Latest / Life Will Be the Death of Me with Chelsea Handler / Jersey Girls with Debbie Gibson
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Hi, Hi, Chelsea, Hi, how are you.
- 0:03Speaker 2: I'm great.
- 0:04Speaker 3: You just got back from New York. I was at
- 0:05Speaker 3: the US Open. I had to go to the women's finals.
- 0:07Speaker 3: It was mandatory.
- 0:08Speaker 4: I had to see that final match between Amasamova and Sabalanca.
- 0:12Speaker 1: Okay, So what do you like about being there? Is
- 0:14Speaker 1: it the sports? Is it the sort of CNB scene.
- 0:17Speaker 1: It seems like a very sort of like celebria event.
- 0:20Speaker 4: Yeah, it is more celebri here in at the US
- 0:23Speaker 4: Open than it is at like the other Grand Slams.
- 0:26Speaker 4: I think there's always celebs, but at this one is
- 0:29Speaker 4: definitely like a New York thing. So I've never been
- 0:31Speaker 4: in the Australian Open. I've never been in the French Open.
- 0:33Speaker 4: I go to Wimbledon every year for a few matches
- 0:36Speaker 4: whenever I could get there the beginning or the end.
- 0:38Speaker 4: Obviously it's better to get there to the end because
- 0:40Speaker 4: it becomes more competitive.
- 0:41Speaker 3: But the US Open just has the most fun vibe really.
- 0:45Speaker 4: First of all, it's like it's so fun because I
- 0:48Speaker 4: know a lot of tennis people, so I whoever I
- 0:50Speaker 4: get invites me, Like, you could go as a you
- 0:52Speaker 4: could buy your own ticket, or you could go as
- 0:54Speaker 4: a guest to like one of the brands there or
- 0:56Speaker 4: like I went and sat in the president's box for
- 0:58Speaker 4: this match since I was invited by somebody there.
- 1:02Speaker 3: And then it's just like a fun vibe. Hey, they're drinking.
- 1:06Speaker 4: They have Honeyducees, Like every Open has their signature drink.
- 1:09Speaker 3: Like Wimbledon, it's pims Cups, which.
- 1:11Speaker 2: Are so fun.
- 1:12Speaker 4: And Wimbledon is very very convivial and beautiful, but a
- 1:16Speaker 4: little stiffer, you know, you've got to be a little bit,
- 1:19Speaker 4: a little bit more proper.
- 1:20Speaker 3: I mean I'm not, but that's what they're expecting.
- 1:23Speaker 4: And then US Open is just kind of like more
- 1:25Speaker 4: loosey goosey, Like it's just a really relaxed vibe.
- 1:28Speaker 3: It's a fun day out.
- 1:30Speaker 4: I went with two of my friends, Naomi and Serena
- 1:32Speaker 4: this time. I mean I've been I went with Hannah
- 1:34Speaker 4: Berner one of the matches. I went with Juliana marghy
- 1:37Speaker 4: Le's to one of the matches. But then I was
- 1:39Speaker 4: I was like, okay, you know what, I have to
- 1:41Speaker 4: go back for the finals. So I flew in for
- 1:42Speaker 4: the literally the day to go watch the finals in person.
- 1:45Speaker 4: But it's just the atmosphere, the atmosphere is just bubbling,
- 1:49Speaker 4: and I love that vibe. I'm a day person. I
- 1:51Speaker 4: love that like day atmosphere. And then yeah, and then
- 1:56Speaker 4: you're home at a reasonable hour and yeah, I don't know.
- 1:59Speaker 1: Yeah, you're ever gonna catch me at a sports match
- 2:01Speaker 1: of any kind. It's it's something that has a fun crowd,
- 2:05Speaker 1: you know, Like I'm not there, I don't know who's playing,
- 2:07Speaker 1: I don't know who's winning. But like I in high
- 2:11Speaker 1: school spent some time in Mexico and we would go
- 2:13Speaker 1: to the baseball games there and they would like light
- 2:16Speaker 1: rolls of paper towels on fire and like throw them
- 2:18Speaker 1: down the stands. Like it was a very crazy, fun environment.
- 2:21Speaker 1: So like, I'm not there to check out the sports,
- 2:24Speaker 1: but like I love it.
- 2:25Speaker 4: You can see see I neglect you just to mention
- 2:27Speaker 4: any of the tennis. But what I do love about
- 2:30Speaker 4: the tennis is that it's a level of excellence. You know,
- 2:32Speaker 4: like if you watch the bands, it's the same guys
- 2:35Speaker 4: that get past that knock everybody out of the way.
- 2:37Speaker 4: It's the same three guys. It's Djokovic, it's Yannick Cinner,
- 2:40Speaker 4: and it's Alkoraz. They knock everybody out of their way,
- 2:43Speaker 4: so they are playing at such a high level. So
- 2:45Speaker 4: and with the girls, they're less Arena Sabalanka is very consistent,
- 2:49Speaker 4: she's always in the finals, but the girls are less consistent.
- 2:52Speaker 3: Like there are great but.
- 2:53Speaker 4: There are just like our pop stars right now are
- 2:57Speaker 4: There's such a plethora of them, from Charlie Xca to
- 3:00Speaker 4: Chapel Roan to Tailor to I mean, you know, Taylor's
- 3:03Speaker 4: been around forever, but like all of these people, Gracie Abrams,
- 3:06Speaker 4: you know, that are bubbling up. It's kind of like
- 3:08Speaker 4: analogous to tennis because there's so many young great players
- 3:12Speaker 4: that have the potential to be incredible, and they're all
- 3:15Speaker 4: gutting there by you know, failure failure, Like you know,
- 3:18Speaker 4: they play, they play, they play, then they get knocked out,
- 3:20Speaker 4: and then they learn how to get better and they
- 3:22Speaker 4: fix their serve or they fix whatever, or they hire
- 3:24Speaker 4: a new coach and they become more consistent.
- 3:27Speaker 3: So it's kind of really nice. I prefer women's sports.
- 3:29Speaker 4: I prefer to watch women's sports, so I just love
- 3:32Speaker 4: that level of competitiveness because I don't have that kind
- 3:37Speaker 4: of discipline, and it's really cool to watch.
- 3:41Speaker 1: We have a very sweet guest today.
- 3:42Speaker 3: Okay, oh yes, yes, she's a sweetie pie. She is
- 3:45Speaker 3: a pop star.
- 3:46Speaker 4: She's a performer, songwriter and now published author of her
- 3:49Speaker 4: brand new memoir Eternally Electric. Please welcome Debbie Gibson. Okay,
- 3:54Speaker 4: here we are. We are very special guests. Miss miss
- 3:59Speaker 4: that's what theyways called me. Miss Debbie Gibson is today
- 4:03Speaker 4: in the studio. Thank you for coming in studio.
- 4:06Speaker 2: So, by the way, I always want to do things
- 4:08Speaker 2: in studio and it's always being like forced upon us
- 4:12Speaker 2: to do.
- 4:12Speaker 4: What we can do is zoom, but no themselves.
- 4:16Speaker 3: We've done zoom ourselves.
- 4:18Speaker 2: I love like a good old fashioned La press drip.
- 4:22Speaker 3: You know what, you know what a zoom is good for?
- 4:24Speaker 3: Spanish lessons. That's what zooms are good for. You know
- 4:27Speaker 3: that doesn't need to be face to face. How are you?
- 4:30Speaker 2: I'm good? Yes, I was just saying it's weird because
- 4:34Speaker 2: when I was on your E show, I feel like
- 4:35Speaker 2: I wore a version like the twenty years ago version
- 4:38Speaker 2: of the outfit I have on today. It involved like
- 4:41Speaker 2: low slung pants and I feel like.
- 4:43Speaker 3: I wore a Fedora.
- 4:44Speaker 2: We think it was pain.
- 4:45Speaker 4: You always have this hat on, which is the don't
- 4:47Speaker 4: always today's just like the roots.
- 4:49Speaker 2: You don't I need a toner, Okay, So I put
- 4:51Speaker 2: on them what.
- 4:52Speaker 4: You should have told us, I would have brought one in.
- 4:54Speaker 4: I'm sure I have one at my house, even though
- 4:56Speaker 4: I don't have a.
- 4:56Speaker 2: Hat, because you're the same. Because for for us girls
- 4:59Speaker 2: who want to stay blonde but are gray and want
- 5:02Speaker 2: to do the dark root and then do the blonde,
- 5:04Speaker 2: it just never comes out the same way twice, and
- 5:06Speaker 2: it's a whole.
- 5:07Speaker 3: And I hate when my hair gets brassy. I hate that.
- 5:09Speaker 2: That's what's happening, right, Okay, Okay, had is just copy that.
- 5:17Speaker 4: We're here to celebrate the publication of your very first book,
- 5:21Speaker 4: which is called Eternally Electric, which is out now, and
- 5:26Speaker 4: it takes you through your childhood, which I didn't know
- 5:30Speaker 4: you were one of four girls. What an advantage that
- 5:33Speaker 4: is in life, don't you think?
- 5:34Speaker 2: I mean? I loved I love it. And my late
- 5:38Speaker 2: mom everyone always said, oh, don't you wish you had boys?
- 5:40Speaker 2: And she was like, no, why would.
- 5:42Speaker 4: You write, well, once you have one sex and you
- 5:44Speaker 4: don't wish for the other sex.
- 5:45Speaker 2: She's just love my girls.
- 5:46Speaker 4: But it's also like saying to someone like who has children,
- 5:49Speaker 4: like don't you wish you didn't have children?
- 5:50Speaker 3: Like right in your life?
- 5:53Speaker 4: You're not going to be like, yeah, actually I wish
- 5:54Speaker 4: I could readnag on that and not have any.
- 5:56Speaker 2: Children, which, by the way, is also a thing with
- 5:58Speaker 2: because you don't have children, right right, And I don't
- 6:00Speaker 2: have children, right, you have children, and I'm always like, similarly,
- 6:05Speaker 2: the fictitious hypothetical children that I don't know, No, I
- 6:09Speaker 2: don't miss them, right.
- 6:10Speaker 3: Right, exactly right, like I don't. Nobody's living.
- 6:13Speaker 4: I mean, well, maybe certain women may be like feeling
- 6:16Speaker 4: regretful or rueful that they didn't have the child that
- 6:18Speaker 4: they want.
- 6:19Speaker 2: Oh, well that's a big boy, he's yeah, he's you know,
- 6:23Speaker 2: the freedom in my life is not wasted on me,
- 6:25Speaker 2: and I know I feel like I feel I.
- 6:27Speaker 3: Feel very free in life. So I'm glad to hear that.
- 6:31Speaker 3: And there you go. But talk to me about your.
- 6:34Speaker 4: Sisters, because we have a lot of sisters. I love sisters.
- 6:37Speaker 4: I'm one of three girls in my family, so yeah,
- 6:40Speaker 4: we have three boys and three girls, so I have
- 6:43Speaker 4: both worlds to choose to have experience from. But I
- 6:46Speaker 4: always find families like that, you know, that are only girls,
- 6:50Speaker 4: and especially when there's three or more. I always am
- 6:53Speaker 4: like very attracted to that dynamic.
- 6:56Speaker 2: I love it. And we're all radically different, yes, but
- 7:00Speaker 2: we all connect in some way. Uh huh so, and
- 7:04Speaker 2: what's the like age game? So my oldest sister, Karen's
- 7:08Speaker 2: turning sixty very very soon, which is weird to say
- 7:12Speaker 2: because she's just so like cute and little and fun
- 7:15Speaker 2: and feisty. And she just joined a sailing club, which
- 7:18Speaker 2: is my favorite thing.
