NEED TO KNOW
Sheena Easton traded pop stardom for one unexpected hobby.
The 66-year-old singer-actress recently spoke with The New York Times about her career in the public eye and her life since stepping back.
Easton performed duets with Prince and Kenny Rogers, and was the voice behind the theme for the 1981 James Bond movie, For Your Eyes Only. The “Modern Girl” singer also performed at Live Aid, earned two Grammys and sold over 20 million records.
As for how she navigated the jam-packed 1980s, she told The New York Times in an article published Saturday, Oct. 25, that she was able to get “through the craziness of those years,” thanks to her ability to “go towards normal things, to stay as grounded as possible,” she said. “I felt like, this is all a wonderful fantasy, but I don’t ever want to start believing it’s real.”
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“I’m open to different creative things,” she added. “What I’m not open to is the craziness, the almost compulsory nature of what you have to do [to] be a pop star. I did that once. I don’t need to do it again.”
“But there came a point where I thought, I need to change my life,” she said of her decision to take a step back.
“At the risk of a horrible cliché, that’s when I got off the merry-go-round. I didn’t want to be in my 50s and 60s looking back thinking all I’ve ever did was make records, get on a tour bus, do a bunch of TV — rinse and repeat. I wanted something more.”
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Since she’s embraced a more “normal” life and her new habits, she has stopped releasing new music, with her last album dropping in 2000.
The Scottish performer also chose to scale back her performances and, more recently, will perform only “intimate” shows for audiences of 500 people. “I’m not being shoved in people’s faces anymore, which means I can lead a very normal life 99 percent of the time,” she told the outlet.
As she remarked that her “normal” life includes a Prius and pilates, she also shared, “I’m a hardcore gamer.”
The famed singer said a couple of her favorites include World of Warcraft and Ghost of Tsushima. “I’ve got to put in like an hour or two into my gaming every day,” she said.
The U.K. record label Cherry Red is releasing a new Easton box set, Strut, named after one of her biggest hits, on Friday, Oct. 31.
