Cher

0:00The market's uncertain. Revenue's tied and hiring on hold. That's why results-driven companies are using Upwork to keep work moving. Go to Upwork.com today and start hiring proven freelance talent fast. No bulky overhead. No rigid long-term contracts. Just the right expert right when you need them. Work smarter and faster with Upwork. Go to Upwork.com now and find your freelance expert. That's U-P-W-O-R-K.com. Post a job for free and get started today. You open the fridge. There's nothing there. So what's it going to be? Greasy pizza? Sad drive-thru burgers? Dish by Blue Apron is for nights like that.

0:41These are the pre-made meals of your dreams. At least 20 grams of protein. No artificial flavors or colors. No chopping. No cleanup. No guilt. Keep the flavor. Ditch the subscription. Get 20 % off your first two orders with code APRON20. Terms and conditions apply. Visit blueapron.com slash terms for more. If you're a smoker or vapor ready to make a change, You really only need one good reason. But with Zinn Nicotine Pouches, you'll discover many good reasons. Zinn is America's number one nicotine pouch brand. Plus, Zinn offers a robust rewards program. There are lots of options when it comes to nicotine satisfaction.

1:18But there's only one Zinn. Check out Zinn.com slash find to find Zinn at a store near you. Warning, this product contains nicotine. Nicotine is an addictive chemical.

2:00Thank you. For anyone who didn't understand what was going on, Mum was saying that the sun was shining, we're in Paris, she's about to have a state free, and we're having a table manners with Cher. About Cher. I am meant to be flying to Chicago today for my own tour, however... It was too good an opportunity. This is too good to be true. So I've still got to make my first show, don't worry, but just popped into Paris for five hours to meet the icon Cher. We are currently sitting in a hotel waiting for her arrival. We are near the L 'Arc de Triomphe. Yeah, we are very excited. It isn't necessarily the way that we do table manners usually, so we're trying to make it homely.

2:51We've asked for a tablecloth. Mum has brought food over. I mean, what have you brought? Chicken soup has travelled. Yes. The manager's face, she looked rather, I don't know what they're going to make of that in the kitchen. So mum has brought it over in a container. Yeah. Do you think they'll know what a matzo ball is? A matzo ball. So we've asked for them to make it boil because we don't want to kill Cher. Yeah. And we're going to serve her some chicken super matzo balls. Yeah. But we are here to discuss a new album. It's called Christmas. Christmas tunes. We've brought some mince pies as well.

3:32Well, it is a Christmas album after all. And I think Cher's got a bit of a banger on her hands. Is it fab? It's in my head. Already? And I've heard it three times. And I'm like, DJ, play that favorite song. Yeah, I want to be dancing. It's really good. She debuted it at Fashion Week last night. And? At the H &M Paco Rabanne collaboration. She's having a listening party later. We were invited, but we've got to go. What do you do at a listening party, darling? You listen to the album. So you sit there. Do they give you a little snack? I wonder if she finds them as painful as I do. Oh, do you do listening parties?

4:12Well, I try and avoid them, but I'm going to ask her. But do you think she wants to take a few mince pies in later? Yeah, hostess with the mostess. I can't believe that we've got Cher on. I mean, not only do I sing a cover of her in my show, we grew up with Cher well I remember her when she was Sonny in Cher and she was kind of mermaids and then she yeah and she's always been so fabulous oh she's I mean she's an icon yeah she's a proper goddess a goddess who I can't believe we're going to meet face to face and hear that voice she's not only won an Oscar, Grammys is she one of those egos She's not an EGOT, yeah.

4:56But I think she's got an Oscar, a Grammy. And she's Cher. She's got her own gelato, shalato. Shalato. I wonder where that's sold, because I'm going to LA at the weekend. Well, she's got like a truck, hasn't she? An ice cream van. A shalato. Yeah. I wonder if it's come over to Paris. I feel like our questions about eating, I feel like there's so much more we could be asking Cher. However, we're going to stick with the classics. I've got a feeling you don't look like Cher and eat many matzo balls. Maybe drink many broths. The broth will do her fine. I have to say, I felt it was one of my better soups.

5:38Oh, really? And it's very, very clear. Beautiful. I hope that the Peninsula Hotel don't eat it before they bring it up here. I was just checking the bed for bed bugs because we're currently... In a siege. Under siege. Under siege. It's in all the papers today about the infestation of the whole of Paris and bedbugs. Snuck as a bug in a rug. I'm trying to not feel nervous. This feels quite... Don't feel nervous. I don't think I am nervous. She's a person, darling. No, she's Cher, Mum. She's kind of beyond a person. She's like an entity, kind of supernatural, fantastic being. I have so many questions to ask her.

6:23Where are those Bob Mackie outfits? Does she try them on at night? Or is she just strictly an ugly gown? I'm just wondering if she's coming in a leotard. Cher coming up on Table Manners, a special in Paris.

