“An unflinching look back . . . with heartbreaking honesty and a wry sense of humor.”-- The women of the iconic eighties band the Go-Go’s will always be remembered as they appeared on the back of their debut record: sunny, smiling, each soaking in her own private bubble bath with chocolates and champagne. The photo is a perfect tribute to the fun, irreverent brand of pop music that the Go-Go’s created, but it also conceals the trials and secret demons that the members of the group--in particular, its lead singer, Belinda Carlisle--struggled with on their rise to stardom. <Lips Unsealed< is Belinda’s story in her own words--from her crazy days on tour with the Go-Go’s to her private problems with abusive relationships, self-esteem, and a thirty-year battle with addiction. Ultimately, it is a love letter to music, the lifelong friendships between the members of the Go-Go’s, the beloved husband and son who led Belinda to sobriety, and a life which, though deeply flawed, was--and is still--fully lived.

"Generously confessional enough to give a compelling edge to her battle with substance abuse and her quest for spiritual balance...a harrowing cautionary tale.”—Kirkus Reviews
 
“A remarkable early Cinderella story...Carlisle writes candidly…heartfelt and winning.”—Publishers Weekly

Autorentext

Belinda Carlisle

Klappentext

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A spellbinding and shocking look at Belinda Carlisle's role in forming the Go-Go's and her rise, fall, and eventual rebirth as a wife, mother, and sober artist

"An unflinching look back . . . with heartbreaking honesty and a wry sense of humor."-USA Today

The women of the iconic eighties band the Go-Go's will always be remembered as they appeared on the back of their debut record: sunny, smiling, each soaking in her own private bubble bath with chocolates and champagne. The photo is a perfect tribute to the fun, irreverent brand of pop music that the Go-Go's created, but it also conceals the trials and secret demons that the members of the group-in particular, its lead singer, Belinda Carlisle-struggled with on their rise to stardom.

Lips Unsealed is Belinda's story in her own words-from her crazy days on tour with the Go-Go's to her private problems with abusive relationships, self-esteem, and a thirty-year battle with addiction. Ultimately, it is a love letter to music, the lifelong friendships between the members of the Go-Go's, the beloved husband and son who led Belinda to sobriety, and a life which, though deeply flawed, was-and is still-fully lived.

Zusammenfassung
**NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A spellbinding and shocking look at Belinda Carlisle’s role in forming the Go-Go’s and her rise, fall, and eventual rebirth  as a wife, mother, and sober artist

“An unflinching look back . . . with heartbreaking honesty and a wry sense of humor.”—USA Today  
 
The women of the iconic eighties band the Go-Go’s will always be remembered as they appeared on the back of their debut record: sunny, smiling, each soaking in her own private bubble bath with chocolates and champagne. The photo is a perfect tribute to the fun, irreverent brand of pop music that the Go-Go’s created, but it also conceals the trials and secret demons that the members of the group—in particular, its lead singer, Belinda Carlisle—struggled with on their rise to stardom. 
 
Lips Unsealed is Belinda’s story in her own words—from her crazy days on tour with the Go-Go’s to her private problems with abusive relationships, self-esteem, and a thirty-year battle with addiction. Ultimately, it is a love letter to music, the lifelong friendships between the members of the Go-Go’s, the beloved husband and son who led Belinda to sobriety, and a life which, though deeply flawed, was—and is still—fully lived.

Leseprobe
One
I Think It's Me

At eighteen, I worked at the Hilton Hotels Corporation, photocopying papers for eight hours a day. When I wasn't doing that, I was ordering toilet paper for hundreds of hotels. I was bored out of my mind. Making matters worse, I had the world's most hideous boss. He looked for reasons to call me into his office and chew me out. Most -people would've quit, but I didn't care. Besides needing the money, I knew I wasn't going to be there long. I was going to be a rock star.

I was absolutely certain of it.

I had always been like that: someone who dreamed big and believed those dreams could come true if I kept at them.

I probably inherited that from my mom. Raised in Hollywood, Joanne Thompson was the eldest of two children of Roy, a plant manager at the General Motors facility in Van Nuys, and Ruth, a homemaker whose head-turning beauty and dramatic flair had inspired her as a younger woman to pursue movie stardom. When those dreams didn't pan out, she turned into an obsessive fan who read all the gossip magazines and took her daughter to movie premieres where they ogled the stars walking the red carpet.

Like my grandmother, my mother was drop-dead gorgeous. Photos of her as a senior at Hollywood High show a redhead with a great figure and big, lively eyes. She was a knockout. I think she could have had a shot at a career in front of the camera if she'd had ambition in that direction. By her own admission, though, she was too naive and shortsighted. She didn't have a plan.

"I didn't think about what I wanted to do," my mother once told me when I asked how she had envisioned her life going after high school, adding that she saw herself as Debbie Reynolds and "thought everything would be, or should be, happy, happy, happy.

"Then I got married," she continued, "and I found reality."

Actually, she found Harold Carlisle, a James Dean look-alike whom she met while still a high school student. He was her dose of reality. He worked at a gas station near the school. Though he was twenty years older than her, she fell in love with him.

"I was so stupid," she told me. "He was a bum."

They married right after she graduated and on August 17, 1958, less than nine months after she accepted her diploma, she gave birth to a baby girl, whom she named Belinda. C'est moi! I arrived in the world via special delivery, otherwise known as a C-section. According to my mom, I was too large for her to push out naturally. Apparently size was an issue for me from day one.

Two years later, my mom gave birth to a boy, Butch; and two years after him, she had my sister Hope.

Even now she doesn't talk much about those early years. From the little she has revealed, she was in over her head as both a wife and a new mother. She's described it as a time when she learned "the tricks of the trade." Translation: Barely out of her teens, she was juggling three small children in a cramped Hollywood apartment, making do without much money, and trying to figure out life with a much older man.

According to her, my father wasn't happy about having children. I can sort of understand his position as he was an older man who impregnated a high school girl, married her, and then found himself in a situation he may not have envisioned for himself. Why did two more children follow if he was against having a family? Good question. To this day, my mom is reluctant to speak about those early years. She has too many wounds that are still tender and raw.

When I was five and a half, we moved to Thousand Oaks, a fifty-mile drive northwest over the hills from our Hollywood apartment. It got us out of the city and into a fairly rural area with dairy farms and post-Korean War housing developments. Our neighborhood was the low end of working-class and we were among the poorest of the …