(CSC) 1. Thanks for taking the time to chat with us all the way from California! What’s the latest in your world?!?
(Liza Jane)
Well I’ve been working on a new CD and it has been interesting. When I try to pigeon hole it, it’s kind of like country/folk/rock meets alternative-cosmic. (Laughs) I don’t know what it is. It’s on my own label so I have no boundaries. I’m making it be whatever I want it to be. There are some hard core country rock songs on it and there are some really out there tunes on it. One of the songs is called “Falling Star.” It was inspired by a vacation I had taken a vacation at the end of a Fleetwood Mac tour with Stevie Nicks. We went to Hawaii after Japan and Australia. It was a very draining tour so I took a little holiday. Every night I’d go out on the lava rocks and I’d sit way far out on the ocean and just watch the sky. It was so beautiful! One night I saw, well I don’t really know what it was; it was like a UFO. I know that sounds totally weird but I’m looking up at this thing in the sky and it started bouncing. It tripped me out. Then it shot out of my vision. So I came back in the house and everybody laughed at me except Stevie. She believed me. So I wrote a song about it called “Falling Star” and it’s about that experience that I had sitting out there on the lava rocks, watching the sky. It really is an interesting mix of songs on this CD.
(CSC) 2. Your debut album, “Cosmic Cowgirl” contains a pleasing mixture of traditional country with a rockin’ twist. Tell us about the creative process behind the record and your choice of song selections!
(Liza Jane)
Well when I did that that was kind of a conglomeration of songs that I came to Nashville with back in 1994 and some songs that I wrote while I was there. I think it has a couple of songs that I found when I was signed to Warner Reprise. You know you go through the process of going up and down music row to all of the publishing houses and they play your songs all day long. You pick out what you like and decide what you’re going to do. You take it to the record company and they say “Oh I like that one” or “I don’t think that one’s you” and you start making demos of all these songs. “Love Is Not a Rock” was a song that I found from Ray Van Hoy. He and his wife have become two of the greatest friends I’ve ever had. The other one was “Little Red Wagon.” That starts the “Cosmic Cowgirl” CD. I found that song right at the end of looking for songs. It was written by Felice Bryant. Felice and Boudleaux are gone now, but Boudleaux Bryant and Felice Bryant wrote all the Everly Brothers hits. It’s funny; I was house sitting once for Billy Burnette, and Billy Burnette’s son was friends with the nephew of Boudleaux and Felice. He introduced me to his dad who is the vice president of BMI. That’s how I found that song. Dell Bryant gave me a bunch of songs that his parents had written. When I heard “Little Red Wagon” I just flipped! It kind of reminded me of Brenda Lee and Teresa Brewer. Those are two singers from the fifties and sixties that I just love. I loved all the texture in their voices and their passionate way of delivery. So that’s where that one came from. I was thinking of Brenda and Teresa when I sang that one.
(CSC) 3. Can you give us a sneak peek of the artistic direction you’re headed towards with the launch of your sophomore album?
(Liza Jane)
It’s called “Dark Angel.” I lost both my folks this past year. It was such an unreal experience; something that I really wasn’t prepared for. I don’t think we’re ever prepared for it. I don’t think that in America we really are, I think we kind of just ignore it like that’s not going to happen but it happens to everybody. Both my parents were sick with cancer. It was drawn out and we had them in a hospice. It was a heavy duty time. I was spending four or five days a week driving to Fresno and coming back home for a couple of days and then going back and helping take care of my mom and dad. It was a very horrible, challenging, sad period in my life. I realize now that this CD is almost done that I was deeply affected by that experience. A lot of this music is about the dark side of life. Not the happy, chirpy, positive part of every day living, which I like to focus on. The dark side, the challenging side, the difficult aspects of our nature and who we are on the planet while we’re alive, who we are in our relationship to God or a higher power; that omnipotent energy that powers us through our lives. That had a big influence on me and the music that I did. You can tell the songs I recorded before I went through that and the ones after. I recorded “I’m Just a Rebel” by Dennis Robbins. I did that before I lost my family and the only way I could put it is “kick ass country rock!” It kicks, it rocks!