6:45Hi, how are you doing? Oh Cher, I'm so thrilled to meet you. Thank you. I'm sorry I didn't get here earlier come and sit down have a coca cola would you like some chicken soup we've got whatever you need I need chicken soup for you with matzo balls I schlepped from London in a freezer bag and it's been heated no it's ok because I've been doing it for my health Jessie get us some soup get us some damn soup do you want a matzo ball or do you want just chicken oh no you know what oh my god how cute We brought these because it's your Christmas album. So these are Fulton and Mason cookies. They're beautiful.

7:25You can take them home if you want. Thank you. Cher, I know that you have been run all over Paris, so we're going to make this painless and probably quite fun. All right, good. And fabulous. So the podcast is about food and family and food memories. And mum and I have been doing it for about five years and we usually cook for you at our home. but the only person we're going to schlep to Paris for is you and it's a pleasure to meet you so like we can we just get straight into it okay so start at the beginning who was around the dinner table when you were younger who who was cooking and what were you eating my mom was cooking we were poor so my mom was cooking my sister and I were at the dinner table and um My mom was from the South, so there was fried okra, there was fried chicken, and then my mom found the only health food restaurant in the valley.

8:22And so then we started to have, like, I remember there was a huge wooden bowl of nuts and raisins, like, you know, unprocessed and just raw, and they were terrific. But my mother was kind of, my mother made things that tasted good, but they weren't necessarily, like we had lots of beans, lima beans, the pink and the green, and red beans and rice. And my mom made unbelievable cornbread. So it was mostly things from the south, you know, but my mom did it very well. And lots of salads and lots of iced tea. Can you cook? I can cook. What I cook, I do well. What do you do well? If we were coming to yours for a little soiree, what would you be cooking for us?

9:13I'd make my sauce. I'd make my pasta sauce. Actually, it's so good that I, for Christmas, because my friends kept asking me. So I got a label that says Diva Pasta. And I put it on the jars and I just started giving them for Christmas presents. So what's in the Diva Pasta sauce? Well, now it's chicken. It used to be meat. but it's and i don't there's no recipe you know it's like a thing that you like i learned it from sunny's mother so it's like i would just watch her and she would throw things in was sunny italian oh god yeah he was sicilian and um so you start with garlic and onions of course and then you put in then you fry the you fry the um meat what is it chicken breast you're saying you do chicken yes chicken thighs or chicken breast no breast got it I'm not a I don't like well no no I sometimes I put it in because it gives flavor you know and and white chicken doesn't have a lot of flavor in it so and then I put in some paste and then I put in tomatoes and and then I put in a little bit of water and then I put in oregano and sweet basil and some poultry seasoning.

10:37No, no, Italian seasoning. And then I put in mushrooms and I bring it high and then I let it simmer for a while. Oh, then I go in and I see, have I done a good job? What am I missing? What didn't I figure out? Do you taste it? Yeah. Of course, how can you do it without tasting? Yeah, it's true. So then I think, oh, I don't have enough sweet basil, I don't have enough oregano. My mushrooms have melted down so small. I never put enough mushrooms in because I never realized how small. Yeah, they go small. Right, so, and when you put them in, they're so huge. And I skin. It sounds like chicken cacciatore, doesn't it?

11:24Right, but it's a sauce. And what's the pasta that you're going to have with that? What kind of, what shape? I like angel hair, but nobody else does. Why? Why don't they like it? Because it's very little. Yes. So that's what you're going to cook us. Now I need to know, what's in Cher's freezer? What's always there that you'll always reach for? Ice cream. Okay, which brings me on to a shalato. Sugar. avocado flavor I hear you've got I didn't eat it but it seemed like something that people I was against it actually and everybody went oh this would be so good for the esoteric eaters who were going to be there I don't think it lasted, Jen did it last?

12:09oh she's not here Jen's been locked away yes that's true, they were all locked away where can you get your ice cream because I'm going to LA on Saturday, well you know what we just started we didn't think it was going to be quite so successful so we just have everything you do is successful but it was it so we have a huge truck what we wanted to do too was not a van gigantic van like an ice cream truck bigger and so we wanted to go to neighborhoods so we would find out what kind of people were liked it or interested or you know do you have Like a tune. Oh, it's great. What's the tune that the ice cream...

12:48They play the Cher songs. Oh, my goodness. Do they do it like a kind of ice cream fan? So it's like... No, no. They just play them. Oh, it's just playing. And also, you have to look up the van, because the truck, whatever we call it, because it's got pictures of me all over it, but really funny, and all the colors are like a rainbow. Sounds fun. It's something that would make you want to go up to it. So you'd have your shellato in the freezer, and what's the flavor that you're going to go for? I'm a chocolate person. Do you get sprinkles on it? Is it just purest, like, chocolate in a cone? No, I get sprinkles on it.

