A Talk with Cher About Music & Survival [Flashback]

It’s 9 a.m. in Los Angeles, and Cher is awake. This is surprising because it’s hard to imagine a groggy Cher rolling out of bed at such a workaday hour, slipping her feet into bunny slippers, revving up the Waterpik, pouring a bowl of bran flakes. It all feels too, well, human.

But the star has good reason to be up talking on the phone to me at this un-Cher-ly hour. It’s March 2002, and she’s stumping for her new album Living Proof. It’s the follow-up to the 1998 smash “Believe,” featuring the single of the same name, which turned into her biggest hit ever.

Craig: One of the things that I think is interesting about this new album is that people often think about you as making a comeback. But this time, you’re coming back after a real peak. How does that feel?

Cher: Well, I mean, I don’t really know how it feels. You know, you make something, you make a movie, you make an album, you do something, and then you just put it out, and then it’s gotta sink or swim on its own merits. There’s not much you can do about it. You just do the best you can.

I mean you can be disappointed if it doesn’t do well, but you can’t agonize too much. You then gotta go, “Okay, well that didn’t work.” And you just keep going.