Another song I did was a cover of Marty Stuart’s “Shelter from the Storm” which is a song that we ended up playing at the funeral. We played Marty’s version and then I thought gosh I should record that because it speaks to me, it means something different now then it meant before. So I was very influenced by that and it definitely shows. You know I was born and raised n California and my family is a bunch of Okie’s from Texas and Oklahoma. In California a lot the land is farmland. It’s one of the biggest agricultural states. I think a lot of the people in Nashville think that if you sing country music and you come from L.A. that it’s not real. I came up against that a lot.
One of the things that a lot of the people in Tennessee would say is “Oh you’ve got the Bakersfield sound.” I’d say “What does that mean to you? You’ve got to explain that to me.” I didn’t really know what they meant. I’ve certainly been to Bakersfield many, many times. All the country music that comes out of California is what people from Nashville call the “Bakersfield Sound.” It’s very country rock. It’s not just straight ahead country but it also has kind of a Hispanic, Mexican thing to it that makes it have a distinctive sound.
That’s how I finally figured out what they meant by the “Bakersfield Sound.” Of course I’m half Mexican so of course I have that, that’s part of the deal. When I was in Nashville, right before I finally came home where I belong with the Palm trees and the ocean, Marty Stuart’s music was the closest to anything that was what I wanted to do and the way I felt musically. It’s very rootsy. It’s got a lot of bluegrass roots in it. You know a lot of that Celtic harmony stuff. That’s what I like! My last six months in Nashville I listened to Marty. I listened to his CD’s every single day. I would just sit there with my guitar and learn how to play every song. He inspired me and he was musical food for my brain; so thank you Marty!!
(CSC) 4. So do you like Celtic styled songs as well?
(Liza Jane)
I do, I do! I like that a lot. I’m half Mexican from my father’s side and then on my mother’s side I’m Irish, Castilian and a little bit of Cherokee Indian. I’ve got all that rootsy stuff that was passed down genetically to me. There’s one song on the new CD that I co-wrote with a guy that’s just my engineer. It’s called “The Blessed and Damned.” It’s kind of like that thing I was talking about; acknowledging your wonderfulness but also acknowledging the damaged or damned side of who we are as human beings on the planet. You know they say when you hear a bell ringing that means an angel is getting its wings but I just had my husband go buy my wings! (Laughs) I’ve got the most beautiful pair of black feathered angel wings. I’ll definitely make sure that you get a picture of that because that’s going to be on the cover. Me and the wings! (Laughs)
(CSC) 5. What a thrill it must have been for you being able to work on the “Trio” album with Linda, Dolly and Emmylou!!
(Liza Jane)
YES! I was singing with Linda Ronstadt when they started working on that project. So Linda invited me to come along with her to Nashville for a couple of months while she started working out the tunes with Emmylou and Dolly. Dolly had just had her surgery when she had Crohn’s disease. We went to Dolly’s house every day for two months and sat in her living room. I got to sit there and listen to those three girls working out all the harmony parts and figuring out all the songs they were going to use. It was a fantastic experience. Dolly is like a human light bulb. She called me the human cupcake! We had our nicknames for each other. We had a really, really wonderful time. It was fun! It wasn’t like work at all. It was just a great time.
The one song that I sang harmony on got cut from the album. I think it was called “You Don’t Walk Through Heaven’s Door.” It was kind of an Appalachian bluegrass song that Emmylou had found. When we were recording it we did everything live and we had all the great musicians from Los Angeles; Ry Cooder and David Linley to name a few. We just had great, great people. Ry was so moved by what was happening musically. He was playing Mandolin on that song and he got so carried away that when we went back to use it, the Mandolin leaked on all the instruments and was so loud and ended up being out of tune by the end of the song because he was just wailing on that mandolin. (Laughs)They ended up not using that after all but they gave me credit as the production assistant because I was there every day of that album and it was a joy!
It was a thrill beyond belief to get to be there with them. I was like the silent fourth member of their little group. It was a magnificent experience! Dolly inspires me every time I just think of her. She is such an inspiration. She’s fun, she’s funny and she’s real. She knows when to be deep and serious. She’s just one of those people. You know they say don’t make heroes out of people that you know, but she’s like a hero to me. I haven’t seen Dolly in about four or five years. The last time I saw her was when BMI honored her at the BMI awards in Nashville. I went backstage to the CMA’s and I went to the BMI thing with Paul Craft who is a huge, great songwriter in Nashville. She was being honored and she’s an angel so it was great being there!
