Here are more excerpts from my recent interview with Debbie Gibson, who is performing at the Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena, Calif. on New Year's Day...
Q: When it comes to recent past Rose Parade performers, you're in
good company with people like Chaka Khan, Sheryl Crow, Jordan Sparks, Fitz and
the Tantrums…
A: LeAnn Rimes. A lot of artists who I know and
admire.
Q: There’s
such a pageantry about it with the Rose Queen and her court, which really makes
it stand out from other parades around the country.
A: I know...I love the word ‘pageantry.’ That is true. It has a
traditional feeling, but they manage to keep it fresh every year. And again,
they're always wanting to top themselves… [there has been some] back and forth on
the arrangements. They're already into the choreography. A lot of work and care
goes into this, so I'm super excited.
Q: Did you watch the parade as a kid?
A: Oh yeah, I've watched it over the years. I
remember seeing Chaka [Khan].
Q: Your "Winterlicious" holiday album came out in 2022. When you were
putting that together, did you find it daunting to write your own classic
holiday songs?
A: I knew when I started organically writing these
songs, probably three years before the album came out, I just felt like, ‘Oh
boy, here we go! This is the start of my first ever holiday album.’ It's funny
that it took a long time because a lot of times artists would have those few
pop hits and the label was like, ‘Quick: Let's churn out a holiday record.’ And
I always felt when it was that when it was a label or an artist capitalizing on
a moment.
I knew
that I wanted to wait until I really felt like I had inspired songs that...would
feel [not only] classic and cozy, but fresh and new at the same time.
Because I think that's what people want from a great
holiday song. My friend Sylvia Maccalla wrote a song on the album. I very
rarely record new original songs because I write a lot. But I heard her song, “I
Wish Everyday Was Christmas.” I was like, ‘I need that if you're willing to
part with it.’ And you're like, ‘Have I heard this before? Because it just
feels so classic, you know?’ There’s such an energy about it and it does make
you want it to be Christmas.
Q: I was pleasantly surprised that you covered the
Anthony Newley/Leslie Bricusse hit “The Candy Man,” famously recorded by Sammy Davis
Jr. That was an interesting choice.
A: Thank you...Then songs like “The Gift” were
really important to me to have that lush orchestra.I don't really focus on a material presence. I do, in
terms of the thought being behind them, but truly, when you can gather with the
people you love, it's everything.
I wrote that song while at my longtime friend
Ray Garcia's wedding to his now husband Darren. We were all gathered in Texas,
and I remember there was like a fire drill going on in the hotel. So, they
stuck a piece of paper with all the instructions under the door. That's what I
wrote the song on.
I remember feeling like, ‘Wow, this huge Mexican
family in Texas who could opt to be stuck in their old belief system is opting
to embrace the love of a same sex couple. That really was a lot of the
inspiration for the song. I felt like I felt the love from the two-year old to
the 92-year-old that was at the wedding. It was just a celebration of love.
“Illuminate” for me is very special because I felt
like there was a shortage of original Hanukkah music. In my shows very often
now, I'll bring up everybody in the audience who celebrates Hanukkah, and it's
usually not that many people. Again, now more than ever, I feel like
marginalized communities need a light shone on them and they're in need of the
love and the support that they so deserve.
And it speaks to having faith in the unseen, knowing
that that oil that's only supposed to last for one night, to keep that candle
burning for one night if it needs to burn for eight nights if you believe, if
you have faith, then you will always have what you need. I think it's such a
beautiful message in Hanukkah. Being able to record that song too was very
special to me.
Q: “Cheers” is New Year’s Eve related to your
father as well.
A: Yes. It's a very personal album. I hope that
people hear it...It's just hearkening
back to a time and a place that was so pure and celebratory.
Q: “The Body Remembers” has been out for a few years
now. Are you satisfied with how it was received and how it turned out overall?
Did you accomplish what you wanted to with it?
A: I did. I feel like, in the lane that that album’s
in, I don't know if I'll ever make an album that I feel as great about again, in
that dance [arena] like that, [where] so much attention to detail went into that album.
