Superstar musician/actress/activist Cyndi Lauper is still bringing it after all these years.
With a career spanning over 30 years, the unique singer, and amazingly talented songwriter has been an activist for the LGBT community before it was common. She sets trends, outspoken when needed, and her songs have resonated with people from all walks of life.
The young looking 63-year old Queens native spoke to AARP The Magazine about many things including fame, fortune, aging, and politics. Here’s some.
On North Carolina law banning transgender people from using the bathroom of the gender they identify
“Where I come from, you don’t let you friends and family be stripped of their civil rights.” But unlike other artists, including Bruce Springsteen, who canceled their concerts in the state, Lauper went ahead with her Raleigh show and donated the proceeds to a local LGBT charity. “Just my money,” she adds quickly. “Set people, electricians – all those guys need to get paid.”
On the 2016 election
Despite having appeared on Donald Trump’s Celebrity Apprentice, in 2010, Lauper is a staunch supporter of a certain female candidate for president. But she wants to be clear: “I’ll never tell people what to think, but I will beg them to think. Not to just blindly follow along.”
On her career and staying relevant as a pop star
“Don’t listen. I find it remarkable when the ‘industry people’ try to pigeonhole you, like they know. Even me, I don’t know what I can do. I want to be great, but I don’t know if I can be great, so I just have to keep trying.”
“You can’t live your whole life worrying about staying famous. If losing some fame means doing what you want, you gotta go with what you want.”
“They can say what they want [about my legacy]. They’ve been saying everything anyway. I don’t give a hoot. I am who I am. I don’t apologize for any of it. But I do hope that what I do in my art inspires people – that it makes ‘em happy and makes ‘em think.”
“I wouldn’t listen to the naysayers and haters. Who cares? The people who succeed are the people who don’t quit.”
“I wanna hear everything and keep learning about music. If I’m gonna invest my time, I want it to be great, because that’s what I’m leaving behind, besides the human beings I adore.”
“I had a dream one time. I climbed the ladder and then let the ladder fall because I couldn’t just stand where I was. I wanted to be my own artist, to sing the rhythm of my own speech.”
On aging
“Age has nothing to do with it. You’ll get wherever it is you want to go at whatever time in your life you want to do it.”
“My mother has a little dementia. She lives in the present. The good thing is, I can talk to her and tell her stuff that I really shouldn’t tell anybody, and she’ll give me these wonderful words of wisdom that a mother does. But then, 10 minutes later she’ll forget.”
“I think I have reached an age when I can have pink hair if I want – or blue hair. But blue, it turns a little green, so right now I am going with the pink.”
“We are brainwashed about what age you’re supposed to marry, what age you’re supposed to have a kid, what age you’re supposed to do this or that. Oh my god! Who died and left those people in charge?”
On her gain and loss of fortune
“I was never smart about money like Prince. I wish I wasn’t taken advantage of so much.”
On her manager losing faith in her career
He told her “You’ll never be as big as you were” – Yet she refused to fire him. “Why didn’t I say, ‘if you don’t believe in me, you shouldn’t be working for me’? I couldn’t. He had a family. And I guess there were times I didn’t think I was worthy either, because I was always told I was a pain in the ass, and why can’t I just stand there and sing?”
On her son’s aspiration to be a hip-hop artist and giving and receiving advice
“I love my kid so f—ing much, I can’t take it.” Yet for Lauper, the main issue at the moment is that, though her son is an aspiring hip-hop artist, he refuses to take her advice. Still she’s sanguine. “I’d get mad when people gave me advice, too. I still do. I’ll ask my husband what he thinks of what I’m wearing, and he’ll say, ‘I don’t really like it,’ and I’ll weare it anyway. So why ask the poor bastard?”