{"id":37435,"date":"2019-03-22T07:00:10","date_gmt":"2019-03-21T20:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/maytherockbewithyou.com\/mtrbwy\/?p=37435"},"modified":"2019-03-21T21:48:59","modified_gmt":"2019-03-21T10:48:59","slug":"bonnie-tyler-interview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maytherockbewithyou.com\/mtrbwy\/2019\/03\/bonnie-tyler-interview\/","title":{"rendered":"Bonnie Tyler"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Bonnie Tyler. Copyright: earMUSIC, credit: Tina Korhonen, www.tina-k.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t realise I\u2019d been in the business for fifty years until I saw the sticker on the front of my album saying \u2018Celebrating fifty years in the business\u2019 I\u2019m thinking bloody hell I don\u2019t even feel fifty let alone being in the business for fifty years.\u201d<\/p>\n

From Release: Marking no less than the complete reinvention of a wonderful and much-loved talent this – her 17th studio album – is a collection of brand new recordings. As befits an artist of Bonnie\u2019s undoubted stature, \u2018Between The Earth And The Stars\u2019 is more than just a return to form for the singer known everywhere for her genre-defining hits. Her calling cards are the global number one smash \u2018Total Eclipse of the Heart\u2019, but also of course \u2018Holding Out For A Hero\u2019. She received a Guinness World Record for \u2018Faster Than The Speed of Night\u2019 album which saw her become the first British female to debut at number one on the UK Albums Chart; the album went platinum in the US. Over and above these tracks that made her a household name.<\/p>\n

Bonnie Tyler gave us a call from London to talk about her new album \u2018Between The Earth and The Stars, how it came together, her very special guests, being in the business for fifty years, touring, and more\u2026<\/p>\n

\u2018Between The Earth and The Stars\u2019 is your seventeenth album, what are your feelings like around release time, are you still as excited as the first time you released a record?<\/strong>
\nI\u2019m very excited about this one in particular because there are so many guests on there, it\u2019s incredible I can\u2019t believe my luck you know. These legends are singing with me, you know! I\u2019ll tell you how it happened shall I because I wasn\u2019t going to make a new album, it started because Kevin Dunn my old bass player sent me some songs to listen to that he\u2019d written and I was thinking to myself they\u2019re not going to be any good because he was my original bass player back from when I was eighteen in the band Swansea and he\u2019d never written songs before, so I wasn\u2019t expecting to like these songs but I said I\u2019d listen to them. So I listened to and I\u2019m thinking wow where the hell did these songs come from Kevin, they\u2019re fantastic! He said \u201cI\u2019ve just been writing\u201d and I said \u201cwell keep writing we\u2019ll record them\u201d and I said \u201cI\u2019m not going to make a new album Kevin, I\u2019m out on tour and stuff but I don\u2019t mind making the demos of them and I\u2019ll put them on an album we did six years ago and re-release it and put these three new songs on it you know?\u201d He said \u201cI\u2019m gonna ask David Mackay to knock them into shape for me\u201d which was my original producer forty years ago *laughs* and so I hadn\u2019t seen David since then and when I met him it was fabulous and like we\u2019d never been apart. So I recorded these three songs and that\u2019s all I thought I was going to do but then Francis Rossi who is a friend of the producer David Mackay and a neighbour, and he listened to these songs and he thought these are great songs, ask Bonnie if she\u2019ll do a duet with me! So that\u2019s how that started.<\/p>\n

Then there was tennis and Wimbledon and David was going and he\u2019s a big fan of tennis and he was going to Wimbledon and he knew he was going to be meeting up with Sir Barry Gibb, so he said \u201cBonnie I\u2019m going to ask Barry if he\u2019s got a song for you or would write a song for you\u201d and I said \u201coh my God David that would be awesome.\u201d So that\u2019s what he did and a couple of months later Barry Gibb sent this beautiful song \u2018Seven Ways Away\u2019 and I couldn\u2019t believe it, I didn\u2019t know how I was going to sing that song because it was so gentle and I said to my voice coach \u201clisten to this song\u201d and said \u201chow am I going to sing it with my voice?\u201d They said \u201cBonnie just sing it as you would any other song\u201d and that\u2019s what I did and it\u2019s turned out great. Then I went on holiday to Barbados and we were invited by Cliff Richard who has a house in Barbados and we all went out for lunch one day and the host of the lunch happened to be Rod Stewart\u2019s best friend Ricky Simpson, so I asked him to ask Rod would he do a duet with me because it\u2019s been my lifetime to dream to do that, so he said send me an email and I\u2019ll pass it to Rod and we\u2019ll go from there. That was in the January and I thought I\u2019m not going to lose this opportunity so I waited until I had the right song, Chris Norman had sent me a song called \u2018Battle of The Sexes\u2019 and as soon as I heard I knew, this is it, this is the song for me and Rod, so I sent the email asking if he\u2019d do a duet with me and if he\u2019d consider doing this song with me and within a day or so he got back to me personally, I couldn\u2019t believe it I was jumping for joy and he said yes he loves the song and yes he\u2019d like to do it, that he wouldn\u2019t normally but yes he\u2019s gonna do it. The only thing is he was in LA when I was in London and when he was in London I was on tour so we couldn\u2019t do it together but that\u2019s how that happened.<\/p>\n