(CSC) 6. As a young girl you grew up around a very affluent musical environment. What did you learn from listening to your mother’s classic country albums?
(Liza Jane)
There are a couple of songs that I can’t even sing yet. It’s going to take me awhile. It’s just too much. It’s still to new losing her. Connie Francis taught me that harmony growing up. All those singles she made in the fifties like Connie singing with Connie in two part harmony. I remember there’s a funny little story about that.
When I was working with Linda Ronstadt we were doing the Nelson Riddle tour. We had the full, big orchestra at the shows and we were did a little Andrews Sisters type bit in her show. When we played Atlantic City, Connie was coming to the show as a guest because she lives in New Jersey. Now I cannot tell you how much Connie means to me musically. It’s like when I heard that she was coming I kind of bumped Linda with my hips and said “Get out of my way, I gotta meet Connie!”
I went back to our dressing room afterwards and she was all decked out in this long red sequined gown. I loved it! You know that old fashion glamour. Linda likes to wear over alls and a lunch pail for a purse, so Linda is very, very funky. Connie is like old school glamour. So of course I got to be the first one to meet her. I was so thrilled to meet her. She was very, very nice. Then Linda said “Gosh don’t you just hate New Jersey? Isn’t it awful here?” I looked at Linda and I said “Linda she lives here.” And she said “Oh, I’m sorry!” And of course Connie was very sweet about it but afterwards when we got on the bus to go to the next city I thought Oh my God, I can’t believe you said that. It was kind of funny and it was weird at the same time but Connie was delightful.
With Linda I got to meet so many great people. I got to meet Gordon Lightfoot and hang out a lot with him and I got to meet the wonderful Perry Como!! You know when you get out on tour and your doing a different city every day, after about two weeks, you sort of don’t even know where you are anymore. You just get on the bus, go to sound check, do the show, get back on the bus and then go to the next city. Our guy who made up the set list on the stage every night for Linda would have to write what city we were in because she had no idea where we were. We never knew where we were.
(CSC) 7. When and where did you first discover your passion to perform in country music?
(Liza Jane)
Well I think when I was maybe three or four years old, I think “Hill-Billy” music is what my dad played. He had a band called “Lefty and the Corvettes.” I would always be there at his rehearsals. I’d have on my little Mexican skirts and twirl around the middle of the floor while they were playing the music. So I think that it’s almost a part of me.
I remember one time when I was about eighteen or nineteen; I was auditioning to be in this group. It was mostly black players. It was an R&B band and I thought I could even sing like Chaka Chan. After the audition they said “You need to go sing country.” That was the first time anybody had actually said that to me.
Really when I started, I was a folk singer. When I was thirteen years old, I saw Peter, Paul and Mary. I went down and bought a guitar and a chord book and started learning how to play. I started playing at little high school concerts, like lunch time concerts and stuff like that doing folk music. That’s how I started. I had no idea that I was a country singer naturally. You know, sometimes you just don’t know. You can’t tell. If it’s you it’s hard to step outside of yourself if you haven’t done any recording yet and I hadn’t. So I didn’t really know that I had a twang. I had no idea at that point.
(CSC) 8. You moved to Nashville for a few years to pursue your country music career. What did you learn there, and why did you leave?
(Liza Jane)
That’s a big one Christian. That’s such a loaded question and I knew you were going to ask me that! The first thing I want to say, so that nobody gets the wrong idea, is that in the three and a half years that I was there, I met some of the most wonderful, amazing people I’ve ever met in my life. I know that they will be my friends till the day that I die. The people were my favorite thing about Nashville.