13:25What kind of sprinkles? I don't know what they are. These are the number of questions I need to ask you, Cher. I've never asked you. How many flavors have you got? There's a million of them, but the truck, we only can have five. Only five? Why don't you just have a shop, Cher? Because it's only been out there for like four weeks or three weeks. It's not soft serve then. No. So it's a stew. Yeah. And we make it downtown. Yeah. And then we have it brought in because we feel that the ice cream is the best at three hours. So eating it at three hours. So what made you decide to do a gelato? I love ice cream.

14:11I've been eating. There are pictures of me eating ice cream all over the world. So when I was in New Zealand and went, my assistant, Jen, brought me some ice cream and I went, this is the best ice cream I've ever tasted. So I went to the shop and the first thing I saw was a huge glass, like apothecary kind of thing with golden cones in it. and I was like like a flight of honey like Willy Wonka and so beautiful I thought I could make earrings out of these but they were carved in a beautiful fashion and then hand gold and so I started talking to Giapo who was the man that made it and designed all the ice creams and he has unbelievable designs on some of his ice cream they're kind of like sculptures so and we started to talk and I said you know I've always wanted to have ice cream you know an ice cream company but I never met the right person and so it took us like five years you know what's the picture on the front of the the packaging there's a big picture of me like this eating an ice cream and then there's lots of little like Mary yeah not exactly like a saint No, but it was an actual picture of me.

15:34And I was like doing that to the ice cream, which is the picture that I took. I don't even know where we were. Germany, maybe. And then there are these little shares in ice cream cones. I can't wait. I'm going to find that van when I'm in America. How are you going to find it? I don't know, but I'm going to find it. It's in LA. Yes, and you can go online and find it. Oh, so it tells you where he's going to be that day. I wonder whether I could get them for outside my gig in LA next weekend. That's another thing. We've rented it out to all these businesses, you know, companies. So it's amazing.

16:12Need more fans. Did Taylor have it? They had us in their parking lot, Taylor Swift's concert. Okay, I'm going to see where they're at. West Hollywood next Monday. Let's go. But I mean, like, so many people have wanted us Warner Brothers. And I mean, like, a lot of companies. And we never even thought about that. We never thought about private companies. Can I ask you, well, I'm going to ask you, I'm throwing this at you, Cher. Okay. I want to know, did you line your stomach before you went to Studio 54? No. So what did you just drink before you went to Studio 54? I don't drink. But did you never drink before?

16:47No, I don't drink. So you didn't need like a... I mean, it's not like I don't drink. I don't drink. You're not interested. No, like the other night I had two glasses of champagne with my friends who always make fun of me because I don't drink, and I just said, okay, fine here. But I don't like alcohol, really. I've had it a couple of times. One time I was doing a shoot for Vogue, and I had to stand in ice water, so they kept giving me... We were in a place called Page, Montana, and we had to stand in this lake up to our knees, this boy and I, and I was shaking. It was so cold. and they kept giving me, I don't know, a hard liquor.

17:30It was hard. It was something like cognac or I don't know, something. Like schnapps or something. So Studio 54, what was the most kind of defining song for you of going to Studio 54? Oh, all of Donna Summer's songs were, you know, Last Dance, I guess. Ah, Last Dance. It was great. I would say it was the best. There's never been another club like it. And regarding the Bob Mackies Are you sure you don't want a mat to go? I will No I don't need a mat But the carrots look good Yeah the carrots are great Where are all the Bob Mackie outfits? Are they in your wardrobe? No no no We have a special warehouse thing for them Do you ever go a fancy dress up?

18:16No Not really I'm kind of a I don't know Like if I'm going to do something Or like if I'm going to go on stage, you know, Bob will make, design the whole show. And I wear like 13 costumes. I hear you even change your microphone colour. Yes. That's effort. I've got four costume changes this weekend and I'm freaking out and I'm definitely not changing my microphone. That's effort and attention to detail. I change my wig every time too. Have you got a wig on now? Yeah. Mum, she was blonde last night. I don't have purple hair. No, I have my own hair. My own hair is like... How long is your own hair?

18:52comes to about here it's dark it's black it's the same hair I've always okay you don't colour it yet a little bit do blondes have more fun let me just tell you this I did a movie once and I just ruined my hair because the director was an idiot which movie? Mask I love that film and I am and through the thing because I've never done this before and I was such a fool. They asked me, the director said, I'll know if you're wearing a wig, not. And so he said, I want you to do your hair red. So when I came out of this place that he assured me would be good, I had black hair with kind of like red polka dotty things in it.

19:43It was really ruined. So I went to this woman hair doctor who does everybody in Hollywood and she said, share, I can make it red, but it's really going to be hard on your hair. And she said, I don't know if I can keep it. I don't know if I can fix it so that you can still, you know, have it. The condition won't be good. So I said, okay. So then, so I started then with a little piece, a hair piece, and just kept the, you know, the front was the red that I'd gotten when we did the stupid, whatever it was he wanted me to do to get my hair colored and then finally she kept saying you know it's not it's never going to be good we should just start to cut it so minata made me a red a red wig and so we just started cutting it and then finally it was really short so i thought what the hell i'm going to make it blonde so i made it blonde and i cannot tell you men like if you ask directions as a blonde, they will take you there.

