around them.
You dont have to jump in and fight everybody, because that doesnt always work.
What did you fight over?I was told so many fucked-up things.
Why dont you just sing like this person?
Why dont you just wear jeans and a T-shirt?
I said, Well, when I get that lobotomy, Ill get right back to you.
But I found allies and other people who believed what I believe in.
If you align yourself with like-minded people, then things go more smoothly.
Thats how it should be not stay there and battle it out.
ThenFunny Girlhappened, so Id hang out with Barbra [Streisand].
Im Italian, so you learn housekeeping right away.
I was downstairs doing laundry in the basement with Barbra, singing my guts out with her.
I was so close to her, I was on the other side of her.
Then one Christmas, my cousin gave usMeet the BeatlesandMeet the Supremes.
So I met them.
And I really liked them.
Suddenly, there was a difference between my mothers music and mine.
In those days, radio stations played everything all together.
I was kind of a lost soul in high school, lost in music and art.
I had to study fashion because my family was from the fashion industry.
They were the pattern makers, sewing, cutting, that kind of thing.
But I wanted to sing.
I flunked out of school and took a lot of jobs.
I even worked at the racetrack I was a hot-walker at Belmont.
I hitch-hiked to Vermont and cleaned kennels.
I failed at every job.
I lived a lot of lifetimes before I even became famous.
Only men, except Janis Joplin, who ripped her voice out and drank whiskey.
Janis and Grace Slick were my heroes they were the women.
And Joni Mitchell, who lived her life like a man and wrote about it.
And she painted her album cover.
So I thought, Wow, she can paint, she can play, she can write.
Isnt that the life?
The groupies were so rock & roll.
Those girls were fantastic.
It was just a cool hang.
So I went one time after work.
The Allmans were playing the Fillmore East, and Johnny Winter was opening with Rick Derringer and Elvin Bishop.
I was outside with the girls, stoned, standing there watching.
I didnt have a ticket.
But the girls told me, OK, wanna know how to get in?
When the band comes, you just walk inwiththem.
So here comes Johnny Winter and Rick Derringer, and I slip right behind them and walk in.
The road manager sees me his name was Red Dog and I think, uh-oh.
He goes, What are you doing?
You should be onstagenow!
I was like, my God, what am I doing?
He thinks Im a background singer!
So I thought, Wow, I could do that too.
Its not that hard.
You go wrong, stay strong.
You have to just stay there.
So I went to sing Ive Got to Use My Imagination, by Gladys Knight.
It was a cover band.
I was so nervous, I jumped up an octave.
Now all of a sudden these sounds come out that I didnt even know I had.
That was the beginning of the journey that I took.
I lost my voice early on.
But you lose it all through your career.
You cannot do it.
You should be singing country and western, like Dinah Shore.
I was like, Jesus, Dinah Shore?
I walked out of that doctors office like Bette Davis inDark Victory.
How did you get your voice back?I did personal voice training, studied at a jazz school.
But I got thrown out because I didnt want to quit my rock band.
But I learned a lot there.
They had me learn to sing Lester Youngs saxophone solos, note for note.
And Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald and Frank Sinatra, the Fifties stuff fromTheCapitol Years.
But they threw me out, so I didnt get too far into the Capitol years with Frank.
Its important to create with joy.
And you get fed a lot of bullshit through your life.
When somethings just wrong, step back, let it go away.
You step back, youll have a better view.
Because then you see the picture a little clearer.
