Rock n Roll Hall of Fame singer/songwriter Belinda Carlisle joined CHANNEL Q's Corey Crockett to help us kick off the holiday spirit.
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00:00Channel Q joined by royalty.
00:03I do feel very lucky like to have a legend in our midst,
00:06Belinda Carlisle joining us
00:08with a lot of exciting things coming up.
00:10Hi, how are you?
00:11Fine, how are you?
00:12I'm so good.
00:13I wanna start with the big news and I mean, big, big news.
00:18The Go-Go's performing at Coachella in 2025.
00:22Tell me, how did that come about?
00:25We were asked, I mean, I'm turning off my phone.
00:28It's actually ringing, sorry.
00:30We were asked, I mean, we had broken up three years prior,
00:33one of the many breakups.
00:36And one thing I've learned about that band
00:39is you can never say never again
00:41because something always comes up that gets us excited.
00:45And Coachella came up, it was hard to keep it secret
00:49about four or five months ago.
00:51And we just thought it was an amazing opportunity
00:55and you don't turn down Coachella.
00:57I mean, it's like the biggest music festival in the world.
01:00So yeah, so we're doing that and we're excited about it.
01:05You talked about the breakups
01:07and I feel like it was just last year
01:10that there was the impression
01:12that the band may be done for good.
01:13What was the catalyst that made you guys go,
01:16okay, I think there's a little bit more here?
01:19Coachella, because we were planning, we weren't,
01:22I mean, like I said, something always comes about.
01:24We've like disbanded so many times since 1978.
01:28I can't even count, to be honest.
01:30I can't keep up with it myself.
01:32But there was, we had broken up
01:36in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame,
01:38got together for that and did some shows.
01:40And then earlier this year,
01:41it was a California Hall of Fame.
01:43We got together for that and performed.
01:45And then this, we really, I mean,
01:48everybody has their own lives.
01:50So this was the catalyst, really,
01:54Coachella and then Cruel World on May 17th.
01:58So, I mean, they're both sort of,
02:01like I said, who turns that down?
02:03Absolutely.
02:04Obviously to have the Go-Go's on the lineup is amazing.
02:08Is there anyone else on that massive lineup
02:12that you're particularly excited to be performing with
02:15or near or to watch maybe if you get some time that weekend?
02:18Yeah, I mean, on our stage,
02:20I mean, I've never seen Go-Go live and I'm a huge fan.
02:23I love Missy Elliott.
02:25Love, love, love, love Prodigy.
02:28I love Green Day.
02:29They're on the following night.
02:32So yeah, there's some, I'm excited about.
02:35I mean, there's so many people
02:36I can't even remember exactly who,
02:41but I know that those artists,
02:42I'm really excited about seeing.
02:44So exciting.
02:45I feel like I've also seen lately,
02:47obviously there's always been such an interest
02:50in your music, in your library,
02:51but I feel like I've seen lately more and more people
02:54on TikTok and social media covering your music.
02:58It's popped off lately.
02:59I'm curious to know, after all these years,
03:02do you still get excited when you hear someone
03:04put a new spin on your songs?
03:07Totally.
03:08I mean, that whole thing that went on with Heaven,
03:11ooh, what's that?
03:12That was everywhere.
03:13Millions and millions and millions and millions
03:15and millions of people.
03:16And I just thought that it was,
03:18I mean, I didn't understand it,
03:21but I thought it was amazing.
03:22You know, it was like, it's like,
03:24I mean, maybe you're not supposed to understand it,
03:26but yeah, but I love it.
03:29And I love it.
03:30And I still love it when I hear my songs on the radio
03:32or Gogo's songs on the radio.
03:33I just turn it up.
03:35Spending some time with Belinda Carlisle on Channel Q.
03:38You've got a really amazing event coming up so soon,
03:40just a couple of weeks away,
03:42your Christmas party at the Legendary Abbey in WeHo.
03:45You, along with Taylor Dane, Sandra Bernard,
03:47Michelle Visage, gonna be there all to raise money
03:50for your Animal People Alliance.
03:52And you're celebrating 10 years of this organization
03:54that you co-founded.
03:55For you, how did you first get into animal advocacy?
03:59Well, I just always was an animal advocate
04:02since high school, actually.
04:03And then, you know, as a young woman,
04:07well, the Gogos were the first,
04:09I'd rather go naked, but wear fur campaign.
04:12That was a very, we were the very first.
04:14And just through the years, I've done lots of anti-fur work,
04:17vegetarianism work.
04:20So I've always had an interest in animal welfare.
04:22It's just the way I'm built.
04:24So about 10 years ago,
04:30oh yeah, we found our way the past 10 years.
04:33We didn't know exactly what it was going to be
04:35because India is so complicated.
04:38And it ended up being,
04:42we do mostly on-site treatments.
04:45Lots of street animals,
04:46lots of animals live on the street in India,
04:49mostly street dogs.
04:51And, you know, we now have operating theater
04:54for more serious cases.
04:58We do rabies drives.
05:01We've expanded into Thailand.
05:02We do rabies adoption, you know, spaying and neutering.
05:08And at the same time creating employment
05:11for people who would normally have a tough time,
05:14either with a handicap or being lower caste like in India.
05:18In Thailand, we work a lot with stateless people
05:21who are marginalized people
05:23and we create employment for these people.
05:25So it's like a two-fold mission.
05:26And since 2014, we've treated almost 90,000 animals.
05:32Wow.
05:33It's amazing, yeah.
05:34Wow, it's almost incomprehensible
05:37how large that is.
