I was at an awards thing, and I went to the loo while some bulls— was going on. Elton [John] came out of one of the stalls and said, “I tried singing ‘Kiss From a Rose’ the other day. It’s not an easy song to sing, is it?”They’re not the same type of song, but you know when you hear someone try to sing “Kiss” by Prince? It just doesn’t work — like, ever. I’m not by any means the world’s greatest singer, but I have a thing that I do, and “Kiss From a Rose” is a showcase of that.
You seem quite conscientious of your kids’ proximity to fame. Have you ever tried to steer them away from show business?That doesn’t worry me. It’s an interesting life, and there are many advantages that go along with the obvious pitfalls one can succumb to in show business. But I’ve tried to instill in my eldest daughter, Leni, that the word “celebrity” implies that one is famous for being famous, and there’s very little happiness in that. It’s just so tragically empty that I could vomit.
Leni’s in the public eye at the moment [as a model], and I must say that I’m really proud of her — of the way she sees it for what it is. She understands that it’s a means to something else and that being famous will not give you self-worth. But the rest of my kids, they couldn’t give a flying you-know-what about fame. Honestly, they’ve never once exhibited any kind of wow factor about anything I do.
You’re at a point now where you can kind of step into the limelight when you want to and then step back out of it. Earlier in your life, the attention seemed unavoidable.The difference is that I’m not married to somebody whose career and life is basically founded on that attention. Before I got married, you never really used to see that much of me. There was a certain kind of mystery because I never went out and sought fame. I just happened to be famous.