Being that I did a lot of it during the pandemic,
there wasn't a lot of distraction. Right now, I always contemplate how the
public wants their artists to live out loud and every minute on social media.
It's hard to go deep within and come up with a masterful work that you really
want to come up with because you're always having [to] put on this public face
every day. I think that time really allowed me to go inward, quiet the noise
and do the album the way I wanted it.
To come out with a double album and for it to be received
in the way it was by Rolling Stone and by the fans put me back on my touring
trajectory. I've been rebuilding my touring career ever since. I'm still
thrilled with that album. I love it. I might even do a reissue and include some
new tracks before I do the next album.
I feel like I'm not done with that album yet. I want
that album to get me overseas. I want people to experience it more overseas. I
feel like it has such a European dance flavor and Australian and, has Latin
flavors. I feel like that album for me is timeless, but it still feels modern. I'm
so thrilled with that album.
Q: I'll bet your fans, with this album and the Christmas one, were really excited about your duets with Joey McIntyre.
A: Yes. I love my pop [music] mate Joey McIntyre. The audiences loved it. I mean, the biggest comment I got was the fans said, ‘It's our idol and our crush together.’ I'm like, ‘Wow, that's powerful.’ That's not wasted on me that he and I could team up in that way. I picture these fans as little girls and little boys with their Bop! Magazine and Teen Beat. We were both up there…he and I are so similar in our work ethic and how we're always wanting to top ourselves with what we're doing. We're both Broadway kids and all that. I know Betty Who is a Broadway baby as well. I'm super excited to meet her.
There's so much in common and that was such a magical thing to collaborate with him and to do Vegas. We did a mini residency in Vegas together. Having Joey on both records really was a thrill for me.
A: I did. On the shows where I did the full band with
a lot of the original singers, dancers, and musicians – revisiting songs like “Love
Under My Pillow,” which was never released - performing that live on the “Around
the World” DVD; VHS. A lot of the fans had a soft spot for that song, and I
hadn't performed it in decades. That was amazing.
Then doing the stripped-down version, “Acoustic Youth,”
when I'd open the show and I'd sit at the piano and I would do “Who Loves Ya
Baby,” you know it's very easy to hear an upbeat song and it could be like a
drive by. Everybody's singing and dancing and when you can strip a song down
and you know just the lyrics about a busy life and not enough time to look in
the mirror, life in the fast lane. It really speaks to how chaotic people's
lives can get, the meaning of connection and the meaning of knowing who the
real deal people are in your life. And leaning into them and rooting for people.
All the deeper messages in the songs really came to
light and I discovered new things about them every night I performed them. I
was very in-the-moment with the audiences…it's been a year of feeling very
alive, very present, very connected to my audience, very in the moment. And
looking back while looking forward at the same time, which is a fascinating
place to be.
Q: While singing those “Electric Youth” songs, in the
back of your mind, did you ever think, ‘How did I get through that crazy era?’
A: You know, it was definitely fast and furious. I
always say to my audiences now, and I tell myself all the time to be sure to
take things in now because everything was moving so fast back then. Now I savor
every moment and take it all in which is the difference in this era, which is
why this era is now my favorite. It really is.
Q: I watched a recent TV morning show interview where
you were talking about the 1980s and said something like the reason many people
still tend to gravitate toward 1980s music is because a lot of it was so
hopeful and people like you, Tiffany and Belinda Carlisle made music that was like
a warm blanket wrapped around people.
A: It is. I think now, more than ever, people need
their old friends gathered around and those melodies that they held dear. I
feel like these songs accompany people on their journey. I constantly get told,
people come up to me and they talk about how they had a difficult childhood and
how this music and I was there for them. I go, ‘I'm so honored that without
actually being in the room, I was in the room, and I was able to provide
something for people through my music, which feels surreal because I was just
doing what I love to do.
Yes, I do think that the acts of that era, there's a
lot of us who are around and…in this new vital chapter. It's really cool to see my contemporaries out there as well [keeping
things fresh].
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