“I was miserable the whole time,” she writes.
“But there was no escape.
We couldn’t leave until Ike was ready, and he was having a fine time.”
Credit: Richard Young/REX/Shutterstock
How are you feeling these days?
But, beginning with my stroke, that was a really bad run.
High blood pressure, vertigo, intestinal cancer, kidney failure, and a kidney transplant.
Jorgen Angel/Redferns
And I always thought I was a healthy person!
Just when I would ask myself “how bad can it get?
“there was something new to deal with.
How has it changed how you live now?
Most people think of me as being in motion all the time, and I was.
Dialysis forced me to sit still for hours, which gave me a chance to think.
What was important to me in this life?
When you needed a kidney transplant, your husband of 30 years donated one of his.
What did that mean to you?
When Erwin offered to give me his kidney, I started to worry about him.
I tried to talk him out of it at first.
Why should he take such a risk?
“Think about your future,” I told him.
He said that my future was his future.
In the book, you critique your body.
You even say you don’t think you have the sexy legs the whole world believes you to have.
Why don’t you think you’re sexy?
My figure would not have turned one head in Nutbush, where I grew up.
But being sexy was never my goal.
I don’t like it when performers are overtly sexual.
And here’s something I always understood.
If you appeal to the women in the audience, the men will follow.
You write about being unwanted and abandoned as a child by your mother.
Do you believe this has had a lingering effect on you?
Children need their mothers, and mine walked out the door when I needed her the most.
I always took care of her.
You write that your mother sided with Ike after you left him.
Why do you think she did that?
She never wanted to give me credit for anything.
It took her yearsand my selling millions of records as a solo artistto change her mind about that.
Why were you able to do the latter and not the former?
I’m in a different place in my life.
When I was ill, I made peace with my past.
My story is disturbing, but I know now that it can’t hurt me.
You write in the book about Mick Jagger “borrowing” your dance moves.
Have you ever told him he owes you an acknowledgment for that?
We know what we’ve done for each other.
You reveal in the book that you were the one who initiated sex with Erwin.
I felt an electrical charge the first time I saw Erwin.
The funny thing is he felt it too.
I never gave any thought to the words “love at first sight” before.
But it happened to me on that day, with that man.
You know, sex wasn’t important to me.
I could live without it.
But there was something about Erwin that made me want to get close to him.
Childhood, never loved.
Other men, never loved.
My whole life, never really loved.
I needed to feel that Erwin loved me.
And if I had to make the first move, I was willing to do it!
It seems like you are one of the few performers who loves retirement.
So, you’re not even tempted to do more work?
I have been workingreally, really workingsince I was a teenager.
I was ready to retire long before I got sick.
I’ve always had good timing.
I didn’t want people to come to a show and think that I used to be great.
“Leave the party before it’s over,” I like to say.
You tease in the book about an upcoming documentary on your life.
What stage is that in?
How are you managing to process that terrible event?
I miss him and I will be dealing with that every day of my life.
You write that it’s in your nature to be optimistic.
Do you think that’s why you have managed to survive so many challenges?
I’ve never been defeated by the obstacles in my life.
When there’s a choice, I choose happiness.
You will be 80 next year.
How do you feel about turning that age?
I’m looking forward to it!
I’m a very curious person and I’ve always wondered what I would be like at that age.
Actually, age is just a number to me.
I’m a 16-year-old at heart.
Turning 80 won’t change that!