However, I’m born and raised in California and I’m used to Palm trees and the ocean and you don’t realize how much that’s a part of your life until you’re not there anymore. Then you start understanding what it is that has influenced who you are on the planet. One day I was driving by somebody that had just moved in out in Franklin, you know right outside of Nashville. Somebody who was just moving into a house there and I died laughing because they had bought a big huge palm tree and planted it in their front yard. You could tell they had just finished planting it. I thought that’s the funniest thing I’ve ever seen. It will be dead by November. It’s never going to make it. I bet that cost them thousands of dollars to move that Palm tree but I understood because the Palm trees were one of the things I missed the most when I lived in Nashville. I had a very difficult time. I have a lot of psychic intuitions. I felt a very dark oppressive energy coming up from the ground there. I could feel the vibrations very strongly when I would drive by the slave wall. You know all around Nashville, especially the outskirts when you’re driving to Franklin or when you’re taking that big circle around Old Hickory Road. You still see a lot of huge colonial mansions and you see those grey rock slave walls. It just gave me the creeps. I felt like there was a psychic residue of something very horrible that had happened; the Civil War, the slavery, and the oppression of all that stuff. I always felt that and it always bothered me. The light is very different there. The light is kind of grey. In California the light is bright yellow. So it was very hard for me to get use to that as well. It doesn’t seem like its much of a big deal, but I felt that it was. I felt it strongly. It was very difficult for me. I know a lot of the record producers and heads of the publishing houses would say “Liza Jane, you’re from L.A. What do you know about country?” I would just say I was born and raised on the Yokum tracks. It’s a farming section outside of San Luis Obispo. I’m just a farm girl. You know that’s what I come from.
(CSC) 9. Since performing on the Grand Ole Opry with Linda Rondstadt, what do you admire most about the Grand Ole Opry and its legendary cast members?
(Liza Jane)
Everything! It’s a musical community that I’ve never seen anything like it. I don’t think there’s anything like it anywhere. It’s so historical! Everybody is there for everybody. I like how everybody hangs and if you’re in town, you come and you do the show. It’s just the most unusual thing and when you’re there you do feel like you’re in the country music church. It’s an incredible feeling. It’s a whole different thing. The whole musical community in Nashville is quite amazing! That’s something I miss a lot. You know if you’re in the mood and you want to go sit and play with friends, every single night of the week, there’s somewhere you can go to do that. There’s someone’s living room you can go hang in. It isn’t like that in L.A., everything is spread out and everybody’s so busy. It takes so long to get anywhere you need to go. It takes me an hour and a half to get to the recording studio. So on the days that I record, I’m driving three hours of my twelve hour day. It keeps you from hanging out with people as much as you’d like to. People live all over and it’s huge. So I miss that musical community. I miss seeing all my musical friends. I’ve never experienced anything like that before.
(CSC) 10. Do you get to go back there often?
(Liza Jane)
I don’t go back too often. Every now and then I’ll go back. It’s like when my friend Paul Kraft was making his last record; I went there and sang on one of his songs. It was a song about Ashley Judd. “I’m in love with Ashley Judd,” it’s a very funny song! If you know Paul at all, he’s very witty and has a real dry sense of humor. That was one of the funny songs on his CD.
(CSC) 11. What was it like working with Clint Black on his nationwide tour, and being able to perform in the show?
(Liza Jane)
The first thing I enjoyed from working with Clint was I could sing as loud as I wanted and I could sing as twangy as I wanted. The louder and twangier I got the more he liked it. (Laughs) I could just let go and completely be the country girl that I am. I loved it! It was so much fun. I remember every night in that show it would start out and the stage would be dark. There’d be like a thunderstorm with lightning. The sound effects would start and I’d stand in my position and it was like big boulder rocks set the stage. I’d stand there as all the rumbling and thunder was going on before the lights came up and we started singing. I’d think “Dear God thank you so much for this awesome musical experience.” It was so much fun. Every night when we’d do “Killin’ Time” there was a part in the song where it’s just singing with the audience, there are no instruments. I got to sing the lead vocal on that part. I would just blow it out. It was so satisfying. He let me be who I am musically. Now when I sang with Stevie she thought I made her show sound like Wynonna Judd! (Laughs) She didn’t really like it that I sang like that. I had to kind of tone myself down and be more homogenous to blend in with her background singers but with Clint I could just be out there.
(CSC) 12. Tell us about the job that you held at a famous clothing retailer which later introduced you to Stevie Nicks!
