By Jae-Ha Kim
Chicago Sun-Times
May 20, 1988
A pop star who gets up at 7 a.m. on the weekend is as unusual as a person who wants to have a pet pig. Singer Belinda Carlisle said she’s “guilty” of both.
“I guess not everybody fits the rock ‘n’ roll stereotype,” Carlisle said. “At one time I did. I’m glad I don’t anymore.”
Calling from her Los Angeles home just before 8 on a recent Saturday morning, the former Go-Go said she already had eaten, gone jogging and spent the morning talking to her husband, film producer Morgan Mason.
“My days of raising hell are over,” said Carlisle, 29. “I’m not a kid anymore, and I have a husband to be responsible to. Being self-destructive is not fun. You can’t do your job right if you’re fighting a hangover.”
Riding the success of her second solo album, “Heaven on Earth,” Carlisle and her three-man, three-woman band will perform at 7 tonight at the Holiday Star Theatre in Merrillville. Tickets, $16, are available through Ticketmaster (559-1212).
“One of the advantages of having a successful record is that more money gets invested in your live stage shows,” Carlisle said. “Lighting and production make or break a show, I think, by adding drama to the concert.
“When I toured to support my debut, `Belinda,’ I felt self-conscious about my own abilities. Also, not having the type of lavish stage set ups I was used to when I toured with the Go-Gos made me feel a little uneasy. That’s the nice thing about having a popular album. You get to present the kind of concerts that you want to.”
When the Go-Gos disbanded in 1985, some critics were skeptical about the potential future of the individual members. Regarded as the Go-Go with the least natural ability, Carlisle said she wasn’t that confident of her own talents.
“I have to admit I sort of slipped by the seat of my pants in that band,” she said. “I tried hard when we formed it (in 1978), but as time went on it became more of a grind. I really didn’t know what I could do, and didn’t push myself to improve or really be involved on our albums.”
Though her former bandmates were quick to point the finger at Carlisle when the band broke up, Carlisle insisted she never plotted to leave the band to go the solo route.
“A lot of people have been really cruel about the whole thing, saying I was overly ambitious. The truth is, I really wasn’t. I knew that I had the opportunity to, but I never thought about doing my solo thing till the time came to actually do it. The band wasn’t working anymore and we weren’t producing good material.”
Before she could concentrate on revamping her career, Carlisle said she had to straighten out her personal life. With her husband’s support, she kicked drugs and alcohol.
And it appears Carlisle has won the battle of the bulge that she said she has fought all her life. Twenty-five pounds lighter than when she was a Go-Go, the Carlisle of today is all cheekbones and legs.
Then there’s her voice. Never considered one of rock’s divas, Carlisle now exudes a newfound strength and emotion. She’s learned to control her child-woman vibrato.
In her Go-Gos days, Carlisle’s spunky, blond good looks were a fixture in the teen and fan magazines.
Today, she sports a sexier, longer, dyed-red hairdo and makes the gossip columns and society pages. Her husband, the son of actors James and Pamela Mason and a former deputy protocol chief for President Reagan, escorts her to AIDS benefits and she reciprocates by attending political functions with him.
At home, Carlisle has four dogs and a parrot. Until recently, she kept a pet pig, too.
“You can’t really accommodate a pig in a house,” she said, laughing. “That’s another phase of my life that’s over with.”
