Sometimes, I can’t believe my good fortune.
When I look at the list of musicians I’ve interviewed over the years, it makes me love my job even more than I already do. I’ve even had the honor of interviewing some of these performers more than once. For example, I first interviewed Lea DeLaria in 2001, and then again in 2005. Nineteen years later, after so much has happened in Lea’s career, including her portrayal of “Big Boo” in the acclaimed Netflix series “Orange Is The New Black,” I couldn’t wait to speak with her again, this time in advance of her Nov. 9 concert with the South Florida Pride Concert Band.
Your cover of Neil Young’s “Philadelphia,” from your “Double Standards” album, still brings me to tears. Why did you choose to cover that song?
The concept of the record “Double Standards” was to take college rock/alternative rock tunes that were standards and do them like jazz standards. Being a child of the '70s, '80s, and '90s, I obviously love that genre of music. There were so many songs on the list! We started out with a list of like 75 songs. We whittled that down to 20, and then went, “Wait a minute, what about these songs?” It was kind of crazy. When we got to the final list, we looked at it, and said, “Who’s missing?” Bowie was missing, and so was Neil Young. We also realized we didn’t have a soulful ballad. The producer and I both said, “We should do Neil Young’s “Philadelphia.” Because everybody always goes to The Boss’s “Philadelphia,” but I think this “Philadelphia” is way better.
I completely agree! I’m glad you mentioned Bowie because your “House of David” album was released before the passing of David Bowie. Do you know if he was aware of it or heard it?
Oh my God, yes! He’s the reason the album got made. Warner Jazz, the label I was on, went under, so I had to crowdfund it. I did a GoFundMe. When you go to people crowdfunding things, they’re like “Give me $20, and I’ll give you a signed something.” Mine was like, “Give me $100, and I’ll fly to your town, and we’ll have lunch in McDonald’s.” Stuff like that. It’s me, right, it’s hilarious. We were doing just fine. I think we asked for 32K, something like that, which is reasonable for a record of this size. We were moving along, everything was fine. Then one morning I woke up and I looked at it and we had surpassed … we had gotten all these donations during the night and had gone way past the 32K that I asked for; it happened overnight. I was about to go on my social media and thank everyone for donating, say how happy we are that we’re gonna make this record kind of thing, and my phone rang it was my girlfriend at the time. She said, “Lea, David Bowie is tweeting at you.”
Basically, I guess David Bowie told all his people to donate to this record, and that I was someone that should be doing this. Then, in even bigger support, when we released the album, we released the cover exclusively on David Bowie’s website. It really did help the sales. This record sold well. He was in complete support. I did a residency at a little jazz club here in town, midnight shows of the David Bowie album, and his entire band came during that residency. We were in the process of trying to get David there to see it, which he apparently really wanted to do, and of course, he died. He died six months after it was released. That’s how much he was living his life until the end.
Janis Siegel of Manhattan Transfer fame joined you on your rendition of “Suffragette City.” In the recording, you even commented about sitting back and listening to her sing.
Like I’ve been doing my whole life.
What made her the right duet partner for you?
Janis reached out to me through social media about two years before that. She said that she had heard my cover of Blondie’s “Call Me” because Gil Goldstein, who arranged “Call Me,” and is someone who I’ve worked with very closely, had played it for Janis. She reached out to me and asked me if I would join her on stage because she and Gil had done an arrangement of Sondheim’s “The Story of Lucy and Jessie,” and wanted to know if I would do this duet with her. I said I’d be happy, and then Janis and I became very good friends. In fact, I’m an officiant, and I married Janis’ son to his wife. We’ve become very tight. Janis and I have done many duets together and we both are mean-ass scat singers, so she was the obvious choice. In fact, on her next record, which I think is coming out in the spring, we did a duet of “Down For Double.” Then I’m recording my next record called “Fuck Love,” and she’s going to do another duet with me.
I’m so glad you mentioned your next record because I know you don’t need to be reminded, but it’s been almost 10 years since you released “House of David.”