- 7:19Speaker 3: That's funny.
- 7:20Speaker 2: Ar and her husband moved back. They're like one of
- 7:22Speaker 2: the most happily married couples. I know, my sister Karen
- 7:25Speaker 2: and my brother in law Jeff, which you don't hear
- 7:27Speaker 2: about often anymore, but they've been married for well over
- 7:31Speaker 2: thirty years. And then Michelle is fifty seven. I'm turning
- 7:36Speaker 2: fifty five, and then or she's so fifty eight, fifty five,
- 7:40Speaker 2: fifty one. We go like two years, three years, four years,
- 7:43Speaker 2: so there's like a nine year span.
- 7:45Speaker 4: Yeah, and are you guys do you guys see each
- 7:47Speaker 4: other pretty regularly or well?
- 7:49Speaker 2: Now the three of them are New York, New Jersey,
- 7:51Speaker 2: so it's great because when I get there, I can
- 7:53Speaker 2: see everybody.
- 7:54Speaker 3: Yeah, how do you like living in Vegas.
- 7:56Speaker 2: They're gonna say, how do you like living in your
- 7:57Speaker 2: Kia sport?
- 7:58Speaker 3: Yea, well that was ask quest.
- 8:00Speaker 2: I do have an RV. That's another story. I love
- 8:02Speaker 2: living in Vegas. I'm always telling people how great it
- 8:04Speaker 2: is to live in Vegas.
- 8:05Speaker 4: Really tell me, because I have a trouble going to Vegas.
- 8:08Speaker 2: But you probably never leave. Do you ever leave the strip?
- 8:11Speaker 4: Well, I had a boyfriend who had a house in Vegas,
- 8:12Speaker 4: So then I spent some time in Vegas, which was
- 8:15Speaker 4: even more convincing that I shouldn't spend any long period day.
- 8:18Speaker 2: And I can say this because my ex boyfriend and
- 8:20Speaker 2: I are friends now. But see, I did Vegas his
- 8:23Speaker 2: way in a house with him, and I was a
- 8:25Speaker 2: little like hmmm. And then when I moved into my
- 8:28Speaker 2: own house and started doing it my way. I can't
- 8:29Speaker 2: explain it, but I just now I love it. Oh
- 8:32Speaker 2: I've been there fifteen years.
- 8:33Speaker 3: Oh wow?
- 8:34Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I mean, and I live you know, I
- 8:37Speaker 2: love living. First of all, there's anyone who complains about
- 8:39Speaker 2: rush hour traffic in Vegas. I'm like, no, it all
- 8:43Speaker 2: moves within ten minutes. Whenever I land there on a plane.
- 8:47Speaker 2: I'm just like, oh, I can breathe. It's just it
- 8:50Speaker 2: just feels open, expansive. There's mountains. The hot weather is
- 8:54Speaker 2: the worst thing about it, but it's not that bad.
- 8:56Speaker 2: Every place has something. But I live not far from Hiking,
- 9:00Speaker 2: I live near Target. I'm twenty minutes from fake Paris.
- 9:04Speaker 2: I like to say, like, you can have all that
- 9:06Speaker 2: if you want it, you know, but and you go
- 9:09Speaker 2: out in Vegas, I don't a lot, like I just
- 9:12Speaker 2: have my handful of friends and there could be dinners
- 9:14Speaker 2: or a show. U huh, like I've seen I'm sure
- 9:17Speaker 2: you're friends with carrat Top Scott, I've seen him twice.
- 9:19Speaker 2: I don't know. I just think all comedians know each other, right, right.
- 9:24Speaker 3: I don't know. I mean, I'm sure I've met him,
- 9:25Speaker 3: but I'm not. I don't know him at all.
- 9:27Speaker 2: But I love like, I just love that about my
- 9:29Speaker 2: life in Vegas. I could text Donnie Osmond or Carrot
- 9:31Speaker 2: Top and go, Okay, come to your show tonight, yeah,
- 9:33Speaker 2: and I'll be treated great and right hang out like
- 9:36Speaker 2: that's my going on.
- 9:40Speaker 3: That's it.
- 9:41Speaker 2: I did an we'll call it a mini residency, an
- 9:43Speaker 2: eighth show run with Joey McIntyre a couple of years ago.
- 9:46Speaker 4: The Venetia Joey wrote the opening forward for your book,
- 9:48Speaker 4: did Yeah, which was really sweet.
- 9:51Speaker 2: Thank you. Yeah, I love him so much, so I'm yesterday.
- 9:54Speaker 3: Oh cute. Yeah, Yea's a sweetheart.
- 9:56Speaker 2: I love him.
- 9:57Speaker 4: I want to talk about your like panic. I like
- 10:00Speaker 4: what you talk about in the book a lot. I
- 10:01Speaker 4: think a lot of our listeners can relate to that
- 10:04Speaker 4: not and maybe in the terms that you experienced it
- 10:07Speaker 4: because you were just starting a career at such a
- 10:09Speaker 4: young age and like blowing up. I know my bedroom
- 10:12Speaker 4: was lined with posters of Debbi Gils.
- 10:16Speaker 3: I was obsessed, obsessed with you.
- 10:19Speaker 4: Thank you, and to hear you talk about those years
- 10:22Speaker 4: in the book, like about how crazy it was and
- 10:25Speaker 4: how your mom was a great mamager, you know, pretty
- 10:29Speaker 4: much kind of the first momager.
- 10:31Speaker 2: Yeah, especially in music, you know, because like Brookshields had
- 10:33Speaker 2: her mom who was a manager agent type person, and
- 10:37Speaker 2: but yeah, in music, and to be the momager of
- 10:40Speaker 2: a young pop singer, songwriter, it's the whole thing. It's
- 10:45Speaker 2: a very specific thing.
- 10:46Speaker 4: Especially now because the landscape is so different. Like you know,
- 10:49Speaker 4: when you were coming up, it was like you and Tiffany,
- 10:51Speaker 4: those are the only two young girls that were out singing,
- 10:55Speaker 4: and now there's like this array of you know, from
- 10:57Speaker 4: Taylor Swift to Chaplerome to Charlie XX to you know,
- 11:02Speaker 4: Gracie Abrams.
- 11:02Speaker 3: Like there's so many young people coming up right.
- 11:06Speaker 2: Now, right, it's just its own lane now. But there
- 11:08Speaker 2: was no lane at the time, right, And people forget
- 11:10Speaker 2: there was no lane. And it had been a good
- 11:13Speaker 2: decade since Carol King and even like I think about
- 11:17Speaker 2: Linda Ronstadt and her theater crossover that had been a minute,
- 11:20Speaker 2: Like I was kind of I was at the forefront
- 11:23Speaker 2: of my generation doing it, and so the machine wasn't
- 11:26Speaker 2: ready for it, didn't know how to do it.
- 11:28Speaker 1: Well, if you were writing all your own music, which
- 11:30Speaker 1: nobody else was, you know, your age was doing that
- 11:32Speaker 1: at the.
- 11:32Speaker 2: Time, Yes, and then the men in suits had nothing
- 11:34Speaker 2: to do. Right. That's by the way, every day I
- 11:38Speaker 2: think of a line like, that's a line I wish
- 11:40Speaker 2: was in the book. It's not. It's just here on
- 11:43Speaker 2: your podcast. But like every day I wake up and
- 11:45Speaker 2: I'm like, why didn't I phrase it that way? It's
- 11:47Speaker 2: so great, it's like encapsulates. I probably could have saved
- 11:49Speaker 2: a whole paragraph by writing that sentence. But that's what
- 11:53Speaker 2: it is. The men in suits were used to repairing
- 11:55Speaker 2: this young girl who just stands on a stage and
- 11:59Speaker 2: sayings with than older male to write her songs because
- 12:02Speaker 2: older men really know what young girls in high school
- 12:05Speaker 2: are thinking and want to hear musically, right, it didn't
- 12:07Speaker 2: make any sense to us. And so my mom was literally,
- 12:12Speaker 2: my daughter knows how. I always channel her whenever I
- 12:15Speaker 2: like read excerpts from the book or do that, like
- 12:18Speaker 2: it's so visceral for me, because I was there, and
- 12:21Speaker 2: she really truly was like, she knows what this song
- 12:24Speaker 2: should sound like. And the producing to me was never
- 12:26Speaker 2: a mystery. It's I know in my head what I
- 12:30Speaker 2: want to come out of the speakers. Like when I
- 12:32Speaker 2: watch the Wham documentary, I didn't realize I think it
- 12:34Speaker 2: was our Reef Martin originally produced Careless Whisper, and George
- 12:38Speaker 2: Michael was like, you're making it too complicated. It's simpler,
- 12:43Speaker 2: and then he produced himself because I think ballads almost
- 12:46Speaker 2: produce themselves. So I was like, no, no, this song,
- 12:48Speaker 2: I don't need a co producer. I don't need a producer,
- 12:50Speaker 2: And they were kind of like what and I say
- 12:53Speaker 2: it in the book, but like the mumm, the suit
- 12:55Speaker 2: shoulders going up and down. I can picture it, but
- 12:58Speaker 2: it was kind of nervousness. It was like what do
- 13:00Speaker 2: we what do we do with this? We don't this
- 13:02Speaker 2: is new landscape. But that ended up being my first
- 13:05Speaker 2: number one, you know what the songs that wrote yeah,
- 13:07Speaker 2: the two. It was my first and my second number one,
- 13:10Speaker 2: and it put me in the Guinness Book of World Records.
- 13:12Speaker 2: And then I became the youngest and the second youngest
- 13:15Speaker 2: wow within a year, which is nuts but also shouldn't
- 13:18Speaker 2: be nuts.
- 13:19Speaker 1: Right, Yeah, And your mom really advocated for you and
- 13:23Speaker 1: was sort of like a bulldog amongst all these like
- 13:26Speaker 1: men in suits, as you say, but it seems like
- 13:28Speaker 1: she was very ahead of her time when it came
- 13:30Speaker 1: to your panic attacks and that sort of thing of
- 13:32Speaker 1: understanding when you needed to take a step back and
- 13:35Speaker 1: not just like pushing you.
- 13:36Speaker 4: Can you yes, yes, and talk about when that started,
- 13:40Speaker 4: like when did your panics attack start? And now obviously
- 13:43Speaker 4: we know what brought them on, but you talk about it.
- 13:47Speaker 2: Yeah, And you know you had started to say a
- 13:50Speaker 2: minute ago, like it's different for a lot of people
- 13:52Speaker 2: in your audience, maybe because but I think like anxiety
- 13:55Speaker 2: is anxiety. Anybody who's ever experienced My heart's getting speedy
- 13:59Speaker 2: and the walls are closing in and I don't know
- 14:01Speaker 2: where my next Brett is coming from, and is this
- 14:03Speaker 2: a heart attack or an anxiety attack or like what's happening?
- 14:06Speaker 2: And back then that wasn't on the tip of everyone's tongue.
- 14:09Speaker 2: And if you were a young girl in show business,
- 14:11Speaker 2: you were most definitely whining if anything was, you know, stressful. Right, Yeah,
- 14:19Speaker 2: so that was that And by the way, that's what
- 14:21Speaker 2: causes further panic attacks. It's like going, no, I'm good
- 14:23Speaker 2: and finding instead of being like, this is weird, like
- 14:27Speaker 2: you weren't allowed to say so. I talk about it
- 14:31Speaker 2: in the book when I had this dinner. Now, you know,
- 14:34Speaker 2: we're always schmoozing in show business and we're still doing it,
- 14:37Speaker 2: and that's part of what you do. But it's weird
- 14:39Speaker 2: when you're a teenage girl and it's like, oh, you
- 14:43Speaker 2: will have a dinner with this First of all, I
- 14:45Speaker 2: didn't want to have dinners.