20:50If you ask directions with long black hair... No point, nothing. I don't know, it's over there somewhere. Oh my goodness. It was such an experience to go from being black hair to blonde and the men going, oh yes, here, it's over here. Let me just walk you. Idiot. Men. The soup is, Jessie, the soup. The soup is excellent, Mum. Yeah, it is good. It's really good. And I've been having to have chicken soup to keep up my strength. Yeah. You know, I have it. I have either bone broth or chicken broth. Yeah. I make this with Jessie when she's not, wow. And send it in a taxi. Penicillin is probably, yeah.

21:33I mean, Cher, everyone wants a piece of you. I mean, we do. We wanted an hour of you. But like, how does it feel? you are believe is 25 years old now i sing it in my concert i don't know if that's weird for you that i'm like not at all it goes down like i mean it goes down better than any of my bloody songs it's it's i mean you've been through so many decades and so successful how does it feel right now you're in paris you've got the christmas album coming out you're so relevant you are so timeless and brilliant and funny and amazing and exciting like how does it feel now compared to I don't know when you were starting out do you still enjoy it I presume so yeah I wouldn't have done it look I've not wanted I I have said for all the years that I've been working I will never make a Christmas album I do not like Christmas albums I don't want to have one so I said to the label I said to the label if you want me to do one you have to let me do it on my own and don't get involved and they were like so terrific the label was so terrific Warner Brothers and um I think they call themselves something else now but um I was really happy so I started picking out I had this a team of kids that wrote three songs that were amazing but the songs are Christmas-ish songs.

23:08So which ones are those? Well DJ Okay so we have a mutual friend Sarah Hudson It's Sarah! I know! Because she's just been posting about it because it debuted last night at the internet. I've known Sarah since she was three years old. I know because she's been Instagramming about it. How do you know? Sarah wrote Curls with me. She's amazing. But she's from kind of rock royalty, right? Right, right, right. Well, her dad was my friend too, Mark. What's his surname? Mark Hudson? Yeah. Oh, right, okay, fine. And what band was he in? He was a writer for a lot of bands. He went for aerospace. I mean, he's a prolific writer.

23:41But yes, you've got all these. I love that you're called it. Sarah will really appreciate the kid in that. But like you've got all these. She's a kid to me. Yeah. I mean, you've got all these amazing writers. You're writing. Like DJ play a Christmas song is, I feel like, your Christmas believe, right? Right, I think so. I mean, it went off last night. Were you there? No, I saw on Instagram. I'm stalking you, Cher, like the rest of the world. Do you know what I mean? Like, how did it feel to play it? Your mom's not stalking me, are you? No, not at all. Okay, good. I'm just admiring. Okay. I feel that you've been in our lives for so long.

24:15Yeah, I have. So, you know, I can remember you when you were Sonny and Cher. Right. And you know that when we came, how we became famous was coming to London. To London, yeah. Right, we couldn't get arrested in America. They hated us. And Jack Good, who did Ready, Steady, Go, I think, in England, said, because he was doing a show called Shindig, and he wanted us on, but we looked so strange that the audience write-ins were not good. So he would have us every once in a while. And then finally he said, look, I can't do this anymore. Go to England. We said, well, we're poor, we don't have it. He said, find it, sell everything, do whatever you have to do.

24:54But he said, they will appreciate you. Ready Steady Go was such an amazing music program. And it was on on a Friday night and everybody watched it. And you watched and all the fashion was great and there was dancing and there was a big audience that danced. It was a great show. So you came to perform as Sonny and Cher on Ready Steady Go. But then you had your own show. No, we didn't have a job. We didn't have a job when we landed. We got kicked out of the Hilton Hotel and a man came and took our picture. We were on the front page of a big newspaper and then the next day people were calling at the Ready, Steady, Go and Top of the Pops.

25:36Why did you get kicked out of Hilton? Because of the way we looked, they wouldn't let us in. What? Because you looked like hippies? Yeah, well, there was no word then. There were no hippies then. There weren't hippies. It was pre-Woodstock. And Woodstock was just coming in and you came into your own. I mean, there was no mamas and papas. There were no people that were, they were flower kids, but there were no people who looked like us. You know, the Beatles had nice little haircuts and cute suits, but we were, like, we thought we looked beautiful. You did. Right, but people were, because you're English.