(Liza Jane)
When I first came to Los Angeles I had a recording contract on DOT records. The band stayed in college because they didn’t want to get drafted. So I came out here by myself. We had a couple of songs that were in the top ten back in Ohio but nothing really happened. Like I said, a girl’s got to eat so I found a job at this clothing store that I had never heard of before; didn’t know anything about it. Just saw the ad in the paper and went and got this job. It was where all the stars shop. Everyday in that store, there was two or three celebs. It’s called Maxfields. One day you may be helping Olivia Newton John or Chicago, and then you’re helping Don Henley, Glenn Frey, or Elton John and the day after that it’s Rod Stewart and Barbara Streisand. It was really a good experience for me. It taught me how to be calm in front of all those people for one thing. That’s how I met Linda Ronstadt and got to sing all those years with her. That’s also how I met Stevie because one day we got a call in the store that Stevie Nicks was doing a photo session and she needed some clothes. Well everybody was busy and I said “I’ll do it; I’ll go take her some clothes.” So I loaded up my car that night and brought several thousands dollars worth of clothes to her. I got there and that was back in the day when Stevie was notoriously late for everything. I think I sat there for about two hours before she finally got there by myself with the photographer. I set up all the clothes. She walked in and we looked at each other and just started talking like we’d known each other all our lives. We never looked at the clothes. She had had some kind of upset with her makeup artist and she didn’t have a one any longer so I said “I can do your makeup. I went to beauty school.” I ended up doing her makeup and it was for her “Bella Donna” album cover. We just became best pals ever since. I think that was back in maybe 1980 or so.
(CSC) 13. You’ve worked with Stevie professionally for many years on solo tours and with the band (Fleetwood Mac). What’s that experience been like for you? Any highlights?
(Liza Jane)
Oh my, I don’t even know where to begin with that. There’s nothing like standing on stage in Texas in the summer and singing “Edge of Seventeen.” I remember doing that and having all the sweat sloshing around in the bottom of my stage boots. It’s pretty amazing. It’s an amazing thing to get to sing with somebody like that, that’s a Rock and Roll icon, and of course she’s my best pal. We sit around in our UGG boots and jammies just watching old movies and crying and stuff like that. It’s one of the blessed experiences in my life. It’s really fun to sing “Edge of Seventeen” and “Gold Dust Woman.” That’s my favorite Stevie song. The times that I’ve been on tour with her, singing with her, I’m the one that plays the vibraslap on “Gold Dust Woman.” There are a couple of songs that build up to frenzy and you’re on stage for a very long time doing one song and we background singers have our own little choreography. I always felt like I was going to keel over and die, if the song didn’t end then because it would go on forever and ever! Of course in Stevie’s live solo show it really went on forever because that’s when Stevie walked back and forth across the stage and picked up gifts, teddy bears, and flowers from her fans. It just goes on forever and there would end up being a big huge road case back in the hallway. For all the stuffed animals that people give her, she puts them in a road case and two or three times a year she goes to the Walter Reed Children’s Hospital to give them to all the little kids there. I think that is really sweet and admirable of Stevie to do that!
(CSC) 14. With each of your crazy schedules, are you able to keep in touch with each other?
(Liza Jane)
We do keep in touch. We always make it a point of spending New Years Eve together. We’ve done that for a long, long time. We know if we’re not going to see each other all year that we’re at least going to see each other for New Years Eve. We try to take vacations together too. Stevie does a lot of girl vacations where she’ll take four or five of her girlfriends somewhere wonderful. I’m blessed that she always invites me to do that. We have a great time because it’s downtime. No work, just having fun. Hanging out, talking girl talk. We went to Cabo San Lucas in July. So when Stevie and I went to Cabo I took my Tony Furtado CD’s and my Sheila Chandra CD’s and put them on my iPod. Sheila is this Hindu/pop singer from India. Then I took a whole season of “The Flight of the Concord” on DVD. Stevie was not familiar with Tony or Sheila or “Flight of the Concord” and every day at the pool I’d play Tony Furtado and Sheila Chandra. We’d sing along and chant and Tony kind of sounds like Lindsey Buckingham. (Laughs) We’d always make jokes that he could be the new Lindsey. You’d love him. He’s fantastic! Then every night we would watch two or three episodes of “Flight of the Concord” and laugh ourselves silly.
(CSC) 15. Tell us about your tell all book, “The Diary Of A Redhead.” What is it about, and when can we expect to see it released?