- 14:47Speaker 4: Yeah, and why does anyone want to have dinner with
- 14:49Speaker 4: a teenage girl? Exactly what kind of stimuli are you
- 14:55Speaker 4: going to get from that?
- 14:56Speaker 2: Exactly? It is that like you're the artist and you're
- 14:59Speaker 2: the comman and the label is delivering that the and
- 15:02Speaker 2: you know, my mom was there, but it was still
- 15:05Speaker 2: like she and I didn't go to dinners, like somebody
- 15:08Speaker 2: in the family cooked or somebody brought brought McDonald's home,
- 15:11Speaker 2: or like we're in the suburbs of Long Island, like
- 15:14Speaker 2: we're not doing dinners. So I was sitting there and
- 15:17Speaker 2: I had the inner model, like I can remember the
- 15:19Speaker 2: inner dialogue, you know, and I was really uncomfortable and
- 15:22Speaker 2: like what am I talking to about this guy about?
- 15:24Speaker 2: And I have a show in two hours and I
- 15:25Speaker 2: want to be like napping and warming up, and like
- 15:28Speaker 2: this is so weird, and this is we have to
- 15:29Speaker 2: do to get a record played, Like this is so weird.
- 15:32Speaker 2: And I just was like, oh my god, I have
- 15:35Speaker 2: to get up from the table. And by the way,
- 15:37Speaker 2: I couldn't sit in a restaurant at a table, not
- 15:39Speaker 2: only just because of the sense memory of it, but
- 15:41Speaker 2: I just couldn't sit still for like three years. I
- 15:44Speaker 2: mean it was really intill.
- 15:45Speaker 4: In the book you talk about like being like with
- 15:47Speaker 4: your family and having dinner and having to get up
- 15:49Speaker 4: and walk away from the table. And at that point,
- 15:52Speaker 4: like the feelings of oh god, my family's going to
- 15:54Speaker 4: think I'm a diva, that this is all because I've
- 15:57Speaker 4: become famous and I've you know, I'm hitting it right now.
- 16:01Speaker 4: But your mom totally understood that you actually, like had
- 16:03Speaker 4: such anxiety that you could because.
- 16:05Speaker 2: It was disruptive. And I was never one to want
- 16:08Speaker 2: negative attention. So if anything, like all I wanted was
- 16:13Speaker 2: to blend. I wanted to be one of my sisters
- 16:15Speaker 2: at that point. And by the way, I'm going to
- 16:17Speaker 2: circle back around to this, but what you were saying
- 16:19Speaker 2: about my sisters and my mom, she empowered all of us,
- 16:22Speaker 2: like it just was it was it was she was
- 16:26Speaker 2: ahead of her time because it wasn't even like waving
- 16:28Speaker 2: the flag for it was just like, well, of course
- 16:29Speaker 2: you can't do anything, oh right, you're a girl or whatever,
- 16:32Speaker 2: but of course, like, let's just just do what you do.
- 16:35Speaker 2: And it was all you know, who wanted a college
- 16:37Speaker 2: path and who wanted to show this path and who
- 16:39Speaker 2: wanted a fashion designer path, and everybody had a different path.
- 16:42Speaker 2: So I love love that about her. We just our
- 16:46Speaker 2: visions were kind of far fetched and seemingly unattainable, and
- 16:50Speaker 2: they happened, and it.
- 16:51Speaker 4: Just happens that you ever, like at that age, like
- 16:54Speaker 4: you know, you need a guardian, you know, still like
- 16:57Speaker 4: whoever your mother has to go with you because you
- 17:00Speaker 4: can't go by yourself. Yes, it's not like going to school.
- 17:03Speaker 4: You're like going out into the real world. Are sleazy
- 17:05Speaker 4: men like you have to have a party in with you?
- 17:08Speaker 2: Yes. And she really became my manager by default though,
- 17:10Speaker 2: because she was good at business, and she was the
- 17:12Speaker 2: one most present and like literally unfiguratively most present. And
- 17:18Speaker 2: the thing I talk about in the book is I
- 17:20Speaker 2: also remember this so vividly. I had done the Metropolitan
- 17:23Speaker 2: Opera's children's chorus for three years and then I started
- 17:27Speaker 2: doing like leads and little operas around New York, and
- 17:31Speaker 2: there was this opera company that wanted me, and they
- 17:33Speaker 2: were like, it's five hundred dollars for the whole run. Now,
- 17:38Speaker 2: she she, for all I know, was making five hundred
- 17:40Speaker 2: dollars a week managing this doctor's office, right, Like that
- 17:44Speaker 2: was like seemingly a lot of money. But she was like,
- 17:47Speaker 2: that just doesn't feel right because you just finished singing
- 17:50Speaker 2: in twelve languages and like you sit sing and like
- 17:52Speaker 2: it's just she always knew my worth yeah, and she
- 17:56Speaker 2: said to the producer like, that's not you know, and
- 17:59Speaker 2: then they tried to hire somebody else. Well, they did
- 18:01Speaker 2: hire somebody else, couldn't cut it. They called me and
- 18:05Speaker 2: it was like, can you learn the whole opera in
- 18:07Speaker 2: two days for the same five hundred dollars? And she
- 18:09Speaker 2: was like deal, and that's you know, And so she
- 18:13Speaker 2: just started doing that naturally, you know, she was she
- 18:17Speaker 2: was cut out for that. And so yeah, but back
- 18:20Speaker 2: to the panic attacks my favorite subject. I'm naturally an
- 18:23Speaker 2: adrenaline girl, and I'm always naturally also like a little
- 18:26Speaker 2: fragile and fatigued. It's a recipe for that. It's like
- 18:29Speaker 2: you're always in fight or fly and you're always like
- 18:31Speaker 2: easily triggered. And that's why performing suits me. And that's
- 18:35Speaker 2: why I could perform at the time no problem, because
- 18:38Speaker 2: my energy was heightened and so all that adrenaline felt right.
- 18:43Speaker 2: But sitting and just kind of being connected and dropped
- 18:46Speaker 2: in didn't didn't feel right.
- 18:48Speaker 4: I see, Yeah, I think a lot of people probably
- 18:51Speaker 4: can relate to that.
- 18:51Speaker 2: Fe Yeah, and I still get social anxiety, Like people
- 18:54Speaker 2: see me on my Instagram and I'm outgoing, but I
- 18:57Speaker 2: have a hard time leaving my house. Once I'm in
- 19:00Speaker 2: my house, I'm a little like, oh, you know the
- 19:03Speaker 2: thing we see on Instagram with the Peanuts, it's two
- 19:05Speaker 2: people out there. It's like two people out there usually
- 19:08Speaker 2: for me.
- 19:09Speaker 3: So what is your life like now in Vegas? Like
- 19:12Speaker 3: what's your whole life like now?
- 19:14Speaker 2: You know, it's very work centric, Like the balance is
- 19:16Speaker 2: definitely off. I'm the person who if I don't have
- 19:19Speaker 2: a rock and relationship or a social life that's cohesive,
- 19:23Speaker 2: like I have a very small amount of friends in Vegas.
- 19:25Speaker 2: Like here there's always people to see in groups of
- 19:28Speaker 2: people and things to do. But I like that about
- 19:30Speaker 2: Vegas for me right now too, because the last five
- 19:32Speaker 2: years have been rebuilding my health and my career, and honestly,
- 19:36Speaker 2: I can't do it with a social life a big
- 19:38Speaker 2: social life at the same time. Right, So that's been
- 19:41Speaker 2: the focus.
- 19:42Speaker 4: Talk about rebuilding your career because I know you were
- 19:45Speaker 4: in financial trouble, right and you know, like what happened.
- 19:49Speaker 2: You know, I left the major label. I left Atlantic
- 19:52Speaker 2: at twenty one, left millions of dollars in advance money.
- 19:57Speaker 2: And the time it took for like that kind to
- 20:00Speaker 2: catch up to me and my mom that we were
- 20:02Speaker 2: indie like. Right at the moment I left, should have
- 20:05Speaker 2: been like, we can't have a Manhattan office and I
- 20:08Speaker 2: can't be spending this on clothes, and we can't be right,
- 20:12Speaker 2: we can't have five employees. So we kind of kept
- 20:14Speaker 2: that party going, probably too long, and we had the
- 20:17Speaker 2: big I call it the house that pop Music built.
- 20:19Speaker 2: We had it for too long. It took too long
- 20:22Speaker 2: to sell, and like you know, and then I was
- 20:24Speaker 2: moving out and moving into the city and on my own,
- 20:27Speaker 2: and so it just everything caught up to us. Really,
- 20:31Speaker 2: that's scary, it is. And then I did Playboy. And
- 20:35Speaker 2: when I did Playboy, everybody was predicting, Oh, you're gonna
- 20:39Speaker 2: make this. I always let's saying on the back end.
- 20:40Speaker 2: I love saying back end, and Playboy in the same
- 20:43Speaker 2: everybody was counting the money before it came in, which
- 20:46Speaker 2: often happens in showbiz, and it just all you know
- 20:50Speaker 2: that the dollars and cents started to not work out.
- 20:53Speaker 3: But what did they think you were going to make
- 20:54Speaker 3: money off of Playboy with?
- 20:56Speaker 2: Well, because you get like back end sales, but they
- 20:59Speaker 2: didn't put me on a cover cover across. I didn't
- 21:02Speaker 2: show enough.
- 21:05Speaker 4: And so it wasn't as big of a like a
- 21:09Speaker 4: presence I see as I didn't realize you get back
- 21:11Speaker 4: and when you pose for Playboy, yes, really that's actually
- 21:14Speaker 4: like the bigger you get like a yeah, you get
- 21:16Speaker 4: a nice payday, but then no, that's the big right,
- 21:20Speaker 4: or at least they tell you.
- 21:21Speaker 1: You're gonna get the back end.
- 21:22Speaker 2: And I had never had a mortgage in my life,
- 21:24Speaker 2: and my business managers at the time were like, yeah,
- 21:27Speaker 2: So I didn't enjoy that. I was running to keep up.
- 21:30Speaker 2: And in showbiz, you know, you know, it's like as
- 21:32Speaker 2: much or more mostly about what you say no to
- 21:36Speaker 2: because the minute you start taking those gigs, it's such
- 21:40Speaker 2: a slippery slope. And so and that was a time
- 21:43Speaker 2: of reality. It was a time of like five grand
- 21:46Speaker 2: to go pretend you're shopping for this house and this
- 21:50Speaker 2: or this huge apartment that you were And so I
- 21:52Speaker 2: started doing those things and that just started to feel
- 21:55Speaker 2: really bad. Oh yeah, and my health was suffering. I
- 21:58Speaker 2: couldn't work as much. So I got lined listen either
- 22:02Speaker 2: gotline disease or I had it for ages, and it
- 22:05Speaker 2: came out and took me over. When my life was
- 22:08Speaker 2: in disharmony, and my mom was you know, you either
- 22:13Speaker 2: in this business change with the times or you age out.
- 22:18Speaker 2: And she had her old school mentality, and there was
- 22:20Speaker 2: that whole one hundred percent and nothing's nothing mom, Like
- 22:23Speaker 2: it's a different time, like you have to there was
- 22:25Speaker 2: this I felt things changing.
- 22:28Speaker 3: The music industry right, and that changes.