It’s very difficult in the music industry right now. I’m just gonna be honest; I’ve also been really fucking busy. I do a lot of things and I’ve been doing all of them. It takes time to get music and arrangements together. I worked on that Bowie record probably for three years. Those arrangements don’t just fly out of my ass [laughs]. My go-to partner of choice, Nette Mason, and I do these arrangements together. We work really fucking harder on them. And then I tweak them and do them in concert and tweak them some more, and then we go into the studio. It just took a while for us to come up with the concept. The concept is fuck love, and it’s all love-gone-wrong songs. It’s getting the typical DeLaria treatment. We’ve got everything from a Betty Hutton song all the way to Dua Lipa. There’s a lot in this record. We’ve even got The Chicks! We’ve got this gospel version of “Goodbye Earl.” It takes time to get this together. But every time we put a date in to record, I get a movie, or I get a play [laughs], and it gets pushed. This has been going on for about a year and a half, which is actually good because we’d still like to tweak these arrangements a little bit. Hopefully, we will be recording at the beginning of next year, maybe even sooner.
On Nov. 9, you’re going to be performing with the South Florida Pride Concert Band. What are you most looking forward to about that concert?
I love working with big bands. I love working with orchestras. I’ve done that kind of thing everywhere, from Australia to Chicago. I’ve done it with the London Symphony Orchestra and the Boston Pops. I love that thing, and I love that I’m going to be working with a band. I also love that they’re all gay and I love that it’s South Florida, because I love South Florida, except for Ron DeSantis, etcetera. I love that South Florida is filled with old fags. That makes me very happy and we’re gonna have a great time.
You’re going to be performing in Florida at this time when our governor and his cronies are doing everything in their power to make the lives of the many LGBTQ people who live here extremely difficult.
Let’s see about that. I’m coming there right after the election when I’m pretty sure Kamala Harris is going to spank Donald Trump’s ass. DeSantis is on his way out. All of them: DeSantis, Ted Cruz all of those bitches that support the orange turd and his mini-me sidekicks are not doing well. It’s derailing more and more. So, let’s see about that. I have a great feeling about this. All they’ve done is make mistake after mistake, and it’s showing in the polls hugely. Let’s not be complacent. Everyone has to vote. It’s going to be a tight race. But, in four of the seven swing states, she’s ahead of him by over five points, and that is over the margin of error. Every time they talk about people eating cats and dogs, they slip more in the polls. Every time they talk about childless women not knowing how to have empathy, they slip in the polls. So, yeah, keep talking. I’d love it if every governor in America became a Democrat because of their lunacy. If every senator in America, and every fucking congressperson became a Democrat because of their lunacy, because they enthralled themselves to a fascist oligarch and this is what you got. You didn’t get the “America” that you think is America, you got the real fucking America. This is what America is. I’ve never been thrilled with my country. I think I even wrote in my book, “I’m not an American, I’m a lesbian.” And as a lesbian, I feel about as American as the banjo boy in “Deliverance,” which is a great joke but would probably get me canceled today [laughs]. We, as queer people of our age, have earned the rage, we’ve earned it. We’re the ones that changed all these laws. Our generation and generations ahead of us are the ones who changed these laws. That’s why when Kamala says, “We’re not going back,” Honey, we’re not going back.
Lastly, you mentioned something about a movie…
Oh, my God there’s so much! There’s currently a movie that’s on Amazon Prime it’s called “Holy Irresistible.” It’s a funny little independent film. I’m hilarious. I play a woman dying of cancer [laughs]. I’m the executive producer of a short called “Possum.” I’ve made four movies so far this year. I’ve got to make another one and I’m shooting a television pilot at the end of October. I’m in this movie called “Tow,” which has two Academy Award winners in it: Octavia Spencer and Ariana DeBose, and Rose Byrne, too. When I say I do a lot of things, I do a lot of things.
You also mentioned your book. Do you think you have another book in you?
I’ve been contacted. I think what’s gonna happen is this book is going to be a memoir. I think somebody needs to set the historical record straight, because there are a lot of there’s a lot of misinformation about our movement, especially what I would call my side of that movement which is more of the dykes and faggots and queers, oh my! Rather than the mainstream, middle-class, assimilationist side of that movement. That’s what I’m thinking about. But I’ve got to be honest. I’ve got a play/comedy special in my head that I think is gonna come first. I’ve got a television series that I’ve been pitching that I think is gonna come first. I’m not not writing, I’m just writing other things.
