The Go-Go's Belinda Carlisle Interview

The Go-Go's Belinda Carlisle Interview Host: She was the lead singer in the iconic 80’s girl band The Go-Go’s. Belinda Carlisle win into a successful solo career but now without her secret struggles with drugs and in up and down weight battle. Now in her new memoir, “Lips Unsealed”, Belinda shares all of the stories we’re dying to here about. The Go-Go’s blasted onto the music scene in the late 70’s with singer Belinda Carlisle leading the charge. Belinda: People don’t realize this, the real story of the Go-Go’s. Host: In fact, you may be surprised how the queens of the LA punk scene rose to the top of the charts. Belinda: We put ourselves together. We had no idea how to play our instruments, how to write songs. We have Charlotte to join because she could plug her guitar into the amplifier. So, we started from zero. You could be terrible as you went because that was cool, could get put into clubs and you could improve. And we improved so quickly that we became the most famous fan in America, two and a half years later which there was no logical reason that should have happened. Host: And that is also when Belinda Carlisle begin to hide her 30-year drug addiction. Belinda: So my husband, although he had inklings that I had a problem on occasion I would get caught out, I didn’t have addiction where I would do it everyday, so I could actually function for the most part when I was traveling because the nature of my work takes me to different cities I had my connections there. Host: Then it was anything goes. Belinda: So, I would do my work and then I go off on a bender which is really dangerous to do because when I’d go off I’d go for like three or four days. Host: But Belinda turned the corner five and a half years ago. Belinda: I was in day three of bender in London and I just knew I had auditory hallucination. For me, it was real. I don’t even know if it was a hallucination. I was being told that I was going to die. And I knew it and I stopped right then after I finished what I had of course. And I had a choice between life and death and I just sought the idea of being found dead in a hotel room of a cocaine overdose. I mean it’s disgusting and it’s humiliating from I would know it or might know it, who knows, but for my side of my husband I just can't do that to them. And I really wanted to live. Host: She shares her very personal and emotional journey in her new book, “Lips Unsealed”. Belinda: I knew I always had a book in me and I thought about—in my sobriety that it was time and that the honesty of the whole journey as it is might be helpful to somebody out there. Host: It is also filled with wonderful memories. Belinda: There's stories about working with Bryan Wilson. I had a friendship with Michael Hutchence, there is boyfriend’s story. Host: And ‘Pollinia’ once. Belinda: I had a moment with him that I will never forget actually when he gave me the lectures on the Evils of Drugs and I asked him if you wanted something and he just went off on me. And then a week later, he went off on his—which ultimately lead to his death. Host: The singer is very candid about her struggles from relationships to her weight battle. Belinda: Trying to be slim for me is like trying to hold the beach ball under water. I left a certain way in The Go-Go’s and then I lost weight and I look to certain way when I embarked to my solo career and a lot of pressure came with that to be thin, to be perfect and a lot came with that too. When I look in the mirror and dream heaven on earth and runaway horses, the top of my solo career, all I saw was that 10-year-old skinny legs and a big barrel stomach and chest. Host: And at 50 years young, Belinda Carlisle’s embarking on a Go-Go’s farewell tour, the fans all they knew won't want to miss. Belinda: They are going to hear all the hits and I think I'm making the efforts to make this tour the best one yet and special for everybody. Host: Belinda Carlisle book, “Lips Unsealed” is available now.