- 22:31Speaker 4: You know.
- 22:32Speaker 2: I always say this to my manager now, Heather, who
- 22:34Speaker 2: actually worked for and she's like solely responsible for the
- 22:38Speaker 2: rebuild that if my mom was around right now and
- 22:41Speaker 2: we're like quick, who's like, what's her at? And we
- 22:44Speaker 2: got the credit wrong on this and we're tagging and
- 22:46Speaker 2: did you invite to collab? And did we? Oh god wait,
- 22:49Speaker 2: I got to delete and start again because the timing,
- 22:52Speaker 2: my mom would have been in a constant state of
- 22:55Speaker 2: fight or flight, even if she had an assistant doing
- 22:58Speaker 2: things for her. You know, she just was of a
- 23:00Speaker 2: different time and she was a you wrote the song,
- 23:04Speaker 2: we're protecting now you're I'm giving away somebody created the
- 23:07Speaker 2: riff and the intro, and we're giving them a piece
- 23:09Speaker 2: of the writing. And like nobody's reading the credits anyway,
- 23:12Speaker 2: and who care, Like, just get the song out. But
- 23:14Speaker 2: she wasn't of that, you know. I remember a big
- 23:17Speaker 2: fight we had. It's funny now to me, and this
- 23:20Speaker 2: was like just such a poignant moment in things are transitioning.
- 23:25Speaker 2: For a while, had like a little red piano, little
- 23:28Speaker 2: baby gram that would show up on stages for the
- 23:31Speaker 2: you know, and it was like I was doing a
- 23:32Speaker 2: club in West Hollywood and it was like, I got
- 23:35Speaker 2: you that piano, and then I hear directly from the
- 23:38Speaker 2: booking agent because people feel they could come to me,
- 23:41Speaker 2: like your mom raked us over the calls about this piano,
- 23:44Speaker 2: and I was like, Mom, We're not making a piano
- 23:46Speaker 2: at a club in West Hollywood. It's like better to
- 23:49Speaker 2: have a keyboard and it's going direct and we don't
- 23:51Speaker 2: need the visual of that anymore. But she was trying.
- 23:54Speaker 2: You know, it had to be hard for her because
- 23:58Speaker 2: she was there for Madison Square. She got me onto
- 24:01Speaker 2: that stage at Madison Square Garden, and she fought for
- 24:04Speaker 2: all those things and she didn't want to let those
- 24:06Speaker 2: things go. Mmmm, you know, and that makes me emotional
- 24:09Speaker 2: to think about and talk about. So, you know, and
- 24:12Speaker 2: nobody gives anybody grace in this business. So it was credit,
- 24:15Speaker 2: you know, or credit or credit and you know to
- 24:19Speaker 2: think that, So then I talk about this in the
- 24:21Speaker 2: book too. She's I see her from agents that your
- 24:24Speaker 2: mom wrote a big, long emotional email again, and I'm like,
- 24:28Speaker 2: because she can't be neutral about the fact that y'all
- 24:30Speaker 2: have me as a name on the on a list
- 24:33Speaker 2: when she knows what I do. She knows what I do,
- 24:36Speaker 2: and I've always done more than people know I can do. Right,
- 24:40Speaker 2: So it's like I write and I create. I'm always like,
- 24:42Speaker 2: somebody hang a shingle for me. I have a lot
- 24:44Speaker 2: of incredible ideas, relevant ideas, but you know, there's a
- 24:49Speaker 2: way to go about making, you know, facilitating that. And
- 24:52Speaker 2: she she banged her fists on the table because that's
- 24:55Speaker 2: what she knew well.
- 24:56Speaker 1: And one thing I gathered from your book was I
- 24:58Speaker 1: think this is very interesting, is having a parent who
- 25:01Speaker 1: has such a strong personality like that. You know, you
- 25:04Speaker 1: speak very glowingly of your mother, but then also talk
- 25:06Speaker 1: about some of the difficult things you went through, like
- 25:08Speaker 1: you're talking about right now. And I think right now especially,
- 25:11Speaker 1: there's a big movement of my parents were either perfect
- 25:13Speaker 1: and amazing or we're dotte and I'm cutting them off
- 25:16Speaker 1: or whatever. But I think people can be people are complicated,
- 25:19Speaker 1: especially parent relationships like they can be both.
- 25:22Speaker 2: One thousand percent, like I even taught listen. I spoke
- 25:24Speaker 2: to Betty Buckley for like three days before I wrote
- 25:26Speaker 2: the chapter about her, because nobody wants Betty Buckley to
- 25:29Speaker 2: wake up and be surprised about what you wrote about
- 25:32Speaker 2: her in her book. And I love her, but she's
- 25:35Speaker 2: a complicated woman. And she and I talked about like
- 25:38Speaker 2: she was like, deb the whole thing is you had
- 25:42Speaker 2: this stage mother that was eventually going to turn into
- 25:45Speaker 2: mom arose like, and I was trying to fast track
- 25:49Speaker 2: you getting there to really but you were you were
- 25:52Speaker 2: protecting your mother, so you couldn't let go as an
- 25:55Speaker 2: actress in that role when she was playing her mother, right, yeah,
- 25:59Speaker 2: I think the gypsy right, yes, because you know, at
- 26:01Speaker 2: one point there's a sign that says the mother of
- 26:03Speaker 2: miss Gypsy Rosalie is not allowed backstage. And at one
- 26:06Speaker 2: point Heather, who worked for my mom so talk about
- 26:09Speaker 2: a complicated little triangle took over and my mom god
- 26:13Speaker 2: lover would just kind of raise little hell backstage, right,
- 26:17Speaker 2: And Heather was like, now, my job as your manager
- 26:19Speaker 2: is to keep you focused and keep that away from you.
- 26:22Speaker 2: But it's your mother, your mother hired me, so like,
- 26:24Speaker 2: what do we do with that? But that was the
- 26:27Speaker 2: place Betty was trying to get me to. So my
- 26:29Speaker 2: point is in the book, I speak about both sides
- 26:33Speaker 2: of my mom, the side that was a stage mother,
- 26:35Speaker 2: in the side that was absolutely not a stage mother
- 26:37Speaker 2: in the bad sense of the term. But I also
- 26:39Speaker 2: say in every soccer mom, every mom who's like I
- 26:43Speaker 2: want my kid to go to medical school or I
- 26:45Speaker 2: want you know whatever, the thing is like, I think
- 26:50Speaker 2: every parent is a stage parent in some way, living
- 26:53Speaker 2: a little vicariously through maybe some if their kid has
- 26:56Speaker 2: a talent that they didn't have, I just wanted or
- 26:58Speaker 2: just wanting to give them an opportunity they didn't have.
- 27:01Speaker 4: And how did your relationship with your mom affect her
- 27:04Speaker 4: relationship with your other three sisters?
- 27:06Speaker 2: You know, I wrote this scene in a Hallmark movie
- 27:09Speaker 2: I did where my sister Denise, who I made the
- 27:13Speaker 2: character named Denise, and I talked about like, I'm so
- 27:18Speaker 2: sorry I ruined your childhood and she was like, you
- 27:21Speaker 2: didn't ruin my child And I never blamed you for
- 27:24Speaker 2: anything like I was. I just was like, Deb's doing
- 27:26Speaker 2: what she loves to do. But I did take my
- 27:30Speaker 2: mom's attention away for sure. You know, it was like
- 27:33Speaker 2: it was a deb centric household. And so my younger
- 27:37Speaker 2: sister probably got the worst of it because my older
- 27:40Speaker 2: two sisters were off to college and all that, and
- 27:44Speaker 2: I think that sometimes they were like, hmm, Deb and
- 27:46Speaker 2: her concerts, and then they were like, can we get
- 27:48Speaker 2: tickets to write? You know, everybody also enjoyed it, like, yeah,
- 27:52Speaker 2: they all enjoyed the house and the parties and the
- 27:54Speaker 2: meeting the people and the perks. But my younger sister,
- 27:57Speaker 2: Denise was essentially like partially raised by a house keeper,
- 28:01Speaker 2: So I think she felt like she missed out on
- 28:03Speaker 2: my mom a little bit.
- 28:05Speaker 4: That makes sense, Yeah, And how do you feel when
- 28:07Speaker 4: you reflect on your like early success and then like
- 28:10Speaker 4: struggling later on, you know, the way that your career
- 28:13Speaker 4: arc has gone, like when you think about it, which
- 28:15Speaker 4: you you know, reflect a lot on in this book,
- 28:18Speaker 4: How does how do you feel about it?
- 28:19Speaker 3: Everything?
- 28:20Speaker 2: I mean, like I love where I've landed now. When
- 28:24Speaker 2: I wrote the book, I was like, well, I've been
- 28:26Speaker 2: through a lot of stuff, Like I really like at
- 28:29Speaker 2: any given point I could have just you know bowed
- 28:32Speaker 2: out probably and then like the health challenges was like
- 28:36Speaker 2: a free pass to bow out because doctors had me
- 28:39Speaker 2: heading in such a different direction where I literally could
- 28:41Speaker 2: have been like, well, I just can't work anymore, like
- 28:44Speaker 2: if I want it, but I always I'm a survivor,
- 28:46Speaker 2: you know, and I'm a thriver. I was like, I
- 28:48Speaker 2: don't even want to just survive. I want to like
- 28:51Speaker 2: have a badass second act. See. The thing is, I
- 28:54Speaker 2: kept thinking I was in a second act, third act.
- 28:57Speaker 2: I'm now in a true second act. And all the
- 28:59Speaker 2: rest was me trying to.
- 29:03Speaker 3: Well.
- 29:03Speaker 2: I was trying to figure things out, and I was
- 29:05Speaker 2: doing a lot of theater because theater was a pure
- 29:08Speaker 2: thing for me. Like you go, you play a role,
- 29:10Speaker 2: you deliver, people respect it, you have a great time,
- 29:13Speaker 2: you're one of the gang. It was like a clear
- 29:16Speaker 2: cut thing that I could do. But at the same time,
- 29:19Speaker 2: like my spirit's rock and roll, and I need to
- 29:22Speaker 2: do my own thing in my own music. It was
- 29:25Speaker 2: on Adam Corolla Show yesterday and we were talking about this.
- 29:29Speaker 2: I said, if only at a crystal ball to no,
- 29:31Speaker 2: when no matter how fast you're dancing, no matter how
- 29:34Speaker 2: hard you're shaking the trees, it's not your time, Like
- 29:37Speaker 2: people are not embracing you. The era you came from,
- 29:40Speaker 2: whatever the thing is. It's like numerology, right, It's like
- 29:43Speaker 2: these years are going to be Jimmy Van Patton is
- 29:45Speaker 2: one of my best friends, and his mom Pat reads numbers,
- 29:48Speaker 2: and she basically told me right before, like the relationship
- 29:53Speaker 2: that was gonna like it was great? What was great?
- 29:55Speaker 2: And that it wasn't and was. She basically was like,
- 29:58Speaker 2: your life's gonna be it's just going to suck for
- 30:00Speaker 2: eight years?
- 30:01Speaker 3: Did she?