26:12Yeah, we loved you. So, but. You must be the most dress, fancy dress couple that everyone always dressed up as Sonny and Cher. Did you ever? Yeah. I'm sure I had a lot. Because my hair was long down to here. You'd wear like bus stop. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then you'd go sunny and share if you went to a fancy dress party and try and imitate you. Oh, and it was great. We were so happy. And I went to Biba. Biba, the best shop in the world. When I got there, there must have been a dairy someplace close by. but when I got there there was a big sign on the floor that I had to step over that said Biba and it was in a little house yeah but still the things were amazing badly made but fantastic yeah but it didn't make any difference because you have one and the color yes aubergine was the color and grays and dark lovely colors and crepe big white trousers yes I mean I was I was really happy to find something that I could buy because my friends and I we made our clothes so so to be able to go there and see something that I could relate to yeah you know and it wasn't expensive right because everybody wanted to dress in English clothes in America did they oh god yeah and you could be English and a terrible singer and you could go to America and everybody would love you and think you were the hottest thing that ever happened.

27:42I like Sandy Shaw. Oh, we loved Sandy Shaw. Is she a terrible singer? No, she was a great singer. She didn't wear shoes. And she won Puppet on a String. She won the Eurovision Song Contest. Oh, like a puppet on a string.

28:06The market's uncertain. Revenue's tight and hiring? on hold. That's why results-driven companies are using Upwork to keep work moving. Go to Upwork.com today and start hiring proven freelance talent fast. No bulky overhead, no rigid long-term contracts, just the right expert right when you need them. Work smarter and faster with Upwork. Go to Upwork.com now and find your freelance expert. That's U-P-W-O-R-K.com. Post a job for free and get started today.

28:39make a change, you really only need one good reason. But with Zinn Nicotine Pouches, you'll discover many good reasons. Zinn is America's number one nicotine pouch brand. Plus, Zinn offers a robust rewards program. There are lots of options when it comes to nicotine satisfaction, but there's only one Zinn. Check out Zinn.com slash find to find Zinn at a store near you. Warning, this product contains nicotine. Nicotine is an addictive chemical.

29:12back to food okay last supper we ask everybody their last supper it doesn't have to be a morbid last supper it could be that you are going to go to a desert island for a year and this is the supper the dinner that you would have a starter or appetizer a main a dessert a drink of choice and actually what i'd like to know as well is who would be around that dinner table from your cast members that you've been in various films? Who would make the cut? Meryl, for sure. Yeah, really? Silkwood. Yes. Then Eric Mask, my son. Then who? Winona or Christina? Oh yeah, Christina. And Sam Elliot, Mask. Okay.

30:03Yeah. Garth. And Nicholas Cage I take him as that 26 year old Nicky is crazy I got him that job and kept him that job because I saw him in Peggy Sue Oh I remember Peggy Sue And when I saw him and then we were doing

30:24Moonstruck they said who would you want to be opposite you and I went Nicky Cage and they went no he's crazy we can't have him I said, you know what, if you don't have him, I won't do the picture. That was perfect for the role. And also, was he a good kisser? Oh, I don't remember. Oh, come on, Jack. No, but my boyfriend, my boyfriend, I never kissed him. My boyfriend was on set the whole time. It was kind of made me a little uncomfortable. But yeah, Nicky was a good kisser. We only had like, what, a couple of kisses or maybe one kiss? There was that like the brilliant scene where he's like, I'm going to make you.

30:58You're like, take it all out on me. It was so good. I like slapping him. It was really funny. Oh, yeah. Well, yeah. Because I was supposed to slap him one time. And the director came up and said, Cher, when it's done, slap him again. Was that a real slap? Yeah. That was a slap. But it wasn't a, you know, it wasn't a, I didn't kill him. I just slapped him, you know, because I needed to do it. And did you, was it in the script the snap out of it? Yes. But the second slap was it? No. And it wasn't the way I said it. It was like the director had a different idea. And then, but when I did it, he loved it.

31:37So, you know, sometimes you, director doesn't like, I mean, there are great directors and great directors don't tell you how to give readings because actresses don't like that unless they're not having, unless they're not getting it. Do you guys have the same earrings on? No. No. Okay. You have a smaller and she has bigger with no pearls. so really good directors will only give you something it's like Mike Nichols during Silkwood he would sit us down like there were Meryl and I have a sing on on the swing and we've just had a fight and he was so great because we used to sit together all day long he kept us separated the whole day.

32:17And then when we were going on the swing, he told us a story. He always used to do this. He would tell you a story. And when he was finished, you would know exactly what to do. You know, it would like, he like, when he told me that one, he told us the story, then I was sobbing on that swing. But it was like a lot, what started it out was his story. And then And Meryl and my chemistry did the rest. But, yeah. Is she the reason you did Mamma Mia too? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, yeah, of course. Because I love her and she's great. And I knew that she was going to be great and we were going to have fun.

