Last month, the legendary Bonnie Tyler scored her first Top 40-charting album with Between The Earth And The Stars, released via EarMusic/Edel. Here, the Total Eclipse Of The Heart singer reflects on some of the amazing moments and life lessons she's enjoyed throughout her career so far. And why she owes her auntie big time...
I used to be a very, very shy girl...
“I never thought I’d have the nerve to get up on stage but I always knew I wanted to sing. My career started when my auntie put me down for a talent competition because I was always singing in my bedroom. I said, ‘I can’t do it – take my name off,’ and she said, ‘Yes, you will!’ So, I sang at the local rugby club when I was 17 and I’d never sung into a microphone before – my microphone was a hairbrush! After I came second in the competition, there was an ad in the paper looking for a girl to join a harmony band – they were looking for three girls to sing with Bobby Wayne. I got chosen out of 35 girls as one of three.”
My first single was...
“My! My! Honeycomb and it totally bombed. Lost In France was an international hit, but it wasn’t until It’s A Heartache that I had my first hit in America. If it hadn’t been for my auntie... [laughs].”
People often say that Total Eclipse Of The Heart was written about vampires...
“But I have no idea really. I don’t know what goes on in Jim Steinman’s mind, I just love it! When I first heard the song I cried. I still love playing songs like that and Holding Out For A Hero. I never get tired of listening to them. I can’t understand some artists that go out and insist on not doing their old hits. People want to hear them...”
Being in the charts again is great because...
“I wasn’t even going to make a new album – this was a surprise to me as well! The last album I did [2013’s Rocks And Honey] I recorded in Nashville with fabulous musicians and all new songs, but it [didn’t get] a very good push. Between The Earth And The Stars is a wonderful album, and I’m working with my old producer, David Mackay, who I hadn’t seen for 40 years since It’s A Heartache and Lost In France. I had such a great time.”
There are a lot of big names on my new album...
“Barry Gibb wrote a song [Seven Waves Away], and there’s Someone’s Rockin’ Your Heart, a duet with Francis Rossi which he wrote. I went on holiday with Cliff Richard [who also appears on the record] to his beautiful house in Barbados and we went out for lunch where the host happened to be Rod Stewart’s best friend. I said, ‘It’s my dream to do a duet with Rod would you ask him if he’d do it?’ I waited a couple of months until I found the right song, Battle Of The Sexes, and then it was forwarded onto Rod. A couple of days later he got back to me personally and said, ‘Let’s do it!’ Amy Wadge, who is a fabulous songwriter, sent some songs, too. She sent an email saying, ‘Bonnie, I’ve written a song especially for you.’ It’s called Older and it’s such a beautiful song.”
New artists should remember...
“You’re only as good as your sound guy, your lighting guy, your band and crew. We’re like family. I know that sounds like a cliché but it isn’t.”
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