- 30:01Speaker 2: Yeah? And did and what year? And then I came
- 30:04Speaker 2: out of it. It was like up till four years
- 30:06Speaker 2: ago or five years ago, oh wow, Like the mixtape
- 30:08Speaker 2: tour kind of was one of the churning points. Dancing
- 30:11Speaker 2: with the Stars was me like, right, I'm going to
- 30:14Speaker 2: fire up the engines, which I did a little too soon,
- 30:16Speaker 2: Like I wish I was doing Dancing with the Stars
- 30:18Speaker 2: now because I could have done a lot better, but
- 30:20Speaker 2: that wasn't the point of it for me. Then it
- 30:22Speaker 2: was like I'm going to tell my body that I'm
- 30:24Speaker 2: not old and debilitated and sick, right, I'm just going
- 30:27Speaker 2: to do that. And I made it to like it
- 30:29Speaker 2: was like I was. I left right after Barbara Corcoran,
- 30:31Speaker 2: like third or something. I love her by the way,
- 30:35Speaker 2: she was amazing. You know what I what I love
- 30:38Speaker 2: about it is I did a lot of things I
- 30:41Speaker 2: didn't overthink. Like even when the sci fi movie moment
- 30:44Speaker 2: came up, I was like, I don't have a movie
- 30:46Speaker 2: career to kill, so what can I What do I
- 30:48Speaker 2: have to lose by battling a giant shark and driving
- 30:53Speaker 2: a submittage.
- 30:53Speaker 1: Because I'm like, I love I love a cheesy shark movie.
- 30:56Speaker 1: I love the meg.
- 30:58Speaker 2: I love weirdly at the forefront of it's show warby praise,
- 31:01Speaker 2: I remember like I was a guinea pig or pioneer,
- 31:03Speaker 2: depending on how you look at it. Right, And my
- 31:05Speaker 2: agent at the time, David Shapira Shapiro with an A,
- 31:09Speaker 2: was like, I got this little movie, and it's like
- 31:12Speaker 2: they're paying They're not paying a lot, but you know,
- 31:15Speaker 2: if you want to do it, nobody's going it's like
- 31:17Speaker 2: a cult thing. It'll be fun. And then the day
- 31:21Speaker 2: the trailer came out was like a half a million
- 31:24Speaker 2: hits on the trailer because a shark was eating the
- 31:26Speaker 2: Golden Gate Bridge and I was driving a submarine. I mean,
- 31:31Speaker 2: it was just it was awesome. But my point is
- 31:33Speaker 2: I've done a lot of things that make me giggle
- 31:36Speaker 2: if not taken myself that seriously. I take what I'm
- 31:39Speaker 2: supposed to take seriously seriously, and I don't take the
- 31:42Speaker 2: rest seriously.
- 31:43Speaker 3: Well that's a gift right there.
- 31:44Speaker 2: I feel like it is. And so when I look,
- 31:45Speaker 2: when I look at my life, I go, you know,
- 31:49Speaker 2: I name a chapter my way, and all the boys
- 31:51Speaker 2: have a rendition in my way. But I have done
- 31:53Speaker 2: things my way for better or worse.
- 31:55Speaker 3: And what about your love life? How do you feel
- 31:57Speaker 3: about that?
- 31:59Speaker 2: That's like the okay, so you might relate to what
- 32:01Speaker 2: I'm about to say. The people you want or in
- 32:05Speaker 2: my book, the person I've wanted to step up has
- 32:08Speaker 2: intercanters off in another journey, We'll say. And then the
- 32:13Speaker 2: guys that do things the right way, You're like, no,
- 32:15Speaker 2: they're just not it. Or people are so like what
- 32:18Speaker 2: I have in my life is either someone DMS me
- 32:21Speaker 2: and they've got like a little bit of stature or whatever,
- 32:24Speaker 2: and they have a future planned. They're like, hope you
- 32:27Speaker 2: like to travel and like to do and I'm like,
- 32:29Speaker 2: I don't know you. I mean maybe, but I'm such
- 32:33Speaker 2: an organic love person, like I have to it just
- 32:36Speaker 2: has to unfold. And I'm at the point where, like
- 32:41Speaker 2: I said at the beginning of this conversation, if it's
- 32:44Speaker 2: not naturally unfolding, I'm just going to keep doing what
- 32:47Speaker 2: I'm doing and that'll appear if and when it's supposed to.
- 32:50Speaker 4: And with regard to the person that hasn't stepped up
- 32:53Speaker 4: in your life, because a lot of our listeners are
- 32:55Speaker 4: trying to navigate in or out of relationships, or well
- 32:59Speaker 4: mostly out of our relationships, or they're looking for a relationship.
- 33:03Speaker 4: But like, talk to me about how you what you decided,
- 33:07Speaker 4: how you decided to move away from that when you
- 33:10Speaker 4: were getting what you wanted.
- 33:12Speaker 2: Right, Well, that's a great question. And have I fully
- 33:14Speaker 2: moved away emotionally? It's the real question, because what happened
- 33:18Speaker 2: was this person that like reappeared in my life and
- 33:20Speaker 2: I was like, oh my god, I was a thousand
- 33:24Speaker 2: percent sure. I was like, this is my person. I
- 33:26Speaker 2: never even thought I would have a person. And you know,
- 33:32Speaker 2: I'm like, I'm that sole connection person and I am
- 33:35Speaker 2: I guess you could say the cliche and it is
- 33:37Speaker 2: I see this person's potential or this, but it has
- 33:41Speaker 2: not happened. I had kind of sort of it was
- 33:44Speaker 2: a thing that wasn't a thing, that was a thing
- 33:46Speaker 2: that wasn't a thing. And I'm very much in touch
- 33:48Speaker 2: with this person all the time, and I have friends
- 33:50Speaker 2: that say, hey, if you really want to emotionally disconnect,
- 33:53Speaker 2: you have to get away from greatly not communicate. But
- 33:57Speaker 2: I'm not that person.
- 33:58Speaker 3: So there was no singular event.
- 33:59Speaker 4: It's just it's not a really like it's something you
- 34:02Speaker 4: desire that wasn't happening.
- 34:03Speaker 2: Yes, and it's still it still affects me. So this
- 34:07Speaker 2: person still affects me. But I'm getting better with that
- 34:12Speaker 2: because I've decided I want this person in my life.
- 34:15Speaker 2: I want to be friends. I want to embrace the
- 34:18Speaker 2: situation he's in. But I'm trying to learn how to
- 34:23Speaker 2: not be as affected and to really accept that, Okay,
- 34:27Speaker 2: whatever I think could or may or may have or
- 34:30Speaker 2: may have in the past or may in the future,
- 34:32Speaker 2: what's happening right now is it's not happening. So I'm
- 34:37Speaker 2: still working with it. I'm still in the process of it.
- 34:39Speaker 2: And I shared it in the book and people close
- 34:41Speaker 2: to me were like, you sure you want to share
- 34:43Speaker 2: this because because I was well aware that it was
- 34:47Speaker 2: the scene in never been kissed and I was Drue
- 34:49Speaker 2: Barrymore and I was standing in the middle of that field,
- 34:51Speaker 2: and it could be like, and he's here with me
- 34:54Speaker 2: in the waiting room and we're together.
- 34:56Speaker 5: Right.
- 34:56Speaker 2: It could have been that from when I was writing it, right,
- 34:59Speaker 2: or could be this, which is it's not happening. And
- 35:02Speaker 2: I wanted to be vulnerable about that in the book
- 35:06Speaker 2: because first of all, nobody is all work, work work.
- 35:08Speaker 2: We all have those situations and those feelings, and I
- 35:12Speaker 2: wanted to to be okay with Okay, if it doesn't
- 35:16Speaker 2: work out, it doesn't go the way I want that,
- 35:18Speaker 2: That's what I'll be talking about. And like you said,
- 35:20Speaker 2: so many people are are feeling that and going through that,
- 35:23Speaker 2: and it's honestly, it's just it's not fun. It's it's
- 35:27Speaker 2: inspired endless songs, which has been great, but it's emotional
- 35:32Speaker 2: to even think, oh, I'll record these songs for my
- 35:34Speaker 2: next album and then I'll be living that. And but
- 35:37Speaker 2: that's what we're here for, and that's what artists are
- 35:39Speaker 2: here for. You know, that's right, But it's but it's tough. Yeah,
- 35:43Speaker 2: it's tough, and that.
- 35:45Speaker 4: I will take a break and we'll be right back
- 35:46Speaker 4: with Debbie Gibson, not to be confused with Deborah Gibson
- 35:50Speaker 4: or what was the other pitch for you to go
- 35:52Speaker 4: by Debbie Debbie g We're just Deborah.
- 35:57Speaker 1: Funny that you said, like, oh, that sounds like a
- 35:58Speaker 1: one hit wonder, because it absolutely but I wouldn't have
- 36:00Speaker 1: thought about qig.
- 36:02Speaker 4: Yes.
- 36:04Speaker 1: This week, we're looking for questions from folks who are
- 36:07Speaker 1: or used to be in the military. Your question doesn't
- 36:09Speaker 1: have to necessarily be about your work in the military,
- 36:12Speaker 1: but bonus points if it is. Please write in to
- 36:14Speaker 1: Dear Chelsea Podcast at gmail dot com.
- 36:21Speaker 3: And we're back with Debbig. Okay, what do we got today?
- 36:26Speaker 2: We were talking, we were talking about my love life,
- 36:28Speaker 2: and I feel like I've heard you say things too
- 36:30Speaker 2: about like you want like rendezvous in every report.
- 36:34Speaker 3: Right some of the you, Yeah, that's what I like.
- 36:37Speaker 2: And it doesn't turn into wanting one person to be
- 36:41Speaker 2: the person.
- 36:42Speaker 3: If it does, then it does.
- 36:43Speaker 4: But I don't have the pressure of something has happened
- 36:48Speaker 4: to me in my life where I just don't have
- 36:51Speaker 4: the same like desire, Like I don't have the desire
- 36:55Speaker 4: for a partner, right, I have a desire for adventure.
- 36:58Speaker 4: I need same same and when I think about it
- 37:00Speaker 4: in terms of that, I always think about like when
- 37:03Speaker 4: I meet someone and I like them a lot, I'll
- 37:05Speaker 4: spend more time with them, or I'll commit to a relationship.
- 37:08Speaker 3: It's not like I can't marry it, right, I just don't.
- 37:11Speaker 4: When I think about my life, I feel like, to me,
- 37:14Speaker 4: that feels a narrow and all the options available feel
- 37:18Speaker 4: like more of a wide open operation for me, right,
- 37:21Speaker 4: And I want to move towards a wide open operation,
- 37:23Speaker 4: not narrow I gotcha.
- 37:25Speaker 2: I mean listen, like the reality for me. On one hand,
- 37:29Speaker 2: I love the idea of partnering up again if it's
- 37:31Speaker 2: going to enhance my life. But on the other hand,
- 37:34Speaker 2: this is what this is what I always say when
- 37:37Speaker 2: I'm in my kitchen and I'm like throwing chicken across
- 37:40Speaker 2: the living room to my docs, and I'm like, who's
- 37:43Speaker 2: partnering up in this scenario? And I'm not giving this
- 37:46Speaker 2: up right, right, So there is a little bit of
- 37:49Speaker 2: that too. I wake up in the middle of the night,
- 37:50Speaker 2: I turn on whatever I want exactly all that.
- 37:52Speaker 4: Yeah, I eat food and bed disgusting things. I have
- 37:55Speaker 4: disgusting habits.
- 37:56Speaker 2: I go, oh my god, I think I want to
- 37:58Speaker 2: go live in London next year for three months, and
- 38:00Speaker 2: you know, and so like I'm I'm beholding to nobody,
- 38:03Speaker 2: which is also awesome, but I am still a romantic
- 38:07Speaker 2: so but I still don't understand how it works because
- 38:09Speaker 2: I've never fully successfully made it work for any real
- 38:12Speaker 2: length of time without like getting sick or like all
- 38:16Speaker 2: these things that because I'm juggling too many things. Because
- 38:19Speaker 2: I also only and know how to do everything one way.