(Liza Jane)
The first thing that it’s about is every chapter starts with a formula for red hair dye. Because like I said I’ve used them all! I’ve tried every color of red made. So I put all the different colors in there at the beginning of each chapter and I give them names like Amnesty Red or Fourth of July Red, Jingle Bells Red. Then I tell little stories, little vignettes of my life in Hollywood, little things about people that I’ve met. Right after I had my nose done, I had a deviated septum. I had a big Indian nose and I wanted a pretty nose. I had just had my nose done and it was my first week back in Maxfields. I was still working at the store and I was waiting on Raquel Welch. Somebody had come in to see me and see what my new nose looked like, while Raquel was in the dressing room. She heard me talking about it, that I’d had my nose done and when she came out of the dressing room she made some kind of judgmental statement to me “Oh well you know Barbara Streisand didn’t change her nose to be in show business.” I just thought excuse me Raquel, nobody’s talking to you. Another time when Dusty Springfield was in L.A., this was quite a long time ago, but she wanted to hear Nina Simone sing. You know one legend diva to another legend diva. So she went to the show and she sent word back that she’d like to meet Nina. So they brought Dusty back and she waited and she waited. Nina Simone is a big diva and she kept not coming out of her dressing room. So finally somebody went in and reminded Nina that Dusty Springfield was waiting to meet her. Nina Simone came out of her dressing room, threw a drink in Dusty’s face and then went back in her dressing room and slammed the door shut. That story we call “Drinks on Dusty.” (Laughs) So you know its stuff like that. It’s almost like Hollywood Babylon.
(CSC) 16. What has the experience been like for you having your own musical production, “The Patsy Clone Review?”
(Liza Jane)
It’s done but I haven’t pressed any of it yet because I still need to get it mastered. I know that that will give it more of a polished sound. “Always” is going to be on my “Dark Angel” CD. It’s got “Seven Lonely Days,” “Walkin after Midnight,” and “Honk Tonk Merry Go Round.” It’s just a little short CD. When it comes to the “Always” song, I have to remove myself, from myself, when I sing that song. If I don’t remove myself when I’m singing it, I’ll start crying half way through. You know when it starts building up and making that little cry in her voice, like she does, and when I get to that part, I myself start crying. I admire people like Bernadette Peters and Dolly Parton. They can have the big tears rolling down and they can have their voice still singing. I can’t do that. As soon as the tears start the voice gets all wobbly. It’s an art, one that I’ve never mastered. So I have to not go there. I have to try to take you there, but not take myself there, so I can get through the whole song. So it’s very emotional, very emotional. Of course Honky Tonk Merry Go Round” reminds me of singing with Clint because I just get to be a honky-tonk torchy girl and I love that!!
(CSC) 17. Where did you find the time to create your own clothing line?
(Liza Jane)
What happened was my sister-in-law, lives in Hawaii and so we go there a lot. I’m so touched by the flowers and how beautiful it is. I love it there and I decided I was going to have a clothing line. Of course Maxfield’s my favorite little store that has always been so good to me even ordered my clothing when I started it. I had Hawaiian handbags and the tops were inspired by Lenny Kravitz. The first one I made was for him. It’s this fabric from India that’s covered with sequins, but its silk chiffon, so it’s real slinky. I just made these floppy, hang off your shoulders sequin t-shirts and I got this dye from France and hand dyed each one with all these different colors. The first day I had it in the store; Gwyneth Paltrow came in and bought the first one. So that was a very good thing for me. However, at a certain point it came down to ok, you can either expand and keep going in the clothing or you can keep singing but both things are a lot of energy and I don’t have enough energy to do both of them. So I stopped doing it and stayed with the music because that’s what I’m all about. I had a huge celebrity client list with my clothing line. That’s why I’m saying, I was either going to go whole hog into that because it was really taking off or stay with the music. My celebrity client list was Mickey Rourke, Sheryl Crow, Sharon Osbourne, Halle Berry, Melanie Griffith, Mick Fleetwood, well Fleetwood Mac and they’re my buddies so that almost doesn’t count because they’re so supportive of me. Stevie Nicks has about four of my leather wrist straps that I made.
http://cosmiclizajane.
