The summer's hottest musical craze appears to involve bands NOT playing scheduled shows in politically delicate areas. Following Elvis Costello's (pre-flotilla incident) announcement that he would cancel a planned show in Israel for reasons of conscience, comes word that the Pixies, Gorillaz, and Klaxons have pulled out of the Pic.Nic Festival, which was scheduled for this Wednesday.  

To Belinda Carlisle's fans, the gorgeous Go-Go appeared to have it all. She led a charmed life complete with musical success, a great marriage and unmatched beauty. But underneath it all, the singer has had her share of struggles. "I hit a lot of bottoms," she tells PopEater while discussing her searing new memoir, 'Lips Unsealed.' Those lows had an awful lot to do with a cocaine habit that grabbed hold of her for 30 years. Now 51, she's been sober only five years. "I don't know why it took me so long," she says. Her inspiration? The thought of her teenage son, Duke, whose dad is Morgan Mason, one day finding his mom dead of an overdose. "That's pretty low," she tells us. "You can't be my age and doing the amount of cocaine I was doing."

In our full interview, Carlisle talks candidly about how she kicked coke, the painful criticism about her weight ("It really messed my head up"), feeling bad for old friend Fergie and having no regrets about her gloriously-debauched days in The Go-Go's.

Your book made me sad! You struggled for so long.

Actually, it'd be really sad if it didn't have a happy ending. I'm glad I went through all that actually, and I'm really, really happy with where I'm at today.

How many years were you hooked on cocaine?

Probably 30 years with nine months off from drugs when I was pregnant. Everyday pretty much.

I remember reading about you living in the south of France, married to this really handsome guy and thinking you had an amazing life.

You never ever know what's going on underneath the surface. I think the thing that kept me going along for so long is I clean up really well. I could afford to have facials and massages and dress nicely and fool myself even that I was OK and fool everyone around me that I was OK, living in the south of France, jet-setting everywhere, looking great. Everything must be perfect. You know, I held it together and I gave that impression for years and years, but I think the last couple of years I wasn't fooling anybody.

What's amazing is that you didn't go to rehab.

I thought if it wasn't going to work, I'd go to rehab. That was kind of the last thing. I made so many promises to so many people so many times through the years that I was going to stop and I couldn't keep it and I knew it deep down inside. I hit a lot of bottoms. I don't know why it took me so long. I guess I just wasn't ready. It was weird when I quit. I was struck. I just knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that I would be dead if I continued. I just knew it came down to choosing life or death, and I chose life. I was at the end of a three-day binge. I remember thinking how humiliating it would be for my son to have his mom die in a hotel room of a cocaine overdose. That's pretty low. I knew if I didn't stop I'd be dead. You can't be my age and doing the amount of cocaine I was doing.

You were friends with Fergie. What's your take on what's being going on?

I feel really bad for her. Honestly, I couldn't even watch the tape. It's horrible. I feel really bad for her. To do something like that, you've got to be in a really bad place. God knows what she was thinking, but I feel really, really bad and embarrassed for her. I haven't seen her in ages. I just hung out with her that one summer. It was just one of those summer flings, I guess.

Over the years, the press really focused on your weight.

It really messed my head up. It really affected me in some ways. It really pushes my buttons today, although not as much because I figure if I'm going to be age fifty and obsess about that kind of stuff then something really wrong is going on. It absolutely fed into my whole eating disorder

How do you eat now?

It's funny because I haven't been in America in over a year until coming here for the book, and it's different in Europe and India, where I spend a lot of time. I forget what it's like. My eating habits are totally normal, I never deprive myself, and I just don't eat like a pig. I think I have a healthy relationship with food now. I do know that when I spend too much time in LA it messes with my head. In some ways, it's such a hard place to live in. It's really tough if you have any insecurities at all. I think being a woman in American society, where they definitely put emphasis on how much you weigh, it's just too tough.

 

LOS LOBOS CANCEL ARIZONA PERFORMANCE

Grammy Award winning roots-rock band Los Lobos has decided to cancel their scheduled performance at The Talking Stick Resort on June 10th, 2010. The band has made this decision based on the current call to boycott Arizona in response to SB 1070.

Through their management, Los Lobos issued the following statement: “We support the boycott of Arizona. The new law will inevitably lead to unfair racial profiling and possible abuse of people who just happen to look Latino. As a result, in good conscience, we could not see ourselves performing in Arizona. We regret the inconvenience this may have caused the Salt River Pima Maricopa Indian Community, Casino Arizona, Talking Stick Resort and our fans, but we feel strongly that it is the right thing to do.”

The members of Los Lobos are Steve Berlin, David Hidalgo, Conrad Lozano, Cesar Rosas and Louie Perez.

www.loslobos.org

 

Fresh off their crowd-pleasing performance at Sasquatch this weekend, She & Him (a/k/a Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward)  have released their cover of Rick Nelson's "Fools Rush In," available for free streaming over at Elle.com. The link is here. Hope it makes your first day back at work after a long weekend a little nicer. 

It's a gorgeous Memorial Day across most parts of the country. Get away from your computers and get out to do something to honor our veterans and those who defended this country.

But if you're stuck inside, here are a couple of things to consider.


We told you about it being the 40th anniversary, the Beatles' first posthumous album. The BBC has done a great hour-long special on it, but it's only available online through June 1, so click through now.
Technically it's not summer, but Memorial Day weekend is the unofficial kick-off of the summer concert season. By now most fans already have tickets in hand, and some of them are quite peeved. First off, there are the Lilith Tour fans who got burned by buying tickets early, then finding out even better seats were offered at half-price when sales didn't take off. Sorry, no refunds, no returns. Oh, you want those front row seats at the biggest concerts and you're willing to pay $1,750? Then these guys have a deal for you.

And finally, one of the most patriotic songs ever written. Enjoy your day.



 

A good rule of thumb for journalists: If you're going to write harsh things about your subject, better make sure they don't have your phone number and/or a Twitter account. (Corollary for artists being interviewed by journalists: Sometimes they disagree with you.) Looking at you, Lynn Hirschberg and Maya Arulpragasm, a/k/a M.I.A. 

On the back of Bono's back surgery problems, U2 cancelled a tour. Now Christina Aguilera is following suit, despite having had no such surgery (though, frankly, you could hardly blame her for having back pain). The main issue is that people aren't listening to her new single or buying her tickets. In show business, this can be a dilemma. 

Usually when a rock star goes into rehab it's no big surprise. But when it's Bono and a back condition, that's real trouble, with the whole U2 360 North American Tour pushed back an entire year with no solid answers as to when or where the band would play again. Currently they still show European dates later this year, but with the grim prognosis from the doctors, saying he needed at least two months to recover, an August return to the stage seems iffy at best.

The extensive quotes that U2's people put out from Bono's doctors about the condition of his back had a hint of "We're not making this up -- he's really hurt!" desperation to it.

And they're not making it up. Putting off the biggest concert tour of all time - just days before it was to start, when crews were already constructing the massive stage in Salt Lake City - would have hurt even if the postponement were, say, just two months. Putting a full leg off to an unspecified date a year away underscores the seriousness of the problem. Thousands of people working on the concert end have been putting their lives and livelihood into working around the globe for the next year with U2. Millions of fans have bought tickets and made plans around those shows - obviously a disappointment for them, but much less devastating than a roadie who had the  his or her income riding on this tour.

But it's simply unavoidable.