- 38:21Speaker 2: So if I did it, I think it would have
- 38:23Speaker 2: to be like Seasonal, where I go, all right, let's
- 38:26Speaker 2: like really spend a lot of time together these three months,
- 38:29Speaker 2: and then I'm going on tour and then maybe you
- 38:31Speaker 2: can come out and meet. Like, I don't really know
- 38:33Speaker 2: technically how it works, so I have a little bit
- 38:35Speaker 2: of that rendezvous mindset.
- 38:37Speaker 1: I love.
- 38:39Speaker 3: I like it, I like it.
- 38:43Speaker 1: Well. Our first question comes from Tracy. Tracy says, dear Chelsea,
- 38:47Speaker 1: I've been a queen most of my life, but after
- 38:50Speaker 1: some career and therefore wealth downturns following a divorce and
- 38:53Speaker 1: my menopausal looks not good, I'm feeling like a loser.
- 38:57Speaker 1: I know I'm not, but feel so down and I'm
- 39:00Speaker 1: feeling jealous of my ex husband's new girlfriend. I hate
- 39:03Speaker 1: that about me, but I haven't been able to stop myself.
- 39:06Speaker 1: I'm especially worried that my kids might start to like
- 39:08Speaker 1: her more than me. I have to stop that immediately.
- 39:11Speaker 1: Probably need therapy about twupoor right now. Please give me
- 39:14Speaker 1: some advice. Tracy who needs her group back?
- 39:16Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, I need it.
- 39:17Speaker 3: I know we gotta have her. Tracy, Honey, stop that.
- 39:21Speaker 3: You can't talk to yourself like that. First of all,
- 39:23Speaker 3: you have to think of your children. You're like they're
- 39:26Speaker 3: guiding light.
- 39:27Speaker 4: You can't start thinking that they're gonna like your husband's
- 39:30Speaker 4: ex husband's wife or girlfriend more than you like. You
- 39:34Speaker 4: have to start writing things down that you like about yourself.
- 39:37Speaker 4: You have to start getting up every single morning and
- 39:39Speaker 4: having gratitude about the fact that you're no longer married.
- 39:42Speaker 4: That's a huge victory. We have children that are healthy
- 39:47Speaker 4: and happy. That's a victory. You are capable. So you
- 39:51Speaker 4: lost your job, You're going through menopause. That's not the
- 39:53Speaker 4: end of the world.
- 39:54Speaker 3: It's a reset. It's an opportunity for a reset.
- 39:56Speaker 4: Every divorce, every like menopause, every may your life change
- 40:01Speaker 4: is an opportunity for a reset. That's how I think
- 40:03Speaker 4: of it, Like, you know, even menopause, while it's so
- 40:06Speaker 4: annoying and gross and so many bad things can happen
- 40:09Speaker 4: from it, Like that's another reason to get stronger, to
- 40:11Speaker 4: get fearcer, to work out, to be more healthy, to
- 40:14Speaker 4: be more conscient, you know, conscientious about your health, about
- 40:17Speaker 4: your food intake, about your alcohol intake, like all of
- 40:19Speaker 4: the things.
- 40:20Speaker 3: But like this pity party that you're having, you can't
- 40:23Speaker 3: be a victim.
- 40:24Speaker 4: You can't sit around and just feel like shit about yourself.
- 40:27Speaker 4: You didn't do anything wrong, and it's up to you
- 40:30Speaker 4: to get yourself out of this. So you've got it
- 40:32Speaker 4: until you can afford. First of all, you can do
- 40:34Speaker 4: better help. That's one of the sponsors of the show
- 40:35Speaker 4: that's really inexpensive therapy. But I would really start by
- 40:39Speaker 4: starting to write every morning, like ten things that you're
- 40:42Speaker 4: grateful for, and that you mix it in with the
- 40:44Speaker 4: things that you like about yourself as a mother, the
- 40:47Speaker 4: things that you like about yourself as a woman, the
- 40:49Speaker 4: things that you're proud of.
- 40:51Speaker 3: Just write those things.
- 40:52Speaker 4: Down to remind yourself of your own innate value, because
- 40:54Speaker 4: we sometimes get lost in your eyes and we forget
- 40:59Speaker 4: about are innate value. So I'm here to remind you
- 41:02Speaker 4: that you have a lot of it and you are
- 41:05Speaker 4: having amnesia.
- 41:06Speaker 2: One thousand percent. I wrote a song called one Step
- 41:09Speaker 2: Closer with DJ Tracy Young on my latest album. It's
- 41:13Speaker 2: not new, but to you it's probably new. But there's
- 41:16Speaker 2: a line in it about love, trust and being enough,
- 41:19Speaker 2: and it's one step closer to love. And sometimes when
- 41:21Speaker 2: you step away from romantic love, you're one step closer
- 41:24Speaker 2: your self love. And also I do think, like I'll
- 41:27Speaker 2: echo just sometimes physical like I started boxing recently and
- 41:34Speaker 2: going to that boxing gym and being one of the
- 41:37Speaker 2: only females there, like, I'm not amazing at it, but
- 41:40Speaker 2: I found it was a way of physically getting unstuck
- 41:43Speaker 2: cause I get in that emotional ball too, Like it
- 41:47Speaker 2: just sounds like you're stuck a little bit. And sometimes
- 41:49Speaker 2: I think firing up the physical engines. Yeah, absolutely is.
- 41:53Speaker 2: It's a way to start. And you're around people who
- 41:56Speaker 2: are like good for you, Like go where your fan
- 41:58Speaker 2: club is, like find you find your people that are
- 42:01Speaker 2: gonna be like you said, praising you, getting it, reminding you,
- 42:05Speaker 2: remind yourself who you are, but get around the people
- 42:07Speaker 2: who remind you who you are.
- 42:09Speaker 1: To Yeah, and just to echo the therapy thing. There
- 42:11Speaker 1: are tons of support groups online weno and like meet
- 42:14Speaker 1: other women who are in the exact same position. So
- 42:16Speaker 1: go take a look for some of those.
- 42:18Speaker 2: Yeah, I know the women that a lot of women
- 42:20Speaker 2: are in this I don't care club. I say, be
- 42:22Speaker 2: in the care club about your self club and keep
- 42:27Speaker 2: moving forward.
- 42:30Speaker 4: Right right, Well, I mean it's good to not care
- 42:33Speaker 4: about what others think, but it's good to it's good
- 42:36Speaker 4: to take the energy you have towards what others think
- 42:39Speaker 4: about you and invest that into yourself.
- 42:42Speaker 2: And some say it's like surrender and relax a bit,
- 42:45Speaker 2: but not to a point where get.
- 42:47Speaker 3: That over the I mean, you can do well.
- 42:51Speaker 1: Our next question comes from Amy, and she is joined
- 42:54Speaker 1: by her friend Christina for moral support, and also she's
- 42:57Speaker 1: referenced in the email, so her subject line is Judgmental
- 43:00Speaker 1: parents and seven Siblings. Amy says, Dear Chelsea, I'm writing
- 43:04Speaker 1: because I could really use some guidance on how to
- 43:06Speaker 1: deal with religious parents who are very intense and judgmental,
- 43:09Speaker 1: especially when it creates tension between siblings for contacts. I
- 43:12Speaker 1: have seven siblings, all of us adults now, most living
- 43:15Speaker 1: in different states. We all love each other, have stayed
- 43:17Speaker 1: close and talk on the phone in the group chat regularly.
- 43:20Speaker 1: Although there have been countless examples of my parents demonstrating
- 43:23Speaker 1: the opposite of the Christian slash Catholic values they claim
- 43:26Speaker 1: to so strongly follow. The most recent offense was a
- 43:28Speaker 1: couple weeks ago my parents refuse to help my best
- 43:31Speaker 1: friend in a tough position only because she's been divorced.
- 43:35Speaker 1: I am too, though, lol, although I passionately disagree that
- 43:38Speaker 1: is their right, but then they continued giving their opinion.
- 43:41Speaker 1: I didn't ask for on her co parenting arrangement, which
- 43:44Speaker 1: is amazing after a lot of hard work. They claimed
- 43:46Speaker 1: it when against their beliefs and directly insulted her parenting choices.
- 43:50Speaker 1: It felt cold and unfair, and it started up a
- 43:52Speaker 1: lot of feelings for me, mainly anger. I'm no longer religious,
- 43:56Speaker 1: but some of my siblings still are, though not nearly
- 43:58Speaker 1: as extreme as our parents. All have different relationships with
- 44:01Speaker 1: them and with faith, and I feel stuck in the middle.
- 44:03Speaker 1: I don't want to cause drama or make anyone feel attacked,
- 44:06Speaker 1: but I also don't want to keep swallowing my frustration
- 44:08Speaker 1: and biting my tongue when something feels wrong. It was
- 44:11Speaker 1: a lot easier when my parents moved out of state
- 44:13Speaker 1: in twenty twenty following a cult leader. That's another story
- 44:16Speaker 1: in itself. I was like it Jesus. I would keep
- 44:19Speaker 1: the phone calls to a minimum and kept the topics light.
- 44:22Speaker 1: Just a couple months ago, they moved back after a
- 44:24Speaker 1: falling out with said cult leader. So now I can
- 44:27Speaker 1: no longer hide behind a quarterly phone call. How do
- 44:30Speaker 1: you speak up and set boundaries without alienating your family
- 44:33Speaker 1: or upsetting your siblings who are trying to keep the peace?
- 44:36Speaker 1: Amy and Christina, Hi, girls, Hi, This is our special guest,
- 44:40Speaker 1: Debbie Gibsons here today.
- 44:42Speaker 2: How are you you good?
- 44:44Speaker 5: Thank you?
- 44:45Speaker 4: I can't believe your parents broke up with their cult leader.
- 44:47Speaker 4: That hardly ever happens.
- 44:49Speaker 6: I know, I know it was kind of crazy. We
- 44:52Speaker 6: kind of anticipated it, but we're still shocked that it
- 44:56Speaker 6: actually happened.
- 44:56Speaker 3: Well, I was joking.
- 44:57Speaker 4: I mean there's a lot of breakups that happened with
- 44:59Speaker 4: cult leader, but I mean that, Yes, your parents sound
- 45:02Speaker 4: like they're very far gone. And I would not even
- 45:05Speaker 4: be able to exist in this world, in this ecosystem,
- 45:09Speaker 4: because I would would not be able to tolerate that.
- 45:11Speaker 4: So kudos to you for even being able to have
- 45:14Speaker 4: any sort of control over your emotions or outbursts or
- 45:17Speaker 4: defense of your brothers and sisters, which I think is
- 45:19Speaker 4: completely reasonable.
- 45:21Speaker 2: I don't.
- 45:21Speaker 3: I'm not a peacekeeper.
- 45:23Speaker 4: I think it's important to express yourself, you know what
- 45:26Speaker 4: I mean. And I think it's really important to stand
- 45:27Speaker 4: up for people when they are Like the situation you
- 45:30Speaker 4: described about them insulting your sister's parenting friends. It's actually
- 45:34Speaker 4: her best friend, your friend's parent. Yeah, okay, so that's
- 45:37Speaker 4: the friend. Okay, great, Yeah, like, yeah, she's here with me,
- 45:41Speaker 4: and so what happened?
- 45:43Speaker 6: So it ended up where it just was let go
- 45:47Speaker 6: and nothing Ever, really, I never said anything.
- 45:49Speaker 3: What did they say? What did they say to her?
- 45:51Speaker 1: You?