33:02And, you know, and we did. Back to the food. Last Supper. So we've got the guests. I'm trying to think of something. Jack Nicholson being invited. Absolutely. Wasn't he which is a piece of it? No, absolutely. absolutely val kilmer would be invited he's an is he an ex is he an ex-boyfriend yes and the exes are at the table i like this share i'm close with all of them really yeah i'm really close i have a feeling i have a feeling that you have to like someone a lot before you go to bed with them because if you don't then when you break up then there's nothing you don't have any thing you can never be friends because you weren't friends before jesse that wouldn't apply to you because you've only ever had one boyfriend really um thanks um jesse married her 18 childhood childhood sweetheart how did that work out for you still going well we've got three kids oh come on yeah i'm not going to talk about my sex life now with you thank you um appetizer okay would it be your mom's cornbread No, because my mom's cornbread you have to eat with the main, like, but we only ate it with beans, so whatever.

34:20And my mom, you know, my mom used to crush up, I never understood this, but it's a southern way, southern thing, where you crush up the cornbread in buttermilk. I never figured it out, but it's a thing, you know? I can see that. Delicious. Yeah. My dad used to dip bread in egg, in milk. and eat it. Okay, well, cornbread is, you know, the same thing, only it's got a lot more kind of grainy substance. Not grainy, but, you know, it's got that texture to it. So I'm trying to think because I don't think about food. Maine course. You don't think about food. It's just, it doesn't dominate. No, no, no, it doesn't really.

35:00But I like it. But what do you think about the most? If you're not, I think about food the most. What are you thinking about? What consumes you? Nothing really consumes me. Whatever I'm thinking or doing at the time consumes me. But... I'm kind of a... I'm kind of a... Yes. I love Christmas dinner. I love turkey. I love stuffing. Do you make it? No. That's okay. But I used to. where are you going for thanksgiving this year i don't know probably my sister my kids um my boyfriend uh my my family friends people i've known for a long time there's a lot of times people don't make plans for their house because they don't feel like going through the whole thing you know it's a lot you can get it catered no no any christmas traditions that share has that we must all instill?

36:08Doing the tree. Do you like tacky lights? Like in the song I Like Christmas. I just need to know this because I'm a tacky lights kind of gal. I do like it. I don't like the white ones. They're too serious. No, I don't either. You know who else likes the tacky lights that we had on the podcast? Sir Paul McCartney. He used to have like flashing different coloured lights. We have flashing lights too. And I have a lot of palm trees in my front yard and we do the trunk. And it's quite beautiful. I love that. I guess I do really love Christmas. That's good because you've got an album to sing about. Who was it that got snow brought in for Christmas?

36:48What, who was in... Was it on our podcast and he had snow brought in? It would have been an American, no doubt, that lives in LA. I think so, yeah. In Malibu, we have no snow. Are you in Malibu? Yes. I love Malibu. Where's your favourite spot to eat in Los Angeles? Malibu. Well, yeah. No, I like to eat in my bedroom. Do you? In bed? No, I have big couches, and I like, oh, baby, do I ever. I've got, in all of the rooms, the bedrooms in my house, you can either see two views of the ocean or three views of the ocean. And I built it specifically so it would feel like it was right near you. And what I like about looking at the ocean is there's no, there's nothing there's no lights there's no you know malls there's no nothing to get in your way and so everything is endless and everything is possible yeah malibu is so amazing because of all the birds and the seals and sometimes the dolphins oh all the time dolphins and and and whales yeah we see whales too yeah yeah we saw well once didn't we i don't know if it was a big dolphin or not I'm not sure we saw something.

38:03So when you're sitting in your bedroom your boudoir in the morning how do you like your eggs? I like eggs I know this is not very popular but I like my eggs hard I don't want them. No no I want I want no I like scrambled eggs yeah but I don't like them runny at all. You wouldn't do well in France. I know or even in England where you go dipping yeah you don't you're a hard-boiled egg kind of gal i don't like hard-boiled eggs well my assistant gives them to me because they're quick and i don't want to be bothered a lot of the time but i do enjoy um i do enjoy um a nice scrambled eggs and and i i don't have real bacon anymore but i have turkey bacon and i enjoy that it's a little bit salty for me but it's okay Cher, does your boyfriend cook?

38:54No. Because I've got a feeling you don't cook much. No, he doesn't cook. He doesn't cook either. No, he doesn't. He doesn't. Gosh, I hope someone's looking after you. Oh, I have a good cook. Good. Yeah. But, yeah, you know, it's strange for me. I worked my whole life, you know, and so I was working, you know. I didn't have much time. And Sonny was a cook. Sonny could cook anything. you could like I would go into the refrigerator I mean this is when we were poor I would go into the refrigerator and I would say son there's nothing we haven't got anything we got to go to the market he'd go walk in it goes like that that blah blah blah blah and it would be like are you kidding me are you kidding me and what did you do this with where did you meet him oh um okay I was 16 16 yeah and I was with a girlfriend of mine and her friend in a restaurant underneath a radio station, KFWB.

