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Bette Midler
Bette
At the grand old age of 60, Bette Midler is having something a bit of a revival with a sold-out stint in Celine Dionââ¬â¢s shoes in Las Vegas and,
"We did a lot of our crazy sex. Oh, the memories! Memories like the corners of my mind. Crazy sex. Yeah, what about it?"
You were always right out there with the AIDS activism thing, weren’t you?
I tried. I tried. I lost a lot of friends and it was all terribly, terribly sad.
And you were on the first ever Gay Pride march, which is very brave.
It was brave. But to me it was normal. I didn’t think I was doing any more than anyone else was being asked to do. And the AIDS things especially. It was the least I could have done, the least. You had to do something.
You used to be the most outrageous woman there was. Still crazy after all these years?
You know, I’m a little older but when I remember that that’s who I am, I do but I’m you know…
You started out in a gay sauna, didn’t you? Is that right that Mick Jagger snuck in there to see you?
I heard that but I could never verify it. They all had to wear towels but then in the end people started coming in their clothes, they let them in and all the guys were on display and it was quite unnerving for them. But it was a great time. An odd time.
It was quite a joyful era…
And in a strange way it was quite wholesome. It wasn’t filthy.
You were a go-go girl as well, weren’t you?
I was. Not for very long and I wasn’t very successful. On bar tops.
Did people stuff dollar bills in your thong?
No! It was before that. They would never touch you in those days, they’d be arrested.
How would you feel if your daughter was doing it?
I wouldn’t like it at all. But I thought this is what you had to do. There was no other way to earn money. I was young and I wasn’t in college.
‘I was young and I needed the money.’
[Laughs] Exactly! And I didn’t do it that long. It was a happy time in my life.
But you were genuinely the talk of the town at that gay sauna, weren’t you?
Yes, but I was so sure this was going to be my fate, I was very “God, it took you long enough.” Now I’m older and realise how hard everything was and how lucky I was to be in the right place at the right time.
Go-go-ing, performing in saunas - you were in the middle of the low life in a way…
Yes, I absolutely was. But to me it wasn’t really the low life. I was in a bubble. I was in my Bette Midler bubble. Bette Midler’s world and you’re all just living in it.
Did you do drugs?
I did a little bit. I couldn’t hold up physically. If I smoked dope, I lost my voice. I’d have a wonderful time, I’d be there for days. You know, “Get her off. Go home!” Once I came off the stage, I ran up the aisle, bought myself a bag of popcorn, came back down the aisle, got back on the stage…
Munchies halfway through the act…
[Really laughing] Well you couldn’t go on like that and the voice, you just couldn’t hold it up. You couldn’t do it.
So is marijuana as bad as it got?
Oh, no. I did a little cocaine in the early days and I drank a little bit but I didn’t like being hungover and I didn’t like my nose running into my soup the whole time. So unattractive. And so I gave that up. I also didn’t like grinding my teeth. All it did was make you chatter. So dreary! So finally I said, “Oh, it’s not worth it!”.
And what about crazy sex? Because it was the time for crazy sex?
Oh, crazy, crazy, crazy sex. We did a lot of our crazy sex. Oh, the memories. Memories like the corners of my mind. Crazy sex. Yeah, what about it?
Did you have much?
I did what people did in those days. I can’t speak for everybody but I can speak for friends of mine who enjoyed sex. It was a time when it didn’t seem like anything was going to happen to you but indeed things did happen and more horrible things than you can ever, ever imagine.