- 45:52Speaker 6: She said, my mom said it made them feel really
- 45:54Speaker 6: uncomfortable to have my best friend and her ex husband
- 45:58Speaker 6: and their son just stay at their head. They had
- 46:00Speaker 6: a baseball tournament and they were just going to sleep
- 46:03Speaker 6: over for a night. It would have worked out really well.
- 46:05Speaker 6: They were my parents lived right there, and they said no,
- 46:08Speaker 6: that she couldn't stay with them on the basis that
- 46:12Speaker 6: she was divorced and it would be confusing for her child.
- 46:17Speaker 3: Oh yeah, that's really stupid.
- 46:21Speaker 1: But her, I mean, they're both amazing parents.
- 46:24Speaker 6: They travel to you know, his travel games together and
- 46:28Speaker 6: that's the only reason they were you know together, and
- 46:32Speaker 6: their son is perfectly happy and fine.
- 46:34Speaker 3: Of course, of course he is.
- 46:35Speaker 4: But you're dealing with unreasonable people. I mean, your parents
- 46:38Speaker 4: just got out of a cult, so you're not going
- 46:39Speaker 4: to be able to reason with them, you know what
- 46:41Speaker 4: I mean.
- 46:42Speaker 3: But like, and it's not your.
- 46:43Speaker 4: Job to keep the peace, like if you don't want
- 46:45Speaker 4: to deal with that, or if you don't want to
- 46:46Speaker 4: be around them, Like where are you at? Do you
- 46:48Speaker 4: want to be with your family or do you want
- 46:50Speaker 4: what are your goals here? You want to stand up
- 46:53Speaker 4: for yourself or and your friends, but you don't want
- 46:55Speaker 4: to cause drama within the family.
- 46:57Speaker 6: Yes, I would say that. I'm I don't typically have
- 47:01Speaker 6: a problem standing up for myself or especially when it
- 47:04Speaker 6: comes to my friends. I have a way better time
- 47:05Speaker 6: standing up for other people than I do myself. But
- 47:09Speaker 6: the problem comes when it's actually when my siblings want
- 47:13Speaker 6: to get together with my parents or like just after
- 47:16Speaker 6: that happened, my sisters wanted to go visit my mom
- 47:20Speaker 6: for Mother's Day and I was so upset that I
- 47:23Speaker 6: didn't want to go, and it caused some problems there, because.
- 47:28Speaker 4: Well, you can have boundaries without making it traumatic. You
- 47:31Speaker 4: don't have to explain to everybody your reasons behind everything.
- 47:34Speaker 4: If you don't want to go because you're upset with
- 47:35Speaker 4: your parents, You're like, you could just as easily say
- 47:37Speaker 4: I have plans. Actually I have a lot of work
- 47:39Speaker 4: to do. I'm behind on this. I already made plans.
- 47:41Speaker 4: I didn't know it was Mother's Day, and I committed
- 47:43Speaker 4: to going to this. Like, you don't have to bring
- 47:45Speaker 4: people into your reasoning if that's what's going to create
- 47:48Speaker 4: the drama. You just don't have to make yourself available
- 47:50Speaker 4: to your family for any reason.
- 47:52Speaker 3: You just don't have to. You don't have that responsibility.
- 47:54Speaker 4: You have enough siblings that they could fucking pick up
- 47:56Speaker 4: the slack anyway, you know what I mean.
- 47:58Speaker 6: Yeah, they do with having children because they all have
- 48:02Speaker 6: a thousand.
- 48:02Speaker 1: I have zeros.
- 48:03Speaker 4: Though it doesn't have to be some huge right. My
- 48:05Speaker 4: family thinks I'm so dramatic. I'm like, I'm not even
- 48:07Speaker 4: telling you guys anything. I'm just withdrawing. I'm withdrawing. I
- 48:10Speaker 4: don't have the stamina or with the bandwidth to deal
- 48:12Speaker 4: with this. I don't have a desire to deal with this,
- 48:15Speaker 4: and so I just removed myself from the situation, you know,
- 48:18Speaker 4: and if they ask, I explain.
- 48:20Speaker 3: But I'm not creating drama.
- 48:22Speaker 4: They can think I'm creating drama, but actually me showing
- 48:25Speaker 4: up would be creating more drama. So I am all
- 48:28Speaker 4: for you, like having boundaries and.
- 48:30Speaker 3: Not explaining yourself.
- 48:31Speaker 4: You're an adult woman, and like you know that them
- 48:34Speaker 4: saying that about your friend, Yes, that's upsetting, but like
- 48:36Speaker 4: also you kind of know what you're dealing with with them,
- 48:39Speaker 4: So don't ask them for favors like that.
- 48:41Speaker 2: Right, I wouldn't want to. I wouldn't want to combine
- 48:45Speaker 2: your beautiful friend's family with that energy anyway. So just
- 48:49Speaker 2: like probably for the best, Yeah, I really have that,
- 48:52Speaker 2: Like I have that policy in my household where you're
- 48:55Speaker 2: just not you have religious beliefs and it's against the lgbtqia.
- 48:59Speaker 2: Plus what you're not speaking that language in my house,
- 49:02Speaker 2: Like it's not happening in my house. I'm not disowning
- 49:05Speaker 2: all those people because there are people even in my family,
- 49:08Speaker 2: they were raised a certain way and it's religion and
- 49:11Speaker 2: it's whatever the triggers are from whatever they went through
- 49:14Speaker 2: in childhood or whatever. But I agree with Chelsea, like
- 49:17Speaker 2: it does. You don't need to keep it all in
- 49:18Speaker 2: your airspace, you know. Just I think life's too short
- 49:21Speaker 2: to go into situations where you're you're uncomfortable, you know,
- 49:25Speaker 2: or you're not aligned.
- 49:27Speaker 6: I think that's what I struggled with them almost because
- 49:29Speaker 6: it was always, you know, growing up, everyone believes the
- 49:31Speaker 6: same things right right, right off, and then when somebody
- 49:35Speaker 6: does something different.
- 49:36Speaker 2: Right, and that is hard. You want to be one
- 49:38Speaker 2: of the gang, but you don't want to be one
- 49:40Speaker 2: of the gang at the expense of feeling like you're
- 49:42Speaker 2: betraying your friend, or if it is a day where
- 49:44Speaker 2: you're like I can deal with whatever their beliefs are,
- 49:46Speaker 2: doesn't really matter.
- 49:48Speaker 4: Or betraying yourself like I you know, it's like you
- 49:51Speaker 4: have certain principles we all do. Like if you're a
- 49:53Speaker 4: principal person and you're like, this is I don't want
- 49:56Speaker 4: to be around this. I'm sorry, I don't agree with this.
- 49:58Speaker 4: I don't like it. It makes me feel feel bad.
- 50:01Speaker 4: I actually feel bad after being around it. Then then
- 50:05Speaker 4: you're taking care of yourself.
- 50:07Speaker 6: Yes, I think you hit the nail on the head
- 50:09Speaker 6: there is like it's okay that I don't have No
- 50:11Speaker 6: one really has to know why I do things or like,
- 50:17Speaker 6: that's just the fact that it helps me and it
- 50:20Speaker 6: doesn't make me feel good or comfortable.
- 50:22Speaker 2: Is enough is enough? And no is enough?
- 50:23Speaker 3: Right?
- 50:25Speaker 2: And your friend what's your name? The Fristina? Christina? Hi,
- 50:29Speaker 2: And I hope you don't feel Christina, take any but
- 50:34Speaker 2: exactly I was gonna say, I hope you don't feel
- 50:36Speaker 2: bad or take anything personally, because it does sound like
- 50:38Speaker 2: a whole rationale that's not in keeping with Yeah.
- 50:41Speaker 7: No, I'm I was raised Catholic and but no, like
- 50:46Speaker 7: cult type situations, like.
- 50:48Speaker 2: Most people don't encounter that.
- 50:51Speaker 1: Kind of a unique how.
- 50:53Speaker 6: Up such she was And I'm like, honey, I'm like,
- 50:56Speaker 6: it's okay.
- 50:57Speaker 7: She's like I didn't even want to tell you because
- 50:59Speaker 7: like I felt so bad that they said these things
- 51:02Speaker 7: and made these judgments about you. And I was like, listen,
- 51:05Speaker 7: you couldn't have hit for me anyways if you wanted to,
- 51:07Speaker 7: because we've been best friends for how long, Like I
- 51:09Speaker 7: would know something was up. And I don't take that
- 51:11Speaker 7: personally because if people don't like me, people don't like
- 51:14Speaker 7: me like.
- 51:14Speaker 3: Good, good for you, Good for you.
- 51:17Speaker 6: The way I way I choose to parent.
- 51:20Speaker 7: It works for me, it works for my child. And
- 51:23Speaker 7: if no one else liked that, well I'm sorry, Yeah,
- 51:27Speaker 7: it works for good don't.
- 51:28Speaker 3: Look for you? All right, Well I think we solve
- 51:31Speaker 3: that problem. Yes, thank you so much. Have a good day, girls,
- 51:39Speaker 3: so much.
- 51:39Speaker 1: Bye bye.
- 51:41Speaker 3: I am so sick of religion. I cannot enough. I
- 51:44Speaker 3: am so fucking sick of it.
- 51:47Speaker 1: Okay, should we take a little break, and well, we
- 51:49Speaker 1: have one more question to wrap up with.
- 51:51Speaker 3: Okay, we'll be right back with Debbie Gibson and we're back. Sorry,
- 51:58Speaker 3: it's freezing here and I'm always like.
- 52:02Speaker 2: We're rolling so hard today that we all forgot my
- 52:05Speaker 2: hoodie in the car.
- 52:06Speaker 1: Oh, while you look cozy, this is nice. Well, our
- 52:09Speaker 1: last caller today is Katie and her subject line is
- 52:12Speaker 1: help for a grieving daughter. Dear Chelsea. I know, sad
- 52:16Speaker 1: subject line, but I know you'll have some good advice
- 52:18Speaker 1: for me. I'm a thirty six year old woman and
- 52:20Speaker 1: I recently lost my dad to a battle with breast cancer.
- 52:23Speaker 1: It's been a long two years for me because for
- 52:25Speaker 1: the last year and a half I was his full
- 52:27Speaker 1: time caretaker. I had to quit working and move home
- 52:30Speaker 1: with my parents to take care of him while also
- 52:32Speaker 1: trying to live life, which was nearly impossible to do.
- 52:35Speaker 1: I have zero regrets about doing this, and I'm grateful
- 52:37Speaker 1: I was able to spend so much time with him
- 52:39Speaker 1: and my family before he passed. But now I'm in
- 52:41Speaker 1: the dreaded grieving phase where I have to figure out
- 52:44Speaker 1: how to keep moving forward while also finding myself again.
- 52:47Speaker 2: Do you have any.
- 52:48Speaker 1: Advice to share on how you've worked through the grief
- 52:50Speaker 1: of losing a parent and tips on finding yourself again
- 52:52Speaker 1: after going through tough shit. Thanks Katie.
- 52:55Speaker 3: Hi Katie, Say hi to Debbie Gibson. She's our special
- 52:58Speaker 3: guest today.
- 52:59Speaker 1: Hi Katie, nice to you.
- 53:01Speaker 2: Nice to meet you.
- 53:03Speaker 4: I'm so sorry about your the loss of your father
- 53:06Speaker 4: and what a wonderful act of love you gave him
- 53:09Speaker 4: by being by his side for those last two years
- 53:12Speaker 4: and everything that you did for him. I mean, that's
- 53:14Speaker 4: beautiful and you should be really proud of yourself for,
- 53:16Speaker 4: like you know, going the distance with him. What I
- 53:19Speaker 4: would say is like, first of all, grieving is completely natural.