Then the Cliff Richard one happened because by this time I was back in Portugal and we were all going out for dinner and we came across to the house for drinks before we went out and I asked him if I could play him a couple of tracks from the album, right? So anyway he comes over and he said yes and first of all I played him \u2018Seven Waves Away\u2019 that Barry Gibb wrote for me and he\u2019s like wow, Barry wrote a song for you? And then I played him the duet with me and Francis Rossi \u2018Someone\u2019s Rockin\u2019 Your Heart\u2019 and then I played him the duet with Sir Rod Stewart and he\u2019s like \u201cRod has done a duet with you?! Wow! We should do a duet\u201d I said \u201cYeah? Are you sure? I\u2019ll keep you to that\u201d and he said \u201cyeah if we get the right song why not?\u201d So David Mackay who\u2019s just a fantastic producer and I\u2019m just so happy to be working back with him after all these years he put the feelers out for a song especially for me and Cliff and this song came in \u2018Taking Control\u2019 and he sent it to Cliff, Cliff got back to us and he said \u201cI loved it on the very first listen\u201d so at this time he was at his other house in Florida and he recorded his part in Florida and I did mine in London even though we see a lot of each other but this time we weren\u2019t in the right place together but you\u2019d think we were in the same room when you listen to it. It\u2019s a fantastic story but it\u2019s all true.<\/p>\n

I love that you get excited about working with people after so long these people are like heroes to you and you\u2019re still so excited about it I love that.<\/strong>
\nOf course I am, my God I never thought I would ever, ever when I was a young girl of seventeen listening to the Bee Gees that one day Barry Gibb would write me a song, I mean it\u2019s incredible. Like then being a being a big fan of Rod Stewart and then meeting his friend and saying it\u2019s been a lifelong dream could you please ask him if he\u2019ll do a duet for me. Francis Rossi asks me if I want to do a duet and then Cliff says to me we should do a duet, it\u2019s just like a gift from God all this, I feel like I\u2019ve been blessed, I wasn\u2019t even going to make an album!<\/p>\n

You have been in the business now for fifty years which is unbelievable\u2026<\/strong>
\nI KNOW! And I didn\u2019t know that, I didn\u2019t realise I\u2019d been in the business for fifty years until I saw the sticker on the front of my album saying \u2018Celebrating fifty years in the business\u2019 I\u2019m thinking bloody hell I don\u2019t even feel fifty let alone being in the business for fifty years.<\/p>\n

Now it can be easy to say what\u2019s changed but what is the one thing that\u2019s stayed the same over your time making music?<\/strong>
\nWell, I\u2019m still grounded, I\u2019ve always been a very grounded person, probably because I was already married and settled down before I had my very first hit record, and I\u2019m very family orientated, we\u2019re a very close family, a big family, huge family, but that never changes, we love each other very much we\u2019re very close.<\/p>\n

After so long, what do you still enjoy about doing what you do?<\/strong>
\nThe live work is amazing although it was a joy being back in the studio with David Mackay, I haven\u2019t seen him since the 70\u2019s when I did \u2018It\u2019s a Heartache\u2019 and \u2018Lost in France\u2019 with him and the album \u2018The World Starts Tonight\u2019, it was incredible, it was like we\u2019d never been apart and I did all the album in his front room in his house *laughs* and his lovely wife Brenda made us meals nearly every night and we\u2019d go out to restaurants and have a great time catching up, it was an absolute joy making this album, it was amazing, Honest to God.<\/p>\n

Does something like this give you a push to make you want to keep doing it?<\/strong>
\nWell I never get tired of doing live sows, I mean I\u2019m always out there doing live work I\u2019d love to come back over there and do some shows. I\u2019ve got twenty four shows coming up at the end of April which I had booked in January, then I\u2019ve got the London Palladium in September. I came into this business to be a singer in a band on the stage, I love being on the stage, I love singing and that has never changed for me, as much as I love recording the thrill of it all is being on stage and headlining your own shows and you know the people are only there because they\u2019ve bought the tickets to come and see you you know? I love it.<\/p>\n

You mentioned wanting to come back and it\u2019s been a couple of years since you were in Australia, but with a new album does that mean we may get to see you here again?<\/strong>
\nWell there is already talk about it and I\u2019m so thrilled to hear that and hopefully early next year, So if there are any major tour promoters over there you better get in touch quick before somebody else jumps in because I\u2019m coming *laughs*.<\/p>\n

I do of course have to mention \u2018Total Eclipse of the Heart\u2019 it recently turned thirty five, a song that is still so loved after so long. What is your best memory of that song over all these years?<\/strong>
\nOh being nominated for a Grammy and singing in front of an audience including Michael Jackson, Lionel Richie, Diana Ross and all of them they were all there. I lost out to Michael Jackson but come on, who wouldn\u2019t mind coming second to Michael Jackson you know? It\u2019s fantastic.<\/p>\n

Well my favourite of yours has always been \u2018Holding Out For a Hero\u2019 that\u2019s a rocker!<\/strong>
\n*laughs* I never get tired of singing any of those old songs, I still do them in my shows, but I am going to put seven of my new tracks in the new show I\u2019m going into rehearsals next week and going on tour soon.\u00a0 I love \u2018Hero\u2019 and the crowd go crazy and they want to hear these songs.<\/p>\n

Lastly let\u2019s look ahead to the future, finish this sentence for me, in 2019 Bonnie Tyler will\u2026<\/strong>
\nWell I\u2019ll be back at the London Palladium which I haven\u2019t been to since 1976 when I was there with Gene Pitney, so I\u2019m really looking forward to that but oh there\u2019s so much more to look forward to. I am one happy girl.<\/p>\n

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Essential Information<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

From:<\/strong> Wales<\/p>\n

Album Website:<\/strong> \u00a0http:\/\/www.bonnietyler.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Latest Release:<\/strong> \u2018Between The Earth and The Stars\u2019 (Out Now \u2013 earMUSIC \/ edel)<\/p>\n

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