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Donna Summer Autobiography Excerpt
submitted by: Greg
source: Donna Summer autobiography
Date: September 19, 2003
Here's an excerpt from one of the chapters in Donna Summer's autobiography, "Ordinary Girl: The Journey," due for release October 7. She talks about when she was just becoming famous from the song "Love to Love You, Baby":
...One example typical of the craziness that surrounded the record's popularity was a drag-show performer who decided to use "Love to Love You, Baby" as his theme song. No sooner did he go on the road with his show than a rumor began that Donna Summer was actually a male transvestite! I thought it was funny. My mother happened to be listening to the radio one day and heard some talk show where a guest was saying that I was really a man. She got so incensed she called the station and started yelling at the deejay on the air, saying that her daughter was on hundred percent female, and she should know since she'd happened to be at the birth! I howled when I heard the story.
The next summer, "Love to Love You, Baby" went to number one in South America and Italy. In the midst of my U.S. tour, Neil decided to send me to both places to help keep the record at the top of the charts. It was fun, but sometimes it was a bit terrifying.
The first time I saw the movie The Bodyguard, with Whitney Houston, I thought I was I watching a documentary of my own life, with all the tensions and difficulties of putting on that kind of show. (I love Whitney, by the way, and think she was great in the film. Her husband, Bobby Brown, happens to be a distant relative of mine. Talk about a small world!)
One time in Venezuela we were onstage in a stadium playing to twenty-five thousand packed-in people. In South America they don't charge a lot of money for admission but make their profits in sponsorships, concessions, and refreshments. A lot of beer gets guzzled. During the show, people started getting rowdy and throwing cans and bottles up in the air. By the time I got to "Love to Love You, Baby," the press of drunken people against the stage was so overwhelming it moved our stage fifty feet back, until we were pushed against the rear wall of the stadium! Chaos broke out as people started trampling one another. I was barely able to escape. One of our local bodyguard's daughter was caught in the melee and wound up with a broken arm. It was out of control and so scary, especially since my daughter and my younger sister were with me that day.
On one of our South American stops I was being interviewed by a reporter from UPI who couldn't stop looking at me in a very strange way. When I finally asked him what the matter was, he said, "Oh, nothing. Except, you know, you really don't look at all like a man."
"A man...me?" I said. "I have a daughter. I'm the real thing. What man can do that?" I smiled sweetly and said, "I'm no man, baby."
I realized the rumor had made its way south. I was just going to have to learn to live with it. That was the first time I realized how painful a lie could be. Success has its price.
Excerpt from Ordinary Girl by Donna Summer with Marc Eliot Copyright © 2003 by Donna Summer with Marc Eliot.
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