39:56And we were sitting there, and there were a whole bunch of record people sitting at the tables, and I wasn't paying any attention. I was talking to my friend. And then I heard people say, Sonny, hey, Sonny, come sit with us. Son, hey, Son, come on over here. And I'm thinking, who's this guy? So I turn around, and I swear to God, it was like when Tony and Maria saw each other at the dance I don't know what it was I mean he was not handsome but he was dressed so unbelievably so cool and he had this kind of swagger and the most beautiful hands I've ever seen on a man and he came up and one of the guys that was a promotion man was sitting next to us And so Sonny sat down and just they started talking and my friend and I were sitting there talking and then they made arrangements to go out dancing that night.

40:57So the four of us went out dancing and my friend Melissa, she didn't dance and Red didn't dance and Sonny and I danced. So we just danced. But then he moved next door to her, but she didn't like him. Do you remember which song was playing? Oh, God, no, because I had no interest in him or the song. I just wanted to dance. And so he moved next door to Melissa, and she didn't like him. Except he moved into an apartment building that were all women, that were all beautiful, that kind of woman. I was... Curvy. Right. And so I had gotten kicked out of my apartment because I lost my job, and the girls, well, there were three girls in there already.

41:38Why did you lose your job, Cher? You know what I did? What? One day I just thought, I don't like this job. And I just went in and I grabbed my purse. I didn't care about getting a paycheck. And I just walked out. What was the job? I was, this is a terrible job. I didn't even know this job existed. I monitored time cards. Okay, I salute you for clocking out because it was essential. That's a bad job. No, but also, it's you. Also, I'm dyslexic. so yeah my father my stepfather had to give me like a little sheet that would tell me how to decipher it and also I was like I was narking on my on the people that work there you know but it was the only job I had then I got a job at See's Candy which was really fun and the old ladies they all had blue hair but they were so sweet to me and it was an easy job and I got mostly in the back to you know at at easter time that was my favorite time i would be making the baskets putting more candy in that i was supposed to and you know but were you singing i sang from the time i was little yeah i thought everyone did yeah because truthfully i have my mother's voice exactly and you cannot tell the difference so my my my grandfather would come out to visit us and bring his guitar my uncle would bring his guitar my mom my grandfather and i would just sing mostly southern songs because that's what everybody knew so i just at that point i didn't know that people didn't sing you know i just thought everybody what sort of music it was southern what did your mom sing that's why i learned southern songs because they came from the south so you know so that's what we did you don't look like a southern type girl well my father's from armenia yeah share we've got about five more minutes with you okay i'm going to hold on to these five minutes okay um but i i wanted to ask before we let you go the you talked about good directors and you know for me you know mermaids you've talked about it i'm sure so much but i just want to know the the kitchen dancing scene when you write the end they just said do what you think you should do it was like that's what we just started jumping around it was joyful right and it was not staged and in the slightest and we just all were riffing and having a good but I mean those girls and I were so close you know we were just really really close and the director tried to separate us I mean he wasn't he didn't like it very much that we were too close because he couldn't like he couldn't like by that time I had done a couple of movies and so he couldn't push me around like he tried to push the girls around so I kind of saved them so we were we were we were like mom and two daughters that's why i think it was so believable no i mean it was fun we had so much fun in that scene it was just great great and when we bumped it was like it was great it looked it makes me so happy i wanted to know if you could go back to any decade which would it would it be the here and now or is there one i don't know time but whether it's the fashion, the music, the company, where would you go?

44:57Well, I'm happy. I'm pretty happy right now. But I would go, it's hard, 70s, 80s, because my life was completely different. First, I was a singer. Then I was unemployed. Then I was an actress. So the 80s, I was an actress. The 70s, I was a singer. and then in between 75 or whatever, I was struggling to do whatever because my albums stopped selling and I got dropped by two record companies. Wow, he's laughing now. So, yeah, and then I got a job. Robert Altman, who's a great director, so I went to audition for Joe Papp and he said, you're very good, but I have nothing for you at this time. I walked out, and there was one of those little memo things, and it said Robert Altman called you.

45:55So what seems to have happened was my mother and his wife were friends. My mom had my New York, because I'm from California, my New York number just scribbled, scribbled next to him. She called him thinking she was calling me, and she said, can I talk to Cher? And he had been having a nap, but he's kind of grouchy anyway. And so he said, no, why would Cher be here? And she said, oh, I'm sorry. I thought, and he went, Georgia? And she said, yes. And he said, Cher's not here. And it's Bob. And she said, oh, damn, I must have gotten you confused. So he said, what is she doing here? She wants to be an actress.

46:39She went there to audition, and he was doing a play. so anyway he called and said uh i'm not offering you this but i'm going to send a script around to you and it didn't get there but it was because of the puerto rican day parade so i thought he was just lying so next day and i said i can't come in for a reading because i'm dyslexic i can act or i can read but i can't do both he said it doesn't make any difference i just want to hear your voice so i went in and one of the actresses i was in the elevator with her i was in a black motorcycle jacket. And then I followed her out. She said she thought I was going to mug her.

