Lesley Gore

We recorded the record on a Saturday afternoon March 30th and I heard the record for the first time on April 6th. I was driving to school, literally seven days later.

When I wake up in the morning, and I go to the piano, and there's a blank sheet of paper in front of me, by the end of the day, that could be a gold mine. You really do need to wake up and expect that the world is your oyster because it very well may be.

I'm a musical person, and that's what I want my life to be about.

I wouldn't go so far as to make 'You Don't Own Me' a tango or 'It's My Party' a hip-hop thing. Believe me, those things have been suggested to me. But I thought if I could stay true to the song, the arrangements would work. I'm really enjoying singing them.

I think that in many ways, gays are behind women and behind blacks, as far as rights go. But I always say, if you know one of us, it's hard to hate us.

On 'Sullivan,' you sang live. Not only that, you sang with a 40-piece band. So you had instruments that weren't even on the original record! So this was when the rubber met the road - when you had to really learn how to perform. And it was for 10 or 12 million people. So that was a challenge.

I have nothing but the best memories of growing up in New Jersey. Of course, I grew up in a nice town, a suburb. But Tenafly was right next to Englewood, which had a tremendous amount of racial tension in the '60s. So I was aware of the real world.

Frankly, if 'American Idol' was the way I'd have to audition as a singer, I'd be standing behind the counter in a 5&10 right now. I couldn't have done it that way.

I worked with Carl Perkins on a number of shows. Live shows. He just showed up and played. He just killed. Killed! Man... he was amazing!

If I've learned anything in this business, how stupid would it be not to do 'It's My Party' when people come to hear it?

I have to say that when I first started singing, I didn't think it was a very noble profession. I worked for people like Robert Kennedy and I thought: 'Wow, that's what it's about. That's how you change the world.' And then I watched that disintegrate in front of my eyes, and it was very discouraging.

I decided to host a couple of the 'In The Life' programs. And I did that really as a result of meeting a lot of young gay people in the Midwest who really had nothing to relate to. At least I felt this program is presenting them with some options.

The short story and the truth is that I was taking vocal lessons here in New York... One day, instead of my lesson, the piano player and I went into a studio... and we put down some demos... Those demos got to Quincy Jones through an agent... He listened to them, he called me, and we started to record.

You know, Quincy Jones was a great mentor, but he was a man in a man's world. Fortunately he's a very sensitive man and a beautiful human being, and even though he was 14 or 15 years older than me, he's a capable human being and has great communication skills.

You can only bite off so much, so you gotta know what you want to do.

I meet a lot of young people in the Midwest, and I saw what a difference a show like In the Life can make to their lives in some of these small towns where, you know, there are probably two gay people in the whole damn town.

I just kind of lived my life naturally and did what I wanted to do.

Actually, the funny thing is, after all these years, I've got all these new songs to learn for the show we're doing at Joe's Pub, so it's kind of fun to get down and rehearse new things, and also rethink some of the older songs, how we're going to do them.

As far as I'm concerned, collaboration is the essence of life. It's wonderful to be able to have talents, and, very often, we think that we know what our talents are, or we find out through a back door that we have a talent. I know that I found out I was a lyricist quite through a back door.

Given that there was that era of girl group music and it's still very popular, but I think if you looked at the chart from that time you would see many more men on it. Because the industry, they were catering to young girls. I mean, that's what they thought their audience was.

I've listened to Eminem rap. That's not daily fare for me, but I can't help but admire how vivid what he does is. My own taste goes a little more toward Norah Jones.

I think the record industry, by and large what's left of it, is still totally homophobic. I think it's much less so in the film industry now, but the record industry, it's always been a man's world.

I have a bit of a problem with 'American Idol.' Forgive me, but it's difficult for me to watch. I can't help but think of people being exploited. On the other hand, I'm really enjoying 'Glee.'

I didn't disappear; I started writing songs and worked behind the scenes.

I still get a chill when I sing, 'You Don't Own Me.' I find some new feeling in it every time.