Last time it was an old-school limousine. This time, a chauffeured Suburban. In both instances the message was clear: Yes, Cher would sit for an interview — but only while moving from one place to another.
And if the show-business legend had a lot going on when we shared a ride in 2013, as she made her way from an Academy Awards taping to a party at Soho House, she was even busier on a recent afternoon, just weeks before Friday’s fresh release of her new album, Dancing Queen.
A happy by-product of her role in this summer’s Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again, the disc collects Cher’s loving renditions of 10 classic Abba songs, including the title track and one she sings in the film, Fernando. Since the movie’s debut in July, it’s rung up more than $120 million at the domestic box office, with critics and fans hailing its feel-good tone as something of an antidote to today’s toxic political climate.
But that’s not all she had on her mind as we crawled through rush-hour traffic from Burbank (where she’d appeared on Ellen) to the Sunset Marquis in West Hollywood (where she was set to shoot something for James Corden). In November, The Cher Show — a Broadway bio-musical, which she’s co-producing, about a one-of-a-kind career that stretches back to the mid-1960s, when she broke out with her then-husband, the late Sonny Bono — will begin performances in New York.
Then she’ll be saluted alongside Philip Glass, Reba McEntire and Wayne Shorter at this year’s Kennedy Centre Honors on December 2.
For all she was juggling, Cher, 72, put across a Zen-like focus in our talk, perhaps because she knew there was no reason to rush — everybody else, after all, would wait for her.
Dressed in jeans and a denim jacket, her long hair blond and wavy, she also made as much eye contact as any celebrity I’ve encountered, which means she noticed when my gaze drifted at one point to an object in the back of the Suburban.
“Oh, that’s a trampoline,” she said. “But don’t pay attention to it.”
Do you ever drive yourself?
Absolutely. But not when I’m working.
Where do you go?
I go to my friend’s house. I go to Cross Creek [also known as Malibu Village], but that’s getting more difficult all the time because there’s paparazzi. You used to be able to go in as a bum _ just, like, grody _ and not have anybody bother you. Sometimes I’ll go to the movies in Calabasas.
Do you watch your own movies?
I might watch Silkwood if it came on because I’m not in it that much. Sometimes there’s a line in a movie I did that I really like. But not very many whole performances.
Not even Moonstruck? You did win an Oscar.
That was a nice thing. But I didn’t anticipate it. I mean, MGM hated it — they didn’t put the movie out till they had nothing else to put out. Two movies had to fail first. But look, it’s like Meryl [Streep] said: You don’t do your work for honours or medals or awards. You just do the best work you can do.
Speaking of work, you’re touring again next year.
People say, “Why are you doing this?” And sometimes I don’t want to do it. But then I think at some point I won’t be able to do it. People won’t be interested, or I won’t physically be able to do it. I wonder if I’ll be sad. It’s not that I really like performing so much — I like the people.
Are you a religious person?
I think I’m a spiritual person. I went to Nepal — which was an accident, really — and I met this man. As one does.
My favourite part of your concerts is usually —
The talking? I do it the same way Sonny and I did it. We were broke and owed the government a ton of money, so we went into these dinner theatres, and it was a nightmare. So we just started trying to make the band laugh, and if it was funny, we’d keep it in. Then all of a sudden, after these monologues, it was like standing room only.
Do you use a prompter onstage?
Yeah, but I don’t look at it. But I get nervous if it’s not there.
I think it’s hard for people to understand how you might forget the lyrics to a song you’ve sung thousands of times.
I don’t forget lyrics. But it makes me feel safe. And truthfully I don’t care what people think. I’ve been up and I’ve been down. People have hated me and then they thought I was great.
You’ve said that Abba’s songs are more difficult to sing than they appear. How so?
The first thing is that those girls have different ranges than I do. They have girl voices.
And your voice is what?
Someplace between Paul McCartney and Bruce Springsteen. But some of the songs go from really, really low to really, really high; I’m at the absolute tip-top of my range. I had a hard time with two: Dancing Queen and The Winner Takes It All. I was singing high, but I couldn’t get some of the words. I had to go back and do a couple of lines again.
An Abba covers album without Mamma Mia? That’s like a club sandwich —
Without the bacon. Well, I don’t eat bacon. But without the tomato.