05:38That's incredible.
05:39Congratulations.
05:41Yeah, we have amazing teams in both India and Thailand.
05:46Yeah, I'm very proud of them.
05:47Tickets to the event at animalpeoplealliance.net.
05:51Tell me, what can we expect from the big party?
05:54Well, first of all,
05:57I'd like to say that admission is tax deductible
06:00because we're a U.S. registered charity.
06:02So, but that night I'm performing, of course,
06:06Taylor Dane's performing.
06:09Sandra is the emcee of the evening.
06:11She's a really old friend of mine.
06:12We've been friends like 40 years.
06:14So she's running the whole show.
06:17Michelle Visage is gonna be doing her thing
06:20and probably getting people to bid
06:23for a lot of the things we have at auction and our raffle.
06:26And it's a really fun evening.
06:28At the end of the evening,
06:29what we've done before is we auction off a song
06:33so somebody out there gets to do a duet with me.
06:35Usually it's a Christmas song.
06:37Oh my goodness.
06:38That sounds fun, but also intimidating.
06:40Like, I don't know if I, I mean,
06:42I would be so excited, but ooh.
06:44No, I mean, the people that have gotten up on stage
06:47for me are not intimidated at all.
06:49So that's not an issue at all.
06:54But yeah, it's a super fun evening.
06:56Very festive.
06:58Yeah.
06:59I mean, we do it every other year, I'd say.
07:04It's a lot to do annually
07:05because we also have a fundraiser we do in London as well.
07:09So yeah, so come on down.
07:12Amazing to have an organization
07:14with such international reach to be so accessible in WeHo.
07:18December 12th is the date, is that correct?
07:20Yes, it's December 12th.
07:21It starts at, I think, 7 p.m.
07:24Beautiful.
07:25Tickets again at animalpeoplealliance.net.
07:27I wanted to ask you too,
07:28you had spoken so many times
07:31about your connection and practice of Buddhism.
07:36It's something for us here at Odyssey,
07:38we're so connected to mental health.
07:40And so I'm curious to know how that's impacted you
07:42in your life and meditation in particular
07:44and how you take care of your mental health.
07:47Well, I mean, I always say it's really hard to be normal,
07:50to be stable, you know, without a lot of work.
07:53And I started my Nichiren Buddhist practice,
07:59God, before I got sober, like three years ago,
08:02but 23 years ago,
08:03because I'm sober for almost 20 years.
08:06So that was intense because it brings up a lot of stuff,
08:12you know, and then I got sober.
08:14And since then, I mean, I really am a big advocate
08:17for the power of chanting and meditation and breath work.
08:21I spend every morning,
08:23I get up at 3.30 or four in the morning, every morning,
08:26and I start, that's when I start.
08:28And it's a big commitment
08:31where I start with like a great teacher,
08:34like a Ram Dass or an Eckhart Tolle
08:37or Sadhu or someone like that.
08:39There's a great new teacher called R.J. Spina
08:41who I'm obsessed with, he's Californian.
08:45And then I go in and I chant,
08:48and I chant and I do tons of breath work.
08:51My practice has gone more from Buddhism,
08:55it's more of a kundalini practice now,
08:58which it's still chanting
09:00and the same sort of non-violent principles, exactly.
09:07Yeah, it's exactly the same.
09:09So it, for me,
09:11if I didn't have a spiritual foundation and a practice,
09:17like chanting, it's not airy-fairy, it's scientific,
09:20because you activate your meridian points
09:23and they roof your mouth.
09:25It changes everything.
09:26It changes your perspective on things.
09:29It's changed my world completely.
09:30I mean, I always say,
09:34I mean, I'm pretty stable and pretty solid,
09:38but if I didn't have this,
09:40I would be just like I used to be,
09:41all over the place, lashing out, angry,
09:45because that's my base is anger.
09:47I mean, I operate from,
09:49I mean, I was born angry for whatever reason.
09:52So my practice sort of tempered that
09:55and I just, I can't say enough about it.
09:58You know, I'm glad you bring up the scientific aspects,
10:01because I think one of the barriers
10:02to getting people involved in things like that
10:04is that they think it's like foo-foo.
10:06I think the other thing is that people realize
10:09once they start that it's hard.
10:11You have any advice for people getting through
10:13and feeling like, oh, I can't handle this.
10:15Like, this is difficult.
10:16Wow, well, you get people saying, I can't meditate,
10:21because it's like, well,
10:23I didn't ever thought I could either, to be honest.
10:25But I would say start, I mean,
10:28I think the easiest meditation in the most
10:30is probably following your breath
10:33and start with like three minutes.
10:35You know, you don't have to do too,
10:37like I do like an hour and a half, two hours a day.
10:40That's how my work, that's why I get up so early.
10:43But, you know, start with five minutes, three minutes
10:45of closing your eyes, following your breath,
10:49and then it's like, it is not airy-fairy.
10:55And then like pranayama and like alternate nostril breathing,
10:59all that heavy breathing.
11:00I mean, that is like, and that's scientific also.
11:04I mean, that's really stabilizing.
11:09You know, like I said, I can't imagine,
11:11I do it every day, so I can't imagine my life without it.
11:14Linda Carla, I have enjoyed our conversation so much.
11:18It's been lovely to chat with you.
11:20You've got big things coming, Coachella 2025,
11:22Go-Go's reunion part 15,
11:24and then the Animal People Alliance party in WeHo.
11:30Tickets there at animalpeoplealliance.net.
11:33Thank you so much.
11:35It was so nice talking to you.