- 53:23Speaker 4: I can't compare it to my grieving my father because
- 53:26Speaker 4: I was so ready for him to die, So that's
- 53:28Speaker 4: a two says separate situation. But my mother, I wasn't
- 53:30Speaker 4: ready for her to die, So I can relate on
- 53:33Speaker 4: that front. And I know you're you weren't ready for
- 53:35Speaker 4: your mother to die. But I think you have to
- 53:38Speaker 4: accept that there is a state of grief and then
- 53:40Speaker 4: that's okay, Like you're okay.
- 53:42Speaker 3: You can't fast forward your grief. That doesn't work. It
- 53:45Speaker 3: has to work through you.
- 53:46Speaker 4: And you also have to say, like you have to
- 53:48Speaker 4: wake up every day and remember think about what your
- 53:51Speaker 4: father would want for you, because he doesn't want you
- 53:53Speaker 4: to suffer, and you have to think, like, take him
- 53:56Speaker 4: with you.
- 53:56Speaker 3: His spirit is with you always.
- 53:58Speaker 4: He's been such a big part of your life that
- 54:00Speaker 4: even though he's not physically here, he is spiritually a
- 54:02Speaker 4: part of you. He will always be a part of you.
- 54:04Speaker 4: And the part of like building back your life and
- 54:07Speaker 4: getting through this time is by remembering what remembering that
- 54:11Speaker 4: and remembering what he would want, and living with him
- 54:14Speaker 4: in spirit, not living for him, but living with him
- 54:18Speaker 4: in mind. You know, like, what would my dad want
- 54:20Speaker 4: from me? Your dad wants you to be happy. Your
- 54:23Speaker 4: dad wants you to be successful, Your dad wants you
- 54:25Speaker 4: to be selfish about certain things, you know, to make
- 54:27Speaker 4: the best life for yourself. So I wouldn't judge yourself
- 54:30Speaker 4: so much for the grief. I would just really try
- 54:33Speaker 4: to move forward with like the knowledge that this is normal,
- 54:36Speaker 4: your normal, everything's fine, everything that.
- 54:39Speaker 3: You're feeling is fine, and that you want.
- 54:41Speaker 4: To think about a way to live your life out loud,
- 54:44Speaker 4: in a loud, brave way that will honor your father.
- 54:48Speaker 5: Yeah, you sound just like my therapist. Great, great advice. Yeah.
- 54:51Speaker 5: I think it's more of like accepting that as normal
- 54:55Speaker 5: and being okay with emotions because, like you know, emotions
- 54:58Speaker 5: are rough. It's very isolating right now when you don't
- 55:00Speaker 5: know other people that kind of go through the same thing.
- 55:02Speaker 5: And it was so long and such it's good Ashkenazi
- 55:06Speaker 5: jew genes is what got in though.
- 55:08Speaker 4: You know, if you're struggling with your vulnerability and being emotional,
- 55:11Speaker 4: like first of all, or your emotions, you you should
- 55:15Speaker 4: go online and find a group of people who have
- 55:17Speaker 4: just lost their parents, go to a support group so
- 55:19Speaker 4: that you can sit there with people who are dealing
- 55:21Speaker 4: with it and like fucking let it rip, let it
- 55:24Speaker 4: out and cry, and you know, like I can see
- 55:27Speaker 4: you're about to cry right now, Just cry, let it go.
- 55:31Speaker 4: It's okay, you want this out, Like, if you keep
- 55:34Speaker 4: everything bottled up, it's just going to come and get
- 55:36Speaker 4: you anyway.
- 55:38Speaker 5: Yeah.
- 55:38Speaker 4: And so is that the part that you struggled with
- 55:40Speaker 4: the most, like letting your emotions out?
- 55:42Speaker 5: Oh for sure?
- 55:43Speaker 2: Yeah.
- 55:43Speaker 5: Yeah. I felt super super related to your story when
- 55:45Speaker 5: you said you were like crying over trying to open
- 55:48Speaker 5: a fucking orange during your like therapy session, and I
- 55:50Speaker 5: felt I was like, if I don't go to a
- 55:52Speaker 5: therapist in six months, I'm going to be like exploding
- 55:55Speaker 5: over trying to open an orange. You know what I mean? Right,
- 55:57Speaker 5: So it felt super related to that story.
- 55:59Speaker 3: Yeah, and you're in therapy.
- 56:01Speaker 5: I am, but Friday is my last session because she's
- 56:03Speaker 5: actually moving away, so I'll have to find a new therapist.
- 56:05Speaker 5: But I did go to therapy, yeah, which is.
- 56:08Speaker 3: Helpful because of your dad's dath.
- 56:11Speaker 5: Yeah yeah, yeah, because I was like, I'm not I'm
- 56:12Speaker 5: going to completely avoid it. I'm very avoidant. I'm like
- 56:14Speaker 5: just kind of like stay busy, stay busy, and just
- 56:16Speaker 5: kind of you'll go through it and get over it.
- 56:18Speaker 5: And then I think she's helped a little bit kind
- 56:22Speaker 5: of like be cool with having emotions because I think
- 56:24Speaker 5: that's the part of like grief there, like, okay, that
- 56:26Speaker 5: is normal.
- 56:27Speaker 1: Yeah.
- 56:28Speaker 4: And also this in vulnerability that we create when we're
- 56:31Speaker 4: not allowing ourselves to be emotional, we'll end up blocking
- 56:34Speaker 4: other relationships in your life, intimate relationships, and you know,
- 56:38Speaker 4: like you want to be vulnerable so that you're accessible.
- 56:40Speaker 4: Like I had a therapist once tell me this was
- 56:42Speaker 4: about like the girls in my life, these young girls
- 56:45Speaker 4: that say, like, as long as you can cry, you're accessible,
- 56:48Speaker 4: like then we can get to you.
- 56:49Speaker 3: Yeah, and you're recoverable.
- 56:51Speaker 4: As long as you're vulnerable enough to be emotional, then
- 56:55Speaker 4: we can make in roads in progress.
- 56:56Speaker 3: Yes, yeah, so.
- 56:57Speaker 4: Yeah, remember that and then focus on getting a new
- 57:00Speaker 4: therapist and talk and be really obviously you're going to
- 57:03Speaker 4: be fourth right, you're being forthright to me and right
- 57:06Speaker 4: now to all of us.
- 57:07Speaker 3: But focus on.
- 57:08Speaker 4: Really working through your emotions and letting it out, you know,
- 57:12Speaker 4: just really have that be your goal in your father's honor.
- 57:15Speaker 5: No, that's that's great advice.
- 57:17Speaker 4: Could you'd be surprised Once you do let it out,
- 57:20Speaker 4: then it's out, and it's usually doesn't last for like
- 57:23Speaker 4: you know, no, you're like holding on so tightly, so tightly,
- 57:26Speaker 4: so tightly, and for what like once you cry in
- 57:30Speaker 4: five minutes, you're like, Okay, that felt good.
- 57:31Speaker 2: I feel better all the time these days. And like
- 57:34Speaker 2: a period of years where it didn't cry, couldn't cry, right,
- 57:38Speaker 2: and now I mean I think I cry every day.
- 57:40Speaker 2: But yeah, it's so good. But it also feels like
- 57:42Speaker 2: because you you did commit to his health in his
- 57:46Speaker 2: final what two years it was years? And how long
- 57:49Speaker 2: has it been now since he's gone eight months?
- 57:52Speaker 5: Okay, so like it's super new.
- 57:56Speaker 2: And I would think because that was your focus for
- 57:58Speaker 2: two years too, that even becomes smarter kind of chance
- 58:02Speaker 2: transitioning out of being that caretaker and trying to kind
- 58:05Speaker 2: of find your own rhythm in your life again. So
- 58:07Speaker 2: that's got to be really hard. So give yourself a
- 58:09Speaker 2: grace for how hard that is.
- 58:11Speaker 4: And honor the moments where you are feeling emotional, Like
- 58:14Speaker 4: when you have a moment and you're feeling it, go
- 58:16Speaker 4: to your car, go to your room, go wherever you
- 58:18Speaker 4: can have some privacy and let it out and honor that.
- 58:22Speaker 4: Don't try to push it away, don't try to keep busy,
- 58:24Speaker 4: Like even if you're out with a group of friends, say,
- 58:27Speaker 4: and all of a sudden, you're overwhelmed with emotion.
- 58:29Speaker 3: If you don't feel comfortable just being honest with them.
- 58:31Speaker 4: Go outside, let it out, and then come back in
- 58:34Speaker 4: and be like, oh I got a sad email or
- 58:35Speaker 4: whatever if you don't want to share it with other people.
- 58:38Speaker 4: But don't fight that those feelings because it doesn't get
- 58:41Speaker 4: you anywhere.
- 58:41Speaker 5: I agree, I totally agree.
- 58:43Speaker 4: Okay, but make sure you get that therapist. Okay, make
- 58:45Speaker 4: sure you get a new one.
- 58:47Speaker 5: I know I need a new one. Friday is my
- 58:49Speaker 5: last sash, so I'm hoping to get another.
- 58:51Speaker 2: I have a good one. We can get you his number.
- 58:53Speaker 2: Wood old fella. I like to call him like he's old,
- 58:57Speaker 2: but he's like so channeler, He's amazing.
- 59:03Speaker 3: Love me, do it, love it.
- 59:04Speaker 5: Right than I really appreciate it.
- 59:08Speaker 3: Okay, take care, bye bye bye.
- 59:11Speaker 2: I was trying to sing right after, like because I
- 59:14Speaker 2: had chose and I had all these anniversary shows and
- 59:17Speaker 2: it was so tied to my mother and singing and grieving.
- 59:21Speaker 2: It's not a good compo.
- 59:22Speaker 3: Is it not.
- 59:23Speaker 2: It's like you're crying and everything's like, oh yes, your
- 59:25Speaker 2: stuff right there, and you're like, and let me sing
- 59:28Speaker 2: this song that my mom helped promote and she's gone,
- 59:31Speaker 2: and yeah it was intense.
- 59:33Speaker 3: Yeah, very intense, I would imagine.
- 59:34Speaker 2: Yeah.
- 59:35Speaker 3: Her book is called Eternally Electric.
- 59:38Speaker 4: Her name is Debbie Gibson, so buy yourself a copy.
- 59:41Speaker 3: Thank you, Debbie Gibson. So nice to see you again.
- 59:43Speaker 2: This is so much fun. Yeah, so much fun.
- 59:46Speaker 4: I put up new Vegas dates by the way for
- 59:48Speaker 4: next year. This year, I will be there November first
- 59:52Speaker 4: and November twenty ninth. Those are my last two dates
- 59:54Speaker 4: this year. Then I start up again January thirty first,
- 59:56Speaker 4: March seventh, April eighteenth, and May thirtieth, and tickets are
- 1:00:00Speaker 4: now on sale for all.
- 1:00:02Speaker 3: Of those dates.
- 1:00:03Speaker 1: Do you want advice from Chelsea, write into Dear Chelsea
- 1:00:06Speaker 1: Podcast at gmail dot com. Find full video episodes of
- 1:00:10Speaker 1: Dear Chelsea on YouTube by searching at Dear Chelsea pod.
- 1:00:13Speaker 1: Dear Chelsea is edited and engineered by Brad Dickert executive
- 1:00:17Speaker 1: producer Katherine law And be sure to check out our
- 1:00:20Speaker 1: merch at Chelseahandler dot com