47:15So we got in inside and Sandy Dennis was there and all these people, all these actresses were there. And we sat on the ground, you know, on the carpet and everyone was supposed to read. And he wanted me for a part that I said, I can't do it. And he said, are you telling me you don't have a job? Nobody wants to hire you. And you're telling me what you can't do. And I said, okay, you'll see. So anyway, we went there, we sat down. I started to read. Sandy Dennis told me it was the worst reading she'd ever heard in her life but she said she I was she said but you were fascinating so I read for both parts I was right he I wasn't right for the part he wanted me to play and then I got the job and and it was it was great you have got a wonderful voice thank you Cher it's an absolute honor to spend uh time with you and just to hear your stories I could hear them for hours and hours I wish you all the best with the Christmas record thank you and I think we're all going to be hearing DJ play a Christmas song in the clubs thank you and I really it's such a treat to meet you you're incredibly inspiring and everyone loves you um but yeah good luck with the record thank you keep on looking fabulous thank you keep on being fabulous and and thanks for giving us this time oh you're welcome thank you so much

48:49just another low-key end to the low-key day we've had doing our outro on the Eurostar the last Eurostar bag after fashion week the the train is full people are looking at us sorry I'm just checking Instagram no I'm looking at you darling avoiding bad bugs Well, we had 49 minutes with the icon. The icon. She was two and a half hours late. I have to say, firstly, the reason maybe why I was going like the clappers with the questions is because we had a limited time. You did go full on, darling. Mum had to make every second count. I was so fascinated by looking at how beautiful she looked. Yeah, let me just tell everybody.

49:32Cher is beautiful. Beautiful? Beautiful, kind. fabulous, interesting sexy glamorous but not interested in food much I couldn't even get a last supper out of her literally I don't think we even got a starter no, cornbread with milk but you now all know her favourite place to eat it's not a restaurant it's in her bedroom I'd say this is top top two most bizarre situations to be in. Yeah, I hope Justine has to be in. Poor Justine. The soup. It was delicious. We delayed it by a quarter of an hour, every quarter of an hour for two hours. For three hours. The soup was good. I don't know if it was boiling.

50:22It was delicious. It was very good. The matzobor was beautiful. I could do with some now, to be honest. Do you know what? My Tupperware's gone. Sorry for your loss. The bastards have kept it back. because punishment because of the soup

50:41thank you to Cher for being such a gorgeous woman I mean you were really late but I guess that's what you're top five divas aren't you but I don't mean diva in a negative way I mean diva in the best kind of way fabulous way and she was so lovely and she took all the photos and she could have been the phages and she had something else to do Because she wanted to stay with us. She wanted to stay with us gals, us squirrel friends. I hope we get the ice cream cart in LA. Yeah, I'm going to try and work this out. I'm going to try and work it out. I'm speaking in very hushed tones because... On the Eurostar.

51:19You know, Mum, I did a gig on the Eurostar once. Oh, yeah, you did tell me. Yeah, that was when I was a backing singer and I certainly wasn't coming to Paris to interview Cher. Was that when you were with Man Like Me? Things have changed, Mum. I know. Gone up in the world. I know. On the train. on the train. I don't think they've ever done one ever again like that. But yeah, we did a gig on the train. What I will say is, I also apologise. It was very, it was snappy. But I also, I think I'm not intimidated. I think I was a bit starstruck. Yeah, I was starstruck. So I felt like a bit of a fool. I was mesmerised by how beautiful she was.

51:57She's older than me, Jessie, and she looked 20 years younger than me. Maybe you need to A bit slow, darling, saying she didn't. I'm sorry. No, she didn't. Christ. As I head for another birthday. She was lovely. She also had a very noisy jacket on, so I apologise if you hear a bit of banging. I also loved how she knew all the famous, like, oh, Meryl's my best friend. Nikki. Nikki. Nicholas Cage. Nicholas Cage. Oh, Nikki was... Nikki Naughty Nikki. Yeah. And then... Plenty. I mean, we almost deserve a part two, just so we can get anecdotes and we get her on that glass of champagne. Do you think she would?

52:35I don't know. Yeah, I think... She said at the end, she said, I have to say it's so much better being interviewed by women. It is. I just want to thank Cher for giving us the time because everyone wants a piece of her. People adore her. You feel like you've kind of been blessed by a saint when you're in her presence. Do you believe in life after love, Jessie? I do, and if I could turn back time, I would have gone for a better lunch. Yeah, me too. I'd known that they were going to... Attention, s 'il vous plaît, cette Eurostar à destination de Londres va partir. Attention, alors fermez votre automatique des portes.

53:08Here, passengers, your attention, please. This Eurostar to London is now ready to leave. Mind the automatic closing of the doors. Just bring some cups with the champagne. Oh, please. Yeah, before it gets warm. I should put it in the cooler bag. Thank you for listening, and I hope you all enjoyed it.

53:47We'll be right back.

54:01to find ZIN at a store near you. Warning, this product contains nicotine. Nicotine is an addictive chemical.